Search - The Mario Bava Collection, Volume 1 (Black Sunday / Black Sabbath / The Girl Who Knew Too Much / Kill Baby Kill / Knives of the Avenger) on DVD

AAAAAAAAAGH! THE HORROR! NO US VERSIONS!!!

2littlemoney | Oakland, CA USA | 04/02/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Well...........in case you didn't hear, don't have frequent Net access, or whatever. This new Bava set, cool as it is, is now no longer going to have the AIP/US cut of BLACK SABBATH. All the Net reviews of pre-release copies I have seen as of this date (4/2/07) confirm the prints on both the BLACK SABBATH & BLACK SUNDAY are cleaner prints, but essentially the same as the Image releases. I don't want to knock Anchor's restoration, but it's the same ol' same ol'....what was gonna make this set pop was the release of both versions of the films. I know there is an audio distinction to BLACK SUNDAY, but it escapes me at this second. So buyers who were looking for the OTHER variants to these specific titles like I was (I already own the original Image releases and am a semi-CASUAL Bava fan I suppose...these two films being my favorites of his), make sure you do your homework to see if the upgrade is worth it to you. Luckily, the price is somewhat cheap enough depending on where you get it (cheapest here, so far). But I was expecting to run out and get this the day of release, then saw the reviews and that basically put the fire out of my little shopping purchase. This can wait.
And before anyone screams at me for not having this in hand and 'reviewing': Hey. a lot of people were expecting BOTH versions to these films to be included, and now they're not, so this might be helpful and save some disappointment. I sure was going to be ticked off.

And the film companies wonder why the bootleg market flourishes....lol"

Bittersweet Box Set

R. Rosener | St. Louis, MO United States | 04/09/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It's great to have all of these Mario Bava titles in one set. The transfers are really beautiful, and a revelation to those of us with memories of grainy 16mm TV prints. "Black Sunday's" monochrome atmosphere looks particularly lush in this set. "Kill Baby Kill" is a major upgrade to the crummy, desaturated DVD I have from Image.
But they really SHOULD have included BOTH US and Italian versions of the star attraction, "Black Sabbbath". Or at least cut in Karloff's actual voice to the Italian version! Why not re-edit the way it should be? I still rushed out to buy this set, but cannot give it five stars due to the pre-release publicity which stated BOTH Black Sabbath versions would be in the box set. Anchor Bay owes all of us an apology or a free DVD of the English version."

Great collection

Marc reinhardt | 04/10/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sorry, but giving this set a bad rating just because the AIP-versions aren't included is stupid in my opinion.
This box includes 5 fantastic movies by Bava (yes, even "Knives Of The Avenger" is a great one) in overall amazing quality with very good bonus features. I believe there is a good reason that AB didn't include the different cuts of "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" and "3 Faces Of Fear": legal issues. If these are solved, hopefully we see these versions someday on DVD (though the only one that really interests me is "The Evil Eye". "Black Sabbath" would just be nice because of Karloff's own dubbing,
but everything else is clearly inferior to the italian version.)
Until then - enjoy what's IN this box, it is an amazing value for the cheap price. Of course many people who want to buy this, already may have different DVDs of some of the movies in there - so everyone must decide for themselves if it is worth getting.
"

Almost perfect but for one fatal flaw

Phil Snyder | Destitute, OH | 08/11/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I would have bought this set, being a fan of Bava and particularly of these films, but without Karloff's voice in Black Sabbath I personally consider it not worth having. I already have the version with the Italian actor's voice and it DOESN'T WORK. Sorry, Bava and Euro/Iti film fans, but the edited American Version is superior to the original for this reason alone (the other drawbacks are relatively negligable). Why else use Karloff if you don't get the full actor? The Italians never shot synch sound, anyway, so even the original Italian version is dubbed! Dubbing is NOT the issue - in fact, it's a non issue. In fact, due to the Italians use of non-synch, I think most Iti films shot this way often work better dubbed into the native language of the viewer, except where a fairly recognizable actor/voice is concerned, so learn that damn lesson and do things my way now!"