The 88 Films Thread

[fuzzymctiger]

Originally Posted by JAMIOUSE

So what does Anthro and Holocaust look like? I'm away from home for a few days so I won't get chance to check mine out.

User comments from blu-ray.com, the first being all from one person, the second being all from another

Anthropophagus

"First word that comes to mind when I see the picture quality at first glance is smooth (As in LVR labs DNR). The English and Italian tracks sound solid I wouldn't say they are great."
"... a very problematic transfer. Not much detail, barely any grain and there seems to be a light cover of noise over the image. Colours also fluctuate to a green colour regularly."
"... the only grain I saw was in some interior scenes. The transfer as a whole reminds me of some of Arrow Video's early Italian releases.

Zombi Holocaust

"If you like grain you'll love this!"
"To be honest I'm a little disappointed with Zombi Holocaust. Remember that first screen shot with the zombie in front of the trees? It doesn't look like that. Now remember the grab showing outside the hospital? That is pretty much exactly what it looks like to me."
"Well, it basically shows what is there. Warts & all. There are instances of print damage / scratches as well. I know it wasn't a complete remaster, just a new scan."

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by fuzzymctiger

User comments from blu-ray.com, the first being all from one person, the second being all from another

Anthropophagus

"First word that comes to mind when I see the picture quality at first glance is smooth (As in LVR labs DNR). The English and Italian tracks sound solid I wouldn't say they are great."
"... a very problematic transfer. Not much detail, barely any grain and there seems to be a light cover of noise over the image. Colours also fluctuate to a green colour regularly."
"... the only grain I saw was in some interior scenes. The transfer as a whole reminds me of some of Arrow Video's early Italian releases.

Zombi Holocaust

"If you like grain you'll love this!"
"To be honest I'm a little disappointed with Zombi Holocaust. Remember that first screen shot with the zombie in front of the trees? It doesn't look like that. Now remember the grab showing outside the hospital? That is pretty much exactly what it looks like to me."
"Well, it basically shows what is there. Warts & all. There are instances of print damage / scratches as well. I know it wasn't a complete remaster, just a new scan."

Would agree.

However, Anthro still looks better than the DVD release. Also I would add the same defence that I did with Arrow. Blame the italians. 88's budget stretches only so far and it would be nice if the Italian labs could treat these films with a little respect.
Zombie Holocaust is an excellent job considering some of the horror stories i've heard about the original materials

I'm happy with both, watched thr 42nd street doc after getting home from the new (mediocre) Terminator film and thoughoughly enjoyed it. Will be interested to see if another company tries to one up and splashes the cash to do a scan of Anthro themselves..

[keirarts]

Also wondering when Pooch JD will start calling for them to go out of business?

[Antropophagus]

Originally Posted by keirarts

Would agree.

However, Anthro still looks better than the DVD release. Also I would add the same defence that I did with Arrow. Blame the italians. 88's budget stretches only so far and it would be nice if the Italian labs could treat these films with a little respect.
Zombie Holocaust is an excellent job considering some of the horror stories i've heard about the original materials

I'm happy with both, watched thr 42nd street doc after getting home from the new (mediocre) Terminator film and thoughoughly enjoyed it. Will be interested to see if another company tries to one up and splashes the cash to do a scan of Anthro themselves..

My only problem with this release is the very high price. I'll pay £7.49 for Zombie Holocaust after removing the VAT. Considering the quality of Anthro its price is not acceptable. But I am the one to blame for not cancelling my pre-order when I had the time. Lesson learnt well. No pre-orders from them ever again.

[Andra Jai]

Originally Posted by Antropophagus

My only problem with this release is the very high price. I'll pay £7.49 for Zombie Holocaust after removing the VAT. Considering the quality of Anthro its price is not acceptable. But I am the one to blame for not cancelling my pre-order when I had the time. Lesson learnt well. No pre-orders from them ever again.

I was exactly the same with this release and in fact I cancelled my first pre-order but then talked myself into re-ordering the title.

Having watched it some parts of the transfer looked okay to me especially when in the darknend catacombs but overall certainly not a transfer to write home about.

In addition to this the complete lack of any extras relating to the film is also a major bummer (although the documentary is very good its has nothing to do with the film itself) and this release is badly lacking interviews and/or a documentary about its status as a nasty or even a written booklet may have helped.

Not to sound ungrateful but to me £22 for this one does seem a lot when compared to other releases of this type (although in saying that I one paid nearly 3 figures for the original video tape, however times have certainly changed since those days)


As for zombie holocaust I've not seen it yet but for £8.99 I'm not going to complain either way

[keirarts]

I think its going to depend on how expensive the titles was to acquire. Part of me wonders if its best that companies left the Italian titles alone given the expense in releasing them. Leave them to the German hardbox crowd and focus on American product.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

I'm perfectly happy with the way the film looks. I'm sure it could look much better, but it could also look a great deal worse (and has done). I didn't think it would be comparable to Ex Machina, Whiplash, Birdman etc, simply because of the source material, so for it to have so much detail and such clear sound easily meets my standards for a release like this.

With the BD also containing 42nd Street Memories, a documentary which could, like Slice and Dice, been released separately on DVD, the lack of any dedicated extra features is more than offset.

If Zombi Holocaust is in any way similar, with the release containing the Eaten Alive documentary as well, they will have different reasons to find their way into my PlayStation on a semi-regular basis. As such, I'm going to watch Anthropophagous again either tonight or tomorrow with the Italian track to give it an appraisal and see if my opinion of the visuals changes at all.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Even the Shriek Show 2 disc set only had archive public appearances and an alternative opening on it. The bulk of the second disc was a doc about D'Amato.

Perhaps nobody was interested in doing a chat track at all.

88 putting the feature length 42nd Street doc was a great idea and although i haven't seen it, it's probably better than Anthro itself - a film, if we are being honest is a bit overrated* due to it's status in the 80's.

*Overrated as in dull.

[DayzeUK]

Just to be clear 88 Anthro has 42nd Street Doc, alternate opening, 3 alternate trailers, also plays a forced trailer for Zombi Holocaust when loading up.

[bdc]

To be honest I've never seen Anthro look good, possibly the original film stock / equipment used are to blame?