DAGON (Stuart Gordon, 2001) - Vestron Video, July 24th, 2018

[bruce holecheck]

A solid comparison from DVD to Blu is up at DVD Exotica:

https://www.dvdexotica.com/2018/07/c...n-but-not.html

One thing worth noting -- I was lucky enough to catch the film theatrically, and I can confirm the 35mm prints were darker than the DVD, creating an experience that was a bit more forgiving on the CGI. When I got the DVD, I immediately felt it was too bright and flattened out the moody cinematography.

[blaken123]

Originally Posted by bruce holecheck

A solid comparison from DVD to Blu is up at DVD Exotica:

https://www.dvdexotica.com/2018/07/c...n-but-not.html

One thing worth noting -- I was lucky enough to catch the film theatrically, and I can confirm the 35mm prints were darker than the DVD, creating an experience that was a bit more forgiving on the CGI. When I got the DVD, I immediately felt it was too bright and flattened out the moody cinematography

A great review from dvdexotica as usual! Sounds like the image might be decent if it didn't have the DNR... I'm still holding out hope that the Umbrella looks a little better but otherwise I'm sticking with the DVD.

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by blaken123

A great review from dvdexotica as usual! Sounds like the image might be decent if it didn't have the DNR... I'm still holding out hope that the Umbrella looks a little better but otherwise I'm sticking with the DVD.

Has anything Umbrella released ever looked better than it's North American Counterpart? Night of the Living Dead 1990 color issue aside, even that release had problems which makes me consider it no better than the Twilight Time disaster. Umbrella has been great for filling holes in my collection left by studios that can't be bothered to release their stuff here in the states, but nothing I've seen from them has ever given me any reason to believe that they will outdo any other distribution company when it comes to head to head shoot outs.

[blaken123]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

Has anything Umbrella released ever looked better than it's North American Counterpart? Night of the Living Dead 1990 color issue aside, even that release had problems which makes me consider it no better than the Twilight Time disaster. Umbrella has been great for filling holes in my collection left by studios that can't be bothered to release their stuff here in the states, but nothing I've seen from them has ever given me any reason to believe that they will outdo any other distribution company when it comes to head to head shoot outs.

You are probably right. I think that NOTLD 90 disc is my only Umbrella release... As you said, not perfect by any means.

[ol_Dut]

Originally Posted by blaken123

You are probably right. I think that NOTLD 90 disc is my only Umbrella release... As you said, not perfect by any means.

Umbrella does OK in my book. Check out the first Punisher movie, Silver Bullet and the 100% essential Beastmaster blus. Perhaps not five-star reference quality, but they look pretty good - especially the first two.

On-topic, this is darn sad news. I got my Dagon and Beyond discs in the mail today. I was excited to crack at least one of them open tonight. Now I'm not so sure. Maybe I'll check out cheaper imports of Dagon and sign up for the upcoming German release of Beyond Reanimator and send these two discs back to Amazon.

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by ol_Dut

Umbrella does OK in my book. Check out the first Punisher movie, Silver Bullet and the 100% essential Beastmaster blus. Perhaps not five-star reference quality, but they look pretty good - especially the first two.

On-topic, this is darn sad news. I got my Dagon and Beyond discs in the mail today. I was excited to crack at least one of them open tonight. Now I'm not so sure. Maybe I'll check out cheaper imports of Dagon and sign up for the upcoming German release of Beyond Reanimator and send these two discs back to Amazon.

I agree that Umbrella has served an important role for us film collectors, but judging them on their own merits and past releases, they really don't seem to put any more effort into their releases than Vestron does currently. Umbrella just happens to price their releases more reasonably which cuts them some slack.

[mcbastard2000]

here's some quick screengrabs comparing the Vestron and Umbrella Blu-ray releases, they're both DNR'd and look similiar to my eyes, but the opening scenes in the nightmare with the mermaid are much deeper blue in the Vestron release and bklacks seem a bit deeper, and Vestron winds hand down in the extras department with some tasty new extras from Red Shirt Pictures and killer artwork. Vestron is on top, Umbrella on the bottom, more better qaulity screengrabs here: https://mcbastardsmausoleum.blogspot...blog-post.html

[Member-222782]

I watched a good chunk of the film last night. Yes, there's DNR throughout and it's distracting for sure but because most of the film is shrouded in darkness, the smoothness wasn't as prevalent IMO. Don't know if that makes sense to anyone. It's certainly not bad to a degree where it's unwatchable. Mutant was unwatchable. Predator UHE was problematic but tolerable (for me, anyway). Let's face it- this is the best we have. No regrets with this purchase.

[deltatauhobbit]

Originally Posted by mcbastard2000

here's some quick screengrabs comparing the Vestron and Umbrella Blu-ray releases, they're both DNR'd and look similiar to my eyes, but the opening scenes in the nightmare with the mermaid are much deeper blue in the Vestron release and bklacks seem a bit deeper, and Vestron winds hand down in the extras department with some tasty new extras from Red Shirt Pictures and killer artwork. Vestron is on top, Umbrella on the bottom, more better qaulity screengrabs here: https://mcbastardsmausoleum.blogspot...blog-post.html

It's weird, none of them are consistent with each other. When comparing the Vestron shots to the Umbrella ones, some are darker and in other ones they're lighter. Add in the DVD screengrabs, which also mess with the brightness, and we really have no idea how it's supposed to be haha. I agree with Bruce, it probably was meant to be darkly lit for mood and to cover up shoddy CGI. Neither the Vestron or Umbrella keep that consistent throughout and almost arbitrarily brighten different scenes, although most of the Vestron shots do settle on the darker side.

Disappointing but not unexpected, I'll wait until it has a sale price of at least $15 which most of the Vestron releases hit at some point or another.

[MovieHermit]

https://www.dvdexotica.com/2018/07/c...n-but-not.html


Looking through the DVD vs Vestron pics in the above link, I'm happy I didn't spend $45 since I already have the DVD.

The vestron Blu seems to be much darker than the DVD in some scenes such as the town square and the woman's mouth with the tentacles coming out. DVD actually has more detail lol.

However the vestron blu is much brighter and more clear in the blue monsters face screencap. The monsters blue face is the only picture that I notice a benefit from in the 10 or so pictures posted on the website comparison to be honest.

[Rotor1999]

To my ear, the audio on the Vestron release sounds awful - especially in heavy raining scenes. There seems to be some phase imbalance, or - as my dad would say - tinniness to the audio which is extremely off-putting and distracting.
The audio on the Umbrella release is - for it's sins - far more comfortable to listen to.

Can anyone else comment on the Vestron audio?

P.S. My playback gear is Oppo UDP-203, Dune HD 4K Solo and PC (PowerDVD) - same on all of them

[MovieHermit]

My friend bought the vestron blu so I can’t wait to compare the DVD to it.
I’ll plug in my grados and check out the audio as mentioned above for you

[Rotor1999]

Originally Posted by MovieHermit

My friend bought the vestron blu so I can’t wait to compare the DVD to it.
I’ll plug in my grados and check out the audio as mentioned above for you

Thanks - much appreciated.
If you're having a scan through, have a look at the scenes at these timings:

12m03s
20m00s
39m13s

[bigG71]

Did anyone get a slipcover with Dagon? I've ordered practically the whole series from Deep Discount on or right before release week and I have always gotten a slip but this time neither Beyond Re-Animator nor Dagon came with one.

That sucks if they just decided to stop the slips after 14 titles...

[DaveyJoe]

Originally Posted by bigG71

Did anyone get a slipcover with Dagon? I've ordered practically the whole series from Deep Discount on or right before release week and I have always gotten a slip but this time neither Beyond Re-Animator nor Dagon came with one.

That sucks if they just decided to stop the slips after 14 titles...

Got a slipcover with both titles, I ordered from Diabolik.

[Passenger003]

Originally Posted by bigG71

Did anyone get a slipcover with Dagon? I've ordered practically the whole series from Deep Discount on or right before release week and I have always gotten a slip but this time neither Beyond Re-Animator nor Dagon came with one.

That sucks if they just decided to stop the slips after 14 titles...

I got slipcovers for both titles with my Amazon pre-order :/

[darkkrisp]

Originally Posted by Passenger003

I got slipcovers for both titles with my Amazon pre-order :/

Same

[Kriztoffer Swank]

It's nice to see comparisons with the DVD and to note that the BD is more suitably dark. Vestron and Umbrella discs look pretty similar but the latter has noticeable compression artifacts.

Seems the Vestron BD is the way to go, it's just too bad the DNR appears to be baked into the HD master. Still, this is something I'll wait to get at a heavily discounted price.

[GasmaskAvenger]

I'll wait for Best Buy to have it on sale for $14.99.

Was game to get Beyond Re-Animator at full price, but not this.

[dullboy]

Originally Posted by GasmaskAvenger

I'll wait for Best Buy to have it on sale for $14.99.

Was game to get Beyond Re-Animator at full price, but not this.