3D Amityville 3D Blu-ray release confirmed by Scream (aka Shout) Factory (1 Viewer)

From SF's Facebook:

***BREAKING! AMITYVILLE 3-D NEWS***We can now officially confirm that our upcoming Amityville Horror Trilogy blu-ray box set will include the film AMITYVILLE 3-D (1983) in Blu-ray 3-D!! (2-D version also included too.)To our knowledge, this marks the first time an 80's 3-D film has been presented in a Blu-ray 3-D format. Needless to say, we are very excited about this and hope you will be too.The release is planned for October. More specific details (artwork, extras) will be announced in the Summer.

I've never seen this (2D or 3D) and ill buy this just for this reason that I'll be available in 3D.

JohnS said:

I've never seen this (2D or 3D) and ill buy this just for this reason that I'll be available in 3D.

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I've only seen it in 2D on ThisTV, and lordy, it's goofy (a franchise-name sequel that has almost zero to do with the Lutzes, DeFeo's or Jodie), but even in 2D, the film shots have that fuzzy floating-in-space look that suggest it must've been pretty good in respectable "big-studio" polarized.
If the Archive won't recognize the 80's as part of the canon (yes, the best were the revivals, but the output has its own flavor), it's up to the fans to raise the banner.

We have put all of our preservation efforts into the Golden Age material. That's what needed the work.

This is one of the better titles from the period, with a director that had worked in 3-D before with ARENA in 1953.

Bob Furmanek said:

We have put all of our preservation efforts into the Golden Age material. That's what needed the work.This is one of the better titles from the period, with a director that had worked in 3-D before with ARENA in 1953.

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Have you offered your services to do an audio commentary (that's if you want to do one that is.)

We've offered our expertise and restoration services. We hope to be involved.

There are 4 eighties films i'd like on 3D blu ray, this one, Jaws 3, Parasite and Friday the 13th part 3.

I'm going to ask everyone interested in this title who happens to be on Facebook to do something:
1. Like Scream Factory's Facebook page
2. PM the page indicating that if Bob Furmanek's involved, this will be a blind buy
I sent a similar message to them yesterday, and they indicated they had contacted Mr. Furmanek. Given that Shout!/Scream Factory is a boutique label, my theory is that if enough people voice this opinion, they will reach out to Bob, and we'll get a decent release. This is a niche title, and as such, a blind buy indicator would give them an indication that this will sell if done right. Just a thought.....

Thank you.

For the record, we have not been contacted by anyone at Shout.

I was in contact with Richard Foos over a year ago and he knew of our 3-D restoration work and expertise.

This is a film that requires extensive shot by shot correction for various parallax and convergence issues inherent in principal photography. Having done similar restoration work on THE BUBBLE (also photographed in the over/under 3-D format) we are uniquely qualified to address these issues and correct them.

When we began 3-D restoration on THE BUBBLE, we were given many rate quotes by post-production facilities with little experience in handling vintage 3-D materials. The prices were outrageous and we could have saved Shout substantial costs on this transfer.

Unfortunately, we have not been consulted for this project.

Although in private and on the boards, Bob could do well to tone down some of the connosseuir "Eh, who cares if Parasite fell off a cliff?" editorializing on 80's titles vs. 50's titles, lest studios believe it. It's our mission to restore, not to pass judgment.

(Scream Factory's rep already gets kidding on BR.com's board about the cult titles he doesn't think are "worth" restoring, and loose lips sink disks.)

Ejanss said:

Although in private and on the boards, Bob could do well to tone down some of the connosseuir "Eh, who cares if Parasite fell off a cliff?" editorializing on 80's titles vs. 50's titles, lest studios believe it. It's our mission to restore, not to pass judgment.

(Scream Factory's rep already gets kidding on BR.com's board about the cult titles he doesn't think are "worth" restoring, and loose lips sink disks.)

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I have never seen Parasite which is why i'm interested in viewing a proper 3D version, is it really that bad. ?

I'll be disappointed if they release Amityville without doing the work required to make it up to par, i feel that Shout usually just take whatever they are given by the rights holder of the movie, that could explain why some of their releases seem just a little bit subpar ( for a blu ray ) as far as image quality goes, i have been disappointed by some of their releases.

I would welcome the opportunity to work on PARASITE. It would be quite a challenge!

Photographically, the 3-D is a mess but much of it can be fixed. Like most of the titles from that period, basic stereoscopic principles were ignored resulting in severe mis-registration and eyestrain.

Sadly, the poor technical quality of the 3-D films from that era have lead many people to believe that 3-D films photographed in 1953 were even worse. In fact, the opposite is true.

The worst photographed feature of the Golden Age (HANNAH LEE) is miles ahead photographically of the films made three decades later.

With our unique stereoscopic restoration techniques, we can now make the 1980's films look better than ever before.

I would love to see all of them released on Blu-ray, but only if the errors in principal photography are fixed.

Bring them on!

FoxyMulder said:

I have never seen Parasite which is why i'm interested in viewing a proper 3D version, is it really that bad. ?

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Apart from the dimension issues, it was also one of Charles Band's very, very, very...very...very...very first films as director in '82, before he developed the comparative polish of "Re-Animator"'s Empire Pictures or Full Moon.
It's a bit homemade; "Metalstorm: the Destruction of Jared-Syn was his next, and it's not much better.

But at least he got in on the gold rush and was making them. And as they say, might not agree but I'll die to defend it on disk.

The one that stands to benefit the most from a proper release would be Spacehunter: it was shot with synchronised cameras and then optically converted to the SpaceVision over/under format.

Bob, might I also add that I believed Scream Factory for approximately .0005 seconds when they said they'd contacted you on Amityville 3D.

Ejanss said:

Although in private and on the boards, Bob could do well to tone down some of the connosseuir "Eh, who cares if Parasite fell off a cliff?" editorializing on 80's titles vs. 50's titles, lest studios believe it. It's our mission to restore, not to pass judgment.

(Scream Factory's rep already gets kidding on BR.com's board about the cult titles he doesn't think are "worth" restoring, and loose lips sink disks.)

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I have to take issue with that statement. While Bob's primary focus has been Golden Age 3-D material, we have worked on a wide variety of material and have not and would never would turn away a chance to help ANY 3-D title be shown at it's best. As Bob said, "Bring them On!"

Sometimes, speaking for myself here, I can call an "ace an ace". Were a good number of 1980's features lower budget and/or more gimmicky than the 1950's predecessors? Yes, they were. Noting this IS important to many those who may think "Comin At Ya" was the 3-D norm for all previous 3-D features. This has been a process, just as many still think anything before Real-D was all red & blue anaglyph. Were the single strip systems as good quality wise as the majority of dual strip shot features of the 1950s? No, they were not. Again, it's important to note this when people say 3-D degrades the original photography. Misinformation abounds. A reviewer saw color fringing at the frame edges of the 2D DVD version of JAWS 3-D and said it was a remnant of the red & blue 3-D, when it really was a remnant of the single strip 3D camera adapter design. The public needs to understand 3-D shot features of the 50's, 80's and today's wave are different in a number of ways.

So do these facts take away from the enjoyment I had watching these movies originally? ... Or revisiting them later? Of course not. I can be a connoisseur of a fine wine, but can still very much enjoy a good beer, be it PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE in 2-D or COMIN' AT YA! in 3-D

Greg Kintz
Tech Director
3-D Film Archive

For those who think we have some kind of a bias with respect to post-Golden Age 3-D features, I'll share the following.

I've recently had personal discussions with Sam Sherman and Paul Morrissey over their respective 3-D properties. Mr. Sherman felt that FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR would make millions (in one weekend) if released theatrically in 3-D, and wanted nearly as much cash upfront to access his poor quality 35mm dupe negative.

Mr. Morrissey couldn't understand why FRANKENSTEIN needed any adjustments to the 3-D convergence. When I explained how we could fix the alignment now on the various rip-out-your-eyes mistakes, he said that's how he shot it and didn't want any changes.

He then asked if I'd be doing the work for free.

Yep, eating once in a while is a bad habit of mine.

Like Greg, I'm for ANY vintage 3-D film getting a Blu-ray release, whether it be ROBOT MONSTER or HOT HEIR. But if they're going to get done, I'm 100% in favor of correcting the stereoscopic mistakes and doing it right. I saw every one of the 1980's features in theatres when first released and believe me, they need a LOT of work.

Bob Furmanek said:

For those who think we have some kind of a bias with respect to post-Golden Age 3-D features, I'll share the following.

I've recently had personal discussions with Sam Sherman and Paul Morrissey over their respective 3-D properties. Mr. Sherman felt that FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR would make millions (in one weekend) if released theatrically in 3-D, and wanted nearly as much cash upfront to access his poor quality 35mm dupe negative.

Mr. Morrissey couldn't understand why FRANKENSTEIN needed any adjustments to the 3-D convergence. When I explained how we could fix the alignment now on the various rip-out-your-eyes mistakes, he said that's how he shot it and didn't want any changes.

He then asked if I'd be doing the work for free.

Yep, eating once in a while is a bad habit of mine.

Like Greg, I'm for ANY vintage 3-D film getting a Blu-ray release, whether it be ROBOT MONSTER or HOT HEIR. But if they're going to get done, I'm 100% in favor of correcting the stereoscopic mistakes and doing it right. I saw every one of the 1980's features in theatres when first released and believe me, they need a LOT of work.

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Is that Flesh For Frankenstein and i guess from the sound of it that mistakes are not going to get fixed.

Yes, that's if he ever decides to spend a few bucks to do the work.

I politely answered his question with, "No, I will not do the work for free."

Andy Warhol's Frankenstein aka Flesh for Frankenstein was released many years ago by Criterion on video. Maybe they will re-release it 3D? It would be there first feature film in 3D.