Bloodsucking Freaks 4K UHD (1976)

[heineken]

Originally Posted by Shaw24

Not only that, but its limited edition embossed slipcase will have a run of 7,000 units, which in this day and age, is kind of insane. It seems like much bigger films than this usually have limited edition runs of 2,000 - 5,000.

However, this is not a testament to the film, which I guess is fun if that's what you want, as much as the success of Vinegar Syndrome's marketing strategy, which we all know is:

1. Find old genre films that you can get the rights to cheaply.

2. Give these films (often completely unnecessary, given the sources) 4K transfers.

3. Make them seem better than they are via cool hand-drawn artwork.

4. Create a false sense of scarcity by releasing them in limited editions or with limited slip cases.

5. Nurture brand loyalty via consistency of packaging, genre, and things like monthly subscription services.

6. Profit.

They do mix up this strategy a bit by occasionally paying a bit more for the rights to bigger profile cult hits, like Road House, ShowGirls, Amityville Horror,, but I strongly suspect that their profit margins are going to be larger on grade z shit like Massage Parlor Murders and Invisible Maniac than Road House.

In terms of boutique brand loyalty, though, they are probably second to only Criterion when it comes to having a dedicated fanbase who will be interested in buying anything they release just because they released it. I'm not one of that fanbase (the only VS titles I own are Freeway 1 & 2, and Flesh for Frankenstein), but I kind of admire how great they are at getting people to pay $49.99 for what are frequently just highly polished turds.

Congratulations, you figured out how successful businesses work! All the boutiques are doing everything you criticize VS for, because that's how they make money, and marketing is always a part of that, HELLO!!

I would rather watch any of these old "highly polished turds" over anything coming out of Hollywood today.

If you don't like what VS is doing, don't buy.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by DaylightsEnd

I have that same coffee table

Lol. "Don't you dare ruin my dinner."

[JRcanReid]

This may very well be my first brush (of many!) with a video nasty.

I remember watching it with my cool uncle* on late night cable. We both thought it was pretty funny--maybe because of the psycho dwarf. As far as I know it did not awaken anything in me (and neither of us is a serial killer). I might pick this up if the price approaches something reasonable.

*(he was my go-to person for watching things my mom wouldn't let me watch, like Alien and Blade Runner and oddly enough, a made for TV movie starring the rock band KISS).

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by mikey horror

Bloodsucking Freaks in 4K ultra high definition. Lol. What a time to be alive.

Every time one of these movies gets announced for 4K I think back to Kino and how they scoff any time someone asks about a particular film for 4K and they come back with "Um, no, what are you nuts? No way it'll sell". Not in those same words but something like that lol. And to think, they've been around much longer than Vinegar Syndrome and probably have much bigger pockets.

[poquk]

Why a 1.37:1 aspect ratio? IMDB lists it as 1.85:1. The Troma blu ray was also 1.85:1.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by heineken

Congratulations, you figured out how successful businesses work! All the boutiques are doing everything you criticize VS for, because that's how they make money, and marketing is always a part of that, HELLO!!

I would rather watch any of these old "highly polished turds" over anything coming out of Hollywood today.

If you don't like what VS is doing, don't buy.

I'm not a fan of artificial scarcity for the sake of creating FOMO. Obviously things can't be in print forever but the senseless ultra-limited editions of everything out there now, from movies to board games to Lego sets to books and figures and everything else, it's just exhausting. I agree this is the way of things these days, but I hate it. So no, I don't blame VS. They're just following business 101 as it appears in the 2020's manual.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by poquk

Why a 1.37:1 aspect ratio? IMDB lists it as 1.85:1. The Troma blu ray was also 1.85:1.

IMDB is sometimes wrong. Does anybody have any other info about the aspect ratio of this film? I'm guessing 1:37:1 was the correct aspect ratio if that's what VS is putting out.

[russweiss1]

Originally Posted by poquk

Why a 1.37:1 aspect ratio? IMDB lists it as 1.85:1. The Troma blu ray was also 1.85:1.

The Troma Blu was supposedly 1.78:1. The film was shot on 16mm which should be 1.37:1 at least according to the Wiki.

The picture-taking area of standard 16 mm is 10.26 mm × 7.49 mm (0.404 in × 0.295 in), an aspect ratio of 1.37:1

[DaylightsEnd]

VS preorder locked in. Let's do this!

[asmodeux21]

Originally Posted by poquk

Why a 1.37:1 aspect ratio? IMDB lists it as 1.85:1. The Troma blu ray was also 1.85:1.

I just finished viewing the 4k UHD. Overall, I was impressed. This is definitely the best "Bloodsucking Freaks" has ever looked. The colors look nice and rich. If I had one small complaint, it would be with the aspect ratio. There were a couple shots in the upper area of the picture where I could visibly see shadows of boom mics, and in one awkward shot, a crew member is clearly seen from above. I'm no expert, but maybe it would have been a good idea to offer an alternate aspect ratio like 1:85( or 1.78) to hide those flaws. My 2 cents.

[Mushi Minion]

Originally Posted by asmodeux21

I just finished viewing the 4k UHD. Overall, I was impressed. This is definitely the best "Bloodsucking Freaks" has ever looked. The colors look nice and rich. If I had one small complaint, it would be with the aspect ratio. There were a couple shots in the upper area of the picture where I could visibly see shadows of boom mics, and in one awkward shot, a crew member is clearly seen from above. I'm no expert, but maybe it would have been a good idea to offer an alternate aspect ratio like 1:85( or 1.78) to hide those flaws. My 2 cents.

Are those really “flaws” for a movie like this? I would argue it adds to the experience!

[Vixen of the Night]

Originally Posted by mar3o

IMDB is sometimes wrong. Does anybody have any other info about the aspect ratio of this film? I'm guessing 1:37:1 was the correct aspect ratio if that's what VS is putting out.

Since sometime mentioned boom mikes and crew being visible in some shots. I suspect the main reason the 1.33:1 version was released is so the full frontal nudity is visible, since some shots it's cropped(look it up on Movie-censorship.com) when matted to widescreen.

[asmodeux21]

Originally Posted by Vixen of the Night

Since sometime mentioned boom mikes and crew being visible in some shots. I suspect the main reason the 1.33:1 version was released is so the full frontal nudity is visible, since some shots it's cropped(look it up on Movie-censorship.com) when matted to widescreen.

That's actually a great explanation and it definitely makes sense. Like I mentioned, I was impressed with the transfer. I guess I could deal with the boom mics shadows, but I have to admit that the very brief appearance of the crew member was really distracting.

[russweiss1]

Originally Posted by asmodeux21

That's actually a great explanation and it definitely makes sense. Like I mentioned, I was impressed with the transfer. I guess I could deal with the boom mics shadows, but I have to admit that the very brief appearance of the crew member was really distracting.

Beach of the War Gods is a widescreen recent release from Eureka but there was a crew member caught during a fight scene. It's a period film but he was wearing blue jeans. I know this isn't really the same but still thought it was interesting that the editor never caught it.

[DaylightsEnd]

Mine shipped and is inbound. Sweet.

[heineken]

Received mine yesterday, along with Mother's Day. Reversible slip is really neat.

Movie looks stunning. Some nifty new extras, too. Another winner from VS.

[scohenmarinetech]

HDD review: https://ultrahd.highdefdigest.com/12...ededition.html

[jzbadblood]

Site review up. I laughed seeing the word tasteful used to describe something about this movie even if its referring to the transfer.

[Zimmy]

Ooppenheimer Schmopenheimer, give me that Bloodsucking Freaks in 4k review!

[bradnoyes]

I don't always agree with this site's review scored but I do love that they got this review up before Oppenheimer or American Graffiti. Pick your priorities and stick to them.