The DVD release from Lionsgate is listed as being a fullscreen transfer. Was that the original aspect ratio of the film? Normally I turn to IMDb for this type of info, but the technical specs section is unusually sparse. Anyone know what the original aspect ratio was by chance?
"I grew up watching TV and I turned out TV." - Homer Simpson
Oy, I guess this DVD review that another user poster says it all:
http://www.dreadcentral.com/index.php?name=Reviews&req=showcontent&id=1634
What a shame...
The DVDTalk review isn't as bad in regards the video though, so hopefully we'll get a few more reviews to balance things out.
"I grew up watching TV and I turned out TV." - Homer Simpson
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After watching the film on DVD, it appears to me that it was indeed shot in fullframe. I could be wrong, but none of the shot compositions look tight (no people get cut out of frame) and there is no evidence of panning and scanning. Or if it WAS in widescreen, then this fullframe transfer is very unobtrusive and easy enough to live with. But I've seen my fair share of pan and scan jobs in the past, and this just didn't look like one of 'em. I'd still be curious to find out for sure though.
"I grew up watching TV and I turned out TV." - Homer Simpson
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But a widescreen masterpiece or a fullscreen masterpiece? That's the question! Hehe.
"I grew up watching TV and I turned out TV." - Homer Simpson
Given the time that the movie was shot (1994), it was most likely shot in Super 35. This was really big at the time. Popularized mostly by James Cameron in T2, The Abyss, and Titanic.
The movie is filmed in fullscreen but later cropped for theatres to fit the retangular aspect ratio. Then, when the film hit VHS it is shown in full and no one misses a thing.
This was done mainly because most VHS titles were fullscreen only. It eliminated the need to pan and scan.
So judging by what I've seen, Night of the Demons 2 was most likely shot on fullscreen 4:3 ratio.
You mean the movie lied?!
Thanks for the educated guesstimation! That's what I thought too. It actually looks like Night of the Demons 2 was shot with 4:3 in mind, rather than composed for a widescreen and then simply displayed open-matte in fullscreen versions. I say this because a lot of times when films are shown in open-matte the compositions understandably look off (namely way too much head space and unused parts of the frame). Don't get me wrong, I'd much prefer this to actually losing image, but in the case of Night of the Demons 2, all the compositions actually look pretty accurate in full frame. Anyway, thanks again for the good response.
"I grew up watching TV and I turned out TV." - Homer Simpson
No it was not filmed in 4:3 fullscreen, it was shot in a 1:85.1 aspect ration in 35mm..... look it up on IMDB. Why would they shoot a theatrical film in 4:3?
shareThis film never played in theaters. It was direct to video.
shareThis was a theatrical film, not DTV.
https://ibb.co/WpYnWSj