The drop in quality wouldn't bother me at all. It's better than watching the butchered R rated version. And this movie REALLY was butchered by the MPAA... The Silent Night Deadly Night DVDs and Blu added the cut footage back in and even though it looks like shit, I wouldn't watch it any other way.
What makes the SNDN footage watchable is that the volume is on even grounds with the rest of the film. I think that the SNDN gore looks better than, say, the MBV gore, because of the sound. Look at Patti's kill and tell me that the cut version isn't more effective. Yes, I'd like SC3 to be uncut. It'd make an insufferable sequel more tolerable.
I just asked Scream Factory about seemlessly branching the deleted footage and their response was: I'm not the smartest guy in the world when it comes to shit like this, but is that true?
I've gotten this exact response before, I think it was from another label but it might have been Shout Factory. I'm sure there are players that have problems with it but seeing as how some labels (Lionsgate, for example) use seamless branching and fake playlists as part of copy protection I'd guess that it is not much of an issue these days. I know I haven't had any issues with these discs or any others that use seamless branching for different versions of the same movie.
Yeah, I never have had any problems at all with seamless branching on any DVD/BD player, over the years. We never had any problems with those discs, when I worked at the videostore either. Sure, there MIGHT be some obscure and crappy chinese brand player, that can´t handle them. But, come one. Scream is just using lame excuses now.
I remember on New Line's Blade: Trinity DVD watching the Unrated version and there being a layer-change every time one of the added scenes kicked in. But I haven't watched that since back when it was released, so it was probably just an old DVD player. Seems like most companies just do two separate encodes on the disc instead of seamless branching anymore. My Bloody Valentine, Bound, the Friday The 13th remake, to name a few. I'd imagine this would be what Scream does if they are able to do so, ala Vault Of Horror and Lifeforce.
I can't recall ever having issues with a seamless branching disc either. Layer changes though... I have had problems with on older players, but it seems that newer DVD/BD players (brand name models at least) rarely if ever have that problem these days.
Haven't had any problems with layer change or seamless branching for years.....could this just be a case of "don't want to do it"?
I think the players have more memory to buffer the data, or something like that, to wipe out those pauses. I think the last DVD player I had, that still paused for a second during the layer change, was about 12 years ago. Never had any HD-DVD or BD´s pause either, even on the first generation players.
There is some truth to it but it could also be to avoid fuckups like the problem with AvP RECQUIM. One of the Unrated scenes doesn't "branch" correctly. I'd rather Shout save their money and not bother with adding crappy VHS quality scenes into an HD presentation. Genre fans are such a pain in the ass. I wouldn't be surprised to find that Bill Olsen is really Cliff Mac and that he uses Code Red to work his aggressions out on picky genre fans.
I don't think fans would mind a drop in quality one bit during gore scenes. And honestly, who's gonna buy these except die-hard fans?
I'm a die-hard fan of both sequels. I created my own uncut version of part 3 using the deleted scenes. And, while the quality isn't perfect, it's a lot better than some. You basically have the good quality DVD, a slight pause then the uncut scene and back to the theatrial print. This is the only way I'll watch Teenage Wasteland.
I always thought to myself damn these sequels sucked! After all this talk of missing gore I am very intrigued.
So apparently Scream Factory was unable to insert the VHS quality, uncut footage back into the movie for the release of Sleepaway Camp III due to legal reasons, but it looks like they were able to include a full copy of the uncut version in VHS quality. In lieu of the ability to branch the footage into the new transfer I'd say this isn't a bad trade off since we still have the option to watch the movie uncut in some form, especially since I figured that the footage would just be included as a standalone extra anyway. Just pre-ordered it along with part II and can't wait to receive both!
Just got the email for shipment from Shout Factory and when I went to track it, I found that it will be delivered today. They sent them 2-day priority mail. Nice!
I watched the Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers blu-ray last night. I had re-watched my blu-ray of the first Sleepaway Camp the night before in anticipation, and I'm still blown away by how great it looks. A staggering upgrade over the old Anchor Bay DVD. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about Unhappy Campers. It looks perfectly fine, and I'm sure it's an improvement over the Anchor Bay DVD, but to be honest I didn't notice a huge improvement, certainly not as significant as the first film. Supposedly the original materials are lost, and this is the same HD transfer used for NetFlix (I had never watched the film on NetFlix), so this is probably the best it's going to get. There's nothing wrong with it, and the transfer is more than watchable, but don't expect to be blown away by the PQ. Loved the extras, which alone are worth the upgrade, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't left wanting more. No fault of Scream Factory though, I'm sure they did what they could. Pamela Springsteen declined to be interviewed, and I'm sure Renee Estevez isn't interested (she didn't contribute to Synapse's Intruder blu-ray either). And if anyone is wondering what became of Tony Higgins, here you go. The only actor interviewed here is Amy Fields, who played one of the "Shit Sisters". Still, the "Tale Of Two Sequels" doc is extremely well done. I'm looking forward to cracking into the second part included on the blu-ray for Teenage Wasteland. Lots of behind-the-scenes people, including Director Michael Simpson, DP Bill Mills, Bill "Splat" Johnson, etc. Had to laugh at Simpson's lighthearted remarks about the baseball game in the original film. They do a really great job of painting a picture of how the movie came to be, and what it was like on the set. None of them have any pretensions about the film, all having approached it as just a hilariously fun splatter film, and have nothing but fond memories about the shoot. I really enjoyed this retrospective, but at just shy of 30 minutes, it left me wanting more. I'm a bit of a filming location junkie, and had even done a blog post about the filming locations a few years back, so of course I loved the 15 minute filming locations featurette included. No Sean Clark or Horror's Hallowed Grounds here, this one is with YouTuber Adam The Woo. You can see a slightly longer version of it on his YouTube Channel, but the version on the blu-ray is in HD. I knew the place was long abandoned and overgrown, but I'm surprised by how much is still there. The only other new extra is a brief fan film speculating the fate of Renee Estevez's Molly character, running just under a minute. Totally harmless little extra. There's also the standard Scream Factory photo gallery. The "Behind The Scenes Footage" has been carried over from the Anchor Bay DVD, as well as the trailer and commentary. Also, be sure to stick around after the end credits. After Angela's brief "Goodnight campers" clip, Scream Factory has reinstated the brief text teaser for Sleepaway Camp III, which I believe is how it was on the original VHS, but was missing from the Anchor Bay DVD. Not a big deal, but still a nice inclusion. It also plays after the Sleepaway Camp 2 trailer.
