haineshisway
Senior HTF Member
Recently released in France on the Wild Side label on Blu-ray, my copy arrived yesterday and I just finished watching it. Curse of the Demon, aka Night of the Demon, has always been a favorite film, wonderfully directed by the amazing Jacques Tourneur, and featuring a solid cast including Dana Andrews, gorgeous Peggy Cummins (yes, she's a Brit - you'd never have known if you only knew her from Gun Crazy), and Niall MacGinnes. It's atmospheric, creepy and has at least one genuine "jump out of your seat" moment that, no matter how many times I've seen the film, always gets me. There was a perfectly fine DVD release that I believe contained both cuts of the film - the shorter US "Curse" version and the longer UK "Night" version.
The new Wild Side release contains both and happily both have removable French subtitles, even though it says you can't - you can't from the menu, that's true, but just use your remote to shut them off - works like a charm.
So, to the transfer: It's 1.66, and it's quite terrific. Excellent contrast, beautiful black-and-white, very sharp when it should be and interestingly about half the opticals are cut in short, while the shorter opticals are left as is. The detail is excellent - you'll see a few things that release prints would have somewhat hidden, but that is the nature of Blu-ray. It was grand to see it again, looking so fine. And now for the best news - the case states that this is region B and locked - but I put it in my region A player and it played fine, so it looks like yet another mis-identified all region release. Just to be sure, I put in the French Umbrellas of Cherbourg into my region A player, and it would not play.
So, a pretty stellar release from Wild Side and a must for fans of this wonderful film.
The new Wild Side release contains both and happily both have removable French subtitles, even though it says you can't - you can't from the menu, that's true, but just use your remote to shut them off - works like a charm.
So, to the transfer: It's 1.66, and it's quite terrific. Excellent contrast, beautiful black-and-white, very sharp when it should be and interestingly about half the opticals are cut in short, while the shorter opticals are left as is. The detail is excellent - you'll see a few things that release prints would have somewhat hidden, but that is the nature of Blu-ray. It was grand to see it again, looking so fine. And now for the best news - the case states that this is region B and locked - but I put it in my region A player and it played fine, so it looks like yet another mis-identified all region release. Just to be sure, I put in the French Umbrellas of Cherbourg into my region A player, and it would not play.
So, a pretty stellar release from Wild Side and a must for fans of this wonderful film.