Cheers John! I finally got around to seeing Midnight's version just last night and like you was somewhat non-plussed. There were a number of missing frames due to print damage and the whole thing looked like it had been digitally edited by joining together short splices like from a DiVX or Video-CD source that had been converted to MPEG in short bits and then joined together: Every 5 minutes or so there would be a digital "wipe" effect that was not part of the original DVI stream. There was also noticeable damage to the VHS/analog source used, which had both French and Dutch looking subtitles, leading me to conclude that the source was originally a Belgian home video release, possibly made by "Video for Pleasure", a company that I have a few other videos from in my collection.
I also am pretty convinced that there was some editing: There is a scene where it's implied that the Master Torture hulk gets into Erica Blanc's cage and does something to her that deprives her of much of her clothes, but all we see is the very beginning and ending. The rest of it appeared to be uncut, though once again the print used for the original source was in very poor condition. A couple of good laughs in it though, it wasn't nearly as gruesome as I'd been led to believe though that's not to say that it didn't induce a couple of winces from time to time. I also wish that the big lummox had gone on some kind of a rampage at the end ala DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT and started cracking people's backs. That would have been way cool!
reply
share