Oh man, Dellamorte Dellamore is my most wanted. I actually imported the Italian disc last year, but I don't have a region free player (yet) so I can't even watch it. I'd love a Synapse release.
I haven't seen The Chruch or Stage Fight though, should I?
Well, I'm pretty rough on most '80's Italian genre flicks since they all have atrocious dubbing so I usually see these with a "so bad it's good" vibe but The Church and especially Stage Fright are very entertaining films. The former inspired the [REC] films in some respects while the latter is just one of those slashers you should watch drunk with rowdy friends and have a blast of a time watching it. Dellamorte Dellamore is not as entertaining as those films but it is actually a better and even GOOD movie. Those are my thoughts for what it's worth.
You don't find the forced French subtitles annoying? Or have you found a way to defeat them?
I have AnyDVDHD and watch all films through my PC's so I can defeat the forced subs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Philly Q
Let's not forget The Sect. There's not even an adequate DVD of that, never mind a Blu-ray!
The best I've seen in a "720p" version on youtube but it's all in Italian. I believe I downloaded the segments, but never merged them or added English subs.
I haven't seen The Chruch or Stage Fight though, should I?
Stage Fright, certainly. The Church...eh.
I have DVDs for The Church and The Sect and have for years been meaning to rewatch them to see if they really did suck as much as I remembered, but have yet to work up the motivation. Boring, plodding movies, and Argento's contributions to the latter are possibly the worst material he's ever come up with.
The Italian DVD for Sect has English audio, by the way.
It's certainly a terrible release; even the cover looks and feels super cheap. But hey, it's accessible for anyone who wants to witness this turd of a movie. :)
It's been like six years since I've seen either, so maybe they're not bad movies. I won't know till I've braved a rewatch.
I'm surprised any Italian horror fan would dislike The Church, I personally love it. The atmosphere is very ominous much like its' brother from a different mother film in Prince of Darkness, and the music is fantastic- with several genre favorites working on it like Keith Emerson, Philip Glass, Goblin, and Simon Boswell; that's an Italian horror composer dream team.
I definitely think it's worth a re-watch, especially i you last saw it when you were aat a different stage in your life, I know I've changed my mind on several films in recent years, some in a big way.
Last edited by DarknessBDJM; 02-01-2013 at 09:24 PM.
I can't wait for Tenebrae. I'll be passing on Phenomena though. It's okay, but I don't feel the need to upgrade my DVD like I will be with Tenebrae.
And thanks for the comments about The Church and Stage Fright, guys. I think I'll check them out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Monroville
Germany is currently selling a blu-ray version of DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE that is region free.
I was going to get that one, but the aspect ratio is wrong and the image is horizontally stretched so I went with the Italian one just to have it for the future when I do get a region free player. All versions seem to have some kind of issue.
I'm still holding out hope Scream Factory or Synapse release a superior version. In the meantime I still have the DVD.
I'm a huge giallo fan & super psyched to see Synapse pick up the slack that Blue Underground has been leaving lately. Now my imagination is running wild... I would shit if they released any of the Martino/Fenech giallo flicks like "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" or "Your Vice is a Locked Room." I've also been waiting for someone to give some blu ray love to some Lenzi giallo flicks like "Eyeball" or "Spasmo." Right up there with Fulci's giallos in my opinion.
Italian trash cinema has pretty much been covered but there will always be one or two titles that remain MIA (or, at least MIA in Region 1). My personal collection will always be incomplete without Lenzi's Eyeball and 1988's Ghosthouse. Not the best of the Italian lineup but still worthy of inclusion in any serious horror collection.
Like the lot of you, I recently* heard that Synapse Films had walked away with the rights to Lamberto Bava's DEMONS and DEMONS 2, and Dario Argento's TENEBRAE (or is it "Tenebre"? Tenebres? Unsane? Shadow? Whatever...) and PHENOMENA. True, all of these have been given an uncut release in the United Kingdom by Arrow Video, but I've had my fair share of honest, at times scathing criticism towards the lot of 'em. Doubtless the label will continue to have its defenders, even for this quartet of deeply flawed released, but I'm nothing if not honest when I talk about this stuff: When a disc looks or sounds like crap, I notice, and then I tend to show up here long enough to vomit out my feelings about it.
It all usually leads to anonymous forum users calling me an assclown ****fart who doesn't know a film reel from a banjo shoved up a donkey's ass, but whatever. I calls 'em as I sees 'em.
Curious, I contacted Don May Jr. and ask him for any details he could share with me about the materials he expected to receive. There's a lot of good news to be had, and one point that I'm deeply frustrated by, but this is what I know...
DEMONS will, as I had suspected, be based on the 2K master Arrow Video created with Ciniteca di Bologna using the original negative, but they're going back to the initial, "raw" scan to create an entirely new master with proper color grading. Not only will we no longer have to deal with elevated black levels, but the day-for-night shots in the beginning of the film will be dealt with properly, which was something so far down on the list of big problems I had with Arrow's BD that it wasn't even in the Top Five. Still, awesome that Don May and company are being pro-active and fixing everything instead of just the stuff that made me blow a personal gasket.
Synapse is also tracking down the best materials they can for the "USA" Mono dub as featured on the various New World Pictures VHS and the Arrow Blu-ray, the "UK" Stereo dub as has always been included on pretty much every other DVD release ever, and the original Italian mix. In short, we're looking at the definitive DEMONS, and as much as the thought of double dipping on a Lamberto Bava Blu-ray makes me wince, it'll still be nice to see how thoroughly Synapse mops the floor with Arrow's sloppy attempt.
DEMONS 2 will, again, be based on the Arrow Video/Ciniteca di Bologna 2K master, but they're going to see what can be done to improve it. One needs only compare it to the Anchor Bay DVD to see that something went awry here.
The materials for the cheaper, crumbier sequel have never been all that good to start with, so honestly, if we can walk away with a new encode that's got the proper day-for-night timing and doesn't suck low bitrate balls, I'll be happy enough. The only downside here is the thought of actually watching Demons 2 again...
TENEBRAE will, indeed, be based on the same master as Wild Side's French release. The French disc is mostly gorgeous (a handful of scratch repair artifacts aside) and sounds fine, so there's nothing more to say; it'll be great barring some bizarre authoring glitch of Titanic proportions, and if you want a copy of this excellent transfer without forced subtitles, sell the Wild Side disc now and get this once it comes out. Done deal.
PHENOMENA is going to be based on a new scan created by Wild Side as well, and with Tenebre above being any measure, I'm sure it'll look and sound... well, phenomenal. Supposedly Dario Argento and Romano Albani participated in the creation of this new master, which is interesting, if nothing else. The bad news is that Wild Side made a new HD master of the 110 minute "International" version, not the 116 minute "Integral" version that appears on the Arrow Video Blu-ray and pretty much all German and Japanese prints. The reason behind this is, interestingly enough, because Dario Argento says the 110 minute version is his preferred cut of the film.
Synapse is getting access to both Wild Side and Arrow Video's materials, but point out that the audio issues involved in re-creating the 'Integral' version have left so many audio issues that they aren't sure how to proceed yet. Having spoken to a friend who tried to re-create a "Perfect" version of Phenomena on DVD, I can confirm that short of creating a brand new mix with archival three-track elements, there's never going to be a "seamless" Integral version in any language but Italian.
What this means for the Synapse Blu-ray of Phenomena, I don't know, but I'm expecting us to get the 110 minute version in higher quality than ever before, with a number of deleted scenes in Italian. Maybe if we're lucky we'll get the 116 minute version as a bonus feature? Who knows. These releases are very high up on my radar, though, so if I get any more info before they're actually out "in the wild", I'll let you know, friends.
Great news on the new Demons scans. I'll probably hang on to my Arrow copies of Tenebre and Phenomena until the reviews are in, especially considering Phenomena is the longer 116 minute cut in the UK.
PHENOMENA is going to be based on a new scan created by Wild Side as well, and with Tenebre above being any measure, I'm sure it'll look and sound... well, phenomenal. Supposedly Dario Argento and Romano Albani participated in the creation of this new master, which is interesting, if nothing else. The bad news is that Wild Side made a new HD master of the 110 minute "International" version, not the 116 minute "Integral" version that appears on the Arrow Video Blu-ray and pretty much all German and Japanese prints. The reason behind this is, interestingly enough, because Dario Argento says the 110 minute version is his preferred cut of the film.
So why not just use Arrow's blu-ray print as the source? I have it and it looks excellent. You may complain about the DNR, but colors and blacks are solid, and detail is quite good. Even so, I'm guessing that the International version is similar to the DEEP RED International version in that it retains all of the English dialogue but keeps all of the gore?
It does indeed. It also has image quality so bad that you feel like you're watching through a cheesecloth curtain, unfortunately.
Agreed - it looks horrible. Poor film anyway, not recommended. btw You'll also cry when you compare the dvd's very weak english audio to the Italian dts version.
I know! I think it is one of Argento's most under appreciated movies. Cool story and insanely gory in its unrated version. I know there was a VERY limited German release of Sleepless but the price to import would have been astronomical.
MUCH cheaper version now listed on amazon.de. From Sunfilm Entertainment instead of Edition Tonfilm but presumably with same print & sound - VERY fairly priced imo...
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