The Arrow Thread

[monkeypedro]

Yesterday i went to London to attend the Arrow Video all night Slash-a-thon at the Prince Charles Cinema. It was Arrows first marathon screening hosted by them and proved to be quite popular as originally it was due to be shown in the smaller upstairs screen but due to higher ticket sales than the Michael Mann-athon it was now shown in the larger downstairs screen with its nice new seats.

Arrow had lined up to screen four slashers movies from their Arrow Video range plus one mystery movie.
The movies in order of play were The Burning, Madman, The Mutilator and Blood Rage which went down very well with the audience with laughing, cheering and heckling throughout and certainly helped enjoy them more.

The mystery movie was no surprise as it was the The Slayer which i must say looked the best i have seen it especially compared to the Vipco releases. Many people seemed to not like The Slayer that much (Including me) and was certainly the least fun movie of the night but it may not have helped with a little technical issue of the film freezing near the finale or that people were half asleep as it was the last movie of the night and played about 5.30am. For me it is one i will pick up in the future and give it another chance but not until it is cheap in the sales.

In between screenings Arrow hosted games and quizzes where audience members could win movies and posters as prizes and also before each screening they played a collection Slasher trailers which for me was a highlight as i am a sucker for trailer compilations.

In all it was a well organised event and hopefully they will hold more all night screenings it the future.

[keirarts]

The slayer is one of those ones you will hate or love. Its got a languid pace to it and is more atmosphere than a murder every 10 minutes. I love it as the central idea of the killer is great, its got a great atmosphere and the payoff is decent. Due to the nature of the film watching it at 5:30am is not ideal as it would be easy to drop off.

[Susan Foreman]

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage | Film at The Digital Fix

Film - 7 out of 10
Video - 8 out of 10
Audio - 6 out of 10
Extras - 7 out of 10

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage | Film at The Digital Fix

Film - 7 out of 10
Video - 8 out of 10
Audio - 6 out of 10
Extras - 7 out of 10

I'm almost certain digitial fix decide the scores through a raffle.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by keirarts

I'm almost certain digitial fix decide the scores through a raffle.

You'd expect better audio than 6/10 for something that costs over 20 notes.

[Rik]

Bugger all wrong with the audio on it, and that's coming from someone who's a fully qualified audio engineer who knows a hell of a lot about sound

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Rik

Bugger all wrong with the audio on it, and that's coming from someone who's a fully qualified audio engineer who knows a hell of a lot about sound

My thoughts as well. I genuinely think the sites points scoring feels somewhat arbitrary

[Rik]

Thing you've got to bear in mind with these films is that the quality of audio equipment available in 1970's Italy wasn't anywhere near as good as what they used in Hollywood and in some cases UK studios like Pinewood etc, so the audio is never going to be as good on these releases, the microphones used to ADR the dialogue (basically re-recording dialogue in a studio sound booth-see Berberian Sound Studio for an authentic look at this practice) weren't particularly great and there's always going to be issues.
When they (Arrow etc) remaster the audio, they are basically running the original audio tapes through equipment that converts the analogue signal to digital, which will clean up most imperfections, but if they're on the master tapes then there's not a right lot that can be done, even with how good audio software is these days. It's like I used to say in the studio if I had to fix a poorly recorded song: "You can't polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter".

Sorry for getting all technical, but it winds me up when people find faults when there isn't any, same goes for the Screencap Police

[davcol]

Oh dear those scores are not the best and the price was on the high end too. Ill stick with my Vampix tape thankyou.

[Rik]

Originally Posted by davcol

Oh dear those scores are not the best and the price was on the high end too. Ill stick with my Vampix tape thankyou.

That review is a load of bollocks, like most reviews from that site. If you flick back a few pages you'll find a couple that I posted
Plus, members here that have the set are giving it enough praise to warrant a purchase, I know I trust our reviewers more than those that are paid to do it