Anolis's 2-disc DVD set contains 3 distinct versions of "I vampiri" - German ("Der Vampir von Notre Dame"), the original Italian & US ("The Devil's Commandment").

The parts common to all 3 versions come from the same master (AR of 2.17:1), and - after matching the screenshots - it turned out that our selection covers exactly those "common" parts. Thus, at the bottom of this page, you'll find only one set of screenshots representing all 3 versions.

The only samples of the unique German (AR of 2.27:1) and Italian (AR of 2.30:1) footage we've got here are the versions' respective title cards. Interestingly enough, the Italian footage matches (sans interlacing) that of Film Prestige / Image Entertainment:

The US footage (AR of 2.44:1) was rather more interesting to look at; hence, there are a few extra samples in that version's "tech sheet" below. (c:

It appears that something went gaga during the hybrid German / Italian soundtrack production - as you can see below, the Italian parts are mixed into a single channel of the 2.0 track at double the volume:

Even though being the shortest of the bunch, the US version actually contains some extra (mostly "naughty" ;-)) footage (shot specifically for the US market?):

Finally, an anamorphic AND progressive transfer of "I vampiri!" Sure, it's not state-of-the-art (i.e. Criterion), but, for the moment, DVDFreak's content... ;-)

Well, dang me! I ordered this Russian DVD, because I quite liked "I vampiri," and was not satisfied with the Image's PAL-fieldblended-to-NTSC (i.e. interlaced) transfer. Boy, was I in for a surprise! Despite saying "PAL" on the cover, this Russian DVD utilises exactly the same (i.e. bitwise identical) NTSC video stream as the Image disc. :-P Keep away from it!

Trust the guys @ kultvideo.it! Taking the tech specs on their site for granted:



I ordered "Los vampiros" just to find out they're in fact non-anamorphic! :-P Thank god the transfer's at least progressive, and I must admit, to my eyes, it looks a teeny bit better than its NTSC counterpart, which - I think - is overly bright. Framing differs from scene to scene; at times, Filmax shows more picture than FP / Image, at others, it's the other way around...

If you take a look at the playback times of all these versions, you'll see they're practically identical. That explains why the transfer we're given here is not progressive - it was improperly converted (fieldblended) from a PAL source. Following are two examples of heavy combing artefacts caused by this: