Deafula (1974)

Just watched this. Not really scary, but I did find it enjoyable and would watch it again.

For those who don't know, this movie is done entirely in sign language (and is the only such movie, apparently).

The title is kind of silly. I guess it's following in the steps of Dragula (1971) and Blacula (1972). I say it's silly, because apparently everyone in the world within the movie Deafula is deaf.

One element I don't recall from other vampire movies: there's a ring that disappears when Deafula kills, and reappears afterwards. It has two other interesting properties as well.

It doesn't seem like all of the dialogue is on the audio track (voices were dubbed in later, also there is some music, and the music is pretty good).

It would be neat for this to come out on DVD with commentary.

I'll post a real review sometime.

But for it to reach its target audience, wouldn't the commentary have to be on a second, simultaneous set of closed captions? Ow, my head hurts . . .

Well, I didn't say a commentary track, since it already occurred to me that would serve no purpose for a deaf audience. Options could be: 1) to have the commentary appear in subtitles/closed captions (and this would not be a 2nd set, because the movie is in sign language, and there is an audio track for those who aren't deaf) 2) to have a picture-in-picture with the people signing their own commentary. Of course, if the second option were selected then something would have to be done for the signing-impaired - an audio track or captions.

But just to make your head hurt, I think it would be nice to have the option to turn off the dialogue, leave the music on, and watch Deafula with captions.

I've advocated before that DVDs ought to have captions for their supplemental materials - documentaries, commentaries, etc. And in fact this is part of the discussion in the current Lords of the Rings DVD thread on bit.listserv.deaf-l

Here's my review: