Elvira's Haunted Hills - encoding problems? (1 Viewer)

[Eric Huffstutler]

I know this was an independent film done on a personal budget but what I am seeing on my DVD copy is not a "film" issue.

I know Goodtimes DVD is trying to enter the mainstream waters like Artisan or Anchor Bay but looking at this movie almost hurts my eyes! What happened? Every dim, shadowed, or smoke filled scene is full of compression artifacts... looks like a giant ant race! The colors are off in low lit scenes as well.

Is Goodtime aware of this? I am sure they could have done a better job considering the few added features on the disc and being a brand new film.

 

[Esten]

'Judgment night' was anamorphic... albeit in the wrong aspect ratio(1.78 instead of 2.35)

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

Goodtimes has released anamorphic DVDs before, such as: Airport, The Omega Code 2, Carman (or Vanman, or Minivanman, whatever that religious boxing movie is called ), and Judgment Night (in 1.78:1, but the film was shot in Super35).

 

[Gunnar Syren]

I didn't notice anything wrong with the picture. But then I watched it on a relatively small screen (28" TV), so maybe the problem is more noticeable on a bigger screen.

 

[Steve Phillips]

I saw this film theatrically and it didn't exactly look great on the big screen either.

 

[Chuck L]

You have to understand how little the budget was for this movie, plus some of the scenes that you are talking of, nightshots and mat shots, I believe are to be bad by intent.

If you listen to the 'making of' included, there are a lot of non-standard visuals that are used simply because of the look that the filmmakers were after.

They wanted it to appear old-school and much like the period pieces of horror from the 1960's. It is only in these scenes that I can see any sort of problems. In the day shots, and the scenes that were shot not using any special processing, the video, in my thoughts and vision, is great for what they had to work with.

Though I could be way wrong in most eyes, I find little fault in the movie and I am happy to have it sitting on my shelf.

 

[Steve Phillips]

Oh, I understand! I enjoyed the film. Cassandra/Elvira was at the screening I attended. This thing was pretty much self financed.

I'll be picking up the DVD.