Curucu, Beast Of The Amazon (1956) coming from Vinegar Syndrome

[BIGXWHIFF]

Originally Posted by Mr. Thomsen

Same here.

I mean, for a short second I was debating whether I should wait for the inevitable price drop at the Half-way to Black Friday Sale in May. There is no way this will be sold out before that.

But I ended up pre-ordering it anyway. I really want to watch it (and the other VSL release) ASAP, and also support Vinegar going further back into deep catalogue and releasing more like this.

I had the same thought but I also wanted to support this line to (hopefully) keep more of these types of releases coming.

[johnf14]

'Curacu' has a very disappointing transfer. Looks like some scenes were taken from a pan/scan TV print blown-up to a 2:1 AR. Truth be told this is a very poor monster film (without a monster). If only it lived-up to the cover art. 'Flesh and Fantasy' is somewhat better (PQ) but still not as good as recent Universal titles from Shout Factory. Premium prices should net premium product.

[By_His_Strypes]

Hopefully, they don't dip their toes in too many waters where quality begins to suffer for it...

[gbm82]

Originally Posted by By_His_Strypes

Hopefully, they don't dip their toes in too many waters where quality begins to suffer for it...

the fact that the poster equates it to a pan-and-scan blow up makes me question their credibility.... and plenty of people have this in hand and this is the first I've heard of it being substandard.

[By_His_Strypes]

Originally Posted by gbm82

the fact that the poster equates it to a pan-and-scan blow up makes me question their credibility.... and plenty of people have this in hand and this is the first I've heard of it being substandard.

I don't know, I'm just going by what he said. But, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. There are too many VinSyn fans that wouldn't criticize anything even if it was exactly as he said...

[T.H.E. Cat]

Greetings to you all! I'm just stopping by here to let everyone know that my Blu-ray copy of Curucu, Beast Of The Amazon arrived this afternoon courtesy of Vinegar Syndrome via the USPS. Here is my cat, Harpo, pictured alongside this particular release as well as photos of the reversible artwork and of the slipcover. Enjoy!

[Vincent Dawn]

The transfer for Curucu has moments that look bad. But there are good reasons for it:

1) Stock footage. Lots of stock footage of animals.

2)Rear projector stuff. If you've seen The African Queen with Bogart it looks like that. Sometimes it creates a blue outline on people.

But that's to be expected with these films. Personally I wouldn't want to remove artifacts like that. They're part of the movie and how its always looked (although probably way worse before this restoration).

Also, let's mark spoilers as spoilers in this thread. Even if you didn't like the film, don't ruin the experience for others. I liked the reveal, though I had suspicions from the start about it.

[Slob]

I thought the opening title credits looked rough but as soon as it's over the movie looked great. There are a few instances of black and white stock footage being inserted and rear projection but overall looks as good as any other 50s B movie. The color pops.

[Show spoiler]Although the title monster is fake, the movie still works as horror. There are big spiders, giant snakes, crocodile attacks, piranha chowing down on man and beast, head hunters, witch doctors and shrunken heads. There's a dead native with his arm laying in the water, stripped to the bone by piranha. The only thing missing were man eating plant, quicksand pit and ex Nazi scientist. Think of it as a "Terrors of the Jungle" ride at a carnival". Or 1950s pre-code comic book called "Jungle Terror"