Scream Factory Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[The Great Owl]

With regard to Silver Bullet...

[Show spoiler]I'm always intrigued by older sister's narration during the final scene.

“I wasn't always able to say that. But I can say it now. I love you too, Marty.“

This comes across as a strangely melancholic moment, hinting that, in the time between the events portrayed in the movie and the older sister's recollection, unfortunate things happened between them and/or Marty passed away. In light of Corey Haim's death, it comes across as all the more poignant.

So, what do you think happened? Did the adult Marty turn into an alcoholic just like his uncle, fracturing the relationship with his sister?
Did Marty die an untimely death? Suicide?

[Blu2u]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

With regard to Silver Bullet...

[Show spoiler]I'm always intrigued by older sister's narration during the final scene.

“I wasn't always able to say that. But I can say it now. I love you too, Marty.“

This comes across as a strangely melancholic moment, hinting that, in the time between the events portrayed in the movie and the older sister's recollection, unfortunate things happened between them and/or Marty passed away. In light of Corey Haim's death, it comes across as all the more poignant.

So, what do you think happened? Did the adult Marty turn into an alcoholic just like his uncle, fracturing the relationship with his sister?
Did Marty die an untimely death? Suicide?

I don't think it's spoken from the "future". I think she is just saying that the experience brought them closer together and she feels she should let her loved ones know how she feels. Because, a werewolf can take you at any second.

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

This region-free Umbrella Blu-ray is a dream come true. The video presentation will never be mistaken for demo quality, but it nonetheless delivers impressive detail as a faithful representation of the source material. Dialogue comes across quite well, and the werewolf's roar is conveyed in a fearsome way. The extras, including an excellent new director commentary track and an amazing Everett McGill interview, elevate this edition to the stratosphere.

Respectfully disagree about the BD being a faithful representation of the source material Owl. The transfer is riddled with white noise, plus some scenes exhibit faint vertical lines, mostly during dark scenes (which is most of the film). You can dial down some of the imperfections by reducing contrast and sharpness but any way you slice it this it's still a lousy transfer from less-than-stellar source materials. It's a shame too since this is apparently the only HD version of Silver Bullet in the world currently. It's not a total loos - some parts actually look good.

[trentdiesel]

Originally Posted by Cinema74

Respectfully disagree about the BD being a faithful representation of the source material Owl. The transfer is riddled with white noise, plus some scenes exhibit faint vertical lines, mostly during dark scenes (which is most of the film). You can dial down some of the imperfections by reducing contrast and sharpness but any way you slice it this it's still a lousy transfer from less-than-stellar source materials. It's a shame too since this is apparently the only HD version of Silver Bullet in the world currently. It's not a total loos - some parts actually look good.

I love the film and am so tempted to get it, but I know we will get a better release immediately. I ordered the German be of Society the week before Arrow announced it, I'm scarred

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Cinema74

Respectfully disagree about the BD being a faithful representation of the source material Owl. The transfer is riddled with white noise, plus some scenes exhibit faint vertical lines, mostly during dark scenes (which is most of the film). You can dial down some of the imperfections by reducing contrast and sharpness but any way you slice it this it's still a lousy transfer from less-than-stellar source materials. It's a shame too since this is apparently the only HD version of Silver Bullet in the world currently. It's not a total loos - some parts actually look good.

I wrote the disclaimer about the video presentation not being mistaken for demo quality for these reasons.

The only time I noticed white noise was during the outdoors scene where Gary Busey is looking at the paint on the wheelchair fender. Even then, it wasn't anything that interfered with my enjoyment of the movie.

It's still a solid good presentation that is a faithful representation in terms of colors and overall appearance, despite some print imperfections.

I think that a lot of the dark scenes look great.

[Frightener22]

Originally Posted by Eidolon

If this sees the light of day at all, it'll be on Warner's archives MOD dvds.
There's no point in a BD release, they were shot on Standard Definition ntsc video tape. In a rather odd way of doing things, they were copied onto film to be archived. The UK Dvd release of the first two episodes is taken from one of these film archives, and exhibits notable film damage on top of the low qaulity video source. Not nice.

I'm quite a big Elm Street fan. I have multiple releases of the films, I keep my old UK vhs for a number of reasons, other than I have a nearly 40yr old TV set that I still like to use regualrly, and VHS still looks quite decent on it, i like the original uk cover art, and that there are a number of differences with the films.1 & 5 are uncut, and 2 & 3 have different music in places. I have the original region 1 dvd set, and apart from the cuts, the first film has horribly soft picture quality. It's espcially bad on the HDTV. I frankly find watching the uncut VHS on the old CRT set better.
But the BD releases just weren;t worth it for me. Too many problems and omissions. Id' be amazed if it ever improved, if New Line were still independent, we'd have probably have had a much better job done by now, but Warner just don't care.
Freddy's Nightmares is the one place where i'm still missing episodes. It' was shown on Sky here back when hardly anyone had satellite TV. Other than the few episodes released on VHS (one of which i recall being censored), and a handful of recordings I've obtained from elsewhere, I'm still missing a few. Season 2 was shown by Sky with two epsidoes edited into one, with bits (including Freddy sequences) missing.

If Scream Factory did acquire it, I was merely hoping for a DVD set. I agree there is little point in bringing them to the Blu-ray format, I just desperately want to see this show join Friday the 13th: The Series, Tales from the Darkside, Monsters and Tales from the Crypt join the party on home video.

[RalphoR]

Not to stray off topic too much but Umbrella releasing both Silver Bullet and Orca on region free bluray gives me hope they could get their hands on Dragonslayer, The Ghost and the Darkness, and Prophecy as well. I'd definitely double dip if Scream got their hands on any of the above.

[The Great Owl]

Since Orca was mentioned as well, I'll double-post my review that I just posted in the International sub-forum...



When his pregnant mate meets a horrific accidental death at the hands of fishermen off the coast of Newfoundland, a killer whale seeks vengeance by wreaking havoc in the waters around the harbor. Captain Nolan, played by Richard Harris (Unforgiven), is remorseful about his actions, and relates to the whale, since his own wife and unborn child were killed by a drunk driver years ago, but he is initially reluctant to face the whale at sea until his friends and fellow fishermen are targeted as a way of luring him into battle. With the help of a cetologist, played by Charlotte Rampling (Never Let Me Go), and a Native American lore expert, played by Will Sampson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Nolan embarks on the ultimate deadly adventure.

The 1977 film, Orca, which was directed by Michael Anderson (Logan's Run), has always drawn repeated comparisons to Steven Spielberg's Jaws for surface level reasons. In truth, however, it comes across more as a remake of Death Wish, with a killer whale taking the place of Charles Bronson's character. I first saw this movie during childhood, and I was intrigued by the fact that none of the characters are villains, and that they all have their underlying reasons for taking various actions.

The notion of a killer whale exacting calculated revenge against humans is implausible, to say the least, but the filmmakers pull us through the story with such enthusiasm that one cannot help but step aboard and let this story take us where it may. Harris is quite convincing as his captain character realizes the severity of the situation. When a killer whale has marked you for death, there's nothing that you can possibly do.

Despite its short running time, Orca drags somewhat during the final half hour, when Nolan gets down to business and decides to take to sea for the showdown. For the most part, though, it's a solidly engaging when-animals-attack film mixed with 1970s ecological themes.

Be on the lookout for Bo Derek (Bolero, Tommy Boy) as a fishing boat crew member. Also take notice of the always-amazing Keenan Wynn (Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) as an elderly fisherman. Finally, Robert Carradine (Revenge of the Nerds) appears as a research assistant.

The Umbrella Entertainment Blu-ray shines with an above-average picture quality. The movie would have benefited from more disc space, but what we've got is nicely filmic. The audio quality is an impressive spot-on match.

The historian commentary track, which I'm listening to now, is pretty entertaining.

[zbinks]

Originally Posted by RalphoR

Not to stray off topic too much but Umbrella releasing both Silver Bullet and Orca on region free bluray gives me hope they could get their hands on Dragonslayer, The Ghost and the Darkness, and Prophecy as well. I'd definitely double dip if Scream got their hands on any of the above.

Don't get too hopeful. Silver Bullet and Orca are Paramount titles, domestically, but not internationally. Umbrella licensed these films from StudioCanal who holds most or all of the international rights to these films, including Australia. Still good news as StudioCanal has a massive film library which probably has worse Blu-Ray representation than Paramount.

Paramount holds worldwide rights to The Ghost and the Darkness and Prophecy, but I think Disney holds the international rights to Dragonslayer.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by zbinks

Paramount holds worldwide rights to The Ghost and the Darkness and Prophecy, but I think Disney holds the international rights to Dragonslayer.

I just know that, if Disney ends up releasing Dragonslayer as an exclusive Disney Club release, then I'm going to be annoyed.

(Those Disney Club exclusive titles usually end up becoming available through Amazon third party sellers, but still...)

[zbinks]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I just know that, if Disney ends up releasing Dragonslayer as an exclusive Disney Club release, then I'm going to be annoyed.

(Those Disney Club exclusive titles usually end up becoming available through Amazon third party sellers, but still...)

Paramount still holds the domestic rights, so that won't happen.

[BarnDoor]

According to George Reis on the 'Hammer Horror on Blu-ray' Facebook group, Scream have 'a couple of Hammer films' at least (open up the comments section):

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1677...4828879422081/

As he says underneath they don't seem to have From Beyond the Grave (which I'm very surprised about given their interest in portmanteau horrors - maybe Warner plan on releasing it themselves?), presumably he's talking about Warner titles, in which case I imagine they'll be Dracula AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula. I suspect Warner plan on releasing Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula themselves, given that they must have done a fair bit of restoration work on them by now (at least I presume they have).

[LeeFanatic007]

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

According to George Reis on the 'Hammer Horror on Blu-ray' Facebook group, Scream have 'a couple of Hammer films' at least (open up the comments section):

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1677...4828879422081/

As he says underneath they don't seem to have From Beyond the Grave (which I'm very surprised about given their interest in portmanteau horrors - maybe Warner plan on releasing it themselves?), presumably he's talking about Warner titles, in which case I imagine they'll be Dracula AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula. I suspect Warner plan on releasing Frankenstein and Dracula themselves, given that they must have done a fair bit of restoration work on them by now (at least I presume they have).

This is great news hearing that Scream Factory has some Hammer titles.

What other Hammers do Warner have other than Dracula AD 1972, Satanic Rites, Horror of Dracula and Curse of Frankenstein that haven't been released? We already got Taste the Blood of Dracula and Dracula Has Risen, plus The Mummy and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed.

[BarnDoor]

I believe Hysteria, Crescendo, She and Moon Zero Two are the other Hammer films Warner have that they've yet to release on Blu (aside from those you've listed obviously), though I can't see Scream going after the latter two.

Oh and there's also Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, a co-production with Shaw Bros of course. I wouldn't be surprised if Scream had that.

[therealjondoe]

So Valentine's sale or no?

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by Cinema74

Respectfully disagree about the BD being a faithful representation of the source material Owl. The transfer is riddled with white noise, plus some scenes exhibit faint vertical lines, mostly during dark scenes (which is most of the film). You can dial down some of the imperfections by reducing contrast and sharpness but any way you slice it this it's still a lousy transfer from less-than-stellar source materials. It's a shame too since this is apparently the only HD version of Silver Bullet in the world currently. It's not a total loos - some parts actually look good.

Yeah those vertical lines are really strange. They don't show up on my TV but on my friend's TV they were horribly distracting. I was initially excited about owning this release but now I'm bummed due to the odd technical issue.

[zbinks]

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

Oh and there's also Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, a co-production with Shaw Bros of course. I wouldn't be surprised if Scream had that.

I don't think Warner holds US rights to that title. The last US release was licensed to Millennium Media (which later became the now-bankrupted Alchemy, LLC) along with Dracula: Prince of Darkness and Frankenstein Created Woman through Hammer's then-parent company, Exclusive Media (sold to AMBI Group in 2015).

[Michael24]

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

According to George Reis on the 'Hammer Horror on Blu-ray' Facebook group, Scream have 'a couple of Hammer films' at least (open up the comments section):

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1677...4828879422081/

As he says underneath they don't seem to have From Beyond the Grave (which I'm very surprised about given their interest in portmanteau horrors - maybe Warner plan on releasing it themselves?), presumably he's talking about Warner titles, in which case I imagine they'll be Dracula AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula. I suspect Warner plan on releasing Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula themselves, given that they must have done a fair bit of restoration work on them by now (at least I presume they have).

Great news! Satanic Rites is one of the last Hammer Draculas I haven't seen yet but I would so be down for a Scream release of Dracula A.D. 1972. I know a lot of people hate it but I love it. That's my second-favorite Hammer Dracula movie.

[BarnDoor]

Originally Posted by zbinks

I don't think Warner holds US rights to that title. The last US release was licensed to Millennium Media (which later became the now-bankrupted Alchemy, LLC) along with Dracula: Prince of Darkness and Frankenstein Created Woman through Hammer's then-parent company, Exclusive Media (sold to AMBI Group in 2015).

That's a shame, I was going by the UK market. Guess it will be some time before we see that on Blu then.

[TripleHBK]

Assuming the Warner hype is real and Scream Factory hasn't been told that some titles are off limits, we may know soon enough if a Nightmare collection is coming this year. Using the Halloween Complete Collection as our example, We could know between Mid May and Mid June whether a Freddy set would be coming in September or October of this year.