The Carpenter is a wild, direct-to-video supernatural slasher from 1987. A young couple moves into a new home, and as they're having the house renovated, we start to learn things aren't as idyllic as they seem. The husband's a sleazy cheat, the wife has a history of serious mental illness, and even the contractors are slackers and crooks. All but one of them, anyway, as one carpenter is always working late and doing the work of a whole crew on his own. Soon he's not just doing all the repairs, he's solving all the wife's troubles, including murdering whoever needs murdering.
Update 10/3/20 - 3/28/25: For a while there, I thought this one might never receive a proper special edition, but in retrospect I shouldn't have worried. It's an 80s slasher; somebody was going to bring it back. Turns out it was Vinegar Syndrome, so expectations are high.
But something's too good, or too evil, to be true about this carpenter. Is he a madman obsessed with the young couple, a ghost determined to finish the house he could never complete in life, or all a part of the wife's mind? It's very rough around the edges, but the script at its core is clever enough to keep even jaded horror vets on the hook. It's tongue-in-cheek at times, with all the cheerfully over-the-top handyman-themed kills you'd expect, but the humor is never at the expense of the characters or the story. This isn't a horror comedy so much as a legit dramatic horror with some wit, striking a tone very similar to
The Stepfather, and almost as successfully. And character actor
Wings Hauser is at his best as the titular laborer out of his time and his mind. Admittedly, this film puts a lot of weight on his shoulders, but he carries it well, delivering demented speeches over his coworkers' wriggling bodies.
When this finally came out on DVD in 2011, I was amped. The only bummer was that Scorpion only came up with an essentially barebones DVD-only release. Apparently elements didn't exist for a blu, and the bets they could do was a composite cut. See, when this was released on VHS, there were two versions: R and Unrated. Whatever elements Scorpion had for their transfer was the R rated cut, so they had to cut in the unrated footage, i.e. all the best bits, from a tape. So yes, it was the full unrated version, but SD is all we got. ...Until 2025, that is. Vinegar Syndrome apparently felt the materials warranted an upgrade, and so we get an all new 2k scan on BD from "the best existing film elements," a 35mm release print. And yes, this one's a composite cut, too. So don't expect immaculate PQ, but if anyone can make this movie look prettier in HD, it's Vinegar Syndrome.
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1) 2011 US Scorpion DVD; 2) 2025 US Vinegar Syndrome BD.
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As you can see, the film is presented as it was originally shot, in widescreen (1.78:1 on the DVD, 1.85:1 on the BD), as opposed to the old 1:33 VHS tapes. It's obvious this was shot on film, not tape, so it looks markedly better than it ever has before. That said, Scorpion's disc retains some evident print damage, from little specks to vertical lines running through the shot and even green chemical burns. Most of it's pretty clean, but the when it's there, the damage is hard to miss. Happiily, however, VS has cleaned all of that up. The image is definitely sharper and clearer now in HD, with very natural looking grain captured in 2k, and the colors look decidedly more natural. Even in the SD composite footage.
Looking above here, the second shot is the main footage, while the first is from the unrated inserts. There's a bunch, and you can clearly see it's from a weaker, noisier source, but it's far from unwatchable. If you got through Scream Factory's
Silent Night, Deadly Night or Arrow's
Hellraiser 3 without falling on the floor, you'll be fine here. There is a noticeable shift in quality even in motion, but VS's additional color correction (and grain filter added to the SD stuff?) blend it together quite satisfactorily. We lose some fine detail, but they've done a first class job with it, and fans should be more than satisfied.
In terms of audio, we just get the original mono track, but that's
all I'd ask for anyway. Even on the DVD, it's a pretty clear track,
with any weaknesses seeming to stem from how it was originally filmed.
You can hear the shift in quality when the scene shifts from the R to
unrated footage; it sounds more echo-y and thin. But it's still pretty
clean and hiss-free. VS bumps it up to DTS-HD, and there's an
appreciable improvement on the insert stuff. They must've done some
intense remastering, because you no longer have that distinct shift
between the cleaner and composite audio. They've also included optional
English subtitles, which the Scorpion lacked.
There are no extras on the DVD, really, apart from the
Katarina's Nightmare Theater
wrap-arounds. She doesn't have much to say even by Katarina's usual
standards... her credits sequences last longer than the segments
themselves, which are mostly just an excuse for her to pose holding a
power drill. The only other things on this disc are bonus trailers, not
even a trailer for
The Carpenter... although it's possible none
were ever created, apart from those thirty-second "coming soon to home
video" ads. Anyway, this release does at least come with reversible
artwork. It's the same imagery on both sides, but allows you to hide
the garish Katrina banners.
The
BD, on the other hand, is well stocked. There are two audio
commentaries, including a top notch one by the director and the
screenwriter, and then a more casual, but enthusiastic, track by two flippant
podcast guys. Then there's a great half hour+ retrospective with the
stars and main cast members. A few moments repeat what we'd already
heard in the commentary, but it's still a must-watch for any fan.
There's an additional Hauser interview, too, which is essentially bonus footage from the doc, because he was in that, too, in the same hat and
the same chair. But you can never have too much Wings Hauser on a
Carpenter release.
This new release comes in reversible cover art (though, honestly, I'm
not a fan of either... I wish they'd stuck to the old photo image), and
if you got the limited edition direct from VS's website, a slipcover. We do lose the Katrina wrap-arounds, though.
This
was a real must-have DVD for me, and just as crucial a double-dip to
blu. As I wrote in 2020, "[s]core an interview with Hauser and the
director, and I think
you'd have a high demand title." Yeah, this film's low budget and won't
bowl you over with production values, but it's a neat little film that
still manages to amuse after all these years. For 80s slasher fans,
this is a staple. And even if you're not particularly hung-up on the
subgenre, this has a broader appeal as well.
R.I.P. Wings.
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