New Blu-ray Day

Philly_Q

A couple of British classics....

Kittyfrisk

'The Blood on Satan's Claw' looks rather like an AI generated effort

darthed1981

Great to see these smaller studios putting out rarer films for fans.

theatreanchor

Yeah, but for £30 a pop each, they’re taking the piss tbh. (4k prices). 

CavemanGrogg

theatreanchor said:

Yeah, but for £30 a pop each, they’re taking the piss tbh. (4k prices). 

It's more than a piss take, it's blatant daylight robbery.  For comparison the latest installment in the Dune franchise cost £14.99 for the 4K version on the day it was released for home purchase, in fact the standard price for the latest movies that have been released in 4K is between £15 to £20.  I know this for a fact, as we are a household that does not agree with the business model of streaming services, so don't use any, and we purchase everything we watch.

Philly_Q

theatreanchor said:

Yeah, but for £30 a pop each, they’re taking the piss tbh. (4k prices). 

It's expensive, but the market's changed enormously. 

The big studios are leasing out their niche titles to specialist distributors like Arrow, Second Sight, Eureka, 88 Films, and in the US, Scream Factory, Kino, Synapse, Severin, Vinegar Syndrome and others.  The highbrow stuff to BFI and Criterion.  Those smaller labels are putting more work into the restorations, the extra features and packaging, and they're selling in small quantities to nutty enthusiasts like me. 

I've given up caring about the prices, I don't buy anywhere near as many Blu-rays as I used to but if I want them, I just buy them before they go out of print.  There won't be hundreds of copies of these selling for £6.99 in HMV in a year's time, that market's gone.

CavemanGrogg said:

It's more than a piss take, it's blatant daylight robbery.  For comparison the latest installment in the Dune franchise cost £14.99 for the 4K version on the day it was released for home purchase, in fact the standard price for the latest movies that have been released in 4K is between £15 to £20.  

You're not comparing like with like.  Dune's a major-studio release of a brand new film that's already mastered in 4K or higher when it hits the cinemas.  They bang it out on a disc with 20 minutes of extras which were put together during the film's production.

For these old films people are tracking down the original negatives or the best available materials, preparing new digital scans and restorations, and making brand new artwork and bonus features plus finding archival ones, if they exist.  So much more care and attention goes into it.

TTony

So are these new-fangled BluRay things going to take off, or do I stick with VHS?

Philly_Q

TTony said:

So are these new-fangled BluRay things going to take off, or do I stick with VHS?

Try both.  Watch the Blu-ray through a bathroom window if you want to replicate the VHS experience.

TTony

I normally watch other things through bathroom windows @Philly_Q !

CavemanGrogg

TTony said:

I normally watch other things through bathroom windows @Philly_Q !

So that you with the binoculars hanging around outside my bathroom then.  Do you mind next time my girlfriend is in the bathroom, giving the window a wee knock or two, to remind her to switch off the bathroom light, once she's finished in the bathroom.

theatreanchor

Occasionally I’ll buy a second Sight or Arrow box - maybe even BFI - if it’s a great restoration with plenty of bonus content, but the number I buy these days is pretty small!

boogieman

I love this era of horror films, especially the Hammer and Amicus ones. I watched Blood on Satan’s Claw not that long ago on Talking Pictures, the print wasn’t that bad to be fair but I bet the fully restored and upgraded version is superb. The film also gets bonus points for a great title. But… what’s happened to the “on” in Blood on Satans’s Claw in the pic you posted? Or am I missing something? 

Witchfinder General is a great film too, really atmospheric and still quite shocking after all this time. Plus it’s one of Vincent Price’s best performances…. and he has so many good ones to chose from. 

darthed1981

Price is certainly doing proper evil in Witchfinder, as opposed to some of his other movies where he has a more comic approach, like the one where they kill people to drum up business for their funeral home, or even (a bit) in Theatre of Blood - probably his best film.

On the pricing, I'd agree that £30 for a 4K disc is steep - but look out for offers.

I like the way Indicator work - they will release a full-price version with a booklet and possibly a nicer box for people who buy early, then when they sell out, they do a more bare-bones disc which will quickly find itself in their 3 for 20 offer.  They did the 70s Midway and I think Night of the Demon this way.

I do a lot of streaming and buying online, but couldn't imagine not owning physical copies of films like Wicker Man, Dead of Night or Night of the Demon, ooh or Devil Rides Out - the best Hammer film.

I wish we would see some proper HD boxsets of things like the Amicus Portmanteau horrors.

Philly_Q

boogieman said:

… what’s happened to the “on” in Blood on Satans’s Claw in the pic you posted? Or am I missing something? 

I think the covers in that pic must be mock-ups or something, the real ones look much more detailed.  The "on" is the little blotch which looks like a speech mark, to the left of the "S".  Patrick Wymark has a face, too.

Philly_Q

darthed1981 said:

I wish we would see some proper HD boxsets of things like the Amicus Portmanteau horrors.

Agreed.  I'd like to see a set with all seven: Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Torture Garden, The House That Dripped Blood, Tales from the Crypt, Asylum, Vault of Horror and From Beyond the Grave.  

I think they're all available individually, and there's a French box set of 7 films (but it substitutes Madhouse and Scream and Scream Again for Torture Garden and From Beyond...).  Dr Terror came out on 4K recently.

But they're all on different labels, which suggests there could be licensing issues in gathering them all together.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone somewhere is working on it, though.

boogieman

Philly_Q said:

boogieman said:

… what’s happened to the “on” in Blood on Satans’s Claw in the pic you posted? Or am I missing something? 

I think the covers in that pic must be mock-ups or something, the real ones look much more detailed.  The "on" is the little blotch which looks like a speech mark, to the left of the "S".  Patrick Wymark has a face, too.

Ah yes, that’s more like it. What superb paintings. 

darthed1981

They do seem to have done basically everything they can to make a £30 4K Blu Ray a nice collectible.

Kittyfrisk

The second image of 'The Blood on Satan's Claw' is very much improved  
Not sure why Rupert Davies gets two co-starring mentions in the credits of 'Witchfinder General' though?

Philly_Q

Kittyfrisk said:

Not sure why Rupert Davies gets two co-starring mentions in the credits of 'Witchfinder General' though?

Blimey, you eagle-eyed viewers... again, it can't be the final artwork.  My actual copy has Wilfrid Brambell in place of the second Rupert Davies.  And it's an 18 certificate, not 15.

Speaking of typos on cover art, though, I have got an old DVD copy of The Adventures of Robin Hood which says Claude Raines instead of Rains.

Kittyfrisk

Love 'The Adventures of Robin Hood'. Buckle swashing technicolor at it's finest   

CavemanGrogg

Philly_Q said:

CavemanGrogg said:

It's more than a piss take, it's blatant daylight robbery.  For comparison the latest installment in the Dune franchise cost £14.99 for the 4K version on the day it was released for home purchase, in fact the standard price for the latest movies that have been released in 4K is between £15 to £20.  

You're not comparing like with like.  Dune's a major-studio release of a brand new film that's already mastered in 4K or higher when it hits the cinemas.  They bang it out on a disc with 20 minutes of extras which were put together during the film's production.

For these old films people are tracking down the original negatives or the best available materials, preparing new digital scans and restorations, and making brand new artwork and bonus features plus finding archival ones, if they exist.  So much more care and attention goes into it.

You're right, I'd just eBay it - the first one I found when I googled ''Witchfinder General for sale UK'', and it can easily be found within my ''buy nothing that costs over a tenner on eBay''' rule.

And as for all the additional work it takes to bring these films to Blu Ray, you might to want to read the reviews on the 4K version, while also keeping in mind that it was released multiple times on DVD at different qualities and different versions, and before that VHS.