Satan's Blade

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domino harvey
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Satan's Blade

#1 Post by domino harvey » Fri Apr 08, 2016 11:13 am

Image

AN UNHOLY TALISMAN OF MURDER AND MADNESS

One of the lesser known entries in the annals of the ’80s slasher film, Satan’s Blade is an eerie slice of US regional terror ripe for rediscovery by horror fans.

Arriving at a snow-capped mountain resort, a group of youngsters are met by the news that a double-murder has taken place there the previous night. Despite this grisly revelation, they decide to stay on, unaware of the knife-wielding figure stalking the wintry landscape... Could the local legend of an ungodly mountain man with a grudge against outsiders have some truth in it?

Shot in Big Bear, California in 1980 but not released until 1984, L. Scott Castillo, Jr.’s Satan’s Blade overcomes the limitations of its shoestring budget with a game cast and all-pervasive, creepy atmosphere - key to which is a freakish nightmare sequence that’s sure to inspire more than a few sleepless nights.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

Brand new 2K restoration of the film presented in both 4:3 (1.37:1) and 1.85:1 versions
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
Original Mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Brand new audio commentary by podcast The Hysteria Continues
Interview with writer-director L. Scott Castillo, Jr.
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Ryan Tobin
Fully-illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Brian Albright, author of Regional Horror Films, 1958-1990


DETAILS:
RRP: £19.99 £15.99
Rating: 18
Region: Free
Duration: 83 mins
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1 / 1.85:1
Audio: Mono
Colour
Discs: 2
Cat Number: FCD1336

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domino harvey
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Re: Satan's Blade

#2 Post by domino harvey » Fri Apr 08, 2016 11:16 am

My write up from the Horror List Project
I can’t in good conscience recommend this movie, but when you’ve seen as many slashers as I have, you really learn to appreciate one as scrappily charming as this cheapo mess. Shot in what appears to be someone’s apartment masquerading as a mountaintop resort (and redecorated for each “new” interior cabin), with great details like how no one ever opens the front door more than just enough for each character to slide in without the camera seeing what’s outside the door (presumably an apartment complex’s parking lot). The movie is fatalistic and didn’t get the memo about not killing the likable young woman who bravely makes it to the end, but I liked that it didn’t even follow the rules. The acting is atrocious/amazing, depending on where you stand on these kind of things. Look, if you already hate slashers, this won’t change your mind, but I kinda loved this, and I definitely got a perverse kick out of how this somehow merited an affordable yet deluxe Blu-ray release via Olive.
(And now Arrow!)

EDIT: I think for once Olive's extras far outpace what Arrow's cooked up here

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Satan's Blade

#3 Post by EddieLarkin » Fri Apr 08, 2016 12:07 pm

domino harvey wrote:I think for once Olive's extras far outpace what Arrow's cooked up here
Maybe, but I think a proper presentation of the film trumps that. And that's not me saying that a widescreen presentation is obviously the correct one (even though it obviously is), but that even if you feel 1.37:1 is preferable, that's still not a version you can get on the Olive/Slasher Video release. For some reason they just presented the film with no matting at all bar the soundtrack area, leaving the film at 1.19:1. Naturally, booms and frame edges appear frequently. When this was pointed out at Blu-ray.com Slasher Video insisted that the AR on the disc was 1.35:1, but they never came back once screencaps were posted proving otherwise.

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tenia
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Re: Satan's Blade

#4 Post by tenia » Fri Apr 08, 2016 12:13 pm

domino harvey wrote:EDIT: I think for once Olive's extras far outpace what Arrow's cooked up here
Looking at the US backcover, there doesn't seem to be much more substantial extras than on the Arrow.

It states a new 2K transfer (but only for the 1.37 format, and even so it's 1.19 without mattes, as Eddie pointed), a Director's Narrative with Castillo Jr & Teran, a director's interview (which might actually be what Arrow will be offering), a Scrapbook, and then photo gallery, trailers, and a Dutch and a Japanese "Home Video Scene" (basically, extracts of the movie but dubbed in Dutch or in Japanese).

If Arrow gets the 32 min interview with Castillo, basically, we won't miss a lot of things and get a most likely improved (and more complete anyway) presentation of the movie. So the US release doesn't seem especially outpacing Arrow here, though certainly, this won't be the most loaded Arrow release.

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TraverseTown
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Re: Satan's Blade

#5 Post by TraverseTown » Fri Apr 08, 2016 1:04 pm

I own the Olive/Slasher US Release of this.

First of all, it has no English subtitles, so this already looks like it could be a superior release for that reason alone.

As had been stated, the aspect ratio problems are as bad as has already been mentioned in this thread. Boom mics and excessive headroom all around, and I've never watched a film presentation with such a strange image shape (closest would be the aspect ratio gimmick in Dolan's Mommy, but thankful that was intentional and artful)

The two interviews are unedited, sit-down interviews (in SD quality) with the director and they're both excruciatingly long. The one with Jesus Teran is OK, he asks some decent questions, but it gets weirder when the director keeps insisting that he only made films for the money and to him they are NOT an artform. The other feature has the director sitting in a room with a woman who barely speaks as the director slowly shows the audience some memorabilia like movie posters and VHS cases and props. It's probably the most bizarre supplement I've ever seen as the director keeps trying to talk to the camera man and make him zoom in on things, but the camera man refuses to talk, so he only nods or shakes his head and then the director, who apparently has vision problems, talks to the lady in the background and asks "Did he say yes?"

The only other notable features are photo galleries, one with unremarkable photo stills from the shoot, and the other with images of Satan's Blade memorabilia that look ripped straight from Google Images.

That said, Arrow looks like the superior package BY FAR, assuming that's a new interview on the listing. This is a ultra-low-budget film with long silences and idiosyncrasies that make it a good candidate for an audio commentary, so I'm excited to see that as well. This is Region Free, correct? I'll consider importing this one, but never in my life did I expect to consider double dipping on Blu-rays of Satan's Blade.

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tenia
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Re: Satan's Blade

#6 Post by tenia » Fri Apr 08, 2016 1:15 pm

TraverseTown wrote:This is Region Free, correct?
Is there any rightholding reason for the Arrow release to be Region Free ? The Olive / Slasher Video release was Region A and released merely 1 year ago (May 15), so I'm surprised it's not announced as Region B locked, especially since it's a UK only release.

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swo17
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Re: Satan's Blade

#7 Post by swo17 » Fri Apr 08, 2016 1:20 pm

Their site says it's region-free, but so did the Rivette set initially.

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tenia
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Re: Satan's Blade

#8 Post by tenia » Tue Jun 28, 2016 3:18 pm

I just sat through that one, and oh my god it was freaking awful. It feels at times like an extremely cheap homage to a Twin Peaks episode gone weird, with so many cheap stuff I'm quite sure I've seen student movies looking more expensive than this. All the filmmaking clichés are here (to the point there's no suspense whatsoever), from the "let's hide who this is even if it means humpteen shots of walking people's feet", the stupid expository shot ("he can do anything if it means eating early !" - what a characterization), cheap cheap cheap shots (I loved the fight sequence at the 70th minute, which is basically 2 guys fighting over a crowbar for 3 minutes, no punch, no kick, nothing so cue to the roof ! cue to the feet ! cue to the shadows ! cue to the roof again !) (and all the knife shots are ridiculous in the way they're framed as to avoid showing the knife isn't hitting anything at all because it was cheaper that way) and a tepid pace where despite being only 82 min long, nothing happens during 55 min or so.

Oh, and don't forget the excruciating acting, with a specific mention for all the ladies' death which reminded me this Turkish movie where the guy dies during almost a full minute.

But what got me most is the totally out-of-the-subject soundtrack, which never feels adequate at all, especially during the first 15 min. It seems to have been composed for another movie.

The visual aspect of the movie certainly doesn't help : aside from scratches and dirt, the color timing is rather washed out, so it feels even more like a cheap made-for-TV movie.

I'm now going through the "Director showing memorabilia" extra feature, and it's hilariously bad too, so I guess it fits the movie adequately.


EDIT : I realised that the Region question above was left unanswered : the disc is actually Region B locked.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Satan's Blade

#9 Post by EddieLarkin » Tue Jun 28, 2016 3:57 pm

Can you confirm the open matte version is in fact 1.37:1 rather than 1.19:1 like the US disc is?

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tenia
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Re: Satan's Blade

#10 Post by tenia » Tue Jun 28, 2016 5:09 pm

It's actually 1.333.

I watched the movie in 1.85 (and honestly won't bother watching it again in Full Frame :lol: ) but fast forwarded through the first 30 minutes of the 1.33 version and didn't see any microphone boom (might have missed them, though).

In terms of extra features, the disc has an audio com' by The Hysteria Continues, the 16 min interview of Castillo but also includes the hilariously shot 32 min Memorabilia video with Castillo and the weird lady in the back which at times seems dead (or close to it). I genuinely felt bad for the director : he's showing memorabilia he's obviously proud of and which certainly reminds him some good old memories, and it's awfully done because of the weird useless lady and the cameraman who can't get anything in focus or in a shot wide enough. Castillo asks him several times if he manages to get this or that (a VHS cover, a magazine, a poster, a prop knife) and the guy never answers. And because of course this is all unedited, it lasts 32 min because there are just so many akward silences between them 3. It's astounding. I thought to myself "gosh, Arrow should have gone back to him and asked Castillo to just redo this properly". I hope the cameraman was fired because this certainly doesn't look professional at all.

The Full Frame version is listed in the extra features. There is no specific details in the booklet about the elements used for the restoration except that "The film was graded and restored by the filmmaker L. Scott Castillo, Jr. using the best quality original picture and audio elements available."

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