[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Rik

As usual people have something to complain about with this release, the following is a post from the Hammer Lovers group on Facebook

Now that I've seen the '58 DRACULA blu-ray, I can understand what all the controversy was about. As someone who has lived with this film since I was five years old, I can say this: God bless Simon Rowson for finding the lost footage, but as for the image of the blu-ray itself, it is not even in the same universe as what I saw in cinemas (three times). It is far too dark, too dreary, and, yes, too blue. The young folks who do these restorations have no idea what Eastman Color looked like; they have no idea what Jack Asher's color palette looked like; they have no idea what shocked the world in 1958. Fisher's DRACULA was in COLOR! Not just blue, but red, green, yellow, shades of brown, pink, mauve. Tod Browning's DRACULA was in black and white; Fisher's departed from that, big time. The people in charge of this restoration are trying to make it look like just another 21st Century period piece, devoid of color, light and all the other visuals that made it great. They don't get it and they never will. They don't know what film, as opposed to video, looked like. If you want to have some idea of what DRACULA (aka HORROR OF DRACULA) looked like, see the Warner Bros DVD. The Lionsgate blu-ray is a crashing disappointment...except for the extras and the newly discovered scenes.

I've only watched my copy once so far, but that one viewing was enough for me to think there is absolutely jack shit wrong with this release, much the same as I think about Lionsgate's other classic Hammer, The Curse of Frankenstein, which plenty of people (including some members here) have found fault with.

I was one of the critical ones of The Curse Of Frankenstein (Lionsgate say it was the best master available, which is fair enough), but Dracula looks great. I wasn't alive in 1958, so I don't know what it looked like theatrically (and as for saying people have no idea what an Eastman colour film looked like, did they all look exactly the same? And can the moaners remember what it looked like in 58, if the were even born!)