Burnt Offerings (1976) Blu-ray NO UPDATE

[Darrel_Griffin]

Burnt Offerings (1976) Blu-ray

https://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/ ... ?fid=34071

Perhaps the OVERALL should be a draw, since compared with the Kino Lorber releases, the UK Arrow Blu-ray only lacks one fairly minor extra:

Trailer with commentary Steve Senski from "Trailers From Hell" (3:21)

but the UK Arrow Blu-ray also includes a booklet (although this was the first pressing only according to Amazon.co.uk):

"First pressing only: Collector s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Kat Ellinger"

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

Minor, but it is still an added bonus. As for booklets, we don't particularly choose that as a reason for a winner.

[Darrel_Griffin]

Ok, thanks for clarifying, although I do find that somewhat surprising, as personally I find booklets tend to provide a lot of interesting and useful information.

Having said that, in this particular case, someone buying the Arrow Blu-ray new would probably not receive the booklet anyway, as it was only included in the first pressing. Certainly it is not mentioned in the product details on the Arrow UK website.

[Christian_Bütikofer]

Hi Darrel,

If I may chime in (I like booklets a lot): I understand that an included booklet does not necessarily make a certain release "better" - it depends a lot on the contents in the booklet. And how to "value" this content? I know from experience that some releases with a booklet (I am talking about the German market in particular) does not say anything. Because in some cases it really is a joke - I saw several times that in the German market, this "added bonus" was just a propped up Wikipedia article - or in the worst case, just a German translation of .... 90% of the contents of an Arrow booklets - so actually theft . I know now after years: Some German authors are not really "authors" but "copy-paste-artists"... There are really good German movie experts of course too - it depends a lot on the label, whom they hire (like Turbine/X-Rated/Subkultur/Wicked Vision/Anolis etc.: They don't hire hacks). So: I understand that dvdcompare cannot take that into consideration, because this would be far too much work. And even if the booklet is a genuine added bonus: What if for example we have booklets from Arrow and Radiance for one and the same movie (just two companies I like that come to mind, I don't think they will ever do releases from one movie twice)? Which one is "better"?

Best
Christian

[Darrel_Griffin]

Hi Christian,

Thanks for your thoughts. I do have a few releases with German booklets, but I cannot read German, so they are of little use to me anyway! And I would not be able to easily tell if the material has been stolen from another company, but yes, if that is happening then it is an illegal breach of copyright.

I agree that it is almost impossible to determine which of 2 booklets is better, and in the case of that being the only difference, I would expect it to be declared a draw.

However, the original point I was making was that perhaps it should also be declared a draw in the case that one release has an extra feature on disc but no booklet, while another release has a booklet. I expected that this situation would be treated the same as, for example, when 2 releases each have 1 exclusive extra on disc, when it IS declared a draw (well, usually, depending on how significant each extra is).

In the case of Burnt Offerings, I have the Arrow UK release with the booklet. I haven't actually watched the movie nor read the booklet yet, but since it contains writing by Kat Ellinger, whom I regard highly as a critic, I personally rate this as more valuable than a trailer with commentary, the only exclusive extra on the Kino Lorber release. Now, that is just my subjective view, but that is why I would have expected it to be declared a draw, rather than Kino Lorber being the winner.

But I don't make the rules!

All the best,
Darrel

[Christian_Bütikofer]

Hi Darrel,

I see your point, absolutely. Kat is also a writer I enjoy very much. You haven't watched Burnt Offerings yet? It's time to do that - if only for young Jason "Seinfeld" Alexander alone - and of course some memorable "kills". This movie is one of the few original ones after the Friday 13th slasher craze .

To the rating in dvdcompare: Picture quality is also one of the points that are not taken into consideration for the "winner" release. This also - in some cases - is something "individual" (in some cases not at all) but I guess, this would be too much work and I guess often would open a door for controversy. I like it, that dvdcompare tries to "limit" it to the extras at hand (and other technical details) - it's not perfect, but I guess it gives collectors an unparalleld rescource - since a lot of the info comes from ppl. who actually own the release .

Best from Zurich
Christian

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

Hi Darrel,You haven't watched Burnt Offerings yet? It's time to do that - if only for young Jason "Seinfeld" Alexander alone - and of course some memorable "kills". This movie is one of the few original ones after the Friday 13th slasher craze .

I believe you're confusing this with "The Burning"

[Christian_Bütikofer]

Yes, of course .

[Darrel_Griffin]

Yes, that is The Burning, which I have seen on the US MGM DVD I bought ages ago. I agree it's probably one of the best "Friday the 13th"-style slashers.

I also own the Arrow UK Blu-ray, but I don't think I've got round to watching it in HD yet. Although it's now out on 4K UHD from Shout! Factory too, so I guess at some point it will be time to triple dip and upgrade again!

Regarding picture quality, yes it is a subjective matter, although sometimes I have owned 2 or more releases of the same movie, and a direct comparison reveals a clear difference.

Also, sometimes it IS mentioned in the notes that a release uses a 4K scan, for example, or a newer 2K scan, or a scan from the original negative vs a print. However, these things aren't always a guarantee of improved quality. For example, I have 2 releases of a movie where one is a 4K scan and one is a 2K scan, and the 2K scan looks significantly better than the 4K (I can't remember which movie it is right now though).

But overall, it is perhaps best in general not to include judgments about picture quality on this site, as they are subjective, and this site does at least include links to some other sites where such comparisons can be made (e.g. DVDBeaver, Caps-a-holic).

[Christian_Bütikofer]

Yes, I agree fully what you said about the picture quality. And it is nice, that dvdcompare provides links to capsaholic and dvdbeaver. No other resource I know of does that .

Best
Christian