Criterion edition: NOT the full staking scene
Lord only knows why this wasn't done by Criterion, but the scene of the staking of the vampire woman is NOT fully restored! The bonus feature "Rise of The Vampire", detailing the making of the film, shows the complete staking scene and explains the German censors insisted the scene be shortened....in the film itself, the old man thrusts the iron spike downwards and it goes to the clouds overhead, then to the old vampire woman turning into a skeleton....but in the feature documentary, the scene continues after the clouds shot with footage of the old man holding the spike and looking away as Allan Gray pounds down on the spike several times with a hammer, then it shows the vampire becoming a skeleton. This COMPLETE footage could have very easily been reinstated into the film by Criterion....and yet it wasn't. This was somewhat of a letdown, and disappointing that the Criterion folks didn't even bother to do so. Anyone know the reason why the complete version of this scene wasn't used for the DVD release?
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