There's multiple versions of this film out there on DVD. The one by St. Clair Entertainment says it's a collectors edition but I keep reading negative things about the quality of their products. I would like a version that is at least the correct screen aspect ratio and doesn't look like a 20th generation dupe from an old VHS tape. (I already own it on VHS ironically.) Any suggestions?
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I just saw the Trinity DVD as well, and the quality was awful. There was a great deal of film damage and the picture was quite dark. And there are a couple of scenes that are missing, most notably the part where Henderson is investigating in the penthouse and discovers the reel-to-reel tape recording of the devil-worship chant. But at least it was widescreen, I'll give it that.
I agree that The Pyx deserves much better treatment and should be properly remastered, but as you said it has fallen through the public domain cracks and chances are we will never see a fully restored and remastered version. In fact, I doubt if a decent print of this movie even exits anymore.
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Well I sure do hope I'm proven wrong about a quality print not existing anymore, but I can't help but feel a little cynical. I guess the best we can hope for is the possibility of a rich collector having a pristine print, as you've indicated. I should point out that the director, Harvey Hart, passed away years ago. So either somebody else is sitting on the negative or it's in really bad shape. Or the negative may even be lost.
And by the way, this same situation has happened with some other Canadian movies from the 70s. It's been reported that the negatives for the Canadian horror classics Black Christmas and Rituals are missing as well. But luckily in the case for Black Christmas, there was a decent enough print to be used for DVD releases. And as for Rituals, there was a magazine article that said the director's own personal print has been dug out of a closet by his widow and will be used for the upcoming DVD release (whenever that will happen, apparently there are still disputes over the rights). I don't understand why Canada has been so lousy at film preservation. I don't know whether if it's a cost issue or if these film companies simply don't give a crap, but it sure seems like Canada does a terrible job at looking after their own movies. I mean, how hard can it be to safely store away a bunch of film reels?
Getting back to Harvey Hart, he made an interesting little movie in 1976 called Shoot (another Canadian tax shelter flick), about two groups of hunters who are at war with each other. It received a VHS release many years ago, but has since vanished into total obscurity. I would love to see a DVD release of that one, but I ain't holding my breath.
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A properly licensed DVD of THE PYX, in a clean remastered 16x9 scope transfer, will be released on October 18th by Scorpion Releasing.
shareI've pre-ordered this disc and can't wait to see it.
What do you think this is, a signature? It's a way of life!
I got the Scorpion DVD today and it is far superior in picture quality than any other version. The opening credits were quite murky and the picture was bad in the earlier releases, these flaws have all been cleaned up. A wonderful DVD!
shareDitto. DVD is excellent. Amazing. Got Both DVDs. Also got Cisco Pike dvd
sharehttp://www.deep13movies.com/the-pyx-dvd
decent quality but appears to be the best available.
The Scorpion version (Katrina's Nightmare Theater) is really good, sharp and letterboxed. Every other version I've seen (and I've tried several) are really skangy looking.
shareI got a copy on a horror movie collection which looked atrocious. I figured I didn't want the first time I saw the movie to be that way, thankfully I found a pretty decent quality version on YouTube. Overall it wasn't a bad film at all.
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