Quatermass and the Pit/Five Million Years to Earth (1 Viewer)

[Johnny Angell]

I’ve found this as a blu ray import on Amazon. It plays on region B only, which is not problem. The title description is rather confusion. It appears this release may include the TV show on which the movie is based. Does anyone know? Here’s a link: https://amazon.com/Quatermass-Million-Benders-Quarter-Blu-Ray/dp/B00525QJYO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

 

[dpippel]

It's the Region B Studio Canal release. Just the film and some (very good) extras. No Quatermass and the Pit TV show.

 

[John Sparks]

Have it in my basket...will order it soon!

 

[Dick]

I just received a message from John at Indicator telling me that they are working on a fourth Hammer set and hope to do a fifth. I asked if he was able to obtain titles outside of the Columbia-owned ones. Specifically, I am trying encourage someone to release QUATERMASS II and LUST FOR A VAMPIRE, both of which happen to be the middle chapters in trilogies, whose first and third chapters have long been available on Blu-ray either here in the States or in the UK. The culprit in both cases might be StudioCanal, but that is only a guess. I will report back if and when I receive a reply.


P.S. Another message from John (this company is great with customer communications!):

Hi Rick

Yes we love Hammer titles, and yes we are looking outside of Sony Pictures, unfortunately at a very slow pace, but we will keep pushing rest assured.

Kind regards

John

 

[TheSteig]

StudioCanal has Quatermass II, X the Unknown and I believe the 4 Sided Triangle.

I think the next Hammer horrors from Indicator would have more titles from Sony - Revenge of Frankenstein, The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll , Scream of Fear, etc

 

[Scott-S]

Man I loved "Five Million Years to Earth" when I was a kid. I would definitely buy a Blu-ray copy (region A) of this as long as it looks OK.

This movie scared (and scarred) me as a kid. That creepy devil head in the sky still creeps me out.

Yes, the "special" effects aren't very convincing now, but those grasshopper martians were really gross back in the day. They were just decomposing and dripping.

 

[J. Casey]

If interested in the QUATERMASS TV serials from the 1950s, BBC Video at one time had a really good Region 2 DVD set of them with some good extras. Sadly, only 2 episodes of the first serial are extant.

Edit: Just checked Amazon UK and this 3 disc set is still available if you're region free.

 

[Brent Reid]

The original 1953/55/58 Quatermass TV series have only ever been released via two identical R2 and R4 2005 UK and Oz DVD sets. Due to their overall sub-par but perfectly watchable condition, they're unlikely to be coming to any other format anytime soon. Rightly hailed as among the best programmes – sci-fi or otherwise – the BBC ever produced, they're a good enough reason in themselves to go region-free. What's more, they're dirt cheap too!

The complete second and third series have been pirated by Reel Vault in the US, but the less said about their botched PAL-NTSC thievery, the better.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Hopefully BBC Video will see the advantage of putting Quatermass and the Pit (the only one of the three that existed in an almost fully restorable state) on blu-ray at some point now that they're doing classic Doctor Who for some reason or another.

 

[Randy Korstick]

StudioCanal has Quatermass II, X the Unknown and I believe the 4 Sided Triangle.

I think the next Hammer horrors from Indicator would have more titles from Sony - Revenge of Frankenstein, The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll , Scream of Fear, etc

Studio Canal also has The Lost Continent and Lust for a Vampire. Both need restorations to look their best on blu ray. Studio Canal has plans to restore and release both in Region B like the 8 restored hammers that they recently released. They will probably be released next year. I don't think Studio Canal would license to Indicator since they are releasing the films themselves. But Indicator could end up getting some other studios Hammers like Universal or Warner.
Indicator will probably release a box set of Hammer Swashbucklers from Sony besides the remaining horrors: Sword of Sherwood Forest, The Crimson Blade, The Devil-ship Pirates and The Brigand of Kandahar.

 

[Dick]

StudioCanal has Quatermass II, X the Unknown and I believe the 4 Sided Triangle.

But not on Blu-ray. The QUATERMASS XPERIMENT Blu-ray from Shock in Australia had as bonus features QUATERMASS II and X-THE UNKNOWN, but, although these were both featured on the same Blu-ray disc, they were merely up-converted DVD's. THE FOUR-SIDED TRIANGLE was included on a box set of DVD's.

 

[Johnny Angell]

The original 1953/55/58 Quatermass TV series have only ever been released via two identical R2 and R4 2005 UK and Oz DVD sets. Due to their overall sub-par but perfectly watchable condition, they're unlikely to be coming to any other format anytime soon. Rightly hailed as among the best programmes – sci-fi or otherwise – the BBC ever produced, they're a good enough reason in themselves to go region-free. What's more, they're dirt cheap too!

They latter two series have been pirated by Reel Vault in the US but the less said about their botched PAL-NTSC thievery, the better.

I notice that 4 episodes from season 1 are missing because it was deemed not worth the expense to record when the live episodes were broadcast. Still, I’m tempted.

 

[TheSteig]

But not on Blu-ray. The QUATERMASS XPERIMENT Blu-ray from Shock in Australia had as bonus features QUATERMASS II and X-THE UNKNOWN, but, although these were both featured on the same Blu-ray disc, they were merely up-converted DVD's. THE FOUR-SIDED TRIANGLE was included on a box set of DVD's.

StudioCanal has the rights to the movies and unless they start to sublicense they will wind up releasing the remaining Hammer titles that they have the rights to on Blu ray. Most likely a second wave of Hammer titles I would presume
Quatermass II
X the Unknown
4 Sided Triangle
Lust for a Vampire
The Lost Contienent
The Abominable Snowman
As Randy said above its unlikely that SC will sublicense their Hammers to Indicator however the ones with Sony are very likely.

 

[dpippel]

I'd love to see The Abominable Snowman get a decent 1080p release on Blu!

 

[John Sparks]

Hopefully BBC Video will see the advantage of putting Quatermass and the Pit (the only one of the three that existed in an almost fully restorable state) on blu-ray at some point now that they're doing classic Doctor Who for some reason or another.

You know, DVD would be okay if they won't do BD. On my PJ upscaled to 4k...SDs look AWESOME...of course, BDs look really awesome!

 

[TonyD]

I have the old oop dvd of Pit and a dvd of a tv miniseries or some sort that is barely watchable it’s so bad.

Looks like a 4th gen vhs.

 

[John Sparks]

Bought the Amazon UK BD version and it starts out in not any better than SD, then it turns into BD for the rest of the movie.

 

[dpippel]

The opening scenes have always been dodgy. It's in the source.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I’ve found this as a blu ray import on Amazon. It plays on region B only, which is not problem. The title description is rather confusion. It appears this release may include the TV show on which the movie is based. Does anyone know? Here’s a link: https://amazon.com/Quatermass-Million-Benders-Quarter-Blu-Ray/dp/B00525QJYO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

I ordered this today. Earliest I can get is 10/31.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Hopefully BBC Video will see the advantage of putting Quatermass and the Pit (the only one of the three that existed in an almost fully restorable state) on blu-ray at some point now that they're doing classic Doctor Who for some reason or another.

FIVE MONTHS LATER...

 

[Brent Reid]

Ha, saw it the other day, but forgot about this thread! I'm absolutely amazed it's making it to BD – what a time to be alive. Then soon after, the first 8 seasons of Red Dwarf come to BD in all their upscaled SD glory... Even if the Beeb don't deem the remainder of the Quatermass TV series HD-restorable, they should at least bung 'em on the disc as SD extras.