Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › DVD › Official HTF DVD Reviews › HTF Review: The Amityville Horror Collection
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

HTF Review: The Amityville Horror Collection - Page 2

post #31 of 36
4/20/05 at 7:34pm
...or the Ghoulies sequels.
Reply
post #32 of 36
4/20/05 at 8:47pm
Quote:
It was one of the more effective and well shot of the 1980's cycle of stereoscopic films


It may have been one of the most effectively SHOT, but it still stands out in my memory as one of the worst looking 3D movies I ever saw (Even taking Jaws into consideration.)

I remember it being very very dark and unfocused, with an overall "muddy" quality. I left the theater with my friends (of course, I was just a CHILD then ) and thinking that it was a complete waste of time.

Totally off topic, but my favorite 3D experience was COMIN' AT YA! A crap film, but the effects were extremely cool and well-registered (especially the snake, which I can still see right in front of my face...coming...AT..me!!!)
Reply
post #33 of 36
4/21/05 at 8:32am
I would say exactly the opposite! COMIN' AT YA! is full of photographic errors... many of the gimmicks misfired as far as I was concerned, while AMITYVILLE was pretty clean.

Keep in mind the single strip over/under format they used to project the 3-D films during this period wasn't the greatest option since the resolution and brightness is reduced by 50% even before the film is shown through the filters and the audience puts on the the dark glasses! Add to that the fact that many theatres did not follow direction and boost the lamp up a few notches in the projector and it is no wonder we often saw dark, muddy images, regardless of the film. Some theatres even tried to paint a white screen with silver paint rather than install the required silver material screen!

A far cry for the normal brightness and resolution I saw at the 50s 3-D film fest from a couple years back in LA! They screened them in the original dual projector versions and it looked fabulous!
Reply
post #34 of 36
4/21/05 at 7:02pm
Well, I was only about 12 when I saw COMIN' AT YA, so maybe my memory has played tricks on me. I definitely remember feeling cheated by the terrible look of Amityville, but as you say it may have been theater specific.
Reply
post #35 of 36
4/21/05 at 8:03pm
Recollections can do that. After years of seeing nothing but inferior anaglyph (red/blue) 3-D re-releases, when I first saw COMIN AT YA! in polarized 3-D by comparison it was excellent. But a second theatrical viewing and later viewings in field-sequential via the now defunct VHD release were far more revealing of it's technical short comings.

As Steve mentioned, many theaters went the cheap route with the single strip 3-D film format, which itself was already full of compromises. Darker films like AMITYVILLE 3-D and FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III (my favorite 3-D feature from the early 80s) suffered all the more when they were presented poorly.
Reply
post #36 of 36
4/21/05 at 8:39pm
Anyone who has this set notice how the trailer for Amityville 3-D uses the intro music from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"? I know that happens sometimes (there are multiple trailers that have used James Horner's climax theme from "Aliens" but it seemed weird for such a low rent film.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Official HTF DVD Reviews
Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › DVD › Official HTF DVD Reviews › HTF Review: The Amityville Horror Collection