Dark Places (1973) (Nucleus Films)

[The Hornets]

Nucleus Films always seem very poor at stocking Amazon and HMV for release day. They normally provide stock at a later date.

If you have to have immediately you can buy direct from Nucleus Films. Can't check what they say on stock as their site is blocked by my work's firewalls.

[the13thman]

Originally Posted by John Earls Umbrella

I guess you may have had to pay more as well? Sellers I’ve found are asking for £5 more than Amazon’s pre-order deal.

I don't remember what the pre-order price was but clearly Amazon didn't want to ever honour it, seeing how quickly they cancelled the order.

In the end I went with rarewaves on eBay as that was marginally cheaper than going via a third party seller on Amazon or buying direct from Nucleus.

Originally Posted by The Hornets

If you have to have immediately you can buy direct from Nucleus Films. Can't check what they say on stock as their site is blocked by my work's firewalls.

Nucleus have it in stock for £22.99.

[Django100]

I paid £16.99 in an HMV store last Monday for it.

[BobSimms]

Originally Posted by John Earls Umbrella

Reviews seem to be a mixed bag.

Reviews of this disc specifically? Or the film itself?

[John Earls Umbrella]

Originally Posted by BobSimms

Reviews of this disc specifically? Or the film itself?

The film itself.

[MarcM]

Originally Posted by The Hornets

Nucleus Films always seem very poor at stocking Amazon and HMV for release day. They normally provide stock at a later date.

If you have to have immediately you can buy direct from Nucleus Films. Can't check what they say on stock as their site is blocked by my work's firewalls.

The problem lies with amazon, not us. Something is wrong with their ordering system and we are doing our best to sort it out. Speaking to bots at amazon is frustrating to say the least.

If anybody is having problems ordering, we also sell direct from our website. We ship worldwide.

[kmhofmann]

Originally Posted by MarcM

The problem lies with amazon, not us. Something is wrong with their ordering system and we are doing our best to sort it out. Speaking to bots at amazon is frustrating to say the least.

If anybody is having problems ordering, we also sell direct from our website. We ship worldwide.

Thanks for looking into this!
E.g., I have been unable to order this title for months now (since it went up for preorder). Same for other Nucleus titles (before and after release) as well as many other Blu-ray titles, e.g., most or all BFI releases before release.
Amazon is doing something terribly wrong here and I hope this can be sorted out eventually.

[John Earls Umbrella]

Just ordered from HMV on eBay £16.99.

[Killer Meteor]

Not a bad movie, if a little underwhelming. It's kind of weird to cast Christopher Lee and Herbert Lom in a horror movies, then give them "normal" parts to be play. Joan Collins is super-sexy in this, despite her hair looking like a hat.

I did get the giggles quite a bit, given the plot is all about uncovering the lost treasure of one Andrew Marr...

[the13thman]

I watched this last night and really enjoyed it, it's a great disc - the Looking Into Dark Places and other 1970s British horror films documentary is excellent and really helps contextualise the film.

[BobSimms]

Originally Posted by the13thman

I watched this last night and really enjoyed it, it's a great disc - the Looking Into Dark Places and other 1970s British horror films documentary is excellent and really helps contextualise the film.

Yes, that particular extra and all the other extras on this disc make this one the definitive release (unless someone decides to take a chance on a 4K! I’d buy it!). The menu on this disc, which uses the opening musical cues, is much better and makes a lot more sense than Severin’s use of the film’s one and only “happy” musical moment. And it goes without saying that you can only get the Severin disc by buying the whole Eurocrypt Vol. 2 box.

I haven’t watched the Severin disc since I got this Nucleus release, but I can say with certainty that Nucleus’s encode is flawless.

One thing I’d advise against is listening to Severin’s original commentary track from Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompsen, who spend most of the 90 minutes trying to find different ways to say Robert Hardy just spends most of the film wandering around the old house looking at things (he doesn’t), was miscast (was he?), and that the script has pacing issues (does it?). Nucleus’s new commentary, featuring Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons, is much better and more informative.

One thing I wish either release would have emphasized is the inclusion of the many scenes that had been edited out of the previous home videocassette (and illegitimate DVD) releases. They total about 6 minutes. As someone who’s loved the film since I was a wee lad in the mid 80s, every time I watch this new restoration, I marvel at all the new-to-me scenes/shots, even though they wouldn’t register as anything remarkable to someone unfamiliar with the film.

I still haven’t pulled the trigger on the French release, but as it’s an ESC disc, who’s to say what the encode is like? Can’t be great.