Nightmares Come at Night - Shriek Show DVD UPDATED

[Darrel_Griffin]

A few comments about Nightmares come at Night (1970) - Shriek Show DVD release:


1. The picture is 4:3 open matte (it has more picture top and bottom than the 1.66:1 Redemption Blu-ray).

However, OAR is almost certainly 1.66:1. As explained in the featurette 'About the Master' on the Redemption Blu-ray, most of the movie was originally shot full frame 4:3, but the scenes featuring Soledad Miranda, and also the final scene, were shot with an AR of 1.66:1, implying that the intended projection ratio for the movie would have been 1.66:1. IMDB also lists the OAR as 1.66:1.


2. The runtime of the Shriek Show DVD is 83:12 (can be added to database, where runtime is not currently listed).


3. I believe the Shriek Show DVD is cut. Here is my reasoning:

The total runtime of the Redemption Blu-ray is 85:18, which includes at the start approx. 11 seconds of Redemption logo, and at the end approx. 12 seconds of music only over a black screen, followed by approx. 15 seconds of Crawford logo. Subtracting these times yields a net runtime of the picture as approx. 84:40, with net runtime of the sound as approx. 84:52.

The Shriek Show DVD is missing the 12 seconds of music only at the end, and must have additional picture cuts of about 1 minute 28 seconds (84:40 minus 83:12). It is difficult for me to do a complete comparison, but for example, a shot on the DVD runs from 52:13-52:24 (approx. 11 seconds), whereas on the Blu-ray it runs from 53:14-53:57 (approx. 43 seconds), so on the Blu-ray it is approx. 32 seconds longer. Note that this shot is so dark anyway, that the missing footage has little impact on the enjoyment of the movie, although I do strongly recommend the Blu-ray for other reasons (picture quality, sound quality, more extra features). The Shriek Show DVD has some exclusive extras too though.

The difference in start times for this shot is 61 seconds, and factoring in the 11 seconds of Redemption logo suggests that on the Blu-ray there is an extra 50 seconds of footage PRIOR to this shot. Adding this to the extra length of the shot (50 + 32) gives a total of 1 minute 22 seconds, which accounts for most of the total difference in picture runtime, and suggesting just 6 seconds of further cuts AFTER this shot. However, I do not know where all of these other cuts are. It's very difficult for me with my basic setup to do a complete comparison (I only have a single TV, and no facility for ripping movies onto a computer), so I cannot shed any more light on this at this stage (sorry).


Source: I own copies of both the Shriek Show DVD and the Redemption Blu-ray.

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

Whar are the runtimes for the interview and trailers?

[Darrel_Griffin]

I assume you mean on the Shriek Show DVD...

Extras are:

Interview with Jess Franco (22:47, in English, no subtitles)

Photo Gallery (4:30, containing 52 photos) (some from this movie and some from other movies e.g. Dracula, Vampyros Lesbos, She Killed in Ecstasy etc., most of them with Soledad Miranda)

Trailers:
- "Flesh for the Beast" (1:44)
- "Faceless" (1:50)
- "Two Orphan Vampires" (0:33)
- "FleshEater" (2:19)


More details for the movies trailered:

"Flesh for the Beast" (Terry M. West, 2003)
"Faceless" (Jess Franco, 1987)
"Two Orphan Vampires" (Jean Rollin 1997)
"FleshEater" (I don't know this movie, but almost certainly: S. William Hinzman, 1988)

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

Thank you, updated it.