Go Back  DVD Talk Forum > DVD Discussions > DVD Talk
Reload this Page >

Race With The Devil - digital tampering?

DVD Talk Talk about DVDs and Movies on DVD including Covers and Cases

Race With The Devil - digital tampering?

Old 06-18-05, 07:22 AM
  #1  
JM1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: London UK
Posts: 331
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Race With The Devil - digital tampering?

Picked this up yesterday (early UK import).

I had a quick look at the first few minutes, and the the sacrificing scene it looks to me like there has been some digital tampering.

When the two girls are about to be sacrificed and are standing in front of the fire. it looks as though their bodies have been digitally osbcured, in an attempt to make it look like it is the flames that are actually obscuring them.

I am sure you originally saw them full frontal. Don't get me wrong, I am not bemoaning the lack of a cheap thrill here, but it's just the very idea of this sort of revisionist tampering that annoys me, and I am sure others feel the same.

Now I am sure that the reasons behind this are because the girls look very young, and in these days of heightened awareness of child pornograpy, paedophilia etc it is considered politically incorrect to show "under-age" girls taking part in an orgiastic death ritual.

But I say this is insulting the intelligence of the audience - we are not fools, we know darn well these girls are not under age because they are actresses. In the same way that any violence depicted on screen is not real, an intelligent audience knows this.

So yet again we are insulted and treated like children - with a lot of older movies of this type being released over the next few months, god knows what else they may have tampered with.
Old 06-18-05, 06:58 PM
  #2  
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 8,981
Likes: 0
Received 244 Likes on 174 Posts
In the US version of the film the girls are topless. Hopefully it's just a UK ratings thing and the US release by Anchor Bay won't be jacked with.
Old 06-18-05, 07:22 PM
  #3  
DVD Talk Limited Edition
 
Join Date: Oct 1999
Posts: 6,459
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Still waiting for the US release...topless would be fine...
Old 06-19-05, 02:45 AM
  #4  
JM1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: London UK
Posts: 331
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Sorry guys, but this is the region 1 edition I am referring to.
Old 06-19-05, 03:42 PM
  #5  
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
 
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 4,688
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 2 Posts
I can't say for certain since I have never seen the begining of the film yet. But since the girls in The Cheerleaders could be mistaken for 'under age'(and one plays a 17 year old if I remember correctly) and are showin in all there glory throughout the film. I doubt it was 'censored' because of that issue. Maybe if it just how the scene is supposed to look,which past transfers had not done properly?

Could you please post some screengrabs so we can know for sure? If anyone has the FMC showing caps,along with old VHS releases. We could know for sure. But I doubt AB themselves would 'censor' their product.
Old 06-19-05, 05:52 PM
  #6  
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 8,981
Likes: 0
Received 244 Likes on 174 Posts
I stuck in my Fox prerecorded vhs from the 90s, which is the same as the Key Video vhs with a new box. The sacrifice scene has two girls, one is to be sacrificed, the other is standing behind her nude and you can clearly see her breasts. She removes the robe from the sacrifice and you can see her breasts as well. Then it does look like they blurred the image around the tits but you can still see nipple, just blurry. When the sacrifice is lifted and lowered horizontally into the fire, her mid-section looks blurred. My guess it's always been this way.
Old 06-19-05, 06:01 PM
  #7  
DVD Talk Limited Edition
 
Join Date: Oct 1999
Posts: 6,459
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Originally Posted by rw2516
I stuck in my Fox prerecorded vhs from the 90s, which is the same as the Key Video vhs with a new box. The sacrifice scene has two girls, one is to be sacrificed, the other is standing behind her nude and you can clearly see her breasts. She removes the robe from the sacrifice and you can see her breasts as well. Then it does look like they blurred the image around the tits but you can still see nipple, just blurry. When the sacrifice is lifted and lowered horizontally into the fire, her mid-section looks blurred. My guess it's always been this way.
Fire (heat, smoke) will tend to blurr an image. I think from what you described it is the way it always was.
Old 06-19-05, 08:56 PM
  #8  
DVD Talk Legend
 
andicus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 12,784
Received 1,014 Likes on 721 Posts
Crap. I've been looking forward to this for quite a while. I hope it has not been tampered with!
Old 06-19-05, 11:24 PM
  #9  
JM1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: London UK
Posts: 331
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Unfortunately I don't have the facility to do screen grabs, and I don't have any other version to compare it to. I guess I will have to wait till one of you guys picks up the new version and is able to do a comparison.
Old 06-29-05, 03:44 PM
  #10  
DVD Talk Legend
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Docking Bay 94
Posts: 14,259
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 2 Posts
I just watched this last night. Now, keep in mind that I haven't seen the film in probably 20 years... and I don't have another version to compare it to.

That being said, there appears to be a definite digitial blur on the chest of the sacrificed girl when they remove her robe, and also on her midsection as they raise her above the fire. I don't remember this ever being there before...
Old 06-29-05, 04:35 PM
  #11  
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 8,981
Likes: 0
Received 244 Likes on 174 Posts
Originally Posted by bboisvert
I just watched this last night. Now, keep in mind that I haven't seen the film in probably 20 years... and I don't have another version to compare it to.

That being said, there appears to be a definite digitial blur on the chest of the sacrificed girl when they remove her robe, and also on her midsection as they raise her above the fire. I don't remember this ever being there before...
Everybody relax, it's always been this way. The blurring was done in order to get a PG rating when the film was released in 1975.
Old 06-29-05, 04:51 PM
  #12  
DVD Talk Legend
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Lower Beaver, Iowa
Posts: 10,521
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Originally Posted by rw2516
Everybody relax, it's always been this way. The blurring was done in order to get a PG rating when the film was released in 1975.
What is the source of your information?
Old 06-29-05, 05:18 PM
  #13  
DVD Talk Legend
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Docking Bay 94
Posts: 14,259
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 2 Posts
... and, slightly off-topic, but I'd just like to add that this has to be one of the worst covers I've seen in a long time. (Odd, because Anchor Bay is usually pretty good about packaging, etc.)

The front looks like a 10-year-old kid did it in about 5 minutes with Photoshop. The font (and silly 'devil tail') for the title are completely inappropriate. And -- to top it off -- the back of the cover gives spoilers for the final image of the film.

Way to go, guys!


That being said, bad cover and possible blurring aside, I was really happy to see this again. It still holds up pretty well, even 30 years later.
Old 06-29-05, 05:33 PM
  #14  
DVD Talk Limited Edition
 
Join Date: Oct 1999
Posts: 6,459
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
I got mine today and it did look blurred by some means. They were pretty loose with brief nudity back then in PG rated films. Be interesting to find out the reason.
Old 06-30-05, 12:18 AM
  #15  
JM1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: London UK
Posts: 331
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
If you listen to the commentary, producer Paul Maslansky does say that he thinks the blurring was done when the film was made to secure the PG rating, but seems a little unsure - however, it does indeed look like digital blurring so how was this possible at the time of the films release?
Old 06-30-05, 12:51 AM
  #16  
DVD Talk Legend
 
andicus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 12,784
Received 1,014 Likes on 721 Posts
I saw it in theatrical release, and definitely remember some nudity... A young lad doesn't forget important things like that.

Are we talking 'slightly' blurred, or is it pretty obvious? Maybe the ratings system was more lax in Canada, so it didn't need to be blurred?

I wish mine would show up so I could see for myself...
Old 06-30-05, 01:21 AM
  #17  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Old Europe
Posts: 627
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Full review www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=16448


I don't have my disc yet
Old 06-30-05, 07:12 AM
  #18  
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 8,981
Likes: 0
Received 244 Likes on 174 Posts
Originally Posted by JM1
If you listen to the commentary, producer Paul Maslansky does say that he thinks the blurring was done when the film was made to secure the PG rating, but seems a little unsure - however, it does indeed look like digital blurring so how was this possible at the time of the films release?
I don't know when digital altering became possible but the vhs tape released 20 years ago by Fox under the Key Video Label is the same way.
Old 06-30-05, 05:31 PM
  #19  
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 96
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Optical blurring did happen in the 1970s. If you recall, the process was done to all prints of PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (to cover up whenever it said "Swan Song": the name of Led Zeppelin's record co.) and on SSSSSS to cover up some slight nudity.
Old 07-09-17, 02:42 PM
  #20  
New Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Re: Race With The Devil - digital tampering?

I'm a little late in replying to this thread, but the blurring is not digital whatsoever. It's a form of censorship called "optical fogging" that's been in use since the 1960s. Especially by the Japanese, who use it to obscure genitalia or sexual penetration.

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.