Hammer Horror Blu-ray Releases

[derek_1999]

Posted about Dracula in it's thread, but figured it would be good to post here too

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dracula-Blu-...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Only £7 on Amazon at the moment - grab a classic at the cheapest price I've seen it!

[phelings]

Originally Posted by derek_1999

Posted about Dracula in it's thread, but figured it would be good to post here too

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dracula-Blu-...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Only £7 on Amazon at the moment - grab a classic at the cheapest price I've seen it!

A great price for one of the very few UK Hammer releases that don't seem to have any faults

[derek_1999]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Reptile-...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

The Reptile is £7 too.

[derek_1999]

Originally Posted by phelings

A great price for one of the very few UK Hammer releases that don't seem to have any faults

Yes, one of the best... I'm a bit of a sucker for old Hammer though, so I can sometimes live with faults if they're not too bad.

[phelings]

Originally Posted by derek_1999

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Reptile-...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

The Reptile is £7 too.

Rare for Studio Canal titles to drop that low.
Snap them up while you can although they still work out more expensive than buying the Oz boxset (albeit that has no dvd's of the movies)

[CrockettandTubbs]

Zavvi have some Hammer films for £8.99 - but I'll probably wait for Amazon to lower their prices.

The Devil Rides Out, Plague of the Zombies, Rasputin, Quatermass and Dracula PoD. They also have The Reptile, but you can't beat £7 for that at the moment

[phelings]

Originally Posted by derek_1999

Yes, one of the best... I'm a bit of a sucker for old Hammer though, so I can sometimes live with faults if they're not too bad.

Me too . I even have the Oz discs of Baskervilles and Kronos and German Werewolf.

After a few Studio Canal titles had problems I stopped pre-ordering which then allowed me to get the Australian box set of 11 Hammer titles and World of Hammer.
Selling the 5 UK discs I had more than covered the cost of the boxset which allowed me to pay a price per disc that I felt more fitting because of the issues.

Not bothered with Clegg or Opera and the only one that I actually returned because it was so bad was Curse of Frankenstein . I played it alongside the Warner dvd and the dvd was always as good and sometimes better so I knew I'd never watch the Blu.
What was so annoying is that Hammer pretty much admitted it was rubbish and was down to the source . The logical option was not to release a dvd quality Blu but to find a better source .

Hoping some of the US Icons collections will start coming to Blu soon but I'm not holding my breath.

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by phelings

What was so annoying is that Hammer pretty much admitted it was rubbish and was down to the source . The logical option was not to release a dvd quality Blu but to find a better source .

I do wonder if a restored theatrical print would have given better results, despite issues in using old prints, than the very soft IP Warner provided. It does have the eyeball shot though which the Warner DVD doesn't.

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by derek_1999

Posted about Dracula in it's thread, but figured it would be good to post here too

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dracula-Blu-...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Only £7 on Amazon at the moment - grab a classic at the cheapest price I've seen it!

Thanks, I just bought it. I highly recommend The Reptile, too, I have that Australian set as opposed to the UK disc but the movie is great, the transfer looks pretty good, and the making-of doc is good. I'm guessing the disc is about the same as the UK one.

[Ellis Hugh]

Any chance of Yesterday's Enemy, The Camp on Blood Island, The Scarlet Blade, Men of Sherwood Forest or Brigand of Kandahar getting released on Blu?

[phelings]

Originally Posted by Ellis Hugh

Any chance of Yesterday's Enemy, The Camp on Blood Island, The Scarlet Blade, Men of Sherwood Forest or Brigand of Kandahar getting released on Blu?

Thanks to BBC2 I was able to make my own Bluray of Sword of Sherwood Forest earlier this year .

Several films from the Sony Icons sets haven't made it to dvd in the UK so I would say Blurays might be some way off yet. They've not released any in the US yet either

[Latheofheaven]

I personally would LOVE to see 'DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE' on Blu-ray. It's always been one of my favourites; I thought Freddy Francis did a particularly good job with the mood and style on that one.

[phelings]

Originally Posted by Latheofheaven

I personally would LOVE to see 'DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE' on Blu-ray. It's always been one of my favourites; I thought Freddy Francis did a particularly good job with the mood and style on that one.

I'm expecting Warner to give us a double or triple bill of their Dracula films on Bluray - I just hope its not via Warner Archive

[Latheofheaven]

Originally Posted by phelings

I'm expecting Warner to give us a double or triple bill of their Dracula films on Bluray - I just hope its not via Warner Archive

Is Warner Archive poor quality as far as the films themselves? Is it that they do not put any effort into any restoration, or that they are just the bare films without any nice extras or packaging? Just curious...

[mikey 6]

Originally Posted by Latheofheaven

Is Warner Archive poor quality as far as the films themselves? Is it that they do not put any effort into any restoration, or that they are just the bare films without any nice extras or packaging? Just curious...

On the contrary - Warner Archive have lately been awesome regarding the films themselves - to the point where I am glad if the Archive gets hold of a movie I love rather then a regular WB release.

Out of the Past, Picture of Dorian Gray, The Great Race - some of the most impressive catalogue transfers of 2014 and all from Warner Archive.

[Mose Harper]

Originally Posted by phelings

I'm expecting Warner to give us a double or triple bill of their Dracula films on Bluray - I just hope its not via Warner Archive

The Archive releases are under the auspices of George Feltenstein who is committed to seeing the films presented as well as possible. And contrary to a general misconception, the Bd Archive releases are not burned.

Regular Blu-ray releases, OTOH, are though a different division that places emphasis on gimmicky packaging and other nonsense designed to catch the fancy of retail store customers. They don't care anywhere near as much about the finer points of the A/V presentation.

Anyone that cares about A/V quality foremost should HOPE that their favorite titles get released through the Archive.

[cakefactory]

I've been burning through the Hammer catalog the last month or two, and some of the ones still relegated to DVD have really stuck out as visual stunners. I think "The Gorgon" is the one that cried out the most for a blu-ray upgrade, with "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed" being another standout as far as quality of movie went. Fortunately the DVDs look pretty decent, but the first especially is really beautiful visually. Brides of Dracula also was really gorgeous to look at, but apparently it's already on bluray?? And apparently the bluray looks worse than the DVD?

One Million Years BC and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth also would look amazing in HD just for the sheer amount of cavebabe skin :P One Million Years BC seems like something that should have come out long ago, Raquel Welch in that movie is still iconic and Harryhausen movies tend to be in high demand, and that has some of his best work.

[Ellis Hugh]

Originally Posted by phelings

Thanks to BBC2 I was able to make my own Bluray of Sword of Sherwood Forest earlier this year .

Several films from the Sony Icons sets haven't made it to dvd in the UK so I would say Blurays might be some way off yet. They've not released any in the US yet either

Thanks, I figured as much. I have a list of DVDs to import from AmazonUK but with the announcement of Ten Seconds to Hell (which I've only ever seen pirated DVDs of) I'm hoping there will be other less known titles making their way to Blu.

[Partyslammer]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

I've been burning through the Hammer catalog the last month or two, and some of the ones still relegated to DVD have really stuck out as visual stunners. I think "The Gorgon" is the one that cried out the most for a blu-ray upgrade, with "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed" being another standout as far as quality of movie went. Fortunately the DVDs look pretty decent, but the first especially is really beautiful visually. Brides of Dracula also was really gorgeous to look at, but apparently it's already on bluray?? And apparently the bluray looks worse than the DVD?

One Million Years BC and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth also would look amazing in HD just for the sheer amount of cavebabe skin :P One Million Years BC seems like something that should have come out long ago, Raquel Welch in that movie is still iconic and Harryhausen movies tend to be in high demand, and that has some of his best work.

The UK "Brides Of Dracula" is indeed not as good looking as the older DVD release on the 2 disc Universal Hammer Films collection. The colors are a bit washed out (a criminal fail for this particular movie that is arguably the studio's most beautifully lit and photographer film thanks to Jack Asher), the print looks a bit rough and it's also cropped on the top and bottom to the wrong aspect ratio.

"The Gorgon" does indeed look excellent on DVD and has been shown in HD on the Sony HD channel now for several years and that transfer looks even better. I would hope that Sony puts out their catalog of Hammer films on BD as all their releases on DVD looked excellent.

Solid rumors abound that 2015 will indeed see at least some of Warner Bros Hammer films released through the WB Archives imprint.

[phelings]

Originally Posted by Latheofheaven

Is Warner Archive poor quality as far as the films themselves? Is it that they do not put any effort into any restoration, or that they are just the bare films without any nice extras or packaging? Just curious...

Not usually m/any bonus features , my main issue with the Warner Archive is availability . They won't ship to the UK and getting them for a reasonable price usually involves waiting a while after release date .

I did read they were pressed not burned so that's not an issue although I have quite a few WA titles on dvd including their Hammer releases and never had a problem with any of them. Still currently the only way to buy an anamorphic SHE along with Hysteria and Crescendo