Severin releasing Four Flies on Grey Velvet on UHD

[Derrick King Waterfall Puncher Find all posts View Profile Close Derrick King]

on Black Friday

LIMITED EDITION WEBSTORE ONLY 4-DISC SET
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)


This third feature from writer/director Dario Argento – the final film in his legendary ‘Animal Trilogy’ – has long been the least-seen of his giallo classics…until now: When a rock drummer (Michael Brandon) accidentally kills a stranger, he’ll unlock a nightmare of blackmail, paranoia and grisly murder that climaxes with “arguably the most visually impressive sequence in any of Argento’s movies” (Scream Magazine). Mimsy Farmer (AUTOPSY), Jean-Pierre Marielle (THE PERFUME OF YVONNE) and Bud Spencer (THE 5-MAN ARMY) co-star in this “horror holy grail and one of the great works of post-modern dread ever” (PopMatters) co-written by Luigi Cozzi and featuring a nerve-jangling score by Ennio Morricone, with both The Director’s Cut and English Language Version now fully restored in 4K from the original 2-perf negative.


Special Features for FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET:

Disc 1: UHD
*Exclusive Slipcase
*Audio Commentary With Mondo Digital's Nathaniel Thompson And Troy Howarth, Author Of So Deadly, So Perverse: Giallo-Style Films From Around the World (Director's Cut Only)
*Italian Trailer
*US Trailer


Disc 2: Feature Blu-ray
*Audio Commentary With Mondo Digital's Nathaniel Thompson And Troy Howarth, Author Of So Deadly, So Perverse: Giallo-Style Films From Around the World (Director's Cut Only)
*Lord Of The Flies – Interview With Co-Writer/Director Dario Argento
*The Day Of The Flies – Interview With Co-Writer Luigi Cozzi
*Italian Trailer
*U.S. Trailer


Disc 3: Special Features Blu-ray
*Have A Talk With God – Interview With Actor Bud Spencer
*Please Mr. Postman – Interview With Actor Gildo Di Marco
*Death In Slo-Mo – Interview With Assistant Cameraman Roberto Forges Davanzati
*Time Flies – Interview With Production Manager Angelo Iacono
*Dissecting Flies – Interview With Film Historian Antonio Tentori
*Flies On The Wall – Interview With Alan Jones, Author Of Profondo Argento


Disc 4: Soundtrack CD - Original score by Ennio Morricone


Disc Specs for FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET :
*Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
*Audio: Director's Cut: English Mono With Partial Italian Mono, Italian Mono / English Language Cut: English Mono, Italian Mono
*Subtitles: English
*Closed Captions: English SDH
*Region: All

We'll see how long before/if Paramount shuts this down.

[Darcy Parker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Darcy Parker]

If Paramount had the standard 50-year license on this one, they won't have much to say for long.

[Derrick King Waterfall Puncher Find all posts View Profile Close Derrick King]

Both the Kino Insider and Cliff MacMillan from Scream Factory claim that Paramount still own it, and Paramount believes they own it, so we'll see.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

Ouch, no fucking way I'm paying that much + international shipping + tax just to get this on UHD, potential rarity or not. Severin's shipping is extortionate, they need to take a leaf out of VS's book, they still manage to be reasonably priced and provide a much faster service. They can't claim there's no cheaper option when VS thrash them on shipping. Now Severin have done away with free international shipping over $150 (a policy change going forward), I won't be buying direct from them again, I'll just use UK sellers, it will work out cheaper. Anything that's a webstore exclusive I'll just have to skip.

Edit: Looks like tax is only added above $150, so going to $250 to get flat $25 shipping costs you more because of the tax. Even so, standard $45 shipping to the UK is way too high.

[Darcy Parker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Darcy Parker]

Ouch, no fucking way I'm paying that much + international shipping + tax just to get this on UHD, potential rarity or not. Severin's shipping is extortionate, they need to take a leaf out of VS's book, they still manage to be reasonably priced and provide a much faster service. They can't claim there's no cheaper option when VS thrash them on shipping. Now Severin have done away with free international shipping over $150 (a policy change going forward), I won't be buying direct from them again, I'll just use UK sellers, it will work out cheaper. Anything that's a webstore exclusive I'll just have to skip.

Edit: Looks like tax is only added above $150, so going to $250 to get flat $25 shipping costs you more because of the tax. Even so, standard $45 shipping to the UK is way too high.

At least in your case, they are actually shipping it across an ocean! Shipping to Canada is almost as bad, and that his just crossing a border into a country that supposedly has a free trade agreement with the USA!

[BW Haggar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BW Haggar]

Severin's shipping is extortionate, they need to take a leaf out of VS's book, they still manage to be reasonably priced and provide a much faster service. They can't claim there's no cheaper option when VS thrash them on shipping.

Totally agree, although I just paid the $45 anyway, because I'm a shmuck. (For a bunch of other stuff, not 'Four Flies..', I should clarify.)

[Toyboy like a hole in the head Find all posts View Profile Close Toyboy]

If Vinegar Syndrome is charging less for international shipping it means they're eating that extra cost in order to allow people outside the US to get their product. Severin isn't up-charging nor has Vinegar Syndrome found some alternative that Severin hasn't.

Having just shipped hundreds of books all over the world, and having lost money doing so, I've investigated most available shipping options and the shit is just expensive. Period. To ship a book that weighs 2 lbs 2 oz to Spain costs $49.58 via UPS Worldwide Expedited. To use First Class International with the US Post Office would be $40.47 and would likely take over a month to get there and be beat to shit in the process. That's if it makes it through customs. Even though books are supposedly exempt from VAT rules I'm getting stuff returned to me with zero explanation and no option for my customers to pay the duty fees themselves. Not sure what the rules are on DVDs and BluRays.

International shipping is fucked and that isn't Severin's fault. Again, if VS or anyone else offers cheaper shipping it means they're willing to eat costs simply to make stuff available to foreign customers, not because they've discovered some magic shipping option that costs less than others.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

Obviously you have your own experience shipping heavier items, so I'm not disputing that. But for discs, $17 flat vs. $45? Yes, VS are willing to lose a bit on large orders, but not a suicidal loss. Maybe VS have a bulk deal with FedEx, but no business is going to take that big a hit. Diabolik, whilst not as good as VS, are far more reasonable than Severin and there's no way Jesse is taking a hit to help out international customers as a seller who doesn't need to promote others' product (I've seen interviews with him, he's an avowed capitalist by his own admission). VS need to find a better deal, because others have one, unless they're massively marking up their handling fees or have set their flat rate higher to stimulate larger orders. I have no idea what the comparable volumes are between the two companies, but I would expect them to be similar in the boutique market.

If Severin could offer 3 day delivery across the Atlantic like VS do, I'd probably be happier paying $45. But they are hands down the most expensive disc supplier internationally so they're doing something wrong. Or maybe not, as they have exclusive product and can hold people by the balls and squeeze.

[Toyboy like a hole in the head Find all posts View Profile Close Toyboy]

It could be that Severin doesn't care to deal with it at all and wants to discourage international orders. I can't say for sure and probably shouldn't speculate about their business practices, but as someone who has had to deal with people expecting that I somehow have a cure-all for the rates that are set by the shippers I tend to err on the side of the companies that are dealing with the nightmare of shipping in the 21st century. It's a thin line when it comes to weight. If my 2 lb book was 1 lb and 15 oz it would be almost half the cost. If that bundle weighs over 2 lbs then $45 international is normal and they're not likely to be charging for supplies or handling, and when they're shipping to certain parts of the world such as Australia or New Zealand they're probably eating a buck or two...or five.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

It would be a shame if Severin wanted to discourage international orders. I've been buying David's releases since his UK label Exploited started putting out VHS tapes in the late 90s. They're probably the US label I buy the most of these days, and they seem to have put those compression issues behind them. I guess the ultimate villain are the couriers who are putting up prices and delivering a worse service. I checked UK shipping on a recent 3 disc release (The Changeling UHD) between Severin and Diabolik, and Severin were $7.71 higher. They must have much higher staff costs than Diabolik, but even so that seems excessive to me.

Severin did put out a few titles in both the UKand US (predating Arrow, 88 and Powerhouse etc.), I wish they'd do it more (88 seem to be their partner of choice these days). I guess international licencing and BBFC fees put a stop to that.

At the end of the day, it's only going to get harder and more expensive importing cool shit these days.

[Derrick King Waterfall Puncher Find all posts View Profile Close Derrick King]

A head's up, Severin's Andrew Furtado said that there are no plans for a standard release of Four Flies. Now, ordinarily I'd take that with a grain of salt (i.e. the multiple times that Synapse has lied about no standard edition of titles they released in as overpriced steelbooks,) but Severin, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't released standard editions of titles they sold as Black Friday exclusives (although, some of these have popped back up on the site during other sales.)

[Darcy Parker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Darcy Parker]

Of all the years for Black Friday to fall between my paydays! Fuck!

[Adrian Jones Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Adrian Jones]

I put in an initial order and got the shock of my life when i got to the check out and got a $70 tax bill plus $25 shipping + duties, so i stripped back to the essentials. Now i know there are new tax rules in Europe and the UK despite Brexit BS saying we make our own laws, they were more than happy to sign up to this sh*te.....but oddly less keen on the Europe wide anti-tax avoidance measures that affect the very rich, anyway i digress.

Diabolik recently implemented the IOSS registration which means you pay the tax upfront, mind you it didn't stop me getting an additional £50 charge from Royal Mail when the package arrived in the UK, Diabolik were cool about it and refunded the tax i had paid at their end.

I have asked Severin several times on Facebook if they are IOSS registered, and if not where is this tax charge going? No response so far and if customers experience the same as what happened to me i don't think they will be very popular.

IOSS (europa.eu)

[Oily Maniac Member Find all posts View Profile Close Oily Maniac]

The total for Four Flies shipped USPS to Japan was $88USD & change. When adding a single disc title in an attempt to justify the shipping costs, the fee ballooned to over $40. Diabolik DVD also uses USPS with similar pricing. Error 4444 ships USPS and charged roughly $22 for a single disc, postcards, etc. plus a folded poster. Last I checked Vinegar Syndrome charges $17 for FedEx International. When ordering from UK based stores like Arrow & Zavvi JP the flat shipping fee is approx $10-15USD. The Tenebre & Phenomena UHD boxes were roughly $60USD SHIPPED from the UK to Japan.

While I can kinda write the shipping cost off as a toxic mix of the awful USPS & frustrated retailers, what really angers me is the reports the "Exclusive Slipcase" & accompanying pic of a thick package is a ruse, as it's really just a slipcover. Yes, times are tough, but for $55 a proper box are in order. Even if Severin releases Inferno, Dellamorte Dellamore or Stage Fright, I'll likely buy the UK releases for spite & shipping costs. Four Flies is on my Bucket List(RIP Banana Man) but the number of titles that can be used to exploit my FOMO, like my disposable income, is low.

[Toyboy like a hole in the head Find all posts View Profile Close Toyboy]

Error 4444 ships USPS and charged roughly $22 for a single disc, postcards, etc. plus a folded poster.

A "Large Envelope/Flat" to Chigasaki is $21.25 so they're using First Class International - bottom of the barrel. I saw the pics of the package they used to ship that to you and they should have at the very least gone with the "Package/Thick Envelope" option under First Class and added more support. However, if the resulting package is too thick it would necessitate Priority which would be $55.91. They went the wing & a prayer route.

Severin has been doing this a lot longer than Error 4444 so my guess is that they don't even bother offering First Class since chances are the package will be mangled along the way and customers will demand a replacement, and/or it will take a very long time to get to customers and result in constant "Hey, where's my order?" emails. I can tell by the tone of Severin's social media posts regarding shipping that they're at the "Take it or Leave it" phase when it comes to international.

If they're charging $88 that appears to me then that they're using Priority Express and I'd wager the reasoning behind that is the less time a package is in transit the less time it has to get lost or damaged. Most likely Severin's logic is that if they offered non-Priority options, they'd be stuck having to replace items that the post office destroys. Along with that, and I don't blame them at all, they are probably secretly trying to discourage overseas orders.