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Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray (Uncut) |
Comparison between the cut Hong Kong DVD by Joy Sales / Fortune Star and the uncut US Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome
- 6 changes
Lau Hung-Chuen's 1983 Devil Fetus was made on a small budget, but with a lot of passion and creative ideas. Shortly before, Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist was a huge box office success, and the Shaw Brothers in particular also had a wild occult horror film in their program, The Boxer's Omen. Smaller studios also wanted a piece of the action with titles like Centipede Horror. The film was produced by Lo Wei, whose successes with Bruce Lee dated back a long time and who had just lost Jackie Chan to Golden Harvest – however, this studio did take over the distribution here. Among genre fans, Devil Fetus had been sought after for quite some time, but (as so often) availability left something to be desired. In recent years, the Hong Kong DVD from Joy Sales was of course an obvious choice and at least in 2.35:1, but the rape/nude scenes are censored here and a less gory alternative take is used for the killing of the dog. The Ocean Shores laserdisc still contained these scenes, but gory moments such as the evisceration of the dead dog and the masturbation scene were toned down, and the unattractively zoomed full-screen master had a few more missing bits, probably due to the source material. On VHS, the same, already heavily edited master was used as a basis, but with additional cuts (more than on the DVD) around the nude scenes. We cover this heavily censored version in a separate report. The US Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, available in the label shop since the end of March 2025 (and from April also on Amazon), is thus the first opportunity to get an uncut version on a large scale. For this, the rare English audio track was even rescued from an Indonesian VHS, which is likely to be a novelty even for most English-speaking fans. Once again, this new HD scan offers the trashy cult film in unimagined quality, and the release also comes in a double pack with the infamous rape-n-revenge shocker Her Vengeance – in a reconstructed Cat. III combo version and with the Cat. IIb version expanded to include more plot. More about the special features of these two versions in a dedicated report. Incidentally, both films are also to be released individually in the UK by 88 Films later this year. Runtimes:
Runtime information is arranged according to the scheme To start with, a mini image comparison. After all, the Hong Kong DVD was already in 2.35:1, but the aspect ratio now even shows a bit more on Blu-ray.
The Blu-ray starts with the Fortune Star logo. Not included in the duration/amount of edits. 38 sec
Alternative 38:35-38:37 / 40:53-40:55 When the dog's belly is slit, a huge splash of blood lands on Shu Ching's face. The Joy Sales' version shows a more harmless take with significantly less blood. No time difference
A look at the bonus material from Vinegar Syndrome reveals a 2-minute featurette of the alternative or shortened scenes from Joy Sales' version. So, fortunately, these exclusive moments have also been immortalized here and also look better as on the old DVD.
Alternative 56:40-56:44 / 59:44-59:48 The Hong Kong DVD is much closer from a different perspective when the top is torn off at the beginning of the rape scene. No time difference
Here, too, is an illustration of what the scene looks like in the bonus featurette.
Alternative 56:49-56:51 / 59:53-59:55 When looking out the window shortly afterwards, Wai is topless in the original version, while in the Joy Sales version he can be seen wearing his red sweater. No time difference
61:57 / 65:15-65:21 The sheet is pulled down longer: The HK DVD stops the shot exactly when the breast is uncovered. 5.9 sec
62:23 / 65:48-65:52 Wai sniffs the body. 4.4 sec
62:32 / 66:01-66:02 The shot of the guru is actually briefly interrupted (when he brings his hands together) for a reaction shot of the possessed Wai and his victim. Note: So here we have another jump cut, but in contrast to the beginning of the shot (candles suddenly “magically” light up), nothing essential changes. A bit strange, especially since this moment, which is harmless in terms of nudity, was left untouched (unlike all previous moments) on the Ocean Shores VHS. 1 sec
After identical credits, the Blu-ray has additional information from Fortune Star and Vinegar Syndrome.
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