Devil Times Five Times Four

I've figured it's time to reach back into the vaults of Code Red to pick out another cool, cult release; and when I stumbled across the same title in one of those Mill Creek 50 packs, I knew this would make a great comparison piece. The film is 1974's Devil Times Five, one I was particularly interested in since it features my favorite kind of movie monster: children! Code Red released this all the way back in 2006, when they were working with Media Blasters, and later re-released it in 2009, but I'll come to that later. Mill Creek, meanwhile, has included this in a number of their jumbo horror movie collection sets, but the particular one I've got is their Chilling Classics box of 12 double-sided discs. Now, the Chilling Classics box technically came out first, but Mill Creek has this strange habit of swapping out some titles for others over the years (presumably as rights ownerships change) but without changing the set title or online listings. So I'm not sure if Mill Creek got a hold of it before or after Code Red, and more importantly, if you order Chilling Classics from Amazon or someplace, there's about a 50/50 chance you'll get the version with Devil Times Five, as opposed to another which replaced several titles including Devil with others.

Update 7/30/15 - 6/10/16: Oh boy, it's time to step it up again! Code Red has just re-released this movie (making it their third time), with an all new blu-ray edition. Is it worth the double-(or tripe- or quadruple-, depending where you are with this movie) dip? Let's get into it, people!

Update 11/28/24: Now the Devil has changed hands again, and Vinegar Syndrome is issuing a new release for 2024.  They've restored it to 4k, issued it on UHD, and cooked up some new special features.  Does this movie deserve it?  I don't know, but it sure is fun!

So, I wasn't kidding when I said kids are my favorite movie monster. Forget zombies, forget vampires. Give me little kids turned rampant murders any day. The obvious mainstream examples would include Village Of the Damned and The Omen, which I'm all for, but I really love the crazier indie ones like Who Can Kill a Child, The Children, Bloody Birthday, Cathy's Curse, Bad Ronald, or Julie Darling. Heh, I think I just gave you hints of about six or seven reviews you can expect to see on this site in the future. Oh man, I'm so on board for a bunch of cute little kids on the rampage. And Devil Times Five? Well, it's not as good as any of those movies... in fact, objectively speaking, you probably couldn't call it a good movie at all. But it's got its moments, and those moments are enough to make this worth seeing, especially if you're predisposed to the obscure killer children subgenre like I am.

There's a scene with a mentally challenged character, ham-fistedly overplayed in an Of Mice and Men "aw, shucks" kind of way. And when this attractive married women visits the house, she randomly decides to invite him into her room to seduce him, laughing as she tells him to pull down his pants. Lord knows why, the only explanation seems to be that she's an alcoholic so this sort of activity is in her daily wheelhouse. Anyway, as the guy strips down to old western movie style long underwear, an attractive blonde woman walks into the bedroom and demands to know what's going on. The brunette says, "I've had him before, and I can have him any... time... I... want." So the blonde woman yells, "you bitch!" grabs her, and they wrestle on the floor as very dramatic action music with blaring horns kicks in. Then a third woman walks in (the long underwear guy has just quietly stepped out of the room at this point), and at this point the two fighting women's robes have opened in the standard, sleazy exploitation kind of way, and the fight stops and the blonde goes, "we were just having a little... fun?" And the third woman says, "whatever turns you on honey," brushes her hair and leaves the room. End scene. And none of that has any bearing on the rest of the story whatsoever. Did I mention that this wasn't an objectively good movie?

Anyway, eventually some kids - who've been wandering around the woods since the bus taking them to an asylum crashed - show up and start killing all the people who stay at the house one by one. Again, this isn't anywhere near the same level as, say, Who Can Kill a Child, which is a genuinely pretty great film. It's all kind of amateurish, but it gets entertainingly weird, with some great kills and odd-ball scenes. There's a bit of a Neon Maniacs feel to things, as each of the kids as an over-the-top identity: one boy acts like a soldier, carries a toy gun and has his own military marching band theme in the soundtrack, another one dresses and acts like a nun. A third is child pop star Leif Garrett who turns out to have a cross-dressing fetish. Of course, there's five all together, hence the title. It has a low budget, almost home made feel much of the time, despite featuring a number of recognizable television actors like Sorrell Booke, a.k.a. Boss Hog on The Dukes of Hazard. But for my money, it's not the campy laughable moments that make this movie (though there's some fun to be mined from there, too) but the dark, demented moments that really stand out as genuinely powerful despite the goofiness of the rest of the film.

1) 2005 Mill Creek DVD; 2) 2006 Code Red DVD; 3) 2016 Code Red BD;
4) 2024 Vinegar Syndrome BD; 5) 2024 Vinegar Syndrome UHD.

One mark against Mill Creek's version is that they've added a watermark (boo!) that occasionally fades in and out of the lower right corner of the picture. Yuck. I understand Mill Creek has given up this practice, but it's common on their older discs.

About the only thing Mill Creek has going in its favor is that it's open matte. Mill Creek's is full-screen, while Code Red has matted the picture down to an anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen on both their DVD and blu. It's not a question of additional info gained on the sides, but rather lost on the top and bottom. And I guess there's some contention about the aspect ratio being either 1.78 or 1.33, because people complained, and in 2009, Code Red re-released Devil Times Five open matte in a double bill with Mark Of the Witch, but missing all the extras.  Vinegar Syndrome, meanwhile, has come down on a more likely side of 1.85:1, which mattes the image slightly more, but also reveals a smidgen more along the sides.

Otherwise, it's not exactly a photo finish in terms of which label beats out which. Both DVD transfers seem to be from the same print, as evidenced by the weird bit of damage that pops up in a single frame in the top set of shots. But only Mill Creek has the very serious interlacing problem, as seen in the second set of shots. There's actually very little print damage on hand, by the way, that frame is a rare instance of anything bigger than a small speck, but it shows both companies started at the same place. And the back of Code Red's case tells us their transfer is from "original 35mm elements." Mill Creek's looks dark and murky, while Code Red's is much more colorful and clear. Detail is lacking in both though.

Code Red's DVD is clearly a new scan far ahead of Mill Creek's, but their blu, which we're told is a new 2k scan of the original negatives, is so much more alive and photo realistic! The film has come a long way in HD. Vinegar Syndrome's blu is another step forward, especially on the UHD, but there's less less ground for improvement.  Still, even just comparing the BDs, grain is more thoroughly captured and looks like true film.  Very fine detail is clearer, too - like the veins of his eyes in the first set of shots - BD to BD, and especially on the UHD.  The increased resolution also gives more rounded edges and reduced pixelation when you zoom in further.

As for audio, Code Red's blu has some soft fuzz to it, but the mono audio track is otherwise very distinct, with clear, easily discernible dialogue and music.  It's also lossless DTS-HD, putting it ahead of both DVDs.  Vinegar Syndrome's is DTS-HD, too, but sounds a little more robust.  They've also added optional English subtitles for the first time ever.

And Code Red came up with some great extras for this. There's a terrific audio commentary by producer Michael Blowitz, director #2 David Sheldon (Grizzly, Just Before Dawn) and actresses: Joan McCall and Dawn Lyn. They're all enthusiastic, have some good memories of the production, and thanks to a good moderator, answer a lot of the questions viewers will be bound to have after watching this film. A key thing we learn is that the original director was deemed to be shooting too slow, so was taken off the film and replaced by another director, and big sections of the script were "torn out," leaving key plot points and things unexplained. So that's why you have stuff like that crazy cat-fight I described earlier that doesn't fit into the story - it was filmed later in LA and not part of the original screenplay. I think it's safe to say all the good, compelling content was by the original director and the campier, more laughable stuff was the later guys. It's too bad... I would've loved to have seen the film completed as it was originally intended; but I can't deny that some of the new stuff isn't entertaining in a different way, and the mish-mash of the two makes for a more bizarre, possibly more memorable, film.

Then there's on-camera interviews with all four commentary participants plus actor Tierre Turner. They're all edited into a featurette that runs a little over twenty minutes and is pretty informative, plus it's neat to see the little soldier boy all grown up and laughing about this crazy film he made. Then there's an alternate opening title using the Devil Times Five title card (which is the one on the Mill Creek transfer), since the one on the film uses The Horrible House On the Hill. Plus there's also a cool theatrical trailer ("The Devil Times Five leaves nobody alive!"), a very short poster gallery and six bonus Code Red trailers. AND there are three easter eggs with extra footage from the interviews, which are fairly substantial by easter egg standards, so be sure to hunt those down (they're not hard to find). The Mill Creek set, of course, has no extras.

Code Red's blu carries pretty much everything over from their special edition DVD. The commentary's here, the interview's here, the trailer's here, and the Easter Eggs are now plainly on the menu as "Bonus Interviews." The only things missing are the alternate title card, gallery and Code Red bonus trailers, and who cares about those?

Happily, Vinegar Syndrome retains all of the Code Red extras, so if you missed their release at the time, you don't have to drive yourself nuts trying to find a copy on EBay to fill out your special edition.  And they've come up with new stuff, including an audio commentary by The Hysteria Continues gang.  I feel like the results are always mixed with these guys, and if I wasn't giving this disc a proper review, I probably would've skipped the track.  But there are some good parts.  There's your usual mix of childhood anecdotes, opinions and stuff you won't care about unless you know these people personally.  And they throw out a lot of half-researched rumors, like speculating that the director's girlfriend, who plays the nun, was underage at the time (no, she was in her mid-twenties, which they'd have known if they'd listened to the Code Red extras).  But they - mostly the main guy, the British author - did dig up some vintage reviews that he reads from and throws in some actual facts.  It's honestly not bad and overall better than I went in expecting.  Give it a listen if you're in the mood.

Much better though, are the new on-camera interviews.  The second AD actually has some great memories, including one very interesting story none of the other special features hint at.  And the son of the executive producer was a kid at the time of filming and hung out with the "Five" on-set, so he has some fun memories.  Then, finally Stephen Thrower comes on for a deep dive into the original director's career and an appraisal of his work on this (especially interesting since the people in the Code Red extras are constantly throwing the director under the bus).  Honestly, these days, Thrower is the film expert for cult titles.  Usually when I see an expert commentary or interview on a horror title, I roll my eyes, because they tend to be so lazy, indulgent and no more informed than the casual viewer.  But I've learned never to skip a Thrower.

Anyway, VS has also brought back the alternate title card that Code Red dropped.  Their release comes in an embossed slipcover, though I don't care for the art style on this one, and reversible cover art with the original poster on the flip.

The infamous, slow motion black and white sequence.

Man, I don't know who complained about the matting (well, actually I think I do... there are a couple Amazon reviews and a guy who posted on the Latarnia forums). Surely the film was shot full-frame with the intention to matte it to 1.85 or so for theatrical exhibition, like pretty much every movie from that time. So, sure, there's a bit of curiosity value for the hardcore film lover to see the fullframe version and discover the odd little detail here and there. But I'll take the widescreen OAR any day. Couple that with the surprisingly compelling collection of extras and vastly improved transfer, and that makes the Vinegar Syndrome's new Devil Times Five the definitive choice by a wide margin. Though I guess it's nice that the full-frame versions are out there as an option; maybe there are a couple hardcore fans out there who feel they need both. And if that's you, I'd recommend the Code Red double bill over the crummy Mill Creek discs unless you're buying one of their boxed sets already anyway.

Rounding Out Our Albert Brooks' Collections, Part 2: Mother

Concurrent with their 4k restoration of Real Life, Criterion has released a BD/ UHD combo-pack of Albert Brooks' Mother from 1996.  It's a film that often gets dismissed as being his schmaltzy attempt at mainstream, family-friendly light comedy... and maybe it is.  Albert Brooks was never exactly a "From the Twisted Mind of" filmmaker.  Some of the capital r Relatable humor of dealing with the elderly is a bit easy and admittedly feels like it would be equally at home in an ABC sitcom, or even a margarine commercial.  But it's consistently smart, elevated by Brooks' distinct humor, and a mile above what might be considered its peers, like say, Dad, Corrina Corrina or Stepmom.  This is what those movies dream of being.

Debbie Reynolds is a perfect comic and dramatic foil for Brooks, and Rob Morrow is bravely uncharismatic in his quasi-antagonistic role.  Lisa Kudrow and John C McGinley also have winsome cameos, and it's both impressive and bemusing that they got Paul Simon to agree to a remake of his song for an utterly indulgent homage to The Graduate.  Maybe this isn't his most bold or important work, but it's still a lasting work of art and good for a consistent run of laughs.

Anyway, Paramount first released Mother as a barebones DVD in 2001.  And that's been the whole, underwhelming story until Criterion rescued it with their impressive new 4k restoration from the original camera negative in HD, plus HDR10 for their UHD edition.

1) 2001 Paramount DVD; 2) 2024 Criterion BD; 3) 2024 Criterion UHD.

Let's start by pointing out how Criterion has corrected Paramount's aspect ratio from 1.78:1 to 1.85:1, unveiling a tiny bit more information along the sides and slightly readjusting the framing vertically.  The DVD also has a funky red hue Criterion collections, along with some messy compression, even by SD standards.  There's some edge enhancement, too, which has thankfully been left behind in the new transfer.  Grain is completely absent on the DVD, a little digitized on the BD, and perfect on the UHD.  And fine detail is greatly improved.  So much of the smaller writing on the food products in the first set of shots is illegible on the DVD but easy to read on the BD.  Not only can you can now read that the salt in Reynolds' hand is labeled "SPECIAL VALUE," but that the top of the can reads, "IODIZED," which wasn't even recognizable as text on the 2001 release!

Both discs feature the original mono audio in Dolby Digital with optional English subtitles, but Criterion kicks it up to DTS-HD.

Paramount's DVD had nothing else to offer but the trailer.  Criterion, on the other hand, has another great interview with Brooks - wait'll you hear the lengths and permutations they went to in order to cast the titular role - plus another with Rob Morrow.  It still has the trailer, too, but importantly also includes the novel teaser that pays ironic tribute to Mission Impossible.  It's not as funny as some of his others, but it's cute.  And there's another fold-out booklet, this time with notes by critic Carrie Rickey.

And as I wrote in Part 1, these Criterion releases now leave us with Brooks' entire catalog now available in HD, save one: his last film (to date), 2005's Looking For Comedy In the Muslim World.  If Mother was Brooks playing softball, this may be the one more egregious case.  The title might send up a lot of red flags for modern audiences, but this film actually sees Brooks bending over backwards to deliver wholesome messaging.

Brooks brings his career full circle here by featuring many of his early pre-Hollywood stand-up routines to the silver screen.  And watching him play another self-effacing version of himself, bombing with his own real life material, brings to mind the parody of himself he portrayed in SNL and Real Life.  For that matter, Penny Marshall's cameo as herself feels like a scene lifted from The Muse, though Fred Thompson's is more impressive and perfectly suited to this crossroads of modern politics and Hollywood fantasy here.

With so much attention devoted to the romance between his supporting characters, this is perhaps an overly sweet celebration of cultural differences, along the lines of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but Albert brings enough of himself, and some gentle satire of American foreign policy, to again raise his film above his peers.  And come on, who wouldn't be entertained watching Albert Brooks undertake an illegal border crossing into Pakistan in the middle of the night?  That premise is like a crazy SNL short he never got to make, but he finally goes for it in his 60s.

Warner Bros released it on DVD as a new release in 2006, followed by a 2008 double-feature with Defending Your Life, and most recently reissued it as part of their Warner Archives collection in 2017. But in a massively disappointing move, that was DVD-only, too.  Oh well, at least this disc isn't too bad.

2006 Warner Bros DVD.

Typical for Warner Bros in those days, they present a 1.85:1 in 1.78:1.  God forbid we see "black bars" on our widescreen TVs.  But it's a slim distinction.  And while Warners' Looking DVD is better than Paramount's Mother, without the edge enhancement and seemingly more accurate color timing (I say with nothing to compare it to), it's easy to imagine how much better this would be in HD with clean lines and crisper detail.  Looking for Comedy was shot on 35, so there's no question Warners could easily make this look a whole lot better if they ponied up.

At least they provide the original clear, but naturally lossy, 5.1 mix with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.

And their disc isn't entirely barebones.  Besides the trailer, they include five minutes of deleted scenes, which are nearly on par with the rest of the movie, albeit non-anamorphic.  It's enough to make us serious Brooks heads need to own the DVD, even though it's not the disc we, or this film, deserve.  Maybe some day we'll get it.  I could see a label like Kino releasing Looking, but Warners don't usually like to license out their titles.  But that could change.  And then what would we need?  A better Muse?  Hey, at least we have it on blu, with the featurette.  And even this DVD more or less does the job.  If you don't already have it, pick one up cheap and round out your Brooks collection.

Rounding Out Our Albert Brooks' Collections, Part 1: Real Life

Thanks to two recent Criterion 4ks, we now have almost every Albert Brooks film in HD.  ...At least the films he wrote and directed.  If you're looking to complete a collection of every film he's acted in, that's a much more formidable project.  But for his proper directorial work, yeah, we've got Real Life and Mother restored on BD and UHD in semi-special editions.  And then that just leaves Looking For Comedy In the Muslim World, which is still DVD-only; and with that title, there's a good chance it'll stay that way.

1979's Real Life is Brooks' first film outside of the shorts he made for the first year of SNL.  And the way he plays this cynical, satirical take on himself - filmmaker become truly mad scientist - it feels like a direct extension of those.  The experiment he undertakes here is just the next step from that one where he decides to perform open heart surgery for television.  In this case, he's doing a play on the infamous PBS documentary series, An American Family, that purported to document the real, every day life of a suburban family, though it apparently had a destructive effect (they ended up getting divorced by episode 9).  It only ran for one season.

Here, Brooks plays himself as a filmmaker looking to expand on the idea, and find a greater truth, by also including the filmmakers in the movie they're making.  But far more important than truth is the possibility of winning an Academy Award, getting written up in The Journal of American Psychology and who knows, maybe even a Nobel.  Charles Grodin is perfect as the head of the psycho-scrutinized household; but really the whole cast is spot on.  So is every line of dialogue and every moment in this ingenious comedy that is so much more than a send up of any old program (although, honestly, I recommend going back and catching American Family, too, even all these decades later).

Real Life has had a pretty nice DVD from Paramount since 2001: anamorphic widescreen, not exactly a special edition, but a few nice extras.  But we've been waiting for an HD option for a while now, and Criterion is really looking out for us Brooks heads.  If you missed it, they've already given us top shelf releases of Lost In America, Defending Your Life and Broadcast News.  And now they've hitting us up with these new 4k editions.

1) 2001 Paramount DVD; 2) 2024 Criterion BD; 3) 2024 Criterion UHD.

Paramount's DVD is ever so slightly pillarboxed to 1.75:1, which admittedly, we always knew couldn't be exactly right.  Criterion's new restoration puts it in its proper 1.85:1 aspect ratio, though comparing the framing, we see the difference is really very subtle.  Again, Paramount's DVD was already quite good.  But Criterion's new 4k scan from the original 35mm negative (with HDR10 on the UHD) is obviously in a whole new league.  The 2001 SDR transfer was never equipped to capture and render actual film grain, but it's here and glorious on the UHD (and to a lesser extent on the BD).  The colors aren't vastly different, but the contrast has been normalized and we can certainly see detail, like on James Brooks' lab coat above, that's washed out in the DVD's whites, returned to the picture on the new discs, giving the film a much more complete, lifelike image.  Now it really feels like we're watching an honest to gosh movie.

And while both discs feature the original mono audio in Dolby Digital with optional English subtitles, Criterion naturally bumps it up to a lossless track (LPCM).

2001 interview

So, like I said, Paramount's DVD wasn't quite a special edition, but it had some important features.  It included the original teaser trailer, which is actually a wholly distinct short comedy film by Brooks... in 3D!  And then there's a new (at the time) on-camera interview with Brooks, detailing the story behind the project.

Disappointingly, Criterion doesn't retain Paramount's interview with Brooks (though yes, they have the trailer), but that's no big deal, since they conduct their own, brand new interview with him.  He says much of the same stuff in both, and this new one runs longer, but there are a few bits in the old one.  So both would have been ideally, but the new one is the better of the two.  We also get an interview with co-star Frances Lee McCain, who is kind of an unsung hero of this project.  And where the old DVD came with a basic insert listing the chapter stops, Criterion includes a fold-out booklet with an essay by critic A.S. Hamrah.

2024 interview

A little more would've been sweet (how about a chat with co-writer Harry Shearer?), but I can't be mad at this being the final, definitive edition of Real Life.  The DVD wasn't enough, but this is.  And besides, Criterion had their hands full with another Brooks restoration this month.  So come back soon for Part 2.

Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell, Worth Yet Another Revisit?

So, I've now covered all three of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead films, but I'd sort of feel like I was leaving things incomplete if I didn't follow those up with Drag Me To Hell (what'd you think I was gonna say Diablo Cody's Evil Dead remake?). Especially since there's a compelling reason to post about Drag here anyway. Besides it being almost, if not just, as good as the films in the Evil Dead trilogy but without the reverential status, so I feel like it's a bit neglected and deserving of another look... Did you know there's a UK import blu-ray with more, better extras?

Update 6/2/18: Shout Factory's new Collector's Edition is out, but how much of an upgrade is it?  And is there another replacement disc issue going on with it (spoilers: yes).  Let's dig in and find out!

Update 11/10/24: And now it's back in 4k on UHD, again from Scream Factory.  Drag's a real favorite of mine, so they didn't have any trouble talking me into quintuple-dipping for this one.  Let's see how it looks.

Drag Me To Hell is Sam Raimi's return to horror, as well as a return to smaller films he has more creative control of, after having worked on a bunch of more traditional Hollywood films, particularly the Spider-Man trilogy. Fans had been calling for him to return to his roots for ages, and by all accounts Raimi was having the same feelings. And while he didn't quite come up with the Evil Dead 4 fans kept asking for, he gave us something very much in the same spirit. In fact, some will argue that it could be considered a direct sequel, operating in the same world and mythos (and one demonically possessed character, about midway through the film, is straight-up doing the entire Evil Dead schtick), just not in name and not focusing on Bruce Campbell's character this time around. There's something a little more traditional in Drag's concept though, centering things around a literal old gypsy's curse; but once it gets going it gets as crazy and enthusiastically insane as the ED films, and that's the heart of what we were all asking for anyway, isn't it?

Now, Drag Me To Hell's another one that came out in that period when blu-rays were a thing, but I was still buying DVDs. So I've got the original, wide release Universal DVD, which came in a nice slipcover, and provided both the theatrical PG-13 cut of the film, and the unrated director's cut. Because it was such a major, broadly released title, and then perhaps undervalued by fans afterwards, it's one of those discs that can be picked up very cheap pretty much anyplace. So I figured it was a nice opportunity for an inexpensive upgrade to blu. And when I was looking into it, I discovered that the Lions Gate version released concurrently in the UK back in 2009 had more extras. And the US Drag was a good little release, but it had always been light on special features. And best of all, the UK discs had plummeted in price just like the US ones, so - score!

But then in 2018, a new contender entered the scene, looking to usurp both previous editions.  Scream Factory has put out a 2-disc Collector's Edition, with new HD masters of the theatrical and unrated cuts taken from the 2k digital intermediates, plus all new extras.  Unfortunately, when it first hit streets, there was a little problem with one of the discs.  The "unrated" cut still had shots from the R-rated theatrical cut in them rather than the alternate unrated shots.  Thankfully, though, Shout has implemented a replacement program.  And copies available in stores like Best Buy already include the corrected disc.  So just look for the little "V2" at the end of the code on disc 2, like in the shot above.  If you have that, you're good to go.  And yes, it's only disc 2 that ever had a problem and should have a "V2" on it.

Or you can just forget all that and cop the new 2024 edition, also from Scream Factory!  This one's a 3-discer, with both cuts restored in 4k from the original digital intermediary film negative... which is to say the film was shot, digitized from the original negative and finished (CGI effects, color timing, etc), then transferred back to a new negative for prints and discs to be struck from.  The new scans of both cuts are on UHD and new 1080p BDs.  Oh, and there's a whole new feature length documentary.

1) 2009 Universal DVD; 2) 2009 Universal US BD; 3) 2009 Universal UK BD;
4) 2018 Scream Factory BD; 5) 2024 Scream Factory BD;
6) 2024 Scream Factory UHD.

In the interests of being ultra-thorough, I started out including comparison shots of both cuts, but with more and more editions being added to this page, I've streamlined to one cut each.  Trust me, they really are identical every time.  They're different encodes (as opposed to using branching or something), but they're very close to the same file size, always using the same transfer and practically speaking, there's no visible distinction. Of course, between differing editions, like the DVD and original blu, it's another matter. Sure, it's the same root master, framed at 2.40:1 (the DVD is technically 2.41:1 and slightly pinched, though it reveals slivers more on each side as a consequence), with the same color timing, etc. But standard def compression really didn't do this movie any favors, and the HD version is really beautiful.

UK blu-ray left; US DVD right.

Just look at it up close. What's in the shop window? A bunch of smeary, indiscernible objects? Everything is so much more clear and defined on the blu, you can tell what everything is, even items further in the background. And just looking at the flat side of the truck, grain is very evident, but on the DVD it's soft with smudged edges. It's an impressive difference. And speaking of impressive differences, how awesome are Scream Factory's new 2k scans?  Well actually, I think most viewers would be hard-pressed to spot the difference even in a direct comparison like this.  They are technically different, of course.  The 2018 versions seem to boast some slightly stronger colors and a slightly smoother image.  But it's not a difference you'll ever notice just watching it on your television.  They look the frikken' same.  Yes, zooming in on close-ups, I can tell the new discs differ slightly from the old ones, but it's a very minimal step forward.

And their 2024 4k scans?  Well, they're still precisely 2.40:1 for a start, but ever so slightly more zoomed out, including those extra slivers from the DVD without the pinching.  That alone puts the latest version in the lead as the best available edition.  But look, they had to use the DI as opposed to going back to the original negative, so these new scans were never going to be super revelatory.  Film grain isn't really improved, nor is fine detail.  Comparing the BDs, there's no gains at all, though jumping to the actual UHD disc, it at least gives us smoother, less pixelated images when you zoom way in.  The newer colors are a bit darker (yes, even on the 2024 BD) and less saturated - note the red flowers to the left of Alison Lohman in the first set of shots), but it's tough to declare one better than the other in that regard.  It's just a bit different.

All versions featured 5.1 audio, but you can hear the extra punch in the blu-rays' DTS-HD track. All versions also have optional subtitles in English, but only the US Universal releases include Spanish and French dubs and subs, if those are a concern to you.  Curiously, Scream Factory has also added a DTS-HD Stereo mix into the equation for both their 2018 and 2024 editions.  Bonus?

Now what's the deal with the two cuts, anyway? I mean, why would anyone care to watch the edited PG-13 version when they've got the uncensored director's cut on the same disc? Well, it is a little bit of overkill, but there's a reason they've bothered to preserve the theatrical cut as well. The cut version isn't just missing shots (although there are a few moments that really lose their impact precisely due to removed shots), it's also got some alternative bits that are unique to that version. Some of it's pretty inconsequential, like a demon's CGI blood being colored black instead of red, which I guess bothers the MPAA more. But one scene in particular, where our lead character decides to sacrifice her cat to appease the angry spirits haunting her, are 100% reshot, and not even in a similar way.

Top: a shot only in the theatrical cut; bottom: a shot only in the uncut version.

In the PG-13 cut, we see her looking around for her cat, finding it, and then cutting away to the exterior of the house as we hear sounds letting us know the gruesome deed was done. So, in the unrated version, it's the same but instead of cutting away, we see a shot of her killing it... right? No. Actually, it's totally different, and there is no bit of her looking around for and finding her cat in the laundry basket. Instead, it's a very dramatically shot moment where she comes towards the camera from shadowed silhouette to scream and repeatedly stab it. Two totally different scenes conveying the same plot point.

Still, like I said, it's pretty much overkill. It's definitely better that they include both cuts rather than letting those alternate moments fade away into anecdotal film history. But the cat scene is the only hugely different scene. The rest is all short insert shots or slightly altered CGI. I think fans would have gotten a lot more out of just including the alternate cat scene in a little 5-minute featurette that also went over and showed the extra changes. Because it's really not worth sitting through the entire film a second time just to go, "oh, I see, that close up where the staple actually goes into her forehead has been removed, but everything else is exactly the same." But if it was a quick deleted scene, we could just quickly watch it and have the same take-away. Plus, a little deleted scenes feature would make the special features less barren and make this feel a little more like the special edition we all want.

The Universal DVD only had one extra, but at least it was a good one. It was a roughly 30-minute featurette called Production Diaries, which is a series of short segments looking at different behind-the-scenes moments during the filmmaking. It's all hosted by Justin Long (who played the boyfriend in the film), and because it zeroes in on moments and details, it's a lot more interesting than your standard, promotional featurette where each actor describes their character and says how wonderful everybody else was to work with. It's fun and engaging. The only problem is how lonely it looks sitting all by itself on the special features page of the DVD menu. Great, but that's it? There's not even a trailer, although it autoplays a bunch of unrelated trailers at the start of the disc. Blah.

Universal's blu-ray is a mirror of the DVD, except it has BD-Live... so it loads up "fresh" ads (when I tried it in 2015, it brought up the Seth Rogen feature Neighbors and an ad for Universal's horror classics from the 40s).  That's hardly an advantage. A genuine plus, I suppose, if you're one of the very select few people with a use for it, is that it's enhanced for D-Box. That's that thing where if you own a special chair wired to your entertainment system, it will vibrate at select times during the film. Not even the UK blu has that.

Now, Lions Gate didn't exactly turn this into the fully loaded special edition we'd expect for a big Sam Raimi horror bonanza; but they at least managed to double what Universal had. The UK blu does also have the Production Diaries, so it's 100% profit, no trade-off. But it's also added another 30+ minutes worth of interviews. They talk to Raimi, Long and star Alison Lohman in three separate sit-downs. These are clearly promotional, but the woman doing the interviews is obviously a genuine fan, so she asks questions we really want to hear the answers to, like "where's our Bruce Campbell cameo?" (which gets an honest answer) rather than just prompting them to fawn all over each other. They're also delightfully uncut, showing us moments like when they take a break and Sam Raimi steps out of frame so a crewman can walk by, leaving us with a steady shot of an empty chair. So again, it's still no great collection of feature length documentaries and audio commentaries with the entire cast and crew; but they're good, fun pieces worth watching.  Zavvi also reissued the UK blu as a steelbook, if you're a fan of those.

And then we come to the reason why anybody might've really wanted to double-dip for the 2018 Scream edition: brand new special features.  Well, first of all, I'm happy to report, they've carried over everything from the previous editions, including those extra interviews from the UK disc.  Sweet.  But they've also added three new on-camera interviews, one with Alison Lohman, one with Lorna Raver (she played the gypsy and really enjoyed herself) and one with composer Christopher Young.  Plus they added a new stills gallery.  Honestly, that's a little underwhelming.  Is it worth upgrading for just three 15 minute-ish interviews?  Well, I will say that all three new interviews are really good and fun.  And I'm glad they went back to get the second Lohman interview, because she doesn't just repeat the one we already have. And I should mention that the Scream edition features reversible artwork and a slipcover. But at the end of the day, it's an expensive release for three little interviews.

The 2024 is version is more satisfying in that regard.  First, yes, it has all the previous extras, including the UK and 2018 interviews.  But they've made one new, very significant addition: a full, two hour 'making of' documentary by the fine folks at Ballyhoo.  They interview a bunch more of the cast and crew, and edit together a very professional, fully satisfying experience.  Honestly, while the legacy extra still hold some exclusive value (i.e. this doc didn't go back and re-interview Lohman, so her 2018 talk is still great to have).  My one gripe, and it's a minor one, is that they do a long section on the score, and their interview with Young repeats a bunch of stuff, practically verbatim, from Shout's 2018 one.  It would've been nice if they trimmed that out and just left the new material.  We've already got him explaining the devil fiddling with his tail thing, the early affinity he felt for Raimi, etc; we don't need to hear it all twice in the same sitting.  But otherwise, this doc is terrific and fairly comprehensive and could really stand-alone as the only companion piece the film needs.  I wrapped up my earlier coverage asking for "more interviews with the likes of Dileep Rao, Bob Murowski and a segment with KNB," and guys, we got it.  If all you watched was Drag and this, you'd be a satisfied fan.  Oh, and this latest set also includes a nice slipcover - I'm very pleased to see them return to the original, superior poster art.

So, hey.  The first and easiest conclusion to draw is that, with the fullest collection of extras and all transfers being essentially equal, the latest Scream Factory set is the best release on the market.  Still, if you already own the film on blu, any blu, it's one of the slimmer upgrades, at least in terms of the film itself.  But the film's such a blast, every horror fan should own it in some fashion; and really, the only worthwhile extra I could imagine any future release adding is a commentary track with the Raimis, which I'm sure is a practically impossible dream as long as he's busy playing with Marvel/ Disney.  Oh, and maybe a sit down with Reggie Lee.  But yeah, I'm quite happy to have re-bought this film for a fifth time, which is something you won't hear me say often.  I wouldn't have recommended the previous double-dips, but this one I do.  This 2024 set finally totals up enough special features to give us Drag Me To Hell as the special edition it's always deserved to be.