Spasmo (Umbero Lenzi) - Scorpion Releasing

[Oscar Rothman]

what is a SPASMO? Find out when it hits BluRay in early 2015 as Scorpion Releasing, in conjunction with Rewind Films, presents Umberto Lenzi's SPASMO!

https://www.facebook.com/scorpionrel...62265180599606

Spasmo trailer - Umberto Lenzi - YouTube

[pro-bassoonist]

Spasmo Blu-ray



Outstanding film

Pro-B

[Blu Titan]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Spasmo Blu-ray



Outstanding film

Pro-B

Def something I will enjoy .Can't wait to buy it.

[cakefactory]

Oh wow, just yesterday I was looking at amazon for the DVD and decided not to buy it since it was 40 bucks used. I'm all over this, hope they can get some more of those media blasters Giallos like lizard in a woman's skin.

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

Oh wow, just yesterday I was looking at amazon for the DVD and decided not to buy it since it was 40 bucks used. I'm all over this, hope they can get some more of those media blasters Giallos like lizard in a woman's skin.

Canal have a very good master for Lizard... and the current DVD release looks very nice. But this is a very big title and more than likely it would be quite difficult/expensive to license the master (it is a rather recent one).

Outstanding Lenzi film and a superb soundtrack!



Pro-B

[frakking toaster]

Great news! Always down for more Lenzi films.

[Kriztoffer Swank]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Canal have a very good master for Lizard... and the current DVD release looks very nice. But this is a very big title and more than likely it would be quite difficult/expensive to license the master (it is a rather recent one).

Outstanding Lenzi film and a superb soundtrack!



Pro-B

Love this DVD, far better video quality than MB's so-called remastered edition, and more complete footage.

Never heard of Spasmo and I'm not terribly familiar with Umberto Lenzi's work outside of a small handful of titles, but I'm always down for more Italian cult/horror/gialli on Blu-ray.

[Brian81]

Originally Posted by Kriztoffer Swank

Love this DVD, far better video quality than MB's so-called remastered edition, and more complete footage.

Never heard of Spasmo and I'm not terribly familiar with Umberto Lenzi's work outside of a small handful of titles, but I'm always down for more Italian cult/horror/gialli on Blu-ray.

Is there a comparison online between the MB and the SC? I've always thought the MB remastered looks good for a DVD. MB releases didn't always suck, and the 'Remastered' DVD of this one and the excellent looking 'Murder Rock' were two prime examples IMO. I actually still have both MB releases, as the first had a nice version of the 'Schizoid' cut...

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Canal have a very good master for Lizard... and the current DVD release looks very nice. But this is a very big title and more than likely it would be quite difficult/expensive to license the master (it is a rather recent one).

Outstanding Lenzi film and a superb soundtrack!


Pro-B

I need to get a region free dvd player one of these days, I don't have anything that can play PAL other than my computer atm. I'll have to check that DVD out. The media blasters version wasn't the worst looking DVD ever or anything but it certainly was sketchy, especially in the "restored" scenes.

[RiFiFi1955]

Wow I come home from class to see this news!!!!!!!!!!! Fantastic...mind blown!
And seeing as it is Scorpion and they had been VERY consistent in regards to quality, this look great!

[RiFiFi1955]

And Lizard Yes would make a great Blu, sure but there are very nice DVD's out there... what we really need is AMUCK already...fantastic Giallo with nothing but fullscreen VHS transfers

I would love Scorpion to restore that one! Just thinking about it....okay I got to stop!

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

I need to get a region free dvd player one of these days, I don't have anything that can play PAL other than my computer atm. I'll have to check that DVD out. The media blasters version wasn't the worst looking DVD ever or anything but it certainly was sketchy, especially in the "restored" scenes.

As Kriztoffer Swank mentions above, it is a very nice release, and there is in fact more complete footage. The only issue here is that as all PAL-encoded DVD releases, it is sped up. And if you know Ennio Morricone's score -- and this one is quite famous -- it is easy to tell. Other than that it is very clearly superior to the old R1 release.

MORRICONE/ DELL'ORSO -"Una Lucertola con la Pelle di Donna" (1971) - YouTube

Back to Lenzi: The period from around 1965 to 1975 is the one I like the most. A number of his films feature really big (future) stars, but you can see their wilder side. And while Lenzi very rarely had the money he needed to shoot these films as he wanted, they are very stylish. If restored and brought to Blu-ray, they will look and sound fantastic.

I could not pick up the recent DVD release of his So Sweet... So Perverse, which apparently has a new official English dub, but this is a film that would look lovely on Blu-ray. With Jean-Louis Trintignant, and Erika Blanc and Carroll Baker (and this film is from a period when they both looked impossibly beautiful).



There is also Orgazmo (on this side of the Atlantic it was retitled Paranoia), again with Carroll Baker and Lou Castel from Fists in the Pocket (Criterion really need to upgrade this excellent film). The Italian DVD, however, is not in the proper aspect ratio (it is PAN/SCAN-ed).



Anyhow, it is wonderful to see that some of these films are coming to Blu-ray. Almost always they have fantastic soundtracks and it is a treat when one can hear them in lossless audio

Pro-B

[JimDiGriz]

This film title is just...hilarious but it might be a British thing

[logboy]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Outstanding Lenzi film and a superb soundtrack!

Pro-B

expanded (almost 90 minutes) version of the OST in the last year, via beat records on limited CD >

http://www.beatrecords.it/shop.asp?l...odotto=CDCR123

... and more recently on vinyl (black or coloured vinyl), via death waltz records.

http://deathwaltzrecordingcompany.co...eluxe-edition/

i'm keen on lenzi before the 80's, particularly the giallo and polizioteschi films, but can never keep track of the editions that are subbed, dubbed or just decent with their transfers. caught up with a couple of german DVDs recently - expensive, but reliable transfers i hear. would buy into the OST CDs but i've not seen many of the films that they're connected to.

[Brian81]

Yipee! Not a great giallo, but it has its moments and it's kitschy. I will pick this up. This was a Media Blasters title. Hopefully they can get others, like 'Solange', 'Lizard in a Woman's Skin', and 'Zombi 3'....


It also makes me wonder if Severin will get to 'The Psychic' someday. Wish they'd release that one under it's Italian title, though. I'm glad I saw it that way before knowing the US title, which would have spoiled the whole movie for me.

[Brian81]

With Lenzi still being alive, it's too bad they couldn't release this film with and WITHOUT the Romero additions. Lenzi dislikes the inserts, after all.

I threw the DVD on last night. It's better than I remembered. I wouldn't really call it mediocre. It's pretty good. Also, it is far from kitschy, so maybe I was confusing it with another giallo in one of my earlier replies.

[ScorpionReleasing]

Originally Posted by Brian81

With Lenzi still being alive, it's too bad they couldn't release this film with and WITHOUT the Romero additions. Lenzi dislikes the inserts, after all.

I threw the DVD on last night. It's better than I remembered. I wouldn't really call it mediocre. It's pretty good. Also, it is far from kitschy, so maybe I was confusing it with another giallo in one of my earlier replies.

No one can find this "urban legend" footage regarding the Romero shot inserts. I can sit on the title until one ever finds it, but I have my suspicions it's a myth, as by now, it should have turned up in the grey market somewhere, but it did not. Has Romero himself ever said publicly he shot inserts for a film called SPASMO?

[Brian81]

Originally Posted by ScorpionReleasing

No one can find this "urban legend" footage regarding the Romero shot inserts. I can sit on the title until one ever finds it, but I have my suspicions it's a myth, as by now, it should have turned up in the grey market somewhere, but it did not. Has Romero himself ever said publicly he shot inserts for a film called SPASMO?

I don't know. I just watched the Lenzi interview on the Shriek Show disc and he says something to the effect that Romero added scenes to the film without his approval. I really don't know anything more than that. Oddly enough, there is also something mentioned about a lack of graphic violence and nudity but nothing looks out of place visually and both of these things are minimal in the film to begin with. After watching the interview, I was under the impression that what is on the Shriek Show disc already contained Romero inserts. Maybe it really doesn't.

If the cut that was on that release, or the release that you guy are doing, is actually the director's cut to begin with (meaning there's none of these rumored Romero scenes in it), I'd say there's zero reason to sit on it. Maybe I've confused what Lenzi was talking about with what's on the DVD and the two things are different.

[Blu Titan]

This release is going to be fun .

[Brian81]

Well, according to Rewind @ DVDcompare.net, the Shriek Show DVD is the Italian cut. I don't know if it's accurate but it probably is. That would explain why there's a lack of the gratuitous blood and nudity that Lenzi talks about on the DVD. So ScorpionReleasing, is your release the same cut of the film as on that DVD? Since you said that you haven't found that rumored footage, I guess I should assume it is.


Time to rid of that DVD in prep for picking up the BD...