OVERALL: Draw

Germany has four cuts of the film and is English-friendly for two of them but not the commentary while the French disc has an exclusive French-language featurette. We do not know if the German release has made the same fixes to the master that Nucleus did for their edition.

GENERAL NOTES:
The film exists in a number of versions:
- The original French-language version (~118 minutes).
- The English-language export version (~88 minutes).
- Another shorter English version (~81 mins)
- The German version (~81 minutes)
- Jess Franco's 2003 director's cut dubbed into Spanish and German with some different music cues (~105 minutes).

The running times differ between the US and UK discs of the French version:

The US disc has 0:12 of Redemption logo at the beginning and 0:12 of black screen and Crawford Media Service logo at the end (118:11). However, the US disc also has 0:07 seconds of co-production credit screen missing from the UK disc, so the US running time without that is 118:04; precisely the same as the UK disc.

The UK disc runs 118:04 without any logos before or after, but ends when “Fin” appears on screen and lacks the 0:07 of co-production credit screen.

A note from Stephen Thrower about this release (and the Nucleus Erotic Rites of Frankenstein):

THE EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN and THE DEMONS: two peak period Jess Franco movies that no serious fan should be without, now available from Nucleus Films and featuring on camera interviews with yours truly!

I'd also say that these two films are well worth buying if you're curious about Franco but uncertain about where to start. Some will counsel caution and recommend the slightly more sober and conventional 1960s titles, but to hell with all that. Why not throw caution to the wind and grab these two - they'll give you a fantastic insight into his freewheeling style in the 1970s.

Nucleus majordomo Marc Morris has done a huge amount of extraordinary work restoring THE DEMONS in particular. Here's a list of some of the work he's done which viewers and reviewers may not otherwise be aware of:

1. Incorrect aspect ratios on numerous shots fixed throughout.
2. White line frames removed throughout.
3. The soundtrack was out of synch throughout (sometimes by as much as 0:06). Marc has fixed this.
4. The soundtrack was missing audio, and in these scenes had been badly looped. Marc has located audio from alternate sources and replaced the annoying looped audio with correct audio where possible.
5. There was some German dialogue on the French soundtrack, which Marc has replaced with the correct French dialogue.
7. There were numerous instances of actors speaking with no dialogue heard on the soundtrack - now fixed.
8. There were numerous instances of dialogue spoken, with the actors' mouths not moving - now fixed.
9. The dissolve from face freeze frame to skull was completely missing - Marc has added this back.
10. He has also created from scratch an English language master, which is believed to match the original English language export version.
11. German Trailer - On the Kino Blu-ray, this was incorrectly dubbed with random French audio from the movie. This has been replaced with the original German soundtrack.
12. Marc has also corrected the frame rates from 23.976 fps to 24 fps, so if you have exquisitely perfect musical pitch the soundtrack will now match your LP record of Jean-Michel Lorgère's Trafic Pop!

And finally, look out for the startling FX shot included in the French trailer for Erotic Rites of Frankenstein which as far as I can recall doesn't appear in any currently available version of the film. Face-ripping!

CUTS:

• Blu-ray A America- Kino Lorber - Yes - Original version but missing an 0:08 scene and an optical effect of the woman's face dissolving into the skull (118:35)
• Blu-ray A Canada- Kino Lorber - Yes - Original version but missing an 0:08 scene and an optical effect of the woman's face dissolving into the skull (118:35)
• Blu-ray ALL France- Artus Films - No cuts - French version (118:07)
• Blu-ray ALL Limited Edition Collection #41 Germany- Wicked-Vision Media - No cuts - Includes the French cut (118:19), the German theatrical cut (88:09), the export version (88:12) and the 2003 director's cut (104:42)
• Blu-ray ALL Standard Edition Germany- Wicked-Vision Media - No cuts - Includes the French cut (118:19), the German theatrical cut (88:09), the export version (88:12) and the 2003 director's cut (104:42)
• Blu-ray B United Kingdom- Nucleus Films - No cuts - Includes the full-length, uncut original version (118:04) and the English version (88:06)

Do you own a release not listed? Then please visit our forums and let us know!

Comparison added by Eric_Cotenas on 04/04/14
Comparison last updated by Eric_Cotenas on 22/12/23

UPDATE LOG:

04/04/14: Initial entry.
07/12/17: Added UK.
08/12/17: Updated overall slightly.
10/08/18: Added a note on versions.
08/03/20: Corrected a couple of typos.
06/06/20: Added France.
17/01/21: Added Germany.
17/05/21: dates.