Dark Force Entertainment Discussion Thread

[asmodeux21]

Originally Posted by Driver78

^ Wasn't that a former Severin title? The Dark Forces are on patrol.

Yep!

[Driver78]

Anyone get a shipping notification for Giant Spider Invasion yet or was that not ready yet?

[russweiss1]

Originally Posted by Driver78

Anyone get a shipping notification for Giant Spider Invasion yet or was that not ready yet?

I ordered on the 29th but figured it would be a while before it ships.

[Demon Dave]

Originally Posted by russweiss1

I ordered on the 29th but figured it would be a while before it ships.

GIANT SPIDER 4K ships either this weekend or by Monday...TEXAS DETOUR tomorrow. The store will be closing shortly after which GIANT SPIDER won't be available again until all the early orders are shipped.

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by agentalbert

Re: Forced Entry

I can mostly answer my own question from prior page now that I've watched the HD feature (83 min) and the SD VHS sourced version (89) minutes. I fast forwarded through a lot of the VHS cut, but did see what was here that isn't in the main feature cut. Mostly its additional footage of the assaults. And it's too bad there wasn't a good source for this, as it would be the better version, in my opinion. Given this is exploitation cinema and only will be appreciated by fans of such. Anyone who finds the extra material offensive isn't going to appreciate this movie in any version.

The killing of the blonde in the blue dress with the broke down yellow convertible is a bit longer.

I think the footage of the killing of the girl with the flat tire on her bike is a bit more.

The attack on the hitchhiker played by Nancy Allen is shown more. In the main version, you just see him lunge at her in the car. In the VHS cut, there is some flashback footage of Carl waking up and you see her nude on her knees with her hands tied behind her back, and Carl standing over her menacingly. You can't really see her face, so while it probably is her, you can't really tell.

The featured review at IMDB refers to a 93 minute cut on a rare VHS having a rape scene of Nancy Allen's character. I don't know if that actually exists, it's not in the 89 minute VHS cut here.

Later when Tanya Roberts showers before coming downstairs and being attacked by Carl, there is a brief glimpse of her in the shower, but behind frosted glass, so everything is obscured.

And from the "contrived shenanigans to prevent Tanya Roberts nudity" department, its odd how she undresses down to her bra, panties and shoes to go start the bath, then you have a shot of her back from behind where she removes her bra, then a shot of the bottom of her legs with the panties coming off (and the shoes already off on the floor), and then after getting naked, her character puts on a robe to walk 10 feet to the shower. Not really believable for someone home alone. But for some reason the shoes are back on, so you get another shot of just the back of her lower legs as the shoes come off again for her to get in the shower. I think that scene a few seconds earlier may be a insert with a double. It looks like a different room. Or it could be they shot the scene a few ways, and didn't notice the continuity error of showing her removing her shoes twice.

Something I'd like to know - who plays the blonde in the blue dress with the broken down convertible that you see here? There doesn't seem to be any character in either the credits at IMDB or that you see roll at the end of the film that refers to that character. Which is odd, as she has an actual speaking part. And from the perspective of one who likes exploitation movies, her sequence is easily the best.

The final difference I noticed that helps account for the longer run time is about a minute and a half inserted at the end of people who knew Carl what they thought of him. Not really interesting footage.

The guy playing the killer Carl (Ron Max) did a good job, he is truly creepy and menacing in many scenes.

Shaun Costello's 1973 original is much better & far more intense.

[Bradsdadg]

I noticed the site is back open again for orders. Deconstructing Dunning is on there now as well

[guccipunkstar]

Ordered Giant Spider Invasion, I love that goofy ass movie

[Katatonia]

I received The Giant Spider Invasion 4K and Texas Detour yesterday.

The Giant Spider Invasion looks quite solid in 4K, and the aspect ratio is now 1.85:1, plus there are optional English subtitles. If you have the older Blu-ray from Dark Force you may want to hang on to that, as the Interviews and Music Video are not ported over. The 4K disc does have the new audio commentary however.

[Driver78]

Not porting over extras is a big studio move. Not cool. Aren’t those extras produced in-house? What possible reason could there be for their exclusion?

[Katatonia]

Originally Posted by Driver78

Not porting over extras is a big studio move. Not cool. Aren’t those extras produced in-house? What possible reason could there be for their exclusion?

Dark Force rarely ports over old Blu-ray extras to 4K releases. I guess maybe if they are SD extras, they would have to be HD upscaled/re-encoded?

[Demon Dave]

Originally Posted by Driver78

Not porting over extras is a big studio move. Not cool. Aren’t those extras produced in-house? What possible reason could there be for their exclusion?

Is it bad to take after the big studios, Driver78? And its actually very cool for 2 very good reasons:

#1 4K releases are extremely expensive to produce. In order to port over extras that are not audio commentaries requires an additional bluray disc to increase the expense. It also greatly increases the price to consumer.

#2 This will greatly devaluate the previous Bluray release. Bad enough the people that previously bought have to upgrade but at least the older release usually holds a very high value as seen with many Dark Force releases.

Hopefully this is a satisfactory answer to your question, Driver78. At Dark Force our goal is to make every release special and a collectible in their own way.

[Wernski]

Originally Posted by Demon Dave

#1 4K releases are extremely expensive to produce. In order to port over extras that are not audio commentaries requires an additional bluray disc to increase the expense. It also greatly increases the price to consumer.

No, it doesn't. Look at releases like Arrow's recent City Of the Living Dead 4k. All the extras were put on the UHD.

Originally Posted by Demon Dave

#2 This will greatly devaluate the previous Bluray release. Bad enough the people that previously bought have to upgrade but at least the older release usually holds a very high value as seen with many Dark Force releases.

If we upgrade, we don't want to have to hang onto the old releases, too, just to have the extras. And if we didn't already have the old release, we have to buy the old and new releases just to have one decent edition with the PQ and features. As a consumer, I can assure you, this practice is not benefiting me and I dislike it.

[Driver78]

Had to jump through hoops to get a tracking number for Giant Spider Invasion by having to log onto Paypal. Most retailers provide that info with the shipment notifications. It's a good thing I checked because I'd forgotten that I had a payment due today. Still, it's annoying.

[jmilo61]

Originally Posted by Wernski

No, it doesn't. Look at releases like Arrow's recent City Of the Living Dead 4k. All the extras were put on the UHD.



If we upgrade, we don't want to have to hang onto the old releases, too, just to have the extras. And if we didn't already have the old release, we have to buy the old and new releases just to have one decent edition with the PQ and features. As a consumer, I can assure you, this practice is not benefiting me and I dislike it.

Once a movie gets the Savage Tracks™ treatment, all other special features are rendered pointless.

[Demon Dave]

Originally Posted by Driver78

Had to jump through hoops to get a tracking number for Giant Spider Invasion by having to log onto Paypal. Most retailers provide that info with the shipment notifications. It's a good thing I checked because I'd forgotten that I had a payment due today. Still, it's annoying.

Complain to PayPal and that annoying Ship Station they decided to implement. We have zero control over that and every time someone asks us to provide the tracking it slows things down.

[Demon Dave]

Originally Posted by jmilo61

Once a movie gets the Savage Tracks™ treatment, all other special features are rendered pointless.

This is a fantastic point jmilo61. The "SAVAGE TRACKS" have now become the GOLD STANDARD in Dark Force special features.

[Demon Dave]

Originally Posted by Wernski

No, it doesn't. Look at releases like Arrow's recent City Of the Living Dead 4k. All the extras were put on the UHD.



If we upgrade, we don't want to have to hang onto the old releases, too, just to have the extras. And if we didn't already have the old release, we have to buy the old and new releases just to have one decent edition with the PQ and features. As a consumer, I can assure you, this practice is not benefiting me and I dislike it.

As a true collector though, why would you want to get rid of the old releases which are part of numbered series and go up in value? Also in some cases we are unable to incorporate older extras for various reasons. People will always find something they dislike to complain about. But we have some MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS coming up between now and MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND, so it will be very interesting what people will have to say then.

[Röckzilla]

Originally Posted by Demon Dave

We have some MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS coming up between now and MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND, so it will be very interesting what people will have to say then.

Considering how my 4K UHD of The Giant Spider Invasion (1975) just arrived in the mail this afternoon, I could definitely use some new Dark Force announcements right about now.
My hunger for more cult film 4K releases never ends!

[Damonstein]

Originally Posted by Demon Dave

As a true collector though, why would you want to get rid of the old releases which are part of numbered series and go up in value? Also in some cases we are unable to incorporate older extras for various reasons. People will always find something they dislike to complain about. But we have some MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS coming up between now and MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND, so it will be very interesting what people will have to say then.

What's the point of it going up in value if you also aren't supposed to sell it?

[Wernski]

Originally Posted by Demon Dave

As a true collector though, why would you want to get rid of the old releases which are part of numbered series and go up in value?

They go down in value when upgrades come out, and who has the space or wants the burden of storing six copies of every movie? Who wants to have to buy multiple releases of every movie from the same company just to have the best PQ and all the extras? Not me. That's expensive and sucks.

And "true collectors" who just want to score every copy of their favorite movies, every spine number or whatever don't need exclusive extras to make them valuable. Guys who collect VHS and stuff aren't doing it because the companies making UHDs today are throttling their releases to make them intentionally inferior. They're collecting because those old releases are vintage, historic, nostalgic, etc.

I do appreciate that there can be rights issues or other reasons not every past extra can be on every new release, like when Code Red had to cut the director out of the Just Before Dawn 'making of' doc. If you can't do it, you can't do it. But if you choose not to do it, that's a real bummer. I highly, doubt you're going to find many fans who want their releases Nerfed, with features deliberately held back.


...That said, I'm always interested in MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS.