An American Werewolf in London (1981) (Limited Edition)

[Central IL Film Fan]

What is the difference between the limited and standard?

[dressedtokill]

Originally Posted by Central IL Film Fan

What is the difference between the limited and standard?

Limited edition includes lobby cards, poster and a booklet.

[DenOfEarth]

This new blu-ray blows away the previous BDs out of the water and has great restoration quality as you think it was made 2 years ago and it never looked more better even with detail even the fur on Rick Maker's make up and animatronics.

The SQ is great too and superb extras too.

Definitely worth your money.

[TripleHBK]

I know this may not be the most popular of opinions but it needs saying. The audio on this release is not quite as perfect as many think it is. I finally got around to watching this release last night and thought (and largely still think) that it looks and sounds amazing, however there was one section of the film that stood out glaringly wrong to me and after about 10 minutes worth of comparisons I can confirm that there is problems with the audio.

So the first 40 minutes of the film things were chugging along fantastic and I was extremely impressed with Arrows presentation, and then Van Morrison's Moon Dance came on. As a fairly big fan of a handful of Van Morrison's work I was/am extremely familiar with some of his songs like Moon Dance, Brown Eye'd Girl, etc. Something about Arrow's presentation just sounded wrong. I replayed the section countless times as I tried to pin down what was bothering me and then I finally just paused the movie and loaded the song up from his "Best of Van Morrison" album on my phone. I sync'd both tracks up and allowed them to run simultaneously. Initially they were in perfect sync, however over the course of the 1 minute that the song plays they eventually fell out of sync by nearly a half second. Arrow's audio for this release has been slowed down in such a manner to not only render this song to be incorrect, but it also introduced audio distortion that is not otherwise found on any of the other recordings that I have heard. Almost as if the soundtrack elements were warped when captured. (Like if/when you played a vhs too many times and the audio started to sound "wobbly" for the lack of a better term).

Hearing this issue was extremely disappointing and quite honestly slightly ruined this release a small amount for me as I love Moondance and hearing it in this borked manner stands out in a way that is equivalent to a sibiliance issue found on so many other issues. This one minute section aside, the Blu Ray is a stellar presentation which according to many has fixed the pitch issues that this release has had for so long. However, it's not without flaws as I just mentioned which unfortunately are far more glaring to me than the pitch issue found on past releases.

If folks would like to try to replicate the issue themselves the scene in question is at the 40 minute mark when Alex asks David if he would "like to watch telly, while I take a shower".

[geomon]

Is that on the 5.1, the mono track, or both?

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by geomon

Is that on the 5.1, the mono track, or both?

I'll need to re-confirm the mono but 5.1 for sure. I switched back and fourth between the mono and 5.1 during my initial comparisons and thought I heard similar sounding distortion on the mono but can't say with 100% certainty on that as I did so many comparisons that I don't remember if I sync'd the mono and my album version or not. I'll have to report back.

[Gacivory]

Found a copy of this in store at Barnes & Noble! It had a 40% off discount! So got it for a pretty good price, but in mint condition! Excited to watch it!

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

I know this may not be the most popular of opinions but it needs saying. The audio on this release is not quite as perfect as many think it is. I finally got around to watching this release last night and thought (and largely still think) that it looks and sounds amazing, however there was one section of the film that stood out glaringly wrong to me and after about 10 minutes worth of comparisons I can confirm that there is problems with the audio.

So the first 40 minutes of the film things were chugging along fantastic and I was extremely impressed with Arrows presentation, and then Van Morrison's Moon Dance came on. As a fairly big fan of a handful of Van Morrison's work I was/am extremely familiar with some of his songs like Moon Dance, Brown Eye'd Girl, etc. Something about Arrow's presentation just sounded wrong. I replayed the section countless times as I tried to pin down what was bothering me and then I finally just paused the movie and loaded the song up from his "Best of Van Morrison" album on my phone. I sync'd both tracks up and allowed them to run simultaneously. Initially they were in perfect sync, however over the course of the 1 minute that the song plays they eventually fell out of sync by nearly a half second. Arrow's audio for this release has been slowed down in such a manner to not only render this song to be incorrect, but it also introduced audio distortion that is not otherwise found on any of the other recordings that I have heard. Almost as if the soundtrack elements were warped when captured. (Like if/when you played a vhs too many times and the audio started to sound "wobbly" for the lack of a better term).

Hearing this issue was extremely disappointing and quite honestly slightly ruined this release a small amount for me as I love Moondance and hearing it in this borked manner stands out in a way that is equivalent to a sibiliance issue found on so many other issues. This one minute section aside, the Blu Ray is a stellar presentation which according to many has fixed the pitch issues that this release has had for so long. However, it's not without flaws as I just mentioned which unfortunately are far more glaring to me than the pitch issue found on past releases.

If folks would like to try to replicate the issue themselves the scene in question is at the 40 minute mark when Alex asks David if he would "like to watch telly, while I take a shower".

Wow this is incredibly unfortunate! I dont know what to say.

Hopefully the mono is track is fine.

[phobicsquirrel]

Too bad places like vinager syndrome can't get titles like this because they would do a greater job than any of these crap places.

[Jay H.]

Originally Posted by phobicsquirrel

Too bad places like vinager syndrome can't get titles like this because they would do a greater job than any of these crap places.

How dare you! Arrow is perfect! Perfect, I say!

[Shingster]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

I'll need to re-confirm the mono but 5.1 for sure. I switched back and fourth between the mono and 5.1 during my initial comparisons and thought I heard similar sounding distortion on the mono but can't say with 100% certainty on that as I did so many comparisons that I don't remember if I sync'd the mono and my album version or not. I'll have to report back.

Weird technical error because they had to correct pitch via the well established issues with the 5.1 would make sense because, hey, shit happens and the people fixing errors may not be as thorough as the hardcore fans, but I don't see why the mono track would exhibit the same issues unless they were a fold down of that original badly-pitched 5.1 track, which we know it isn't.

[Geoff D]

Mono sounded perfect to me, but then I'm not a Van Morrison nut. And I wouldn't know what the 5.1 sounds like in that scene, pitch corrected or not, because I'm not a sadist. Once was enough with this 5.1 remix, never again.

[TripleHBK]

The mono very likely is fine. I haven't thus far double checked but as mentioned above it wouldn't make much sense for the mono to have been affected by the various issues. I was so focused on the 5.1 track last night and what I perceived as distortion in addition to the delay on that track that I may very well have imagined hearing things on the mono as well when I did the quick back and fourth listens. As for the 5.1... Generally speaking I go with original audio for viewings of my films and this was the case last night to start. However during the first 10 minutes or so I decided to go ahead and and see how the 5.1 sounded and was blown away by how immersive and enjoyable it really was. (I switched as our two leads were walking across the open field at night and the sound of the wind/the thunder, etc was quite enveloping and so I never switched back except for when I noticed the issue with Moondance.)

I'll reiterate this now, the 5.1 track isn't bad. That one musical cue aside, the whole thing otherwise sounded great and likely will still be my audio track of choice because of how enveloping it was. It's just unfortunate that this one particular music section seems incorrect in what was an otherwise stellar sounding soundtrack.

[Vulture Lives]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Mono sounded perfect to me, but then I'm not a Van Morrison nut. And I wouldn't know what the 5.1 sounds like in that scene, pitch corrected or not, because I'm not a sadist. Once was enough with this 5.1 remix, never again.

Don't you mean masochist? 😉

[WaverBoy]

Originally Posted by Jay H.

How dare you! Arrow is perfect! Perfect, I say!

Not perfect, as nothing ever is, but way way way way above average, certainly. My overall favorite video label.

[WaverBoy]

Originally Posted by phobicsquirrel

Too bad places like vinager syndrome can't get titles like this because they would do a greater job than any of these crap places.

Arrow is hardly a “crap place”, I’d stack their track record up against any other boutique label.

[Warbz63]

So fed up with Zavvi, sent my first copy back due to damage, the replacement has just arrived and yet again it's damaged all because of their poor packaging. Have now missed out on getting a copy elsewhere, but can't see the point of trying Zavvi again.

[Bobbyjoe766]

Originally Posted by Warbz63

So fed up with Zavvi, sent my first copy back due to damage, the replacement has just arrived and yet again it's damaged all because of their poor packaging. Have now missed out on getting a copy elsewhere, but can't see the point of trying Zavvi again.

They probably sent back your original copy with additional damage. I’ve heard more than a few complaints about them. I’m glad I’ve never done any business with them.

My copy arrived from DIABOLIKDVD, in a small, thick box with bubble wrapped packing in excellent shape.

I’d rather pay a little extra to ensure customer satisfaction.

[xochipilli]

Kind of a dumb post: I want to get a copy of the limited edition, but of the US version. I've been waiting almost a month now for a US import copy to pop up on Amazon.uk (I'm in Portugal) and nothing. I got the Waterworld LT earlier this year, so no issues there. I don't want to risk customs nor do I want to wait so long that it sells out, and it's getting really annoying. Any thoughts?

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by xochipilli

Kind of a dumb post: I want to get a copy of the limited edition, but of the US version. I've been waiting almost a month now for a US import copy to pop up on Amazon.uk (I'm in Portugal) and nothing. I got the Waterworld LT earlier this year, so no issues there. I don't want to risk customs nor do I want to wait so long that it sells out, and it's getting really annoying. Any thoughts?

They're all the same. There's not much need to wait.