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Looks like another Aleksandr Ptushko film is coming from Deaf Crocodile.

I watched Tale of Tsar Saltan a few years ago and remember finding it charming if not quite as epic as Ilya Muromets. But I'm really hoping they've also managed to get Ptushko's Ruslan and Ludmila, easily the most impressively fantastical of his films I've seen -- should look brilliant if it ever makes it to blu!

The latest Deaf Crocodile newsletter announced Czech occult / horror anthology Prague Nights.

Trailer

criterionsnob wrote: Thu Apr 13, 2023 4:14 pm The latest Deaf Crocodile newsletter announced Czech occult / horror anthology Prague Nights.

Trailer

Oh nice! I'll be catching their restoration of this and The Pied Piper at the Salem Horror Fest next week.

It would be nice if Deaf Crocodile continued to pick up the "slack" of Czech fantasy/horror/sci fi films; they have a particular taste in curation that seem even more suited to the task than Second Run. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the two labels collaborate, or at least pool resources, on a future release.

The directors of Prague Nights are Jirí Brdecka (writer of several films for Oldrich Lipsky, as well as The Cassandra Cat), Milos Makovec (who seems to have little notoriety by comparison), and Evald Schorm (the least represented of the Pearls of the Deep auteurs on disc, if I recall correctly).

Deaf Crocodile recently tweeted out a photo with this tagline:
30 years ago great friend, VFX legend Robert Skotak mentioned an incredible Folk-Horror movie to Dennis. A bit of a cross between Terry Gilliam, Hammer Horror and THE WICKER MAN. Now decades later, it's finally happening for us at Deaf Crocodile.
For reference here's the photo:


Can anyone help? Thanks for reading.

SeizureMilk wrote: Tue May 09, 2023 5:12 am Deaf Crocodile recently tweeted out a photo with this tagline:
30 years ago great friend, VFX legend Robert Skotak mentioned an incredible Folk-Horror movie to Dennis. A bit of a cross between Terry Gilliam, Hammer Horror and THE WICKER MAN. Now decades later, it's finally happening for us at Deaf Crocodile.
For reference here's the photo:

Spoiler

Can anyone help? Thanks for reading.

It's Savage Hunt of King Stakh (1980). You can see the corresponding riders in this trailer.

Ooh, big fan of Savage Hunt of King Stakh. There's a blu-ray of this coming? Good stuff.

Thanks everyone for the help, greatly appreciated, I'll also make sure to watch King Stakh per felhong's recommendation.

sabbath wrote: Tue May 09, 2023 5:24 am It's Savage Hunt of King Stakh (1980). You can see the corresponding riders in this trailer.

Okay so to anyone new to this film like me, there's 2 versions, an hour and 45 minute cut and a 2 hour and 6 minute cut on YouTube so I watched both cuts of the film in at the same time, which outside of extra atmospheric shots and longer tracking shots, is pretty much the same film, which either way is an aesthetic and Gothic marvel, from the desolate housing to the eerie slowing of time and actually feels like, hear me out, a more serious ZeroGrad, also with Deaf Crocodile, both stories are of men from big cities who based off what we know are simple men, travelling to a small town for at first a measly goal, suddenly getting caught in it's bizarre and surreal world/characters, including being caught in a police investigation for a murder of a man that they only served as witness to. Now the reason I highlighted surreal is because surreal is absurd but grounded in reality and that is the problem with Savage Hunt of King Stakh, I know the director didn't intend for any truly horror aesthetic and I get the idea of

Spoiler

the hunt being comprised of objects and led by the man Andrej wounded in a gun fight

especially in the narrative. But if the director truly intended for drama, surely there would have been more of a way to include into the narrative, plus while the blue lady twist makes sense, the little man reveal feels silly and undermines any true macabre sense, like the director thought there wasn't enough comedy so he did this as way to not scare the audience to much. However this isn't a post merely to serve as negative criticism, because the story is strong and the characters are good & well defined, from the tragic mistress to the humorous trope, the story as any adaption should be, works wonders through it's pen. Overall though, it is a great film slightly undermined by the need for rational.

SeizureMilk wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 4:18 pm Speaking of Zerograd, why is the English translation Zerograd anyway. The Russian title when directly translated means Zero City, it's on the back of the standard edition cover art, it's on the posters, it's on the credits even. So unless the director or studio choose to make it Zerograd, I don't really get it.

I had this exact conversation with my Russian-speaking partner – she pointed out that "grad" is an old-fashioned word anyway, and that the original title uses "gorod", i.e. the generic word for "city". But I must say that "Zerograd" sounds much more compelling to my Anglo ears than "Zero City", and I guess the original international distributors felt the same because that's how it was titled in the UK, US and Australia when it screened at festivals and theatrically in the early 1990s.

Found this comment on the Blu-Ray.com forum responding to Prague Nights:

It does but honestly I don't have the patience anymore to read subs to watch a film, you really miss out on too much if you are having to concentrate on reading. Even considering selling all my non-english stuff soon.

Wasn’t that posted by that dude with severe dyslexia? I feel for him.

Peacock wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 5:11 pm Wasn’t that posted by that dude with severe dyslexia? I feel for him.

Oh

Deaf Crocodile’s forthcoming Prague Nights looks very cool

Deaf Crocodile is rapidly becoming one of my favourite labels.

SeizureMilk wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 5:44 pm

Peacock wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 5:11 pm Wasn’t that posted by that dude with severe dyslexia? I feel for him.

Oh

Just kidding


And yeah Deaf Crocodile are interesting, when will they get their own thread? What would people say is the best film they’ve released?

Peacock wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 8:50 pm

SeizureMilk wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 5:44 pm

Peacock wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 5:11 pm Wasn’t that posted by that dude with severe dyslexia? I feel for him.

Oh

Just kidding


And yeah Deaf Crocodile are interesting, when will they get their own thread? What would people say is the best film they’ve released?

Fish & Cat is my favorite so far, but I'm taken with almost everything they've released. Solomon King is the only thing I'd say is straight up a bad movie.

For anyone interested in Prague Nights, here's an article on the film (Spoilers ahead):
https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/revue/ ... 968#_edn10

Just wish Deaf Crocodile’s discs aren’t region-locked all the time. Hopefully Second Run is interested in Prague Nights.

It would actually be cheaper for me to import a Second Run release than direct-buy the Deaf Crocodile release by about $10. I’ll have to wait for a sale because I just can’t afford a single-film release at ~$35 right now.

FWIW FiM has been encoding for Deaf Crocodile. On the other hand, I’ve heard Second Run’s compression is usually mediocre.

Matt, it's worth periodically checking back on third-party retail sites like DD, since it'll show up there at some point soon at a lower price point. If I want a VS or partner label release outside of the bi-annual sales, I almost always look there, and they're usually barely-if-at-all more than the 50% price, especially if they're not backordered during a 15% sale (though I've often found that they're cheaper during preorder/non-15% windows, so I usually just grab them then)

What TWWB said. I got Bullets over Summer at deepdiscount for $10-13 less if you can wait for a month or so.