And Soon the Darkness / Sudden Terror 4K UHD (1970) (Kino Studio Classics)

[MifuneFan]

Kino have announced a new 4K 1970's double-feature set titled PERIL & DISTRESS: Two Terrifying 1970s Thrillers releasing on July 30th. It'll include And Soon the Darkness, and Sudden Terror (1970). Kino have also said, if this sells well they'll continue the line with others from the 60's and 80's.

Originally Posted by Kino Lorber Insider

Coming July 30th on 4KHUD!
https://kinolorber.com/product/peril...-sudden-terror

PERIL & DISTRESS: Two Terrifying 1970s Thrillers (1970)
• 2019 UHD SDR Masters by StudioCanal - From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negatives
• Audio commentary for And Soon the Darkness by Director Robert Fuest and Co-Writer/Co-Producer Brian Clemens, Moderated by Journalist Jonathan Sothcott
• Audio Commentary for Sudden Terror by Director John Hough and Uncredited-Writer/Producer Bryan Forbes; Moderated by journalist Jonathan Sothcott
• Audio Commentary for And Soon the Darkness by Film Historian Troy Howarth
• Audio Commentary for Sudden Terror by Film Historians Howard S. Berger and Nathaniel Thompson
• Theatrical Trailers (And Soon the Darkness / Sudden Terror / Eyewitness)
• Radio Spot (And Soon the Darkness)
• Triple-Layered UHD100 Disc
• Limited Edition O-Card Slipcase
• Optional English Subtitles

Color 99|91 Minutes 1.85:1|1.66:1 NR
This special edition includes two terrifying 1970s thrillers. AND SOON THE DARKNESS – Two young British nurses (Pamela Franklin, Michele Dotrice) bicycling through the desolate French countryside. A mysterious stranger on a lonely stretch of road. The women become separated and soon after, one of them disappears. Now the remaining girl, alone and frightened, begins an increasingly desperate search for answers among the strangely uncooperative locals. Where is her friend? Was there a murder? And as the darkness approaches, is the killer now stalking her? Directed by Robert Fuest (The Abominable Dr. Phibes), And Soon the Darkness remains a favorite of thriller fans for its sexual menace, sinister style and one of the most quietly chilling final twists in ’70s British cinema. SUDDEN TERROR – Young boy (Mark Lester) with an overactive imagination witnesses an assassination attmept, the hired killers are now hunting the young boy and his sister (Susan George) who escape numerous attempts on their lives while aided by their grandfather (Lionel Jeffries) and under the spectre of martial law. Ace filmmaker John Hough (Dirty Mary Crazy Larry) packs Sudden Terror aka Eyewitness with plenty of tense style, stunning locations and startling violence. Jeremy Kemp and Peter Vaughn co-star in this shocking and terrifying suspence thriller featuring music by legendary British art-rock bands Fairfield Parlour and Van der Graaf Generator.

[brainofj72]

ASTD is solid but not something I feel the need to revisit, however I haven’t seen ST so I think I’ll pick this up for that one since the price is reasonable.

[dallywhitty]

Haven't seen either film before but I love a cheeky double feature. Might blind-buy.

[bergman864]

Camera Obscura is putting out a 4K of And Soon the Darkness. Theirs will have HDR it seems. This sounds good and I've been interested in both titles.

[nicwood]

Originally Posted by bergman864

Camera Obscura is putting out a 4K of And Soon the Darkness. Theirs will have HDR it seems. This sounds good and I've been interested in both titles.

Camera Obscura is one of the best labels. The film is all but guaranteed to look exceptional on their upcoming UHD. Something we can’t claim for KL’s.

All details in the international section: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=373760

[DR Herbert West]

I'll get this for Sudden Terror.

[Dickieduvet]

Glad to see both of these on the way, not a fan of the Peril & Distress title on the spine, why not the movie titles?

Odd choice.

[White Dang]

Recently watched And Soon.... It has a decent atmosphere but it's way too plodding overall. Ive also seen the lower rated remake with Amber Heard years ago. Might check out the other title.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

Haven't seen either film before but I love a cheeky double feature. Might blind-buy.

I can highly recommend And Soon the Darkness. Very good giallo film.

I haven't seen the other one.

[CelestialAgent]

so less than 50GB per film

[Driver78]

Originally Posted by mar3o

I can highly recommend And Soon the Darkness. Very good giallo film.

I haven't seen the other one.

I've always thought of And Soon the Darkness as a mystery thriller. It never occurred to me that it could be classifiable as a giallo. Have got the Camera Obscura version preordered as I'm a sucker for Mediabooks. Don't like that double feature idea anyway.

I also quite enjoyed the remake.

[grahams76]

And Soon The Darkness isn't a giallo.

[Simon Lewis]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

so less than 50GB per film

They are both short films, so should be fine.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by Driver78

I've always thought of And Soon the Darkness as a mystery thriller. It never occurred to me that it could be classifiable as a giallo. Have got the Camera Obscura version preordered as I'm a sucker for Mediabooks. Don't like that double feature idea anyway.

I also quite enjoyed the remake.

You're right that it isn't a true giallo I guess. To me it still has that feel, but yeah, it's more of a mystery thriller. But then that kind of describes what a giallo is too.

[drownsoda]

I own each of the individual Kino Blu-ray releases, but I will likely be getting this. I'm a big fan of And Soon the Darkness. Sudden Terror is also great, although not my favorite John Hough film.

[OskarKlein]

Not getting this, have it already on other releases but a great film and plays like an extended episode of Clemens' later anthology series Thriller.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by bergman864

Camera Obscura is putting out a 4K of And Soon the Darkness. Theirs will have HDR it seems. This sounds good and I've been interested in both titles.

Originally Posted by nicwood

Camera Obscura is one of the best labels. The film is all but guaranteed to look exceptional on their upcoming UHD. Something we can’t claim for KL’s.

All details in the international section: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=373760

Kino claims the Studio Canal source master for this film is a 4K SDR master.

Which means, there is a good chance Camera Obscura will be doing their own custom HDR grade for their disc rather than using a major studio grade, assuming their starting point is the Studio Canal SDR master (the CO disc has a studio canal logo on it). While that could end up looking superior to Studio Canal's 4K SDR grade, I don't think its a guarantee. If the SC master was HDR, I'd be more enthusiastic.

[nicwood]

Originally Posted by Ruined

Kino claims the Studio Canal source master for this film is a 4K SDR master.

Which means, there is a good chance Camera Obscura will be doing their own custom HDR grade for their disc rather than using a major studio grade, assuming their starting point is the Studio Canal SDR master (the CO disc has a studio canal logo on it). While that could end up looking superior to Studio Canal's 4K SDR grade, I don't think its a guarantee. If the SC master was HDR, I'd be more enthusiastic.

Camera Obscura did a HDR grade but from an encoding standpoint alone I’m more than grateful that they chose to release the film. There’s no way on earth KL can match Camera in that regard. I’d have even paid full price for a hypothetical CO SDR UHD had it been the other way around with KL having the HDR grade.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by nicwood

Camera Obscura did a HDR grade but from an encoding standpoint alone I’m more than grateful that they chose to release the film. There’s no way on earth KL can match Camera in that regard. I’d have even paid full price for a hypothetical CO SDR UHD had it been the other way around with KL having the HDR grade.

Well, we will see. I didn't like how Kino bundled the two films together in this rather nonsensical combo so I took a chance to see if CO's HDR grade improves or detracts from the 4K SDR color grade. I don't have the Kino 4K since its not out yet, but I can compare the CO 4K HDR to the Kino 1080p.

[Ruined]

vs

Today I got in the CAMERA OBSCURA 4K UHD of "AND SOON THE DARKNESS". The new Kino 4K UHD is not out yet, but using the existing Blu-ray as a proxy is actually a "fair fight" as the new Kino 4K UHD is SDR coming from exactly the same master as the Kino 1080p Blu-ray. Therefore, the only difference between the Kino 4k UHD and 1080p will be the resolution and compression.

That being said, the difference between the Kino and Camera Obscura master is substantial. Instead of being SDR, the Camera Obscura disc is 4K HDR, and I watched in HDR10 - metadata says MaxCLL 512, MaxFALL 264 - well utilizing HDR, so this is not just SDR in an HDR container. This is interesting, as Camera Obscura worked off of Studio Canal's 4K master just like Kino.

So, ignoring the resolution of grain and detail (which was significant), these releases look quite different. The Camera Obscura looks fully color- and brightness- corrected, while the Kino disc while still looking good has a bit of the semi-faded color 70s-master type look. The colors are very vibrant on the Camera Obscura disc, but do not look oversaturated; instead, they simply appear fully saturated rather than the moderate desaturation and subdued brightness seen on the Kino disc.

On first glance, the Camera Obscura disc seems to easily beat the Kino disc (and thus, would beat the Kino 4K as the color difference is substantial). But, I suppose some will ask which is "right." For this movie, I can't see a reason why the Camera Obscura would be wrong, but it is most definitely a more vibrant and contrasty color grading than the Kino/StudioCanal 4K SDR master.

From my initial impressions, I'd recommend buying the Camera Obscura release over the Kino 4K combo pack. Maybe pick up the 2nd feature (which wasn't reviewed as well as And Soon the Darkness) on Kino's standard 1080p blu-ray instead of the combo pack, if you pick it up at all.