I have the Vipco DVD of this (go on, say I told you so...) and recently saw the Dutch Video For Pleasure VHS which has a shot of the hotel for a couple of seconds prior to the "Pennsylvania 1927" opening title. The chain whipping/crucifixion scene also looked much more vivid colours, the Vipco disc looks quite wishy-washy in comparison, just on this scene. Does anyone have a rip of this that they can vouch for whether it's the Vipco version or the full uncut version?

VIPCO hardly ever release uncut stuff. They submit it to the censors precut and then claim its uncut... I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same deal.

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=2163

According to that its also panscan

I've a feeling Vipco released 2 versions of this disc, one 4:3 and one widescreen, mine is the widescreen version, looks about 2.25:1 so maybe slightly cropped.

Btw the gore all looks intact I guess you're aware the pre-cert was cut to ribbons, the same version Elephant released on VHS in the late 80's/early 90's with an 18 certificate.

urggh... I hope you got it cheap

Seriously though, if your a fan of the movie, I'd look into getting the R1 release. VIPCO don't seem to care much for doing proper transfers, they just buy up the rights to video nasties and do a straight Telecine from VHS a lot of the time.

Your quite right about them doing 2, looking at the bbfc:


Looking at the date it will be a VHS release, but they aren't entered twice, so they've used the same print for DVD release.

However another company has put out one thats longer by quite a bit:


So i have a sneaky suspicion they've submitted it pre-censored / edited

I guess its another warning, never to buy VIPCO dvds... I've only got one myself, I normally make a habit of avoiding.

No, it was about 15 quid, it's the original DVD not the ?5.99 reissue

Protected is Vipco. Vipco released the old X-rated (previously banned) version in 1992 on VHS then the "full uncut version" on DVD in 2001.

how's the print btw, is it a piss poor transfer as usual?

Surprisingly decent, other than the opening scene looking a bit washed out. If I remember correctly this one doesn't look like a VHS transfer, unlike the Burning, the Slayer etc.

that's good news I guess, I have a few rips of the beyond.

Pick a screenshot and the approx time frame it was taken and I'll post a comparison.

Certainly


At 03:40, the blood looked a much more vivid red in the Dutch VHS


08:57, I don't have the VHS to make a comparison, the previous shot was something my mate pointed out to me, he said the rest of the film looked better, but the colours still don't look right to me.

That's the way its supposed to look. The R1 disc feaatures the untinted scene as a extra, but its from the German version. Because of the flashback nature, the scene was intended to be chroma-tinted.

yeah it was tinted that colour on the two rips. I can dig it out to double check if you want... I can remember first time I saw it, I thought the colour on my overlay was bust

Fair do's, guess it's the Dutch VHS that's wrong then! Thx for your help

probably an overzealous editor

Well, like I say, the German print used the full colour segment. I guess, some countries just wanted it that way. Liek dubbing versus subbing, maybe.

na, its like with dawn of the dead... companies that get hold of the print care nothing about the "art" of film making and cut it how they want ($$$ related). It's understandable to do it in colour, because you see the gore and some nasty cheap company can pimp it out as 'uncensored' and 'extended'

Or at least throw it on the second DVD as a deleted scene and sell it to the same people twice.