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 Kester Pelagius |
Terror Tales: Asian Horror Double Features? |
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Posts: 909 (10/30/05 15:01:38) |
Not sure if these are HK titles but this seemed to be the most appropriate forum. So has anyone heard anything about these DVDs/sighted them anywhere? The DVDs in question are: Terror Tales - Volume 1 Terror Tales - Volume 2 Terror Tales - Volume 3 There's also a "Tales of Voodoo" series that has a few interesting sounding titles, like Ghost Ninja, but the above series is the only one with Hopping Vampires. I just wonder about the print quality. Do you think these would be worth getting? |
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Latarnia |
Re: Terror Tales: Asian Horror Double Features? | ||
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Posts: 11929 (10/30/05 16:51:40) |
A great, exploitative way to market these, using cover artwork from old chintzy horror comics. My impression is that the prints won't be so hot, but we'll have to wait and see....
Mirek |
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Atomic Mystery Monster |
Re: Prints | ||
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Posts: 918 (10/31/05 10:43:18) |
I'm sure that the prints will be crappy, worn tape transfers, and will probably include the typical Video Asia problems of only playing the fight scenes and/or only working in DVD-ROM drives. It's nice to see that they've opted to switch from their usual offensive "urban" artwork and ad copy for their bootlegs, though.
I recommend tracking down these licensed, now out-of-print DVD releases from Eden Entertainment: -ROBO VAMPIRE -THUNDER NINJA KIDS: THE HUNT FOR THE DEVIL BOXER -KICKBOXER FROM HELL They'll all cost less than one of those "Tales" titles and provide all the Asian horror weirdness you could hope for. Sure, they're also VHS transfers and don't have chapter stops, but they're better than supporting scumbags who seem to think that owning a VHS of a movie gives them the right to sell copies. Besides, how can you say no to a shoddy Robocop rip-off battling an ape-faced hopping vampire, hopping vampire kids spawned by a cheesy UFO, and satanists clad in potato sacks? |
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Kester Pelagius |
Re: Prints | ||
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Posts: 909 (11/01/05 12:06:19) |
So, Atomic Mystery Monster, I assume those comments are based on past purchases/rentals of this companies product?
Too bad. I was hoping that the DVDs would contain something other than the usual shoddy VHS transfers at that price. But I had my suspicions. The cover art just screams bargain bin cheapness. Too, I see DVDEmpire has them listed for around 6 to 7 dollars pre-order. Ah well. I'll just wait to see if they ever turn up in a bargain bin or flea market somewhere. Robo Vampire I already have.  Saying it's full of "Asian horror weirdness" is an cosmic understatment. That movie is an amazingly nutty madcap opus that just has to be seen to be believed. Heck I still can't believe it! |
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Atomic Mystery Monster |
Re: Prints | ||
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Posts: 918 (11/03/05 13:45:45) |
Quote: Yep. I got Video Asia's "Martial arts 10 Pack" as a birthday gift about two years ago. Here are the problems I found: -Terrible prints -The audio track being several seconds behind the video (According to online reviews, this plagued many other early Video Asia releases) -Idiotic video generated titles (and in one case, they accidentally left in the original title after the video generated one played). -Using a bootleg of a movie with a screen bug -Major pixelation problems -One movie had a mysterious blue screen that would pop up every so often. -Subtitles being cropped out of the frame -In the case of one movie, you can see some static after the feature ends and the opening to a completely different Asian movie appear! Those, facted in with moronic ad copy seemingly designed to try to name drop as many martial arts movies as possible, made for one crappy package. I've only heard about the "Insta Action" problems and DVD-ROM issues at a ezboard called Kung Fu Fandom. Amazingly, there'd be some people who kept buying Video Asia titles and would act surprised whenever something was wrong with them. I think I channeled some memories of that into my repose to your post. Sorry about that. To be fair, even IFD's official releases tend to use cruddy prints. However, the only releases that I can recall going for over $10 were from DG Distributors. Oh, and I should note that I got a little ahead of myself by stating that Eden's releases were licensed. All I was going on was the presense of IFD promotional artwork and (on the VHS releases) previews of other IFD titles. I guess I'll have to e-mail IFD sometime to see who has the rights to those movies. Quote: Heh. Too true. Sadly, the only term that accurately sums the insanity of ROBO VAMPIRE is...um..."Robo Vampire". More IFD hopping vampire madness (which I have sadly not seen yet): DEVIL'S DYNAMITE - A ninja takes on drug dealers who use hopping vampires. COUNTER DESTROYER - This is often cited as being an alternate title for ROBO VAMPIRE, but is (apparently) a completely different movie featuring a metallic superhero and hopping vampires. VAMPIRE RAIDERS: NINJA QUEEN - Featuring "The Vampire Corporation". I'm not kidding. |
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Kester Pelagius |
Re: Prints | ||
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Posts: 909 (11/05/05 14:47:14) |
Quote: I've only experienced this problem with one DVD; Star Knight. The sound track is totally out of sync. What's worse I didn't it open it until a few months after I bought it so I couldn't return it! Quote: Worse than on Treeline DVDs? Quote: I've only encountered that with some very old VHS I've tried to make DVDR back-ups of. I made do only because the movie's not out on DVD, But that is not the sort of thing I'd expect to find on any commercial DVD product, bargain bin or no. Quote:  If that's par for the course with this label you just talked me out of purchasing any of these titles. |
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Atomic Mystery Monster |
Re:Prints | ||
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Posts: 918 (11/06/05 14:47:14) |
Quote: Oh yes. While Treeline/Mill Creek Entertainment's stuff only has small "blips" of pixelation (at least in what I've seen), the whole screen turns into a mess of pixels on many of the titles in the 10 pack. It's like someone found mastering equipment that got hit by a truck and decided that it was still good to go to make DVDs. Quote: So it's a VHS-to-DVD problem...interesting. I assumed that that it was some sort of hamhanded attempt to synch up the sound since the sound would correct itself for a few moments after the screen popped up. Quote: Well, I don't know if Video Asia/5Fortune DVD does this often, since I refuse to buy their products. I do know that Video Asia's THE MASTER WITH CRACKED FINGERS release has a part where you can see the menu screen from the Japanese DVD they swiped the transfer from. You can see a screen cap of it here. |
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Kester Pelagius |
Re: Re:Prints | ||
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Posts: 909 (11/06/05 21:35:16) |
Quote: It's hard to imagine any commercial DVD company could survive putting out product as bad as you describe. How can any company fob off transfers aren't even half as good as Treeline's worst, price them for twice as much, and not go out of buisness!?? Quote: I think it's probably evidence of a tracking issue on the VCR end. Based on what happned to me the tape I was backing up was old and had been partially eaten by an VCR in the past. So when the movie got to that section of the tape it flickered to blue screen. Not so much as a blip in the sound but, for a few seconds, nothing but blue screen. Quote: That's so sad it's almost funny. |
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Kester Pelagius |
DVD Sighting at Best Buy! | ||
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Posts: 909 (12/10/05 17:40:47) |
The Tales of Voodoo series is now at Best Buy. Or at least it was at the one near me.
Does this mean the Terror Tales series will also show up in Best Buy? I hope so. There are only a few Asian titles in Tales of Voodoo series I am interested in, and that interest is marginal at best. Too, most of the titles appear to be Jungle Sleaze or WIP type flicks. Not sure what those have to do with Voodoo. Still for a sticker price of $7.99 it might be worth taking a chance. Sadly they only had a few copies of the volume I was interested in and each one had the DVD loose in case. In fact the discs seemed to be loose in nearly all the DVDs I picked up. Not sure if that's an indication of rough handling or cheap cases. Either way I passed as I really don't want to have to deal with BBs return policy. |
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Atomic Mystery Monster |
Re: DVD Sighting at Best Buy! | ||
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Posts: 918 (12/26/05 21:50:37) |
I saw those at my local Best Buy as well. I've also found some more interesting stuff about these DVDs.
From Critcononline: Quote: Interestingly enough, Code Red DVD, the company preparing a legitimate release of DEVIL'S EXPRESS/GANG WARS did contact Video Asia over this. This thread at DVD Maniacs goes into more detail on it, along with a discussion on how DVDs like this can affect legitimate releases. Also, "Eerie" is actually a company called Skywald, which angered Warren Publishing over using the "Eerie" name. You can find some more information about Skywald at: http://www.rockfiend.net/eerie/ http://www.empire-of-the-claw.com/Eeriepubs_html/covers.htm http://tinyurl.com/8jbbc http://tinyurl.com/b6vtg As you can see, Skywald wasn't above taking images directly from movie poster art for their covers. The above websites also list some other bizarre stunts that Skywald pulled during its existence. Fun fact: The comic that inspired Dario Argento's JENIFER entry in the MASTERS OF HORROR series was published(reprinted?) in a Skywald magazine. |
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Atomic Mystery Monster |
Re: Tales of Skywald | ||
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Posts: 918 (12/26/05 22:05:11) |
These are discussed in greater detail at the above links, but I figured that some of you might not want to slog through websites to get to the goods:
-Some of their covers used images swiped from movie posters, some monsters in their stories were obviously the host characters from "Tales from the Crypt" and "Eerie", and rumor has it that they used a character called "The Heap" without getting permission from the character's owners. -They once held a contest that gave readers the chance to win "gargoyle eggs". The winners were mailed smooth stones from a nearby beach. -They also had some sort of promotion where you could buy certificates to help them in their "Shoggoth Crusade", which refered to comics where the magazine's staff were battling Shoggoths. Said Shoggoths were based on the creatures that appeared in the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. -Skywald once published a "true UFO encounters" type magazine where they claimed that aliens slaughtered an entire town. However, the writer made the mistake of using a real town's name in the story. After the town heard about it and flooded Skywald with mail, the next issue claimed that the aliens brought everyone back to life and erased their memories. -Many of the Skywald horror magazines were filled with reprints of old, pre-Comics Code horror comics. The editor then insisted that new artists come in and add more gore to the stories.I don't blame the artists for going along with it, considering that the editor once got pissed off over something and brought a gun in one day |
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