A Few Words About A few words about…™ Kiss of the Vampire – in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

UK's Hammer was at an interesting point in its history in the fall of 1963, when it released Don Sharp's Kiss of the Vampire.

An Extremely prolific production entity going back to 1935, hitting sci-fi in the early '50s, and then making the leap (to the chagrin
of UK censors) into horror in 1957 with The Curse of Frankenstein. The genre continued into the mid-'70s.

Scream Factory's new Blu-ray is a nice, albeit not great, release.

Derived from what appears to be a older IP, I'm seeing element movement. I'd guess that this wasn't a recent transfer, but marketing tells us it is, and they have no reason not to be truthful.

Color is fine. Grain is almost non-existent, but dupiness isn't a problem. I'm thinking it's just not a great IP.

The extras are the sell here. I listened to a bit of the commentary, which was illuminating. Plenty of other extras.

Image – 3.75

Audio – 5

Pass / Fail – Pass

Upgrade from DVD - Absolutely

Recommended

 

[RICK BOND]

Does it look Better than the Universal 4 Disc set version ? I know the Extras are many. Universal's set had Nothing.

 

[timk1041]

UK's Hammer was at an interesting point in its history in the fall of 1963, when it released Don Sharp's Kiss of the Vampire.

An Extremely prolific production entity going back to 1935, hitting sci-fi in the early '50s, and then making the leap (to the chagrin
of UK censors) into horror in 1957 with The Curse of Frankenstein. The genre continued into the mid-'70s.

Scream Factory's new Blu-ray is a nice, albeit not great, release.

Derived from what appears to be a older IP, I'm seeing element movement. I'd guess that this wasn't a recent transfer, but marketing tells us it is, and they have no reason not to be truthful.

Color is fine. Grain is almost non-existent, but dupiness isn't a problem. I'm thinking it's just not a great IP.

The extras are the sell here. I listened to a bit of the commentary, which was illuminating. Plenty of other extras.

Image – 3.75

Audio – 5

Pass / Fail – Pass

Upgrade from DVD - Absolutely

Recommended

Good to see an early review as this isn't officially released until July 14th. Thank you for posting.

 

[Reed Grele]

My copy finally arrived today! Postmark said it was shipped July 7th!!! I know that Media Mail is slow, but..... Sheesh!

The new Poster art is nice, but I prefer the original poster, which appears on the other side of the reversible slip cover.

Will post my thoughts on the transfer later.

 

[Reed Grele]

Well, here's something interesting. This "New Shout Factory 4K scan of the interpositive" appears to be the exact same transfer as the 2012 Region 2 Final Cut Blu-ray.



I know screen grabs are frowned upon, but this is exactly what I'm seeing. To my eyes they're identical.

The R2 Final Cut version:



The Shout Factory version:



If you already have the region 2 Final Cut BD, and you aren't interested in the new extras, there's no need to purchase the same transfer again.

But as far as the extras are concerned, this is the version to have. It's nice to have the heavily edited TV version Kiss of Evil as an extra. That's the first version that I saw on TV back in the 70's before I had any idea that it was a butchered TV job. It appears to be from a video tape recorded from the Sci-Fi channel as there is a blurred out bug in the bottom right-hand corner. I haven't watched all the other new bonus features, but there are certainly more on the new BD than there were on the R2.

The 1.66x1 version on the new Shout Factory disc (Bonus Extra, which also has the new commentary) doesn't appear to be as colorful or as detailed (WHY?) as the w/s version. It also doesn't appear to have subtitles included. See below:

 

[AlanP]

One of my favorite Hammer films, along with "Brides Of Dracula" and "Horror Of Dracula"

 

[RICK BOND]

Also one of my Favorite Hammer Vampire films ! Another Great release from Shout/Scream Factory !

 

[Reed Grele]

I retract what I said above about the 1.66x1 version being less colorful. For some reason, when using the PC app and playing it on the LG OLED, it does look like the screen capture above. But when I play it on my Panasonic UHD player and output to same OLED, it looks the same.

Weird!

 

[Bartman]

I have the Image DVD somehere, found it in a cut out bin twenty years ago, not one of my favorite Hammers I'm afraid, if you're in doubt, I recommend streaming before buying!

 

[Stephen PI]

Glad to see the film finally in its correct aspect ratio of 1.66:1.
It would have been great if it was the uncut version that I saw at the Barbican in London in the nineties.
I hope the trims show up sometime in the Universal vaults.

 

[aPhil]

Does it look Better than the Universal 4 Disc set version ? I know the Extras are many. Universal's set had Nothing.

No. The Universal Blu-ray set has a slightly more pleasing image for "Kiss of the Vampire." I see more detail. The Shout Factory release makes my eyes wander around my room looking for something sharper on which to focus.

 

[brynmill]

I dont like the r2 release (same as Brides of Dracula) where the picture and colours were awful. in Brides of Dracula, Van Helsing's shirt should be white but has a blue tint to it most of the time