Essential Upgrades: Fellini Does Horror! Spirits Of the Dead (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

Everybody loves anthology horror films, and most of us can appreciate the works of film's greatest masters.  But how often do we get see the two mashed together into one super film?  Well... I'm not sure it's totally happened here either, but Spirits Of the Dead is still a pretty enjoyable, compelling piece of cinematic art.  Federico Fellini, Louis Malle and Roger Vadim come together to each direct a short Edgar Allen Poe story.  And it was released in the US on DVD by Home Vision Entertainment... but you all should really import.

Note 6/4/21: Just wanted to point out that *only Fellini's portion of this film* has been remastered in 4k and included in Criterion's 2020 Essential Fellini boxed set, which I cover here.
Roger Vadim, probably the least well known of the three directors, is up first, and his is easily the weakest segment.  It's kind of the gateway you have to pass through to get to the rest of the film.  Vadim is the guy who did Barbarella, and in fact this film was the same year.  It also stars Jane Fonda, alongside brother Peter Fonda, and the whole thing feels like kind of a self-indulgent affair with stars changing from one unconvincing period piece to another seemingly ever minute.  Still, there is Poe at the heart of the thing, and you the dark side of the story comes through.  Jane Fonda is a selfish and debaucherous countess who thinks nothing of misusing the people beneath her until she eventually meets her cousin, Peter, who challenges her for the first time in her life.  So she kills him, steals his prize black horse, and as you can imagine, something ominous and supernatural is sure to follow.  It's not a bad story, but the presentation is such an odd mix of campy and wooden... If you've seen the recent film The Love Witch, this is definitely the type of film it was playing on.
Louis Malle is up next, with a much more respectable looking entry co-starring Brigette Bardot.  A 19th century Italian military officer races in to a confessional to admit to murdering someone who's haunted him his entire life, a sort of evil doppelganger.  This one brings in some serious acting and has a compelling atmosphere, but even if you're not familiar with Poe's writing, it feels like an old story that takes its time going to a very predictable place.  But it definitely sets you up for something more wild and unpredictable, and Fellini does not disappoint with his conclusive segment.  This really feels like a Fellini film, like Roma or Intervista, and you'll spend a good portion of this film wondering what the heck Poe wrote that could somehow connect to what's on screen.  It stars Terrence Stamp as a troubled Hollywood celebrity who's come to Italy seemingly to be celebrated by the entire country's populace.  Eventually we get to the real Poe material and the devil, but even then it feels like the point of the original story has been a little misplaced, an unimportant detail buried somewhere underneath Fellini's wild spectacle.
So Home Vision Entertainment's DVD came out back in 2001, and even for its time it was a mixed bag.  It was anamorphic widescreen and a pretty healthy looking presentation of the uncut version (there have been several trimmed VHS releases in the past).  But on the other hand, it was a French dub with English subtitles, and barebones.  But finally, in 2010, Arrow came to the rescue with a new scan of the original film elements on blu with the original Italian/ English audio track restored, and a few nice little perks to boot.
2001 Home Vision DVD on top; 2010 Arrow blu underneath.
Arrow corrects Home Vision's slightly off framing of 1.75:1 to a more natural 1.85:1, bringing in little slivers of added information around the sides.  More importantly, the color correction dials back its washed hues to reveal the natural colors underneath.  The old DVD wasn't badly compressed for such an old disc, and it wasn't interlaced or anything, but Arrow's blu naturally reveals a much cleaner, robustly detailed picture with sharper details.  Overall, it's just much more pleasant and attractive to look at.

Even more importantly, though, is that sound.  As I said, the old DVD only had a French dub with removable English subtitles.  Well, that French dub is on the Arrow, too, for completists.  But more importantly, the proper track that mixes English and Italian is here.  It's a better track throughout, but it's especially critical in the Fellini segment.  In that film, Stamp's character is out of his element, often being aggressively addressed by complete strangers in a language he doesn't understand.  Some people speak to him in English, others Italian.  But all of that is lost when the whole thing is dubbed into French; you can't tell when people are speaking his language or not.  You lose part of the story and only fully "get it" when you see the film with this track.  Oh, and yes, there are still optional English subtitles on both versions of Arrow's blu, in fact there are two sets, one for each version of the film, both of which were freshly re-translated for their release.
The 2001 DVD was barebones, too, although it did come with an insert with film notes.  And the Arrow doesn't really have any extra extras per se, either, like commentaries or interviews; but it does feature some nice inclusions relating to the presentation of the film.  In 1969, AIP added narration by Vincent Price, where he read some of Poe's "Spirits Of the Dead" poem over the credits, and that narration is available here as an option.  Again, you get the choice of audio and subtitle versions on this release, and they've included the original theatrical trailer.  It also comes with a nice, glossy, thick-spined booklet, which includes all three of Poe's original stories that these segments are based on, plus notes by Tim Lucas and Peter Bondanella.  Like most of Arrow's releases, it comes in one of those windowed slip-boxes, and includes reversible cover art with a crazy Japanese poster on the flip-side.
Admittedly, this film isn't for everyone.  It would fit more at home in the Criterion Collection than the Scream Factory line-up, with an admittedly pretentious bent compared to something like Nightmares.  It's still a fun, anthology horror film, but it's alternatively too campy, dry and then anarchic for more conventional audiences.  It's still pretty great, though.  And by all means, if you are going to get this film, make sure and get the Arrow version, not the old DVD.  And if you already have the old DVD, this is definitely one to replace.  It's even region A/B/C, so my fellow lazy Americans, you have no excuses.  😜

Stay Safe with Criterion (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

Todd Haynes used to be one of my favorite current filmmakers.  And don't get me wrong, I'm still watching everything he does and enjoying his work.  But I don't know if he'll ever again reach the heights of Safe again.  He's certainly had bigger box office since then, and more Academy Award nominations.  And Velvet Goldmine was delightful.  But 1995's Safe is like his perfect moment in art, where his skill as a filmmaker rose up from his rougher earlier work to reach the peak of his screenwriting, which has frankly been feeling a little more conventional these days.
Julianne Moore also serves up one of her greatest performances as Carol, an upscale, 80s, Los Angeles housewife.  She's living the perfect, circumscribed life until she becomes... allergic to it?  She's stricken by a mysterious illness, possibly stemming from household chemicals or pollution, or...?  No one can figure it out and nobody else seems to be affected.  It seems like it might all be psychosomatic until she finds a strange, cult-like community that share the same affliction, but is she ready to to join them, and what would doing that really mean?
Safe is a beautiful looking movie, thanks to some slightly period and carefully controlled photography.  In fact, the whole film is carefully controlled, from its slow but steady pace to Carol's entire environment, where she feels like the only unpredictable element in her entire world.  It's utterly gripping as one woman's identity slowly unravels and then strangely mutates into some sickly but new life.  It's like classic Cronenberg without the overt science fiction.  And there's some ideal supporting cast choices, too, including Jessica Harper, James Le Gros from Phantasm 2, Peter Friedman and The Walking Dead's Xander Berkeley
Safe was originally released on DVD back in 2001 by Columbia Tri-Star, and it was a pretty good, if unspectacular disc for its time.  It was anamorphic widescreen with an audio commentary, so really quite satisfactory, just not the packed special edition you expect for a masterpiece.  But eventually, the universal move to HD gave us a break, and Criterion picked this up for DVD and blu in 2014.  So let's see what they were able to do for this film.  😎
1) 2001 Columbia DVD; 2) 2014 Criterion DVD; 3) 2014 Criterion blu-ray.
Both releases are framed at 1.85:1, but Criterion's new 4k scan of the original camera negative pulls out just slightly to reveal a little more information all around.  Naturally, there's a fresh sharpness to the blu.  Grain is finally clear and the HD draws out some more detail; even Criterion's DVD is clearer than the Columbia Tri-Star effort; but the most noticeable upgrade is definitely the color correction.  The old DVD has a strong red push, and Criterion returns it to a very natural timing.

The case of the 2001 DVD says it's Dolby English audio track is a stereo mix, but that's wrong; it's just a mono track in 2.0 (I've gone in to look at the waves to confirm this).  And the Criterion audio, taken from the original 35mm elements, is also 2.0 original mono, presented in LPCM on the blu.  Both versions also include optional subtitles.
So like I said, the sole extra (apart from the trailer) on the Columbia Tri-Star disc is an audio commentary; but it's quite good, featuring Haynes, producer Christine Vachon and Juliane Moore herself.  Oh, there's also a bonus trailer and an insert.  Criterion thankfully carries over the commentary and trailer, but also adds a few new features.  Haynes and Moore have a substantial, over half an hour on-camera conversation, and Vachon has her own, new on-camera interview.  There's some repetition with the commentary, but also some new things to be gleaned.  The other special feature is the DVD debut of Haynes' first short film, Suicide.  He made this when he was just a young teen, however, so it's interesting for fans, but not a seriously compelling piece like Dottie Gets Spanked.  Hardcore Haynes fans should be excited, but casual viewers can safely give it a miss.  Criterion's release also comes out with an odd fold-out poster/ booklet.  Basically, it unfolds like a big poster, but instead of a big poster image, it just has panels of text notes by Dennis Lim.
So Criterion really nails it here.  I suppose if you're just a mildly a fan, you could hang onto the DVD.  Even sixteen years later, it's still more than serviceable: anamorphic widescreen and has the most important supplement.  It's just a little red and SD.  But for those who care, Criterion's blu pushes this film forward in all the right places.  This is a film that should look great because it has a distinct, cultivated look; and the presentation here is really first class.

Sean S. Cunnignham's House 1-4 Party from Arrow (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

Produced by Friday the 13th creator Sean S. Cunningham, House is one of the all-time great horror movies of the 80s; and it's been a surprisingly long time getting it to blu-ray.  But here it is, and in a beautiful boxed set with its three sequels, too.  Or, just one of its sequels if you bought the US version.  Yes, due to a little rights snafu, Arrow was able to release House 1-4 in the UK, but only parts 1 & 2 in the US.  Thankfully, in the internet age, importing is a snap, especially with the whole set being region free. So let's see how they all look, and we can compare them to the classic 2001 Anchor Bay limited edition DVD set, which included House 2 as an uncredited bonus disc.
The Great American Hero William Katt stars as a struggling author coming to grips with trauma from the Vietnam war and the loss of his young son.  Did I mention this is a comedy?  Well, it's a horror comedy that, thanks to a tight script by Fred (Night Of the Creeps) Dekker, expertly walks the line between a serious story with pathos and some great laughs.  A perfect supporting cast, including George Wendt, Richard Moll, Kay Lenz, Susan French and Bond girl Mary Stavin, some great effects and a robust soundtrack by Harry Manfredini really help to seal the deal.

Katt moves back into his haunted, childhood home when he comes to believe the answers to all his issues may be hidden within, and winds up in a taught one on one conflict with the psychological and supernatural forces alive in the house.  It's fun to see a character taking a proactive stance in a haunted house.  Where most protagonists in these films are desperately trying to escape, or inexplicably continuing to endure living there as they're inflicted with one horror after another, Katt has reason to explore and press further every time he encounters something other worldly.  The story is ambitious and imaginative, with one sequence after another tackling something new and wild. from subtle and unsettling touches to big, crazy creatures.
2001 Anchor Bay DVD on top; 2017 Arrow DVD mid; 2017 Arrow blu bottom.
So, where to begin.  Well, first I should quickly point out that the Arrow set is a combo pack, so each film has a DVD and blu-ray version included.  The Anchor Bay DVD is pretty old, but holds up fairly well, being non-interlaced, anamorphic and a generally good transfer.  But Arrow's new 2k scan of the interpositive is a lot crisper.  And whole both editions are slightly letterboxed to 1.85:1, we can see that Arrow's scan has pulled out to include significantly more information around the sides... which the second set of shots there shows (hi, boom operator!) probably isn't entirely correct.  Hellraiser 3, Creepshow 2 and this are all new scans for Arrow releases with the same issue, and they all originate from Lakeshore Entertainment, so it doesn't feel like a coincidence.  It makes you question some of their previous releases, like The Stuff, that also reframed the image with extra information, particularly on the left-hand side.  But, while there are other shots where the framing does look like it might be a bit off, the shot above is the only clear case of something included in frame that obviously shouldn't be there, and which the previous releases had cropped out.
2001 Anchor Bay DVD on top; 2017 Arrow blu bottom.
Some people online are also citing the above shot, with what looks almost certainly to be he edge of a set that wasn't meant to be seen in the upper left.  But as you can see, it's also visible in the old Anchor Bay DVD; so it might just be a gaff in the original film.  Anyway, in the dark and on a layered rooftop, it doesn't really stand out as something wrong unless you stop and look at it in a screenshot like this.  Only that boom guy's arm is a real problem; it's very noticeable and distracting, but it's just one quick, 2-second shot.  And framing aside, Arrow's beautiful new HD transfer is a pretty perfect presentation with natural grain and attractive colors.  Maybe slightly on the bright-side, but it could probably pull a clean 5-star rating if not for that one, awkward flaw.

Arrow really creams Anchor Bay in the audio department.  AB just had the mono track in 2.0, but Arrow has both the mono and a stereo mix in LPCM 2.0, plus a DTS-HD 5.1 mix.  Both Arrow and Anchor Bay included optional English subtitles/ closed captions.
Now, Anchor Bay's DVD had some pretty nice features.  First of all, it had a terrific audio commentary by Sean S. Cunningham, director Steve Miner, William Katt and co-writer Ethan Wiley.  It also had a vintage promotional featurette, 2 trailers and a stills gallery.  Happily, Arrow has ported all of that over.  In fact, their version of the promotional featurette is twice as long, making it a nearly half-hour 'making of' that gives a really good look behind the scenes.  But Arrow has also created an all-new documentary, which runs over an hour long and really tells the whole story in a fun, slick way, bringing back everybody from George Wendt to Kane Hodder.  Arrow's also added a couple more trailers and TV spots to the mix - one of which is quite interesting because it mixes in footage from Friday the 13th - plus the screenplay and Dekker's original short story as DVD-Rom bonuses.
Where House expertly walked the line between dramatic horror and comedy, House 2: The Second Story stumbles and pratfalls.  Compared to the first film, House 2 is a disappointment.  You know, people always point out how House 3, released as Horror Show in the US, is completely unconnected to the first one and not really a legitimate sequel; but that's true of this one, too.  It's all different characters coming to a totally different house which is haunted by different style ghosts (they're Western and time-traveling themed this time) for totally unrelated reasons.  It's written and directed by Ethan Wiley, who co-wrote the original; but it just doesn't have the weight of Dekker's original material.  I don't know who thought House should be mashed up with an 80s frat comedy, but here we are.
Still, taken on its own, it's an amusing horror comedy with a lot of cool effects and some entertaining sequences.  Serial 80s teen Arye Gross (remember him?) and Jonathan Stark (Fright Night's Renfield character) are two buddies who inherit an old haunted mansion.  They resurrect Arye's grandfather, an old timey Western prospector, who takes a break from enjoying modern technology to warn them that they have to guard his crystal skull from evil forces who will use it to take over the world or something.  I believe this is the first and still the only haunted house movie with dinosaurs in it!  They continue the tradition of having a co-starring role played by a cast member of Cheers with John Ratzenberger, who steals every scene he's in.  And Bill Maher also turns up to basically play himself.
2001 Anchor Bay DVD on top; 2017 Arrow DVD mid; 2017 Arrow blu bottom.
Arrow brings another fresh 2k scan from an interpositive, which really draws out the detail compared to Anchor Bay's strong but slightly drab standard def transfer.  Again, though both versions are 1.85:1, Arrow's disc finds more information around the sides, but this time it's not so extreme on the left, and I didn't spot any camera equipment or crew.  I'd say the framing's completely in the clear on this one.  The colors are a bit different (is the shirt of that dancer in the bottom right corner red or pinkish purple?), but I can't say I really prefer one disc's over the other this time around; they're just different.  Nothing controversial; just a good ol' HD upgrade.

Arrow gives us the original mono in uncompressed LPCM and another 5.1 mix in DTS-HD, where Anchor Bay again just had the mono track.  Both discs again have English subtitles/ captions as well.
Anchor Bay's House 2 also had a commentary, with Cunningham and Wiley, which was a little drier than House 1's, but very informative.  But apart from the trailer, that was it.  Well, Arrow again ported those extras over, but have also made another, brand new, hour long retrospective documentary, with all the lead actors (though, disappointingly, no Ratzenberg, and of course no Maher) and crew.  If you're a fan, man, these docs are great.  Plus, they've included another vintage featurette, a stills gallery and a TV spot.
So now we come to The Horror Show, the somewhat unofficial entry.  Yeah, there's no direct connection to the previous two films, but it's another Sean Cunningham produced, Manfredini scored story about a man against a haunted house.  This one definitely takes a darker tone, though, feeling much more like a New Line franchise horror flick, about a nasty serial killer who comes back with supernatural powers.  This time we've got Lance Henrickson as a tough cop (I mean, it's Henrickson, what other kind of cop could he play), who captures Brion James, who's quickly executed.  But he comes back to find Henrickson's house and terrorize his family.  This one's essentially a straight horror, as opposed to a horror comedy, except it's a victim of the Freddy one-liner influence, plus a couple of the surreal fantasy-horror sequences are hard to take seriously (in the film's most famous scene, his face grows out of the Thanksgiving turkey on the family's dinner table).  I liked this a lot more as a kid than I do now, and the fact that the script is credited to Alan Smithee should tell you all you need to know.  But it still has some cool effects and gross-out moments that make it still worth a casual viewing with tampered expectations.  If you're a horror fan who just wants to see another horror film, you'll be satisfied.
R-rated cut on top; unrated version below.
Now, with this film, we also have to talk about cuts.  Like many 90s horror flicks, there was a theatrical R-rated cut and an uncensored unrated version.  Scream Factory put The Horror Show out on blu in 2013 (the first release it had gotten in the USA since VHS), but unfortunately theirs was the R-rated version.  Movie-censorship.com has the full-break down of all the differences here, but in brief, it's a bunch of little cuts that don't even add up to two minutes, but definitely remove a lot of the limited fun this film has to offer; so seeing this unrated is crucial.  And yes, Arrow has given us the unrated version.  And they threw in the R-rated cut, too, which I respect.  But it has exactly one shot that's unique to that version (above), so really it's for completists only; just watch the unrated cut.
Top to bottom: R-rated DVD, unrated DVD, R-rated blu, unrated blu.
So the R- and un-rated transfers both use the same master, but I've included comparison shots of both versions, because I can be a completist, too.  😉  In this case, Arrow used the same 2k scan of the interpositive as supplied by MGM that Scream used, but then used another MGM 2k scan of a different interpositive for the unrated footage, which they then cut back into the first one, and color corrected to match them.  Again, letterboxed to 1.85:1, it's pretty seamless and maybe a little soft (degrained a bit?), but generally looks great.

Now, I don't have the Scream disc, hence no comparison, but I do know it had a nice DTS-HD track of the stereo mix, but disappointingly, no subtitle options.  Arrow gives us the stereo mix in LPCM and a DTS-HD 5.1 mix, and does include English subtitles.
Scream Factory created a nice little set of extras for this film: a good audio commentary with Cunningham and some fun on-camera interviews with Kane Hodder and actress Rita Taggart (she played the mom), plus the trailer.  How do I know they were good if I don't have the SF disc?  Because Arrow ported them all over.  Plus, they've added a new featurette interviewing the three KNB guys about their effects work in this film, over 20-minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, workprint trimmings (essentially two takes of a deleted scene, and a bonus glimpse of one of the film's coolest gore effects) and a stills gallery.  Plus, there's a cool easter egg, where they interview actor Terry Alexander.  Terry sounds really fond of his experiences with this film, but it's super short, which I assume is the only reason they hid it away.  So this is easily the definitive release of this film: the complete, uncut version, more audio/ subtitle options, and more special features.  If you're a fan of this film, you need this set.
Finally, we come to House 4, the only true sequel to the original, with William Katt returning as Roger Cobb.  But that's almost the only thing this film has going for it.  It's back to being a horror comedy, but swings even further into the goofy comedy side than House 2; and it's really, really cheesy.  Cobb refuses to sell his family home because of some oath his grandfather swore, so he and his new family move in, and of course it's still haunted and up to no good shenanigans.  This time there's also some goofy real-estate mafia guys on their case, trying to force them to sell; and it feels like a children's film half the time.  But then a woman still gets covered in blood in her shower, so I don't really know who this film is for.  Anyway, there's also an old Indian wise man who just so happens to be a friend of the family, and a subplot about dumping toxic waste.  Jim Wynorski was one of the credited writers.  Honestly, I think most people just remember this film for the talking pizza scene.
2017 Arrow DVD on top; 2017 Arrow blu-ray below.
This film was made for the direct-to-video VHS market, and a few shots make me wonder if this was composed for fullscreen.  But it's been released in 1.85:1 before, and most of it looks right.  This film definitely has the weakest picture quality, with the blu barely distinguishable form the DVD for large sections, but I'm sure that's down to the original film, not anything wrong that Arrow's doing.  It's another fresh 2k scan, this time of an internegative (actually, that's probably the root of the difference).  Daylight scenes look better than the dark ones, which can get pretty splotchy and light on detail.  I'm sure this film has never looked better, though, and probably never will.

Again, we get both LPCM 2.0 stereo and DTS-HD 5.1 tracks, plus optional English subtitles.
I was more interested in getting Arrow's new documentary about House 4 than the film itself, so it's disappointing that this one's only half an hour.  But it's still quite good, talking to all the stars, Cunningham, and yes, Hodder again.  And we also get another audio commentary, which interestingly, was recorded by Blue Underground, and this time is by director Lewis Abernathy.  He's quite a character, so he makes for an amusing commentary, especially with some good prodding from the moderator.  There's even a cameo by (no foolin') James Cameron; so definitely don't skip this commentary.  Finally, there's the trailer and a slideshow.  So yeah, it gets a little shorter thrift, but it's still a nice bunch of extras, surely way more than it would ever have gotten in any other context, and probably more involving than the film itself.

Now let's talk about the box, because it's terrific.  Anchor Bay's old DVD had liner notes hidden on the inside of the cover art (what a weird, brief practice that was), plus two nice, cardstock inserts.  But Arrow nukes that.  The box is nice and solid, and each blu case includes reversible cover art.  There's an insert with notes on the transfers.  It all looks great.  But Holy Camolie, look at that book!  It's 148 full color pages, hardcover(!), written by Simon Barber.  Besides his writing, it contains all the press kit materials from the four films and tons of artwork, including close-ups of the crazy paintings depicted in the first film, foreign cover art, and pretty much everything really.  It's beyond extensive.  This is one attractive set.
So do I recommend Arrow's set?  Oh gosh, yes!  Even despite me not being a huge fan of some of these films, the top notch presentation and the special features linking everything together makes this a must-have.  I wish Arrow would offer a replacement program for their framing issues; but I certainly wouldn't let it put me off this awesome set.  The original House is a truly great horror film, and the rest are at least a fascinating extension of its legacy; and digging into all the extras has been a blast.