Scream Factory Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

After performing a controversial procedure to treat a patient, Tatyana Klimova, a psychiatrist played by Oksana Akinshina (The Bourne Supremacy), is given a chance to redeem her career by taking on a mysterious assignment at an isolated Soviet military facility. Tasked with evaluating the mental state of Konstantin Veshnyakov, a cosmonaut who is the sole survivor of his space mission, Tatyana discovers the horrifying truth, that Konstantin has an extraterrestrial creature living inside him.

The 2020 Russian science fiction horror feature, Sputnik, directed by Egor Abramenko, incorporates ghastly creature concepts from cinematic predecessors, like Alien and Arrival, while blending the mayhem into a focused character study of its leads. A blockbuster on its native shores, this is a film that makes crucial use of its time and setting late in the era of the Cold War, resulting in an endeavor that is about so much more than a murderous space monster.

Akinshina's Dr. Klimova is coming to terms with her status as a risk-taking female in a world of men who do not think outside the box. Portrayed by the media and the government as a hero to the Soviet people, Konstantin, played by Pyotr Fyodorov, struggles with a past life decision. Even Colonel Semiradov, played by Fedor Bondarchuk, is treated with an unlikely sympathy as a man who is driven to commit atrocities behind the scenes for the sake of his country.

The realistic terrors of institutional bureaucracy in Sputnik imbed themselves so deeply into the psyche of the viewer that the inevitable bloody rampage of the hideous alien being during the concluding minutes is almost anticlimactic. Through it all, this film's greatest asset, its music score by Oleg Karpachev, conjures an aura of dread all its own.

This bare bones Scream Factory/IFC Midnight release handles the technical presentation well for a main feature that is its own reward.

...............I'm not really sure if you actually liked this movie Owl... care to expand?

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by capnnarcolepsy

I think the temps would be tolerable maybe even manageble if our entire state's energy grid wasn't absolute trash and millions of folks weren't without power and water going on four days with no end in sight. That makes those single digit temps a bit harsher than usual.

In less serious bummer news, i'm quite excited to have some new movies on the way.

What I don’t understand is, how do you guys manage to get through every summer without the power grid failing when everyone has their a/c going?

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

...............I'm not really sure if you actually liked this movie Owl... care to expand?

That is sort of a clinical review, I suppose. I liked Sputnik a lot. The run time is a bit long, but I give it four stars out of five.

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

What I don’t understand is, how do you guys manage to get through every summer without the power grid failing when everyone has their a/c going?

I live in Nebraska and this week we've had the coldest recorded temperatures in the history of our state and the coldest of anywhere in the entire US including Alaska. Because of the cold temps our entire regional energy producer has issued the highest level warnings, stage 3, and has implemented rolling blackouts to address the energy crisis. Until this week we'd never had to implement a stage 1 emergency, let alone a stage 3. This winter event took out such a huge chunk of the US that it lead to cataclysmic failure across the board. Locally however it was explained that because this event is occuring in winter and not summer is what lead to the problem. During summer months when the power stations can't keep up with demand they can/will pull more from natural gas providers to compensate. However because during winter so many folks use natural gas to heat their homes and other devices it's caused their to be a drain on not only electricity but also natural gas. Essentially the two components that usually work together to prevent shortages are now at odds as people were scrambling to do what they can and using up all available supplies. During summer months Natural gas isn't used to nearly this degree and so it's unusual for shortages to come through.

I have a 30 minute drive into work each day as and then a roughly 6 block walk into work. Temps have been as low as -35 in the over nights/mornings. It's the coldest it's been in modern recorded history where I've been but thankfully we hit 16 degrees today and are expected to get back there again tomorrow with temps slowly climbing back to the mid or upper 30's by next Monday. Given that we're nearly to March this should be the last time we see this level of brutal cold this year and hopefully for years to come.

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

What I don’t understand is, how do you guys manage to get through every summer without the power grid failing when everyone has their a/c going?

In California we have rolling blackouts.

[Torrente]

I'm trying to order several discs (including the 2 pre-orders for their new limited exclusive releases) and Paypal is not working.
I get an error message stating that "store is not able to accept Paypal payment at the moment" and I'm sent back to the checkout page.

Is it something usual?

I tried with 2 different browsers. It didn't help. I also cleared the cache memory and cookies. Nothing worked.


Help! Someone

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by Torrente

I'm trying to order several discs (including the 2 pre-orders for their new limited exclusive releases) and Paypal is not working.
I get an error message stating that "store is not able to accept Paypal payment at the moment" and I'm sent back to the checkout page.

Is it something usual?

I tried with 2 different browsers. It didn't help. I also cleared the cache memory and cookies. Nothing worked.


Help! Someone

From my past experience that was a problem on the sellers end regarding some certificate or another mechanism in place that only they could fix by working with PayPal.

I know others had problems with PayPal this week as well but with repeated attempts were able to get through and place an order. Have you tried logging out and placing an order as a guest, or creating an account and placing an order if you didn't already have an account? Those would be my two suggestions to try right now. I'd also say to try using your phone browser to see what happens if that's an option for you.

You can also try messaging their customer service department. Either way. Keep trying!

[Torrente]

Thanks a lot for your help!
I will definitely try everything you suggested, thank you.

[dylrichard02]

Ordered The Terror Within double feature. Also finally grabbed 10 to Midnight, which I've been putting off for quite a while.

[Torrente]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

From my past experience that was a problem on the sellers end regarding some certificate or another mechanism in place that only they could fix by working with PayPal.

I know others had problems with PayPal this week as well but with repeated attempts were able to get through and place an order. Have you tried logging out and placing an order as a guest, or creating an account and placing an order if you didn't already have an account? Those would be my two suggestions to try right now. I'd also say to try using your phone browser to see what happens if that's an option for you.

You can also try messaging their customer service department. Either way. Keep trying!

And nothing works.

It's been 3 hours I'm trying to order now. I'm losing it

[caiman]

Man these came FAST.

[stadanko]

Originally Posted by Torrente

And nothing works.

It's been 3 hours I'm trying to order now. I'm losing it

I've been having the same issue. Nothing solved it. Browsers. Computers. Mobile devices.

What I did... On paypal you can make a paypal key for free (virtual mastercard) that uses your paypal balance. That finally worked for me.

[jshaide]

Got mine today too! That was super fast!

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by stadanko

I've been having the same issue. Nothing solved it. Browsers. Computers. Mobile devices.

What I did... On paypal you can make a paypal key for free (virtual mastercard) that uses your paypal balance. That finally worked for me.

It's strange because I had no issues at all. I logged into my account, paid via PayPal the way I always do, and then checked out. Could it be a payment issue? Like maybe someone using credit cards vs a linked bank account within paypal?

[Luke Dodge748]

I ordered both of these yesterday, and I just got a shipping notification. Wow, Shout is on a roll!

[Torrente]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

It's strange because I had no issues at all. I logged into my account, paid via PayPal the way I always do, and then checked out. Could it be a payment issue? Like maybe someone using credit cards vs a linked bank account within paypal?

I don't even get to the choice between credit card and bank account within Paypal. It freezes before that and gets me back to the checkout page with an error message.

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by Torrente

I don't even get to the choice between credit card and bank account within Paypal. It freezes before that and gets me back to the checkout page with an error message.

I had a similar issue the other day. Don't recall with whom or even the exact issue but I fixed it by going back and making sure I entered the correct address details, phone number (with the correct country code if you're overseas), ticked all the boxes I was supposed to tick and it worked. Maybe you're forgetting some detail?

[Torrente]

Thanks!

I tried again keeping in mind what you said but it still didn't work.

In the meantime, I received an answer from the customer service:

PayPal hasn't been working on our site for about 24 hours. We're working with our PayPal rep to fix the issue—it should be resolved by Monday.

Now, let's hope the 2 titles will still be available by Monday

[Torrente]

I'm sorry I derailed the thread a little. It seems everything is back in place with Paypal in their store. My order went through just a few seconds ago.

Thanks for your support guys. As always, it was much appreciated

[lethalkrs]

Does anyone know if SF ships things from St. Louis? I have two packages coming to me from there and hoping it is them.