Four Flies On Grey Velvet: Reviews
 

As there's only a few days left until this release is due out, here's a thread dedicated to any reviews of this DVD/Blu-Ray to give you an even better idea of this before parting with your well earned cash. From your reviews, to reviews around the web.

So, if you find one, come and share it on here with us!



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Four Flies On Grey Velvet is out on the 30th January and can be pre-ordered from Amazon on either DVD or Blu-Ray.

An excellent review! :nod:

It was.Wasn't it?:cool:

"More significant are the snippets during the climax when the soundtrack switches to Italian with English subtitles – a little jarring perhaps, but the information here does have some importance and you have to wonder why it was edited out of the English language print to begin with."

Has that always been the case? Or will this only be in the extended version option?

Jamie Russell is the TF horror expert but only three stars?

FOUR FLIES is definitely a grower. I've probably seen it four or five times now and the last time (via the Mya disc) was the most I've enjoyed it - it's a top-drawer giallo. It's not Argento's best but I thing it's a solid four star film.

Mine shipped from HMV today. Can't wait. :cool:

Yeah I was surprised at JR on that one.

I prefer Flies to Bird,but reckon Cat tops those two!


The mask in FFOGV is quite eerie-not quite up there with Myers,but high on the scale IMO.

And the ending...what an ending it is! :faint:

I prefer BIRD to FLIES but FLIES to CAT! Sorry to say that CAT Is definitely my least favourite of the three from the 'Animal' trilogy. That said I've not seen it in a good while and am plannign to revisit it via the Blu-ray at some point soon.

Any one of the BD's look fantastic mate!

Karl Malden was excellent in this I thought.:nod:

I have the Arrow disc. Will give it a spin soon.

Cat is much more enjoyable on second and third viewings. You stop comparing it to other Argento movies (in particular Bird and Flies) and just take it for what it is. A surprisingly good and fulfilling crime driller with one or too genuinely laugh out loud moments (the old paprika in the chase scene always puts a grin on my face).
Must say, I have only seen a bootleg and seemingly highly chopped up version if flies. The famous knife view kill sequence was completely absent.
As such I'm vet much looking forward to Shameless doing an excellent job on it (please don't let that compliment go stale Shameless!).

I was a bit disappointed with this release to be honest. I thought, considering its reputation, it would've had a booklet or something with it. A small niggle, I know, but considering the price, it felt like a weak package compared to an Arrow or Masters of Cinema release.

Normally Amazon price Shameless blus at £12. Well, I say normally, there isn't much to go on yet but the previous two were both £12. £15 is a bit much, I never expect a package to be as good as a Masters of Cinema release though, regardless of price.

If it's accurate that Shameless have sourced and scanned a print themselves, then i have no problem paying £15 for the disc. Have to presume they have done a good job of the scan and any restoration work but can't say until my disc arrives. Sure as hell beats taking what you get master wise from Italy going by some of the Arrow stuff.

Got my BD today. Will watch it tonight I guess.

I returned home yesterday to find my copy had arrived from HMV - I gave the disc a quick spin last night and first impressions are very good. Certainly a lot better than any of the other versions I have owned previously.

I've just watched mine, whilst it's the best the film has ever looked on home release, there isn't really any fine detail, and it's a shame that it's only the English dub that got remastered. But thankfully nothing to impair one's viewing pleasure, unlike certain other Argento Blu-rays, and I was glad to finally be able to watch it in Italian.

Haven't seen it yet, but the word going around is that the transfer's the same one the Mya disc was downrezzed from, but apparently it looks magnificent in HD, and with all the extra work to clean up the soundtrack, include all the trims, etc. the disc is easily worth your money.

Mine just arrived. Had a quick look at it mainly because the disc was rattling around inside the box when it arrived :mmph:

First impressions are that it looks very good indeed. As previously mentioned, no real fine detail but I wasn't really expecting much due to the age of the film. I'll need to wait to reserve full judgement until I can see it without any intruding daylight at all on the projector.....those black out blinds are good but they aint perfect.

Land of Whimsy review

More just a bunch of thoughts and comments on the release than a review but it gets a good write-up

Another review
 

It's rather lengthy, but should answer any questions potential purchasers might have about it.

Review: Four Flies on Grey Velvet (UK - BD RB) - DVDActive

THE WILSON BROS

I would agree with most of that after watching it all the way through. That unfortunately also applies to the eardrum busting cracks and pops described in that review. The audio is largely utterly magnificent but the glitches are a bugger and had me checking the speakers for a loose connection or something. It really takes you out of the film I'm afraid. Interesting to hear that the Italian audio is free from this.

But overall an absolutely brilliant release for this film. Would be interesting to hear what Shameless have to say about the audio oddities though.

Great review as always guys. :clap:

I loved your summing up so much, I thought I'd post it here - hope you don't mind:

Whilst you're right about FFOGV generally going 'unloved', it's actually my favourite of the 'Animal Trilogy', and my favourite Argento film after Tenebrae and Suspiria.

There was in issue on the Italian BD of Dellamorte Dellamore too, where at one point there was a weird noise on the English track while the Italian track was unaffected. Even though it was only a couple of seconds, it spoiled the disc for me.

18 pound in store at hmv, so will defo buy it online. Not a film I want to miss. Saw Phenomena for the first time ever (yeah always miss a few first time round), and it blew me away. How 4FOGV does the same.

Hope my copy arrives tomorrow, can't wait to finally see it in glorious HD. The Retro DVD will probably be in the bin the minute the Shameless discs arrives....:)

I'm still keeping my Retro DVD (I'm a bit of a sucker for hardboxes) - although my MYA version went on eBay a while ago!

I've always thought FFOGV was the least of the "Not Really A Trilogy" Trilogy, and generally quite mediocre within Argento's oeuvre (totally amazing opening sequence aside!) and I can't wait to see the BD to see if a decent representation bumps it up in my estimation.

My copy is taking its time arriving though! To quote "The Littlest Hobo", maybe tomorrow...

I finally watched it. The picture quality was pretty good, most of the added footage was unnecessary, so you can watch the movie without it. I thought the movie itself was pretty bad though. I think only The Phantom of the Opera is worse, from the movies he directed.

I agree about the Italian trailer. I think I like it better than the movie.

I'm curious how the data size ended up being as low as it is on this. HORROR EXPRESS from Severin also had this issue and would've benefited from higher bitrates, etc. Now, I haven't watched more than about the first ten mins of it, so I can't comment too much on my own experiences -- I'm not damning it at all. I got either the flu, a stomach virus or food poisoning over the weekend and didn't get to watch it in entirety. But I am curious if it was kept low to fit onto a single layer disc to save money or if that's all the Italians provided to Shameless (not another case like THE BEYOND, is it ..?).

Bit of contradiction on that review. The text review states a single layer disc but the spec sheet says dual layered.

Just popped the disc in the computer. It is indeed a single layer disc, maxed out at 22.51gb

So are there actually TWO complete diffrent versions on the single layer disc, or did they use branching for all the extra scenes?

Sure hope so or they really are pushing it way to far for a single layered disc ;)

Branching :)

When they first realised they had extra lesser-quality scenes that could be included Shamless asked via this forum if we would prefer them as deleted scenes or integrated into the actual film. The response was a largely the latter but only if they were included via seamless branching so the original film could also be watched in full HD and Shameless obliged.

I have only had a quick flick through the disc but the quality's pretty damn good, certainly the best this film will look I suspect

I've got to chime in here with my own thoughts. PQ generally very good. I know people are talking about low bitrates and single layered etc but to me that only really comes into play if it's a lousy encode, which this isn't.

Now... The audio....

For the most part great BUT those digital distortion glitches near the end are painful and I can't figure out why they happened as they're not on the Italian audio track. I often watch with headphones as I watch quite a lot in the early hours but I'm glad I didn't with this. Digital distortion is quite dangerous to hearing as it's all high frequency and having those turned up on headphones would have been quite nasty. I actually think it's an issue that is worth looking at.