Seems like this is always the case. As a collector, this is a tough call. But the film enthusiast in me says PQ trumps all.

Agreed. I'll take a barebones film that looks great over a crap transfer that has a ton of extras.

If only Arrow would get it together.

amazon has lowered their pre-order price for THE NESTING to $15.99 - and with that i place my order.

I guess I'm in too, though maybe I'll wait a few days and see if it pops up in my Gold Box. I just can't resist hi-def horror, even the drab and low-rent kind offered up by The Nesting. Amazon has really been coming through on the discounted BU pre-orders.

Thanks, I pre-ordered The Nesting.... I keep going to the Torso page daily on amazon, hopefully this is a sign that Torso will be lowered soon.

DVD Beaver on Deep Red

Just placed a pre-order last night. Nice to see that BU's continuing their streak of excellence...

And Cat O' Nine Tails is apparently another winner. From the Mondo Digital review:

I love their reviews, but going from black background with white print to DVD Talk's white background and black print is killing my eyes.

So far it looks like BU is on a roll.

Sigh. That just makes me more depressed that we aren't going to get a Region A release of Suspiria any time soon...

Plus the Region B disc apparently has major contrast boosting. I may end up buying it anyway, as it also includes a Kim Newman commentary, if it ever drops below ten pounds.

I can confirm firsthand. I don't mean this as a nitpicky reviewer trying to find something to gripe about: the contrast is cranked so absurdly high that Suspiria is genuinely unpleasant to watch. It's a definite shame because there's such an improvement in detail and clarity -- when they're not blown out to holy hell, at least -- but the bad so much more than outweighs the good.

I've read that it's possibly due to a botched colorspace conversion, and that all of the European BDs are culled from the same faulty master. If someone were to take the digital restoration and strike a new master with the proper conversion, the theory is that it'd look correct. DP Luciano Tovoli was part of the restoration work but is right there with everyone else complaining about how overcooked the home video releases have been.

The House by the Cemetary on 9/27, according to DVDAf.

That would make sense. It was talked about for this year and it is right on time with the release schedule currently lined up.

Adam,

If it is botched colorspace conversion, you may be able to fix it somewhat by changing the input from your BD player and/or the color space settings on your tv to RGB 0-255.

Are you able to see if this works because although it is not the best solution, if it makes the Region B disc watchable, I'll take it.

also, I'm late to BU releases, why has Crystal Plumage gone OOP and is it likely to be back in print anytime soon?

Not sure on either of those but these guys still have it in stock. Worth every penny. http://www.diabolikdvd.com/category/...n-Free%29.html

To recap, this is what's on tap for the second half of 2011:

Torso - 7/26
The 10th Victim - 8/30
The House by the Cemetery - 9/27
Zombie - "Around Halloween"

The two Larry Cohens are coming in 2012, so that likely leaves two more titles for 2011. Hopefully we'll get a couple of English-language films, either horror or exploitation.

GRAND SLAM or FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE would be nice...

Don't films like this usually go OOP when rights are lost?

I'm excited about House By The Cemetery, since I never bought it on DVD.

Yea that is the only reason I could come up with but I don't have a clue who the rights revert back to.

I only have House on a crappy Diamond dvd release. Excited to get a good copy.

Well I'm Region A locked anyway (PS3), so I wouldn't be able to benefit from that release anyway, but even if that wasn't an issue for me, the fact that they did botch the release (as you said, from the screencaps I've seen, the contrast is AWFUL) is enough for me to stick with my Anchor Bay Limited Edition DVD and hope that whoever has the Blu-Ray rights now (I think it's still the Weinsteins, but I'm not 100% sure now) will eventually put out a quality release.

BU's license to the rights expired and they were unable to reacquire them. It's a shame, since their release looks quite good.

Arrow Films is releasing their own release, and according to their site, it is Region Free (not to mention the extras appear to be in 1080p, meaning it should fully play on Region A players). However, there are a few problems with the release. Vittorio Storaro was the DP on this film, and for those of you that don't know, he's the one that was responsible for the retroactive cropping of Apocalypse Now (on DVD) and The Last Emperor (on DVD AND Blu-Ray) to the 2:1 "Univisium" ratio he invented. BU's release featured the film in it's original 2.35:1 ratio, but Storaro got to crop the film for Arrow's release.

I own the BU release, and I'm happy with it. If what I've read about Arrow's release is right, I MAY try to import it for the extras, and stick with the BU release to actually watch the damn movie. I wouldn't recommend the Arrow release on it's own merits, though, solely for Storaro's bullshit. I was hoping that with Lionsgate putting out Apocalypse Now in it's original ratio, that perhaps he had lightened up, and it would open the doors for other films he was DP on (such as The Last Emperor) to be rereleased in the OAR. But alas, that seems not to be the case.

I'm not as big of a Fulci fan as I am of other Italian directors, but I'm willing to give this one a shot.

I think he's abominable, but his films are somewhat entertaining in that "this is so awful that it's strangely involving" way. Netflix seems to have most of the BU Blu-rays in HD streaming, so if I ever feel the urge to watch atrocious acting and absurd gore, which in fact I might, then that will be my route to Fulci. As I said, I really hope we can get a couple of American films to top off the year. I enjoy all of the Giallo stuff, but their 2011 slate has been a bit oversaturated with it, at least for me. I'm sure this has been a banner year for Argento/Giallo fans though.

Best 6 months of my movie buying life

I finally got around to watching the interviews on Inferno, and I must say that I was quite wowed by Leigh McCloskey's crazily psychedelic, 3-D (!) living room, which itself wouldn't have been out of place in an Argento movie. Rewatching the film, I was impressed once again by the transfer - the colors truly look amazing, even if the plot was just as bewildering the second time around. Deep Red arrived this morning, so I'll probably give it a spin tonight.