Octaman + The Cremators Blu-ray from Retromedia

[dsman71]

Source - Facebook of course !

https://www.facebook.com/The-Officia...3544948689048/

[mikey horror]

https://www.amazon.com/OCTAMAN-CREMA...ywords=Octaman

[angst]

What's the verdict? Has anyone seen it? Is it as bas as the reviewer at Amazon suggests? Already cancelled my order. Need more information on the quality. I've enjoyed most RM titles so far, but now got cold feet.

[NoirFan]

Horribly compressed, with an unsurprisingly anemic bitrate. Avoid.

[angst]

What a shame! Apparently, the dvd was good quality for what it is. I will not reorder at this point. Too many great releases on my wantlist.

[The Great Owl]

I decided to eat my vegetables first with this double feature by watching The Cremators before watching Octaman.



An alien that exists in the form of a giant glowing ball of fire arrives on Earth and terrorizes a small lake community by rolling over people, burning them to ashes, and absorbing their matter into its own. A local environmental scientist, played by Marvin Howard, investigates the reasons for disappearances of a handful of citizens, and eventually realizes that the killings are associated with small meteorite fragments that the fireball tracks down to incorporate back into its mass. With the help of a beautiful love interest, played by Maria De Aragon (Blood Mania), he must find a way to stop the destructive fireball before it claims the lives of everyone in the town.

The 1972 sci-fi horror film, The Cremators, was directed by Harry Essex, who helmed Octaman the previous year and also wrote the screenplays for It Came from Outer Space (1953) and Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). Despite its early 1970s production, this film has an old-school aesthetic reminiscent of Essex's 1950s monster movie scripts, and the result is an oddly charming endeavor that rises above its $50,000 budget and some rather wooden acting performances.

The special effects of the alien fireball as it rises out of the lake and stalks victims by rolling after them across sand dunes are the main attraction. As far as endearingly campy drive-in films go, one could certainly do worse.

Star Wars fans will be amused to note that Maria De Aragon played an uncredited role as Greedo in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.

This Retromedia Blu-ray presentation of The Cremators will not win any demo awards, but it's nonetheless a perfectly watchable slice of high definition fare from flawed source material. The Maria De Aragon interview is a welcome supplement.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by NoirFan

Horribly compressed

FYI above is misinformation that sadly continues to be propagated with disregard to the facts on this forum. For those interested in Octaman, the above picture was taken on a setup not calibrated properly. The disc does not look like this in any, way, shape, or form when viewed on a properly calibrated display. Its a rough print, but the above photo is complete BS, in short.

Here is my own photo taken, as you can see no artifacting visible in blacks when gamma/brightness set properly:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=342

Not the most beautiful transfer in the world mind you (probably like effective resolution of 720p), but it is definitely not displaying anywhere near the amount of issues the photo NoirFan linked. The largest issue with this transfer is actually the inconsistent color (sometimes ok, sometimes has heavy yellow push), not the compression. Compression isn't great, but its not bad either. Mind you I had my face up to the screen on a 120" projection display looking for the artifacts in the post NoirFan linked, and they simply are not visible.

Many releases, if your gamma/brightness is set wrong, will show artifacts in below black areas because the compressor can save bitrate in those areas since they will be invisible if display is calibrated. Some recent examples are Funeral Parade of Roses and Opera (both of which had a few pages of panic caused by caps of those viewed with uncalibrated PC monitors, squashed by people with calibrated displays informing others they were not correct in their assessment) - if you turn down your gamma low you will see artifacting in blacks, but if you set it properly they are invisible.

[ditcin]

If you can, please post pics from Octaman.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by ditcin

If you can, please post pics from Octaman.

I don't do screen grabs on my setup, but I'll report on my findings.

[The Great Owl]

While studying radiation contamination in the waters of a rural Mexican community, two scientists, played by Kerwin Mathews (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) and Pier Angeli (Batte of the Bulge), discover a small mutated octopus that is capable of surviving on land. After assembling a team to help them capture and study more such creatures, the scientists return to the village, where they are soon terrorized by a large walking octopus creature that uses its tentacle arms to kill off its victims one by one. It's up to the scientists to save the day, but the humanoid monster, who possesses vastly superior intellect, is several steps ahead, and it soon turns the tables on its pursuers when they try to hunt it down in a cave.

The 1971 sci-fi horror film, Octaman, was directed by Harry Essex, who helmed The Cremators the following year and also wrote the screenplays for It Came from Outer Space (1953) and Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). This movie shares a lot of common ground with Creature from the Black Lagoon, in fact, with regard to its narrative, which concerns a creature who is only trying to defend its territory against human invaders. Angeli even stands in as the Julie Adams character in that film, since she is able to establish somewhat of a connection with the monster.

The obvious highlight of Octaman is the rubber creature costume, which has to be seen to be believed. The legendary Rick Baker, who worked makeup effects on such films as An American Werewolf in London and Videodrome, gives us a cool-looking creation whose appearances are well worth the wait through scenes of contrived dialogue. Unlike many such movies that inundate us with lengthy expositions and boring stretches only to reward us with a brief glimpse of a creature at the end, this one features the title character in all its crude glory throughout the film during several broad daylight attacks.

This movie will always hold a soft spot in my heart because I have fond memories of watching it on Sunday morning science fiction features during my early 1980s childhood. I will not go so far as to say that it's a great film, but it is quite lively and memorable thanks to the visuals of the title character.

Be on the lookout for Jeff Morrow (This Island Earth, The Creature Walks Among Us) as a scientist who participates in the expedition. Be on the lookout as well for David Essex, who also starred in The Cremators the following year, as a villager who helps the research team track down the tentacled being.

This Retromedia Blu-ray of Octaman is no great shakes as far as picture quality goes, but it is the best home video incarnation of this film to date, and I found it to be a highly enjoyable viewing experience. The close-ups of the creature look quite impressive, in fact. The audio quality is good enough that I did not mourn the lack of subtitles. The Rick Baker interview is a great extra feature.

[babybreese]

A real shame that beautiful MGM remaster is not on the Blu.

[Damonstein]

Even ignoring any calibration problems that might just be me( Even though literally every other movie I've ever watched looks fine) I think think this transfer is muddy, dull, and undetailed. Grain and film damage is completely undefined, and there is close to no fine detail. I've seen plenty of 16mm blow ups, and they all look better.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Damonstein

Even ignoring any calibration problems that might just be me( Even though literally every other movie I've ever watched looks fine) I think think this transfer is muddy, dull, and undetailed. Grain and film damage is completely undefined, and there is close to no fine detail. I've seen plenty of 16mm blow ups, and they all look better.

It is a so-so/mediocre transfer, I'm not debating that. I'm just saying your photo nowhere near represents it. You can see from my photo those other things you mentioned, muddy/poor detail (probably like 720p equivalent, definitely not effective 1080p), yellow push, etc. But the compression artifacts you posted are a product of miscalibration combined with aggressive below-black compression (most major titles don't use this method). The thing is, while most titles don't use it, for those that do (I only know of three offhand) if you properly calibrate your black level they are invisible.

Grain is in this transfer, it is just very chunky which syncs up with the mediocre detail. I am just objecting to your depiction of the compression artifacts because the ones in your picture should not be visible.

It looks like THE GREAT OWL did not detect them either during his viewing of Octaman:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=382

Again, I think your gamma/brightness is miscalibrated which would explain the issues you are having with this disc.

[starsteam]

Rifftrax is bringing Octaman to the big screen.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...es-riffed-live

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by starsteam

Rifftrax is bringing Octaman to the big screen.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...es-riffed-live

I’m going to see the RiffTrax Octaman at a local theater on Thursday night.

This will be my first RiffTrax experience. It’ll also be a dream come true to see this fine movie on the big screen.

[bruce holecheck]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I’m going to see the RiffTrax Octaman at a local theater on Thursday night.

This will be my first RiffTrax experience. It’ll also be a dream come true to see this fine movie on the big screen.

I'm doing the same! I've gone to a handful of these events in the past, and they're always a blast. I could barely talk the day after MANOS: HANDS OF FATE from laughing so much.

[The Great Owl]

The RiffTrax take on Octaman was pretty darn funny.

I've always had a soft spot for this film, but I did not realize how little actually happens in it until I watched it with their commentary.

[Member-167298]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

The RiffTrax take on Octaman was pretty darn funny.

I've always had a soft spot for this film, but I did not realize how little actually happens in it until I watched it with their commentary.

Just saw it! Some funny riffs, but the movie was bad-bad. I loved how Bill jokingly quit Rifftrax in the middle of the painfully long cave escape sequence! A shame that Octaman was such a dud, because I have been curious to check it out almost my entire life after seeing a clip of it in Gremlins 2.

The McGruff Crime Dog short was the real treat tonight, IMO.