Arrow Video - The House By The Cemetery

[Zombie Dude]

Originally Posted by Almar@Cult Labs

They'd have to return the favour and put a still from HBTC on the back of that though!

Well fair is fair. It's funny, when I saw the picture I was like "either this is a mistake or Arrow is hinting that they're planing on releasing The Beyond".

I must say that if you did manage to acquire it that it'd be a nice treat to have Fulci's three 'gates of hell' movie all released by Arrow.

[vincenzo]

Originally Posted by Almar@Cult Labs

They'd have to return the favour and put a still from HBTC on the back of that though!

What if they messed up again and put a still of Susan Boyle on instead? Would Arrow then be forced to release The Susan Boyle Story?

[Zombie Dude]

Originally Posted by vincenzo

What if they messed up again and put a still of Susan Boyle on instead? Would Arrow then be forced to release The Susan Boyle Story?

God I hope not. Now if that's not horror I don't know what is.

[vincenzo]

I'm convinced the BBFC would reject it for the sake of all mankind.

[robertzombie]

Just watched House By The Cemetery. It's the first time I've watched the film and I really enjoyed it. This was much helped by the awesomeness that is the Arrow package!

The transfer is brilliant, very fresh and professional. The film itself was very enjoyable - I think heightened by the fact that I watched it with company, we love riffing movies together and there certainly were some humorous moments! How difficult it is to get your arm out of an open door?

In terms of extras. I loved the reversible sleeve idea, and the booklet and poster are great additions. These should definitely be staple features of all DVD releases, let alone Arrow! I liked the Fulci In The House featurette. Personally I never watch trailers on DVDs, and will only once cycle through an image gallery. Also, the deleted scene seemed a bit pointless. I would rather have Arrow ditch the other extras in favour of an extended documentary. Twenty minutes for a featurette was very generous, but, in my opinion, I think losing the other extras, and making a documentary out of the featurette footage (say, 40mins) would've been better. Perhaps the deleted scene could've been included in the documentary for good measure.

Despite those nigglings, all in all a great package. My first of many Arrow purchases!


EDIT: One extra thing that would be nice is the inclusion of the original language track, ie. Italian audio with English subs, on future Arrow releases. I personally prefer to watch subbed films rather than dubs. What are other people's take on this?

[Sec]

Originally Posted by robertzombie

One extra thing that would be nice is the inclusion of the original language track, ie. Italian audio with English subs, on future Arrow releases. I personally prefer to watch subbed films rather than dubs. What are other people's take on this?

I am in favour of the audio track being the track MOST in synch with the actors lip movements. I say 'most' as with lot of Italian cinema the actors spoke whatever they wanted on set and it was 'fixed up' in ADR - Suspiria is a prime example of this!

The only time I prefer English dubbing is when watching the old Monkey TV series

[42ndStreetFreak]

Originally Posted by robertzombie

EDIT: One extra thing that would be nice is the inclusion of the original language track, ie. Italian audio with English subs, on future Arrow releases. I personally prefer to watch subbed films rather than dubs. What are other people's take on this?

Doesn't work with these films though.
MacColl IS using her own voice...The Italian track would be the dubbed track as far as she was concerned.

Many of the actors would be speaking italian, but others would be speaking Spanish, German and indeed English etc.
On may of these films no one audio track was EVER going to be produced.

And for me the English dubs on such films just add to the trashy charm of them. Would "Ferox" really be the same without that great dub on Radice?
Would we really want an Italian George in "Manchester Morgue"?
Would we really want to lose that iconic Nick Alexander dub on Al Cliver in "ZFE"? or indeed any of those great Alexander supervised dub tracks that are now part of the film for us all I think?
Nah.

And often (esp in Argento films) the main actors are all English speakers using their own voices. That WE know so well.
I for one don't want the well known, recognisable likes of Donald Pleasence, Karl Malden, John Saxon, Susy Kendall, Anthony Franciosa, David Hemmings etc dubbed over by unknown faceless Italian dub artists.
Do we want MacColl, Warbeck, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson dubbed over by others?

You can't really win with these type of films made at this time in this way (and in the case of Spag Westerns...no one wants a dubbed over Lee Van Cleef or Clint Eastwood or in fact a lot of Italian speaking cowboys and Mexicans in the middle of The west at all if we are honest) so i am happy with the English dubs.

Any other time (with no well known English speaking leads using their own voice, or where basically everyone is speaking the same non-English language) i want the original language though I agree.

But as said...on a lot of these films from Arrow there is no right, original, language track

[Almar@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by robertzombie

Just watched House By The Cemetery. It's the first time I've watched the film and I really enjoyed it. This was much helped by the awesomeness that is the Arrow package!

I would rather have Arrow ditch the other extras in favour of an extended documentary. Twenty minutes for a featurette was very generous, but, in my opinion, I think losing the other extras, and making a documentary out of the featurette footage (say, 40mins) would've been better. Perhaps the deleted scene could've been included in the documentary for good measure.

Despite those nigglings, all in all a great package. My first of many Arrow purchases!

Hey Robertzombie!

Glad you enjoyed the DVD - this was one of Arrow's first and to pick up on your point of longer, more luxurious extras, that was felt at the time and since then for key titles there are far more in-depth pieces. Calum always wanted to do more originally and after the first three he got free reign to really go to town as you'll see on the likes of Day of the Dead and the upcoming City of the Living Dead which is silly with extras!

Do keep feeding back - it's the only way these releases will improve.

[Calum]

Originally Posted by Almar@Cult Labs

Hey Robertzombie!

Glad you enjoyed the DVD - this was one of Arrow's first and to pick up on your point of longer, more luxurious extras, that was felt at the time and since then for key titles there are far more in-depth pieces. Calum always wanted to do more originally and after the first three he got free reign to really go to town as you'll see on the likes of Day of the Dead and the upcoming City of the Living Dead which is silly with extras!

Do keep feeding back - it's the only way these releases will improve.

Thanks for mentioning that Almar.

Just to make clear: Arrow and also myself wanted to do 40 minute documentaries for Macabre, House by the Cemetery and Sleepless but I (wrongly in retrospect) handed these over to someone else to edit and direct.

Back then I also made the mistake of filming the Italian directors in English - now, of course, we have someone to subtitle and converse with them in their own language (Nick Frame from DVD Trash) but you live and you learn...

And since that transpired, of course, we took over the editing and directing of the extra features and hopefully you can see the results: Day of the Dead has a 50 minute documentary and a 17 minute Travelogue piece whilst City of the Living Dead has three hours worth of stuff and a new audio commentary.

Judging by the feedback and reviews (even in Empire and Total Film magazines!) people will watch a 50 minute extra - providing it is interesting! So thank goodness for that!



Moreover, if we only get time enough with someone to do 15 minute pieces then expect more than one of them - three or four 15 minute pieces... Now that is pretty good!

As a big fan - our goal right now is just to keep supplying you guys with the best editions out there and a lot of love goes into them! Believe me, no one wants bumper editions of these movies more than myself and Almar (who really does work tirelessly at pushing these titles!)

[robertzombie]

Originally Posted by 42ndStreetFreak

Doesn't work with these films though.
MacColl IS using her own voice...The Italian track would be the dubbed track as far as she was concerned.

Many of the actors would be speaking italian, but others would be speaking Spanish, German and indeed English etc.
On may of these films no one audio track was EVER going to be produced.

And for me the English dubs on such films just add to the trashy charm of them. Would "Ferox" really be the same without that great dub on Radice?
Would we really want an Italian George in "Manchester Morgue"?
Would we really want to lose that iconic Nick Alexander dub on Al Cliver in "ZFE"? or indeed any of those great Alexander supervised dub tracks that are now part of the film for us all I think?
Nah.

And often (esp in Argento films) the main actors are all English speakers using their own voices. That WE know so well.
I for one don't want the well known, recognisable likes of Donald Pleasence, Karl Malden, John Saxon, Susy Kendall, Anthony Franciosa, David Hemmings etc dubbed over by unknown faceless Italian dub artists.
Do we want MacColl, Warbeck, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson dubbed over by others?

You can't really win with these type of films made at this time in this way (and in the case of Spag Westerns...no one wants a dubbed over Lee Van Cleef or Clint Eastwood or in fact a lot of Italian speaking cowboys and Mexicans in the middle of The west at all if we are honest) so i am happy with the English dubs.

Any other time (with no well known English speaking leads using their own voice, or where basically everyone is speaking the same non-English language) i want the original language though I agree.

But as said...on a lot of these films from Arrow there is no right, original, language track

Actually I do agree with you on all counts here. On second thoughts I suppose an English track is the best option to go with for a lot of these movies

Plus, from a sales point of view. I'd imagine the number of standard shoppers who would ignore a DVD for not having an English track is probably quite high!