Hammer Horror Blu-ray Releases

[Man From Hammer]

Originally Posted by BobbyPeru

Has anyone heard any feedback on The Hammer releases from Elephant Films in France ?

Not heard anything about them. Previously I had heard that Elephant were a label to avoid if possible and while I don't know if Hammer titles are affected the French do seem to like their forced subs.
I'd guess that unless the French release a title unavailable anywhere else people will stick with the more reliable UK/US/ Oz/German releases.

[BobbyPeru]

I own some of The Universal releases from Elephant Films and they look fine. I was Curious because they released Kiss of The Vampire . I have the Final Cut release and it looks horrible . Way too much DNR . I'm always looking to upgrade.

[Man From Hammer]

Originally Posted by BobbyPeru

I own some of The Universal releases from Elephant Films and they look fine. I was Curious because they released Kiss of The Vampire . I have the Final Cut release and it looks horrible . Way too much DNR . I'm always looking to upgrade.

I agree about KOTV. I got the US set too which improved it very slightly but not enough to make it acceptable.

Do you have a link to the Elephant releases? If its not too expensive I might give KOTV a third go although I doubt its much better

[BobbyPeru]

https://www.blu-ray.com/link/click.p...63&tid=022&c=7

[Man From Hammer]

Originally Posted by BobbyPeru

https://www.blu-ray.com/link/click.p...63&tid=022&c=7

Not sure about it as one of the reviews is questioning whether their Bluray is actually HD. That's not a good sign

[BobbyPeru]

That's too Bad .

[Man From Hammer]

Originally Posted by BobbyPeru

That's too Bad .

I guess the Elephant disc has the same source as the UK/US ones. Disappointing as its one of my Hammer faves

[HotRats]

Not sure if anyone's mentioned it, but signed copies of Blood From The Mummy's Tomb are available from Valerie Leon's site http://www.valerieleon.com/signed-ph...d-merchandise/

[RICKBONDOO7]

I hope Studio Canal releases more Hammer Films this year. Lust for a Vampire at least.

[gouryella]

On Amazon.de the 7 disc Hammer Film Edition is down to about £35 plus postage.

[ravenus]

Saw The Reptile last evening on the UK blu-ray.

Here, another typical Hammer hamlet (the ones with a pub, a graveyard and a castle / mansion with suspicious goings-on) has mysterious deaths where people turn green/black and foam at the mouth...and they have bite marks. The villagers ignore the obvious interpretation and bury the dead without any postmortem. The brother of one victim shifts into the inherited home with his wife and is promptly given the cold shoulder by everyone other than the pub-man (Michael Ripper). Noel Willman tries to foster some presence as the suspicious mansioner with the beautiful daughter (Jacqueline Pearce) he seems to keep suppressed.

While this site review suggested an enjoyable modest entertainment, I have to say this is among the more tedious Hammer films I've seen from their classic period (athough to be frank I have not seen several of the Dracula films without Peter Cushing). The major deficiency is the story, the lack of it. The film stretches to 90 min but the narrative doesn't cover more than half so we see characters doing a lot of doubling back or skulking around or being completely obtuse to circumstances because that would wrap up the proceedings in less that feature length. At one point a character set to destroy the titular monster decides to first spend a good while freeing a large group of animal pets from their cages, just so he can be interrupted in his mission. There is some decent atmosphere but the production is unable to disguise the threadbare plot. Plague of the Zombies (PotZ) which was made back-to-back with this film and shared many locations and props turned out immensely better.

Technically the blu-ray looks quite good, with some sunlit scenes appearing like they could have been recently shot. However, there are some scenes at the beginning with the title and opening credits which seem to come from a different and inferior source. Audio (LPCM 2.0) is decent if revealing age and budget limitations. Extras include a 20 min making of that tries to be as kind as it can to the feature, a half-hour episode of "Wicked Women of Hammer" (in SD-PAL) and the trailer. On the whole I wish I had not succumbed to the temptation of getting this to bookend PotZ.

[Gorgon]

^^ Re; The Reptile:

When I was a young lad in the 60's I was already a bona fide hard-core fan of the early Universal Monsters.
Unfortunately, Hammer releases were few and far between (in Canada).
I have a strong nostalgic love for "The Reptile" for one simple reason, the monster was totally unique from the variety of vampires, werewolves and scientist created golems (i.e. Frankenstein's Monster) that deluged my usual television screenings.
Other than the "Creature From The Black Lagoon", no other films showcased lizard/reptile type monster stars other than the 50's sci-fi Corman wave (and they, (as entertaining as they were) did not elicit much in the way of compassion or feeling one way or the other for their "critter of the week".
I therefore quite enjoy returning to this little unpolished gem on occasion, since I discovered long ago that a "bad" Hammer film was still 10 rungs up the ladder from similar ilk generated for the drive-ins by Hollywood...

[Darby1985]

It's got much to commend it - I like the small town with a secret feel, Michael Ripper gets a bit more to do than usual and Noel Willman is wonderful odd as the mysterious Doctor Franklyn. Jacqueline Pearce steals the show though, as she would years later on Blake's 7.

[ravenus]

It would have been much better at 20 min less (they could have put it on a double-bill), or if they had worked out some interesting sub-plots to pad out the running time in a less obvious way.

[Mr. Thomsen]

I would definitely agree that The Reptile is one of their more, shall we say slow-moving efforts. But it still has a huge place in my heart. Not at least because it was one of the two first Hammer films I ever saw (The Mummy was the other). Both broadcast on German TV with German dubs btw. But I grew up watching German TV, as we only had one local channel in Denmark back then, which hardly ever showed any horror, so I was quite used to watching movies in German.

[jimdigriz.]

As the 44 minute documentary on the Taste the Blood Bluray was produced by Diabolique I guess we should not be surprised to see that every single second of the interview footage was done during filming for the Kickstarter backed The Warner Years. Despite being promised bonus interview footage on the original Bluray none appeared yet I would estimate there is well over 30 minutes of interview footage in this documentary that did not appear in The Warner Years and could have been presented as bonus content.
I expect the same thing is going to happen when the Anolis releases for AD 1972 and Dracula Has Risen from the Grave appears. As those documentaries will total a longer running time than The Warner Years it does all start to seem as if funding from Kickstarter was used to pay for these documentaries while backers got a compilation of best bits.
That may not be the case but one would not blame backers for coming to that conclusion

[Pvt Vasquez]

The Reptile is one of my favourite of Hammer's!

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by jimdigriz.

As the 44 minute documentary on the Taste the Blood Bluray was produced by Diabolique I guess we should not be surprised to see that every single second of the interview footage was done during filming for the Kickstarter backed The Warner Years. Despite being promised bonus interview footage on the original Bluray none appeared yet I would estimate there is well over 30 minutes of interview footage in this documentary that did not appear in The Warner Years and could have been presented as bonus content.
I expect the same thing is going to happen when the Anolis releases for AD 1972 and Dracula Has Risen from the Grave appears. As those documentaries will total a longer running time than The Warner Years it does all start to seem as if funding from Kickstarter was used to pay for these documentaries while backers got a compilation of best bits.
That may not be the case but one would not blame backers for coming to that conclusion

I agree. Basically the promised bonus footage got sold to Anolis instead to make new features. Technically they haven't done anything illegal but morally I think they are well out of line and have fleeced the fans. I certainly won't consider backing them in future, I cannot trust them to deliver what they promise to backers, it all seems to be about the £££ they can make.

[jimdigriz.]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

I agree. Basically the promised bonus footage got sold to Anolis instead to make new features. Technically they haven't done anything illegal but morally I think they are well out of line and have fleeced the fans. I certainly won't consider backing them in future, I cannot trust them to deliver what they promise to backers, it all seems to be about the £££ they can make.

When the claim about selling the material to Anolis first appeared someone asked the question on the Kickstarter page and Diabolique denied it (they would I suppose). They said they would get a credit for some footage used but they didn't mention that ALL the interview footage was done during filming for the documentary, or that 30 minutes of footage relating to just one film was absent.
At the start of the campaign there were comments online from people advising not to back it based on previous unhappy experiences with Diabolique. Should have listened I suppose

I could forgive them had they delivered on time but the documentary was also over a year late

[RICKBONDOO7]

Jac Pearce passed away on September 3rd she was 74 years old.