[Proposal] The Beyond (1981) – 7 Doors of Death Preservation

[Bigrob]

FYI

Shameless Entertainment in the UK have just announced a new Blu-ray release of this containing four different versions of the film

[bronan]

Nooooooooooo! Why'd it have to be Shameless?

[LucasGodzilla]

Nooooooooooo! Why'd it have to be Shameless?

That's how I feel with Fulci's Contraband and their DVD release some years back (like seriously, it's 2019 and there's STILL no HD master???). Sadly, this new release seems to only have four different versions of the PROLOGUE and nothing else. Still though, curious to see how that'll turn out, but I have to admit, this comment does not sit right with me...

• THE BEYOND prologue four-way comparison, showing: The Standard Sepia + the Original Colour + the B&W version + the new fourth-way: the Yellow-toned sepia version.
  A new fourth-way: the Yellow-toned sepia version which we’ve created as an addition, after consulting various notes from director of photography (DOP) Sergio Salvatti.
  

HMMMMM...

There doesn't seem to be any boasting of any new transfers which is also a shame since there's that Scotti Prod master hidden from the world. Ah well, I'm just having my fingers crossed to at least get the colored opening restored in HD since the one included on the Grindhouse Release is pretty rough around the edges.

Side-note: There's going to be a 35mm screening of the movie up in LA on the 20th that I hope to be going to. I doubt it'd be color accurate since I think it's one of the fresher Grindhouse re-issue / re-release prints, but I'll probably try to make a few mental notes on anything that's obvious (like the golden prologue or the hospital blues).

[LucasGodzilla]

So I came out last night from the 35mm screening and I am left with some answers and questions. The print in question was a fairly beaten up Grindhouse Releasing reel riddled with slight scratches and a noticeably yellowed hue (it was easily the roughest looking print out of the three shown).

Now, on the topic of the colors, the opening is the yellowed hue seen in the Grindhouse home releases (obviously), however, there's a more prominent teal push throughout, especially during the night time scenes and some areas in the hospital. In fact, I vividly recall two shots.

The one on the left in the screening was much darker and intense color-wise. The lantern provided a strong orange glow whilst the blue lighting of the night was also rather teal-looking. For the one on the right, in the screening, it was completely soaked in teal with the exception being the obvious red light.

The scene with Schweick in the morgue was bathed in blue as well, however, it was far less... artificial? The panels in the back looked relatively white whilst everything else was bathed in a relatively warmish blue (not as cold as the home release). You can see it in the brief live-photo video I took with my iPhone (sorry for the knee partially blocking the screen, I kind of took it blindly to avoid pissing anyone off).

I also recorded the final scene which was also bathed in a teal color scheme. Again, the iPhone recording is not perfect, but it does at least allow you to get a glimpse of what I am talking about here.

Looking back at all of this though, I have realized that since the print has the yellow hue, leading to that teal push, I adjusted a few pics to fix that issue. You can see that here...

All in all, the home media version by Grindhouse is not far off from that version of the movie that I suppose was released in the 90s (or 2000s), but it still is not on the mark. It still also doesn't answer the question of how the original US 7 Doors print looked and it seems fairly obvious that this doesn't reflect any original Italian theatrical prints.

[LucasGodzilla]

So an interesting opportunity has come to my attention. Recently I've come across a reputable source, who shall remain anonymous as he wishes for the time being, who's in possession of a rather vast collection of film prints of all sorts and intriguingly in that said list, there's apparently a print of this cut of the movie: "SEVEN DOORS OF DEATH [THE BEYOND] (1980)-".

Though no details are appended to the listing, I'm sure I can get some more details on it if inquired. However, as for now, as y'all may have already seen, I'm putting together a poll to see which film would generate the most interest in getting a 35mm preservation scan.

So if folks are curious enough to see this version of the movie outside of a VHS / LD master, now's the time to choose: https://strawpoll.com/c35bzdx5

[LucasGodzilla]

Now although I already have The Keep on my plate right now and I'm hoping Big Trouble In Little China will be the next preservation to get funded, I didn't want to completely forget about the potential behind this (along with Hellraiser and The Fog but I'll get to talking about those another time). So, I decided to alter the thread to make it another preservation–having updated the first post to accommodate this. Now admittedly, I don't expect this to get fully funded anytime particularly soon, but I'd like to at least make the effort to make this a known opportunity since I know there are some absolute die-hard fans of this movie.

Also on both related and unrelated note: I stumbled onto footage of a German 35mm screening of what I presume to be an uncut print of the movie.

Though the footage is not to be completely trusted for auto-white-balance reasons probably, the colors seen here do fall in-line with what I have seen when I saw a Grindhouse print of the movie a year back.

[alleycat]

I would 100% be up for this.

[LucasGodzilla]

I would 100% be up for this.

Do you know where to find a reference source or want to put down a pledge amount for the estimate? Thanks for the enthusiasm though!

Anyways I was poking around the internet again to see if maybe something did surface between the last time I checked awhile back and now, and I randomly stumbled onto a rather old article from 2015 talking about this cut. Now the article itself is not much to write home about, HOWEVER, someone in the comments noted something that I find rather important.

No, I totally agree, 7 Doors of Death is a whole other thing that has a big nostalgia factor going for it, as it was how many people originally saw the film. It’s certainly niche as all get out, but there are people who seek out these cuts of films for that reason. I am, sadly, one of those people. I have what I would describe as an unhealthy amount of movies. Thousands. Unfortunately, most of these oddities are hard to find and very expensive unless you get lucky. Fortunately, the internet exists, and in those cases where things are unable to be legally obtained, there is Cinemageddon. I won’t link it, but just ask Uncle Google, if you don’t already know. Lurking deep within it’s bowels is a VHSrip of the Thriller home video version.

So apparently it seems a Cinemageddon VHS rip of the cut exists out there somewhere online! The only problem is, I have no idea how to get it given I don't have an account there. I'll try to see if I can find someone from my small list of contacts has access but as of right, the project is still stagnant without a decent source.

[LucasGodzilla]

I would just like to report that I've just finished making an edit of the Grindhouse blu-ray to the 7 Doors Of Death VHS today! Not a perfect edit since there seems to be some missing frames here and there on the Grindhouse master oddly enough, but the only egregious example of this is in the opening sequence where the only choice I had was to slow down the footage. I wonder if it'd still be the case on the Shameless 2K master, though I don't plan on getting my hands on it any time soon.

I've also managed to throw in a quick blanket regrade over the movie to try and emulate the 35mm color grading when I saw the movie in print a year back. It's not perfect, and actually scanning a 35mm print of the movie would be better, but it certainly gets the movie in the same ballpark for the most part at least with higher contrast and a noticeable teal-colored hue.

I hope to be able to render it all into a 25 GB MKV file sometime soon.

One thing I hope I can be able to do before I release this though is to see if I can upmix the VHS audio to a 4-Track mix since it's Dolby Stereo and—in theory—should work just fine. Unfortunately, TomArrow's passed the opportunity since the audio isn't a lossless rip / capture, so I'll have to look into some alternative. Don't suppose you'd be interested in giving it shot would you Sporv? It'd be a chance to test your new analog hardware lol

[LucasGodzilla]

I would like to announce that I have a 16 GB MKV made! If you would like to download it, please shoot me a PM!

Special thanks to Alleycat for providing me VHS reference material and to SpaceBlackKnight for being able to digitally upmix the audio to a 4-Track mix (though I hope to get Sporv to do it someday in the future with his hardware for an analog variation of the mix).