| Author | Message | ||
     Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
So I watched CASTLE OF THE WALKING DEAD last night, which I'd seen a German trailer for about a year ago as DIE SCHLANGENGRUBE UND DAS PENDEL, not realising it was the same film as one called THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR SADISM. And according to IMDB there's an American version called BLOOD OF THE VIRGINS. And another called BLOOD DEMONS. And SNAKEPIT. And TORTURE CHAMBER. I understand titles mutate through translation, but why do they end up having so many variations in English alone? (And in my experience it only seems to happen with horror and porn, so is it genre-specific?) Is it some ploy to get you to see the film again? A way of hoodwinking the distributors? Does anyone know? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
It's an attempt to disguise rubbish films... | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.159.111 |
Oooh, I dunno - LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE has loads of titles too, and I think that's a nice little film. My copy's called LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE, for a start, and I recall reading a huge number of different names for it some years back. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
That's an excellent film, Mick. My guess is that these films were retitled and repackaged to make more money - you know, in the hope of sneaking them past a casual viewer who thinks it's a new film. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.100 |
Oh Miss Flynn you should have asked me - I could have told you it was a retitling. Last night I watched Hammer's The Satanic Rites of Dracula under the title Count Dracula & His Vampire Brides. It's also been called Dracula is Dead & Well & Living in London. And yes - movies were often retitled to make more money, and more specifically to be part of a double bill - eg Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue got retitled as 'Don't Open the Window' when it was billed with SF Brownrigg's 'Don't Look in the Basement'. One of the best examples was Del Tenney's 'Zombies' which was retitled by distributor Jerry Gross as 'I Eat Your Skin' to go out with 'I Drink Your Blood'. Do you think I need to see someone to have all this stuff taken out of my head? | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
I've got a film at home called Zombie Nosh which has a different title in the end credits and yet another title in the trailer for itself which is also on the tape. It's one of the worst zombie films ever made. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Then there's Tenebrae which was called Unsane in the US of A. Peter Jackson's Brain Dead was retitled Dead alive for the states to stop it getting mixed with a US film also called BrainDead which was handled by the same distributor. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.124.163 |
Film titles in translation are also fun and are changed really dramatically. In Denmark for example lots of popular horror movies are preceded with the word 'the evil' something: Pet cemetery: The evil cemetery (equivalent danish trans) The silence of the lambs: Evil's Eye The shinning: The evil hotel etc... | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 85.158.139.99 |
Do you think I need to see someone to have all this stuff taken out of my head? Only if you're running out of space for new stuff. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.124.163 |
It: The Evil thing Salem's lot: the evil town | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.124.163 |
Jacob's Ladder: 'The descent into hell', is another translation. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
The sound of Music was allegedly retitled into Spanish as The Story of Maria, rebel novice nun | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
The Yorkshire release of Sunset Boulevard was called Bit Parky Darn Our Road. It wasn't really, but it should have been. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.124.163 |
Ha! | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Zombie Nosh - the other titles are Flesh Eater Flesh eater: Revenge of the living Dead Revenge of the Living Zombies. It's one of the few films where the proles on IMDB say they like it while the "intelligentia" are the naysayers. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
What on earth is a LIVING zombie? Thanks for answering the question for me. I guess I'm still naive enough to have believed there was some reason other than to make more money.  Ah well. A quick IMDB search on "Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon" reveals some poorly disguised alternate titles, plus one of the most off-the-wall I've ever seen: Dr. Goudron's System Dr. Tarr's Pit of Horrors Edgar Allan Poe: Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon (USA) House of Madness Mansión de la locura, La (Mexico) (dubbed version) The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather That last one's really something special. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.231.91 |
That last one is also the original title of the Poe story, believe it or not! The exact title is "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether". | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.231.91 |
La Lama nel Corpo (original title): Night of Terrors Les Nuits de l'épouvante (France) Revenge of the Living Dead The Blade in the Body (a literal translation of the original title, this) The Murder Clinic (USA) The Murder Society There was some talk about this being released on dvd, but alas . . . | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Many years ago in Paris I went across town to see a film with the tempting title of (I think) Le Monstre qui Chuchotait dans les Tenebres. Imagine my dismay when I arrived to be confronted by the poster for The Deadly Mantis. |