Evil Dead, a strange difference! (1 Viewer)

[Mattias_ka]

I was comparing the Elite DVD, Elite LD and the Japanese LD from 1995 to see what version have the best image for the original 1.33:1 ratio (haven't seen the old Anchor Bay DVD yet). Then I thought, just for fun to test the old Japanese LD released 1985. And I found this:

Elite DVD (same as LD, and new Japan LD)



Old Japan LD


Do anyone know why the newer release are so much zoomed in? I have not check the whole LD yet, so I don't know if there is more places like this. But the few places I check the old one have a little more on all sides, but not as much as in this scene!

 

[Kevin M]

Wow...that's truly bizarre. I'll have to check the newer Book of the Dead against the Elite dvd release to see how the cropping is on the sides of the frame in comparison in this scene.

 

[Matt_H]

here's a screenshot from the book of the dead edition

 

[Simon Young]

I remember reading somewhere that it was done deliberately when the Elite transfer was made. Sam Raimi felt that the tighter framing gave the shot more impact.

 

[Kevin M]

Yes, the matted BOTD version has no zoom in on her face....strangely the elite version seems like a different take because the zoom in looks very shaky as if it were a physical push in or an in camera zoom, not just a zoom in on the 1:33 frame during the transfer....it's the same shot though, you can tell by comparing the two shots above. Odd.

 

[Mattias_ka]

Thanks Kevin! Do anyone knows if the old 1.33:1 Anchor Bay DVD are the same as the Elite DVD/LD? If someone have it could check, maybe do a screenshot too.

Simon, do you remember if there are any more scenes that they did this? I think I must rewatch this old LD again.

Btw, I must say that I vastly prefer the old version. Much scarier IMO.

 

[Vincent-P]

Here's a cap from the Anchor Bay disk. It's almost the same transfer as the Elite disc. Both are also missing the lightning strike which can be seen in the trailer.

 

[Mattias_ka]

Thanks Vincent! I think I will rewatch Evil Dead tonight and see if there are any more places that are different.

 

[GuruAskew]

Yeah, I'm always puzzled when people bash the BOTD edition while claiming the Elite edition is some sort of pure OAR release.

The fact of the matter is this: Raimi supervised the Elite transfer and added a couple of "Lucasisms" (omitting the lightning strike and adding the artificial zoom) whereas Bruce Campbell supervised the Anchor Bay widescreen transfers (supposedly to Raimi's specifications) with a (to me) pretty obvious and straightforward attempt at presenting the film as it screened theatrically.

If you watch the movie theater scene in "Donnie Darko" you'll see that it's roughly 1.85:1 in that film (for what it's worth) and that movie was produced over a year before the "Book of the Dead" edition came out.

 

[Mattias_ka]

Do you know if there is more scenes where he did change it? And I don't think he did that when supervising the Elite transfer (1999). The same zoom effect are on the Japanese LD from 1994-1995.

But I still feel the Elite version is much close to a right version than the BOTD release, that are way over-matte IMO.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Wow, the fcontrast is horrible on TBOTD screncap!

I much prefer the color timing on the LD edition also. My only major beef with DVD is how studios feel it necessary to alter the aesthetics of the original film to suit the digital expectations of the format, if that makes any sense. It's seen all the time with color and lighting changes, etc. I find the LD caps much more appealing and closer to what would've been shot, based on the girl's features.

 

[Matt_H]

to be fair that may be the settings on my computer after looking at a similar screenshot at horrordvds.com

http://www.horrordvds.com/modules.ph...article&id=417
but hey i was just trying to do a quick and dirty screencap to show the framing

 

[mike kaminski]

Raimi changed the framing on the latest release from the original full-frame OAR to have matted 1.85 bars because he simply liked the way it looked. Don't know how this resulted in such different zooming--i assumed that they just threw matte bars over the original image.

 

[Mattias_ka]

I watched the old Japanese LD tonight and there are "only" the two changes we have mention here (didn't compare the audio fully). The zooming in of the face and the cut out of the lighting as you can see here:

When they are in the basement, maybe 16 min in the movie, Bruce reads the "Book of the dead". The scene ends like this:

[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/a/a9/htf_imgcache_2073.jpeg] [/url]

And next we see:
[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/0/0c/htf_imgcache_2074.jpeg] [/url]

In the old version, there are 1-1,5 second of a lightning strikes a tree between the those two scenes. Here is some shots of that.

[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/d/d9/htf_imgcache_2075.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/d/db/htf_imgcache_2076.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/4/4c/htf_imgcache_2077.jpeg] [/url]

 

[Mattias_ka]

This is not true. Sam did not supervised the BOTD release, it was Bruce that did. I remember that they had to tilt and move the matting many times, because just a standard matting would have masked of a LOT of info. Even with that, I and many others, are thinking that it's over matted and the 1.33:1, that Sam did supervised, is a much better ratio for the movie.

 

[Mattias_ka]

There are a big difference between the old Japanese LD's color and the new Elite/AB version.


Elite vs Old Laser

[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/8/8f/htf_imgcache_2093.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/e/e4/htf_imgcache_2094.jpeg] [/url]

[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/b/b3/htf_imgcache_2095.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/3/36/htf_imgcache_2096.jpeg] [/url]


[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/9/97/htf_imgcache_2097.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/d/dd/htf_imgcache_2098.jpeg] [/url]


[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/e/e7/htf_imgcache_2099.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/e/ec/htf_imgcache_2100.jpeg] [/url]


I prefer the old LD colors, even if they are not perfect, I think they are better IMO.

 

[Kevin M]

Well, Bruce matted it under Sam's wishes, I like the composition of the unmatted version better as well as it's color balance and detail (as well as the fact that the matting totally obscured the "bandaid" joke) however I could live with the matted version as a good representation of it's theatrical AR IF the image wasn't as overly dark in spots as it is and the blurry image quality in so many spots.....matted is fine with me if it is done well but I don't think TBOTD version is as good as it could have been.

 

[GuruAskew]

It's not totally obscured, it's still visible but admittedly only to the point where only those that are familiar with it's position would notice it.

 

[Mattias_ka]

I don't really like the colors on the Elite. Look at the shot with Bruce face. On the old LD you can easily see that he have a bruise on his cheek, where on the Elite version, it's almost gone!

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

That doesn't even look like color boosting... it looks like they completely digitally painted over the entire scene. The fleshtones, hair color, shadows, detail in the background, wood, etc. is terrible. It gives the entire picture a very phony and unrealistic look.