This is a film I would have loved to have found in scope, however, a call out on the other channel resulted in a PM from a collector who was in Australia. A price was given and I was happy to get a print of this well known release for a good normal price.
The collector even said if I was able to wait a couple of months he was visiting the UK so he could bring it over and post within the UK thus saving me a fair amount in shipment. What more could I ask?
Upon receiving it there were two things I have to mention,
1/ most important, the quality is up there with the best, superb colours and excellent sound.
2/ BUT, what I didn’t realise at the time of first showing was “that Elmo lamp problem” was haunting me for a second time, the problem is that I didn’t realise it as this was my first showing of this film so upon the first viewing I thought, “I’m not sure what everyone’s harping on about, the image seems dull”.
This was all earlier in the year. Since then, I pulled out the lamp housing and had a modification made and now everything is A1, and with the new design, like other collectors with 1200s, I can simply replace the bulb sockets very simply if it goes again. And this modification is a Bill Parsons mod so its made to line up and fit correctly using the original bracket but modifying the way the bulb fits in there and does away with that spring and contact idea.
As for this print, being Halloween I decided to show it to myself as Brothers away etc.
Print, very good, no problems at all,
Colours, A1 , clean natural vibrant colours & no fade what so ever,
Condition, A-, just the lightest and thinnest of black line appears once or twice for a few feet, if i had to be really picky, the only thing i could mention is at the start of reels 3, 4 5 & 6 there is around 5 seconds of negative sparkle, but not really worth mentioning.
This is a red fox print but it must be either Agfa or LPP, there is no blue tint on this and its every bit as good as any Derann print I have seen, supplied originally on 6 x 400ft spools and now on two Elmo 1200ft metal spools.
This had to be one of the best ghosty movies on 8, if you can find it I would highly recommend it, scope or flat.
As this film is so well known in our hobby I wont apply the plot but will show it here in images, hopefully it will tell the story, as always my old digi 4mp camera does not do it any justice at all.


On a sad note, here are a couple of tragic facts about two of the cast members of this movie.
Dominique Dunne, the 22-year-old actress who portrayed big sister Dana Freeling in the first Poltergeist film (released in June 1982), died on 4 November 1982 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, four days after her boyfriend choked her into a coma from which she never awoke. Weeks earlier, Dunne had ended her abusive live-in relationship with Los Angeles chef John Sweeney, but on the night of 30 October 1982, he dropped by their former shared residence to plead with her to take him back. The conversation did not go as he’d hoped, and the encounter ended with him strangling her for what was later determined to be 4 to 6 minutes, then leaving her for dead in her driveway.
Sweeney was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, sentenced in November 1983, and released in 1986 after serving only 3 years, 8 months of a 6½ year sentence. His short sentence and early release remain subjects of controversy.
Heather O’Rourke, the child actress who played Carol Anne Freeling throughout the Poltergeist series (starting when she was six years old), unexpectedly passed away at the age of 12 when she died of septic shock on 1 February 1988 at the Children’s Hospital in San Diego. What had been thought to be a bout of ordinary flu launched her into cardiac arrest during the drive to the local hospital as bacterial toxins set loose by a bowel obstruction made their way into her bloodstream. Her heart was successfully restarted and she was flown by helicopter to the much-larger Children’s Hospital, where she underwent an operation to remove the obstruction. The toxins rampaging through her system proved too much, however, and she died on the operating table.

Not much interest in Poltergeist i guess!

There was from me Tom!

All of your excellent reviews and screenshots are sincerely most appreciated by me here. If others choose never to look or comment on any, that is their loss Tom.

Once again Tom, raises the question at times as to what people do look in on here for and those who don't even bother looking in here, why they bothered becoming a member in the first place?

Same old questions.
Same old responses.

Why have I not seen this post? Hmmm, getting old. It is a great film, nice review too, Tom. Sorry I missed your post. You forgot something though ... A1 for JoBeth Williams ;-) Damn, that is a sweet woman

Tom..I didn't see this post till now either! Strange...
The print looks great. Sharper than my scope print it looks...oops..did I say that? :) I did!
I have a question for you about the sound. Since many of the scenes initially are kind of quiet and then there is a loud sound, does the volume on your print seem low when they are talking? My print sounds low and then boom! Loud with the music.
I am thinking its because the sound was re-recorded using the DVD so the signal to noise ration is much higher than the S/N ratio the mag stripe can handle.
I wonder how your print sounds.

I have a flat Kempski print of this film, the same as Tom's , Alan.
I hadn't noticed any discernable changes in volume between talkie sections of the film and the effects sections over and above the norm.
Nothing my ears picked up on anyhow.

That's good to know.
Digital is starting to look better every day....haha!
Just kidding of course. I may like the gear we use as much as I do the films. But it could be because I'm older now and the nostalgia is part of it. I remember thinking when I saw the posters, A Steven Spielberg Production but a Tobe Hooper film? What is that about?
And now the rumor has it that Spielberg directed the film and not Tobe Hooper.
http://www.slashfilm.com/steven-spielberg-poltergeist/

Either way one of the best Ghost movies to ever appear and thank god we have it in both formats in Super 8!

I don't need any convincing regarding the quality of today's digital projected images Alan!

When you see how brilliant the resulting images are just from a relatively tiny, powerful and silent box, I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would attempt to rig full commercial cinema sized 35mm set ups in their homes for ordinary sized home cinema screens, only for it to look no better than a Blu Ray if we are honest.
As much as I love Super 8mm film, this to me, is a step beyond my commitment to real film I have to shamefully admit.
I love Super 8mm due to its superb home friendly nature, but for anything else, it's a no brainer in my book.

Sorry Vidar, and while we don't promote such activity here, it does have to be said I felt, when raised previously.

Now then, back to all things FILM.

The sound on this print is pretty much level all the way through Alan,
Also agree with Andy on the you know what
Have to add, for me, although we continue to buy new titles (& saving for Blackpool next year, HOPEFULLY), whenever i think about what i spend on a title and see a BR projected image on my starter machine, i do question it more and more. This particular title was a collectors price purchase, i am in dismay when i look on-line to see titles i would like starting at 600 quid upwards, it is nothing more than plain ridiculous and will in the end kill off this hobby of ours which would be very sad. Even the 16s that were almost sold for next to nothing are all starting to go up and up. The bank account is only so big and at present the motor trade i am in is seeing a very worrying downhill spiral so i dont know whats coming next but it isn't good.

Everybody is currently feeling the pinch here in the UK at least, at this current time.
Without labouring on topics that involve politics, I did say that Brexit would be really bad for our country at the time of the vote, despite fierce opposition as I remember here at that time.
Already we are fast seeing a very nervous spending UK public, even before it has even happened!
Employers will equally admit there is the same level of uncertainty that lies ahead as even the most pessimistic employees would predict.
There is no good news to any of this

On the subject of projection methods chosen, my views were never based on any additional expenditure or financial restraints either way.
If they were, none of us would bother with anything cine.
My words were just based entirely on performance related issues only. That is why Super 8mm will always have a place now in my home because it ticks all of the boxes with very little compromise for standard home cinema screen sizes.
It can sit harmoniously alongside us all, just like those little silent b/w boxes can.
I don't believe I could personally ever declare the same for any of the larger gauge stuff.

I agreed with Alan earlier when he said much of all this is to do with the actual nostalgia and love for the equipment itself as well as the actual end product of what we all witness on screen.
That is something that is just irreplaceable with anything from present day or probably from future times ahead.
Just in the same way as no CD player can thrill like the performance of a Technics SL1200 turntable for example.

Andrew, I have to disagree with your point about Blu-ray looking as good as 35mm film. I'm not saying it's practical to own and service a 35mm projector at home.

But the technologies which are deployed even in professional digital cinemas do not match up to 35mm. Texas Instruments' Cinema DLP technology can render 35 trillion colours, but that is still only a fraction of the infinite gamut that exists on film. Dolby Vision or any of the HDR technologies are still trying to get as dark as film, but the engineers will readily tell you they're not there yet.

Look at even some of your Derann good colour Super 8 prints. In a dark scene, the whole room will go black. Tell me you can see the same thing even at your local DLP cinema. There is an astounding what I call 'colour intensity' in dark scenes on Super 8 (or 16mm or 35mm) film which I guarantee you can never replicate on your Epson or JVC in your living room, nor in the local fleapit. Yes, you may get better detail resolution, but you won't get the colour resolution, and certainly not the equivalent black level.

For black level and levels of contrast in general, of course I agree Martin.
For all else, to my eyes the colour palette, resolution of image, brightness levels, steadiness of image even during panning etc, and just all round quality of image on screen even at what can be considered enormous image sizes in home cinema terms, I'm always jaw droppingly astounded by what I regularly see using the better shiny disc medium alongside any decent modern day HC dedicated machine (DLP being the exception for me personally).

As we know, this forum does not allow continued discussion on home cinema topics for anything other than film and that is something which I respect the owners viewpoint on.
For that reason Martin, I won't discuss any further any of the other merits and endorsements i know of, or have read from the opinions of other dual format enthusiasts.

Of course in your line of work I respect beyond question your knowledge and experiences of all things cinema related Martin, that goes without saying, but at the end of the day, I'm a person who can enjoy the benefits of both and gain much pleasure from each.
However purely from a practical point of view in the home environment,including their relatively small screen sizes, I can only stand by my original statement for what my eyes have witnessed from the two very different technologies and the resulting images from each.

Vidar will around with his baseball bat in a minute if your not careful chaps.

Quite right Tom! 😂😂😂

Andrew, believe me, I love my digital AV setup and I do all my serious film collecting on BD due to cost, practicality, and its stunning audio and video performance, but if I had an option instead of owning a 35mm screening room with platter system and wet lease of a permanent projectionist, I'd be right there!

I use Super 8 as an outlet to collect films I loved as a kid, mostly schlocky horror and disaster movies. It still amazes me how different an experience it is. There are qualities about the look of small format projected film and its wonderful mechanics which are utterly unassailable.

Wenn Sie hier auf Links zu eBay klicken und einen Kauf tätigen, kann dies dazu führen, dass diese Website eine Provision erhält.

When I have the room for 35mm I will do that too! NYC living quarters is small but I just saw an auction for Dustin Hoffman's 35mm projectors on Ebay! He had them installed in his apartment. Now that is wild. I wonder if he did the changeovers?
Here is the link:

Werbung: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Owned-by-Actor-...TwAAOSw3xJVbhmK

Thats nuts, can it be verified as Dustin Hoffman's, not that i would give a shit, even if the Queen owned it, doesn't add any value onto in my opinion.