Videodrome: All Hail the New 4k

1983's Videodrome is one of those films that simply has to be on DVDExotica, right?  So okay, it took me long enough, but here it finally is.  I guess I was just waiting for a new, ultimate edition to cover.  And what do you know, just this week it's debuted on 4k Ultra HD from Arrow.  Is it everything we want it to be, though?  Well, I've got previous special editions on DVD and blu to compare it to, and well... in many ways it's an easy choice, but there are a few interesting complications in the details.

David Cronenberg's demented sci-fi vision may appear on the surface to be a little dated, what with all its imagery of tube televisions and video cassettes.  But its ideas of the corruptive and overwhelming power of broadcast imagery over the human psyche are more pertinent than ever.  The technology may have gotten more digital, but otherwise, we're practically living the nightmare that James Woods' character finds himself sinking in.  A man who watches too much illicit media content losing his grip on reality and becoming an assassin for nonsensical political ideologies... sound familiar?  Heck, the Gersh talent agency would probably argue the real James Woods is fairly deep into the process right now. 😉  But whether you find Cronenberg's dystopian visions of the future all too real or utterly inscrutable, his nightmarish imagery still fascinate and unnerve with equal power.

This is kind of an interesting expansion of Cronenberg's infamous "body horror" (I mean, Woods does still grow a new, vaginal orifice in his stomach, in which to insert video tapes) into "brain horror" - I suppose an acknowledgement that the latter is just another gloppy organ pulsing away within the former.  Scanners already opened that can of worms, of course, but here we really delve into mind games and subjective hallucinations that we'd later see blossom into works like Naked Lunch, Existenz and Spider.  So it still has a habit of leaving viewers baffled (just look at some of the most liked "reviews" on Letterboxd), though if you pay attention, I think you'll find the character of Brian O'Blivion states the film's thesis pretty succinctly, which is a little more straight forward and simple than some of the film's then cutting edge special effects sequences might initially lead one to believe.  But man, those set pieces still pack a wallop, especially when compared with the hauntingly cagey performance by Deborah Harry and of course Howard Shore's surprisingly subtle score.

a shot only in the director's cut.

I suppose I should talk about the two cuts.  Videodrome was released cut in theaters, and in some video markets.  Even the US VHS restored the fuller director's cut though, as did the laserdisc and pretty much every DVD and subsequent release.  You'd have to go out of your way to find the cut version, but it is out there.  Not that there's any reason to.  There are no alternate takes or unique aspects; it's just missing stuff.  About two minutes worth.  Some of the "snuff" footage is cut, a few moments from the ear piercing scene is trimmed, and so is a tiny bit of the violence at the climax.  I bring it up mainly because Arrow has opted to include both the theatrical and uncut versions on their latest release.  According to their booklet, this is because "additional intermediate film elements" had to be used for the director's cut footage.  I have to say, though, you would never notice the shift in quality, so there's virtually no reason for the cut version's inclusion.  But hey, why not?  If Arrow wants to be extra thorough, that's always a plus, not a minus. 

Videodrome was first released on DVD by Universal back in 1998.  I no longer have my copy, but I can tell you it was non-anamorphic widescreen and barebones, so we safely can leave it in the past.  Criterion gave it its first proper special 2-disc edition in 2004.  I still have that one, so we'll start the comparisons with that one.  They bumped that up to blu-ray in 2010 (and Universal put out a barebones blu in the UK in 2011), but I held out for the 2015 BD from Arrow, mainly because that gave me a fresh set of special features.  There was a limited edition 4-disc DVD/ BD combo pack, which also included discs of his earliest short films (the latter of which have since been sold separately), and a standard single BD release, which still had everything but the shorts.  And now Arrow has taken it to the next generation with its 2022 4k Ultra HD debut.

2004 Criterion DVD top; 2015 Arrow BD mid; 2022 Arrow UHD bottom.

From the original 35mm camera negative, and as you can see, the framing is virtually identical down the line.  Criterion's DVD is very slightly squished to 1.82:1, while the HD discs are both exactly 1.85:1.  All three discs are described as being "approved by David Cronenberg," for what that's worth.  Surprisingly, Arrow's UHD is a single-disc release, and all of the extras are on the same disc as the film.  Don't worry, though, it's a 100GB disc, and the roughly 90 minute film gets a healthy 62+GB encode (the two cuts seem to be achieved by branching, not two separate, complete encodes).  Indeed, Arrow's encoding is top notch on both of their releases.  The grain is smudgy when it's there on the Criterion (not a mark on their encoding... it's an SD disc after all), but much more distinct and individualized on the blu, and each grain is perfectly rendered on the UHD.  The color timing is pretty similar across the board, too, with Arrow's HDR10/ Dolby Vision adding more depth and naturalism without getting too showy or super-saturated.  Videodrome is a largely dark and grimy film, after all, and Arrow clearly respected that.

Each disc just includes the film's original English mono track, though it's in lossless LPCM on the BD and DTS-HD on the UHD.  All three also offer optional English subtitles.

The extras are where things get interesting, because while there is some overlap, Criterion and Arrow have two full, but distinct sets of goodies.  So let's start with Criterion.  Two of their most prized assets are audio commentaries, one by Cronenberg and director of photography Mark Irwin, and the second one by stars Woods and Harry.  Then they've got a half-hour documentary on the special effects, the original 'making of' featurette, a 20-minute audio interview with effects artists Michael Lennick and Rick Baker, Cronenberg's short film Camera from 2000 that he made for the Toronto Film Festival (it's alright), and Mick Garris's 1982 round-table discussion with Cronenberg, John Landis and John Carpenter (the same one that's on Scream Factory's blu-ray of The Fog, and Turbine's releases of The Thing and An American Werewolf In London).  Then they have the full versions of the three Videodrome "snuff" films within-the-film in full.  Samurai Dreams has two commentaries, one by Cronenberg & Irwin and one by Lennick, Transmissions from Videodrome has one commentary by Irwin & Lennick, and Helmet-Cam Test has commentary by Lennick.  There are also two photo galleries and three trailers.  Plus there are four easter eggs, which include a deleted scene from the documentary entitled "Why Betamax," an extra photo gallery, two TV spots and an animated logo for the fictitious Spectacular Optical company.  Criterion's release comes in an extra-wide amaray case housed in a slipbox with a 26-page booklet.  I'll also note, though I don't own it, the Criterion BD has the same extras as the DVD, but with the new addition of a video essay by Tim Lucas.

deleted scene.

Now, Arrow's blu has some of that stuff.  They have Camera, the effects documentary (and the "Why Betamax" clip), Mick Garris's Fear On Film, the original 'making of' featurette, and the three trailers.  They also have two of the films-within-the-film: Samurai Dreams and Helmet-Cam Test, but not the third one.  And instead of Criterion's commentaries, each of those have alternate commentaries, both by Lennick.  More critically, they don't have the two commentaries for Videodrome itself, the audio interview with Baker and Lennick, the Lucas video essay, the photo galleries or the TV spots.  But they have their own, exclusive audio commentary with Tim Lucas.  Why's he included so often?  Because he was on set during the filming and wrote a whole book about it, so he has a lot of insight to provide.  And they have an exclusive, 20-minute documentary called David Cronenberg and the Cinema of the Extreme, plus all new on-camera interviews with Mark Irwin, producer Pierre David and author Dennis Etchison, who wrote the novelization of Videodrome.  And perhaps most fascinatingly of all, they have over 25 minutes of deleted and alternate scenes from the television version.  The special edition just has reversible artwork; but the limited edition, besides the extra short films disc (which also has an interview with Kim Newman as an extra), comes with a 96-page hardcover book and a thick slipbox.

The new UHD has everything the 2015 BD had (though not the short films disc) and comes in a similar slip box, with reversible artwork for the amaray inside.  Also inside is a 60-page full-color booklet with excerpts from Cronenberg on Cronenberg plus notes by several critics, a double-sided poster, six lobby cards.

So, it's an easy choice in terms of the presentation itself.  The new UHD is the only way to go.  But in terms of special features, Criterion and Arrow both have great stuff, much of which is exclusive.  Fans will probably want to get both.  It's a tiny bit disappointing that they dropped the short films disc for the UHD release, but bear in mind that one's since been released separately, so you can easily add that to your collection or not depending how keen you are on his earliest works.  That means buying multiple releases for the most complete set, which may or may not be worth the hassle and expense; but there's no doubt that Arrow's new UHD is now the essential baseline.

This Is The Year Of the Sex Olympics, Sex Olympics Year!

A couple years ago, The BFI quietly reissued Nigel Kneale's televised sci-fi classic The Year Of the Sex Olympics on DVD.  I already had the old disc, so I just ignored it.  But earlier this year, I noticed a reference to a short film I didn't remember being a special feature on my disc.  I went back and looked, nope, not on mine, but looking at the listing for the reissue, and it's got a bunch of new extras.  I guess it didn't get much attention, because who's scrutinizing SD-only reissues in the 2020s?  You just assume any noteworthy re-release is going to be on blu, and any DVD getting pushed back out by itself is an arbitrary cover change or the rights shifting from one studio to another.  But the BFI had clearly turned genuine attention to this title again in 2020.  Was there a new restoration?  If so, why no HD?  Just how revamped was this disc?

Oh right, answering those questions is my job.

The opening title card warns us that this semi-dystopian (I mean, I don't think I'd mind living in it) future is going to befall us "sooner than you think......."  And indeed, one of the things this 1968 scifi tale is praised for is how prophetic it proved to be, completely predicting reality TV (Survivor in particular should've cut Kneale a check) and the mainstreaming of pornography.  Heck, Gen X'ers might watch this and wonder what's supposed to be so futuristic or far-flung about it.  Kneale himself has said that working for the BBC gave him an advantage in seeing what was around broadcast entertainment's next corner.  But there are more interesting ideas afoot than just the advent of new brands of trash TV.  Besides obvious allusions to Nineteen Eighty Four, there's a really unique notion of social classes being divided between "high" and "low-drive" people, as well as some serious themes on the disruptive powers of art.  It looks quaint, but it's still a compelling drama and electrified satire, today as much as ever.

And speaking of looking quaint, I have to address these DVDs being in black & white.  Why?  Because the movie was shot and originally aired in full color.  As the BFI's booklet helpfully explains, "the original colour tapes were erased and all that remains is a black and white 16mm telerecording."  So sadly, these grayscale copies are all we get, which is a shame, because apparently this was a very colorful depiction of the future, with wild costumes, and the lead actors are actually painted gold.   I had no idea the first time I watched this, though you do get the impression that they're all wearing a lot of make-up.  It's worth noting that one of the interviews in the BFI's recent release of Kneale's 1984 adaptation teases a potential color re-release, but if the tapes were erased, well, fingers crossed but I wouldn't hold my breath.  The new DVD is very possibly the final word on this film, so let's see what we've got.

2003 BFI DVD top; 2020 BFI DVD bottom.

When I first popped the new disc in I thought, oh wow, yeah, look at that.  They have done a whole new restoration.  Why was this still a DVD-only release?  But now digging in and comparing, I can see, okay, not really.  If it's not the same scan at the core, it's a very similar one with pretty much all the same faults.  Neither disc is interlaced.  The big difference is just that the contrast has been toned down so that the brights aren't flaring out, giving the picture a more natural, less garish look.  And that's a definite improvement, but that's more like something you could do on your own set rather than a full-blown restoration.  Not that it's the only difference.  The aspect ratio has shifted from 1.33:1 to 1.30:1.  The original DVD is very slightly windowboxed, while the new image goes right to the edges.  I don't know if they've actually rescanned the old tape masters or just remastered the old one, but they've clearly done some work.  This new framing is actually slightly tighter, not just on the sides but along all four edges.  The older image is also very slightly wider.  And there's less compression noise, now.  Whether that's new to a better encode (both discs are DVD-9s), an updated scan, or even a dash of DNR, one can't say.  But the result seems to be a cleaner, less arbitrarily noisy image without loss to any actual detail.

Both discs offer the original mono track in Dolby Digital, but the new disc has added optional English subtitles, which the old one was lacking.

The 2003 DVD already had some quality special features, primarily a great audio commentary by star Brian Cox.  Some actors take an interest only in their scenes, and that means in audio commentaries you can be left with a lot of awkward silences as they have nothing to say about scenes they weren't on set for.  Fortunately, that's not the case with Cox, who has a lot to contribute.  There's also a brief (roughly 5 minute) introduction by Kim Newman to situate viewers into the film's basic history and themes.  Besides that, there's just a brief commercial for other BFI DVDs, a 2-page insert and liner notes by Newman.

The new DVD keeps all of that, at least the important stuff.  They ditch the commercial and replace the insert with a much flusher, 26-page booklet with four original essays (though not Newman's).  More importantly, there's a vintage audio interview with Nigel Kneale, which plays like an audio commentary over the first hour and ten minutes of the film.  It's pretty good, though Kneale enthusiasts will have him say many of the same things in other interviews.  There's also a short, 1979 doco-comedy called Le Petomane about a real French performer who became famous for farting creatively on stage in the 1800s.  That's the film that tipped me off to this being a new edition of The Year Of the Sex Olympics.  And if you're wondering what the heck is that doing on this disc, it's because it stars Leonard Rossiter (The Witches, 2001), who plays one of the antagonists in Kneale's show.  Anyway, it's pretty amusing.  There's also a vintage news broadcast from 1972 celebrating the BBC's fiftieth year (no connection to Year apart from it being a BBC program) and a stills gallery of the film's exotic costumes and production notes.

The Year Of the Sex Olympics is still a great, little film, and I suppose I can see why, even in 2020, this is still a DVD only.  I hope potential fans won't let that ward them off from picking this one up.  But if you have the original DVD, do I recommend upgrading?  Yes, but it's not a strenuous recommendation.  It's improved, but this film doesn't, and presumably never will, really look that much better.  Subtitles and the booklet help up the quality, and the new extras are a nice touch.  But the important stuff is already on the first disc, and some of the new bits feel downright frivolous.  The new disc is unquestionably the superior release, and I'm glad BFI took another shot at this; but I can see why it didn't make big waves when it hit the market.

The Lost Highway Blu-ray Lynch Warned Us About Vs The One He Always Wanted

Well, having just revisited 1997's Lost Highway, I'm happy to report that it holds up just as strongly as ever.  You know, I was a little concerned with this being the bridge between David Lynch's more traditionally told narrative films (like Elephant Man and Blue Velvet), to his current style of mysterious films that ask to be deciphered (i.e. Mulholland Dr. or the current season of Twin Peaks).  I thought, looking back at this, it might come off as a bit simplistic, or a clumsy first attempt at what he's since perfected; and what was once impactful might now feel a little limp.  But no, it's still strong stuff.

Update 8/7/17 - 6/24/20: I didn't rush out to pick up this edition, since David Lynch himself came out publicly against it, but it doesn't seem like his desired restoration is behind any immediate corners, so what the heck.  Let's look at Kino's 2019 blu-ray edition of Lost Highway, still the only US option available in HD.

Update 10/13/22: But I did rush out to get this one, Criterion's new 4k BD/ UHD combo pack is the one we've all been waiting for.

That said, Lost Highway is a little simpler.  I can still see someone coming into Lynch's films cold being totally baffled by this film, but I'd say it's far easier to interpret than Inland Empire.  It's no less of a powerful work because of it, though.  The back of the Australian DVD (more on that in a minute) case describes it merely as, "the story of a killer who suffers acute schizophrenia."  For my money, that might be a little too specific a diagnosis; but that gives you the general idea.  We see a murder mystery start to unfold and then repeat, altered, with different people in each other's places.  And I'll just leave it at that, because I wouldn't want to spoil anything.

Despite being a little arch, as Lynch tends to be, with as much influence generated from old noir films as authentic human experience, the drama still lands, and the creepy imagery even more so.  I mean, that scene when Bill Pullman meets Robert Blake at the party may still go down as one of the most chilling horror scenes of all time.  Badalamenti's music plays backseat a bit this time, upstaged by some licensed songs and Lynch's always brilliant sound design, but it all adds up to a very consistent atmosphere.  And the cast is littered with greats.  Besides Pullman and Blake there's Patricia Arquette, Robert Loggia, Balthazar Getty, Jack Nance, Gary Busey, Richard Pryor(!) and Marilyn Manson.

Strangely, for the longest time, this film wasn't even available on a basic DVD here in America.  That's why I originally imported that aforementioned Australian DVD from Shock.  It was released in 2001 in anamorphic widescreen and with a couple interesting extras to boot.  Finally, Focus Features/ Universal issued it here on DVD... in 2008.  Barebones.  Jeez, guys, would it kill ya?  But there had been a number of additional DVDs and yes, blu-rays overseas.  The one I've got for us today is the 2011 German blu from Concorde.  Then eventually, this film did make it to blu here in the US, again barebones, although that wasn't originally the plan.  it wasn't the restoration Lynch and his fans hoped for, but Kino's blu isn't the same transfer as the Concorde blu either.  Finally, now in 2022, we do have the new 4k scan and transfer Lynched was waiting for, from Criterion.  And the benefit of us having waiting these three extra years is that we've got it on UHD now to boot.

1) 2001 Shock DVD; 2) 2008 Universal DVD; 3) 2011 Concorde BD;
4) 2019 Kino BD; 5) 2022 Criterion BD; 6) 2022 Criterion UHD.

All six discs are anamorphic, widescreen at just wider than 2.35:1, and thankfully free from interlacing or other image problems.  The colors look a little bleached on the Australian DVD, and are substantially darker on the older two US releases.  None of the pre-2022 discs bear any stamp of having been approved by Lynch or DP Peter Deming to say which is the most "officially" accurate... In fact, we know from his comments on this article that Deming was specifically kept out of the process by Kino.  So we had been left to choose based on our own personal preferences.  Perhaps the film truly was meant to be so dark and vivid, but the older US releases crush blacks and lose some visual information for the sake of that bold choice.  On the other hand, the imports look a little overly bright for the gloomy mystery Lynch is building.  There's a note on DVDCompare's page that the Shock DVD is "[s]aid to feature a less than adequate transfer," but I'd take it over the Universal.  The HD blus are naturally sharper and clearer than either of them, though, and both have nicely realized grain.  I was expecting smudgier, flawed masters showing their age, but am pleasantly surprised with how both blus look.

And now of course we have Criterion's edition, which freshly scanned the original A/B camera negative in 4k, and was indeed supervised by Lynch.  And when I first took a glimpse at it, I thought, oh boy, some fans are not going to like this.  We're back to the paler, cooler colors timing, much closer to the Au and DE discs than the US discs, which seem to be generally more popular.  But now we know where Lynch falls on the issue, so that's pretty much that.  The scan is cleaner, even just comparing the two 1080p blus, with more accurate representation of tiny detail and grain (there's more digital noise on the guard's face, for example), but of course you really get the benefit with the UHD's full resolution.  And, as always, the UHD is a little darker because of its Dolby Vision HDR, but the result is the colors do look a little more organic and less washed than its BD companion.

Australia's Shock DVD features the original stereo and no subs, while the US features a 5.1 remix and subtitles in English, French and Spanish.  Concorde's blu gives us the 5.1 in DTS-HD, plus a German dub, but unfortunately only has optional German subtitles.  While Kino came with both the original stereo and 5.1 mixes in DTS-HD, and optional English subtitles to boot.  Criterion's new disc has the same options (5.1 and stereo with English subs), but they've also been remastered with Lynch's supervision.

So now let's talk extras.  There's never a whole lot to speak of, but there are some, and they're interesting.  Oh, except not in the US.  Our Universal DVD is completely barebones, they don't even throw in the trailer.  And Kino announced a Tim Lucas commentary, an interview with Lynch and the trailer, but had to scrap them.  The Australian DVD doesn't have the trailer either, but it has almost 45 minutes of interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.  Pretty sweet, but Lynch fans might find it all a little familiar.  It's just footage excised from the documentary Pretty As a Picture: The Art of David Lynch.  That doc was filmed as Lynch was making Lost Highway, so while it isn't about Lost Highway per se; an awful lot of it centers around that shoot.  And Shock basically just cut out all the footage from it that pertains to Lost Highway and stuck it on their DVD as if they had five original featurettes.  But it's all taken 100% from there.  So, if you already have the film (Image released it on DVD way back in 1999), you're not seeing anything new.  Nice to have over Universal & Kino's abject nothingness, but still a little disappointing.

Concorde's interview.

Concorde doesn't have the Pretty As a Picture stuff, but it does have a few things, yes, including the trailer finally.  It also has a couple German-language bonus trailers, but more interestingly, it also has some vintage Lost Highway promo-material.  We get a five minute interview with David Lynch, seemingly shot on location (and I'm guessing this is the one Kino was going to include, too, since they obviously weren't working with him to record a new one), plus about ten minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, giving us a little glimpse of the film's creation.  Hearing little snippets of Lynch directing the actors could possibly help the die-hard analysts interpret a few scenes.  That's it, though; there's just those two things and the trailers.  Really not very much, under twenty minutes all together, but worth seeing for sure.

1) 1999 Image DVD; 2) 2022 Criterion BD.

And Criterion?  Well, it doesn't have quite as much as one would hope, but they've still won the day.  First and foremost, they've included the complete Pretty As a Picture documentary.  As you can see above, it's the same transfer as the old 1999 DVD from Image, except upconverting it to HD makes the interlacing much less destructive, which is nice.  And I was worried that Criterion would lose the 15 minutes worth of outtakes from that documentary that Image had on their disc, making us have to hold onto our old DVDs, but no.  They're here, too; so feel free to finally chuck your old DVDs.  Apart from that, they include about 25 minutes of vintage promo interviews, including some of what was on the Concorde (we did lose some of that B-roll footage, though, if you're a die-hard completist).  And the only new feature is a 45-minute audio-only reading of a chapter from Lynch's 2018 book, Next Door To Dark.  That's it.  Oh well.  It does include a nice 30-page booklet that mostly consists with another interview with Lynch about this film, packaged in a digipack inside a slipbox.

So here it is, the long-awaited definitive edition of Lost Highway, and it is pretty sweet.  I don't mind the Kino diversion, because we would've been double-dipping a Criterion BD only release for the UHD anyway.  It may not be quite as exciting as we imagined - some fans will surely gripe about the colors, and the extras are still light - but it's still pretty damn sweet.

Welcome To Fright Night ...For Real

Finally, finally, finally, Fright Night has a special edition! For those who haven't been keeping close track, Twilight Time originally released a limited edition blu-ray of Fright Night in 2011. Well, all 3000 copies of Twilight Time's blu, despite having no real extras except for an isolated score (a standard feature for Twilight Time), sold out surprisingly fast, and fans clamored for a copy as second-hand prices sky-rocketed into the hundreds of dollars. In the interim, Sony released non-limited blu-ray editions in Japan and Australia, and included the film in a 4 movie 2 disc DVD set here in the US, but the demand stayed high. So now Twilight Time has brought it back for a 30th Anniversary Edition, this time packed with the extras we've been begging for, and limited to a greater number of 5000 copies. Well, that sold out within two days, and those of us who pre-ordered are just now receiving our copies. Woohoo!

Update 1/25/15 - 10/8/22: Well, there's been a bunch of limited and imported Fright Night blus in the last several years, but all of that is over now. Sony has issued this directly, as a 3-disc UHD/ BD combo pack, with a superior 4k transfer, broad distribution (you can walk into a Best Buy and pick one up) and all new extras. Everything else, now, is history.

Tom Holland's Fright Night is just one of those perfect 80s horror flicks. It's fun without losing its serious edge. It's serious yet still manages to be genuinely funny. It's got a perfect concept and an iconic cast. It's the kind of horror movie that people who don't like horror movies will still enjoy, without alienating actual, hardcore horror fans. Not a lot of movies slam dunk on both sides of that fence.

It starts out a little Rear Window-ish, with William Ragsdale as our likeable every-man watching his neighbors suspiciously with binoculars... have they just committed a murder? Worse than that, they seem to be vampires! Of course nobody believes him and they all want him to stop telling crazy stories, even as the vampire gets dangerously closer to killing him and everyone he loves. Just when you think: maybe I'm starting to get tired of the "no, you've got to believe me!" schtick, the film takes a new angle. Ragsdale decides the only person in the world who can help him is Roddy McDowall, the vampire hunter he watches all the time on television. Of course, the actor who plays him is nothing like his character, but somehow he manages to press the cowardly and unbelieving McDowall into accompanying him, and they find themselves facing up against real life vampires!

Sony released Fright Night as a DVD flipper disc way back in 1999, and it became increasingly frustrating throughout the HD years that it was still the default disc up to the 2010s.  Twilight Time finally came to the rescue in 2011, and again in 2015, as discussed above.  Both of those pretty much uses the same transfer, but with minor adjustments to the contrast and bit-rate, as the film graduated to a dual-layer disc (also to accommodate the great number of extras, of course).  I highly recommend this HighDefDigest review, which fully compares the two, if you're still concerned about the pros and cons of the dueling Twilight Time editions.  Since then, Eureka's UK release became pretty popular, both for not selling out within hours of its pre-order availability, and its inclusion of (a cut down version of) the documentary, You're So Cool Brewster.  But now, who cares?  Sony has finally decided to stop passing off responsibility for this classic to boutique labels.  As a consequence, we've got a brand new UHD/ BD combo pack, with all new extras and all legacy stuff from the Twilight Times and the Eureka to render everything that came before it obsolete.

1) 1999 DVD; 2) 2015 BD; 3) 2022 BD; 4) 2022 UHD.

So yeah, they're genuine upgrades with each generation of media, but they've been top notch transfers since Sony's anamorphic 2.33:1 DVD back in the 90s. The colors are a little more natural on the 2015 blu and the detail is stronger, while also tweaking the aspect ratio to 2.40:1. You can see the geometry is a little pinched on the DVD.  Of course, the grain is much more evident on the blu; Jonathan Stark almost looks freckled compared to the DVD, which just doesn't capture detail that small. There's just more to see now in his eyes. And the DVD's also got that softer-edged, splotchier look that you routinely get between SD and HD.

And now of course, it's on UHD.  Even the new 2022 BD is updated, though.  The colors are stronger, plus a bit warmer, and the AR's been adjusted again ever so slightly to 2.39:1.  Both blu-ray encodes really do a pretty excellent job of capturing the grain, but there are little hints of macro-blocking and digital flaws that even the new 1080p blu corrects (look under Jonathan's eyes, for example).  Then of course the added resolution of the UHD keeps the image organic even when you get in super close.

Oh, and didn't I say the old DVD was a flipper disc?  Yeah, it had a 1.32:1 fullscreen version, too.  Out of curiosity, we might as well take a look at that.

Oof, it's not even open matte. And with the film being 2.35ish, that's like literally half the picture they're chopping off! But, okay. I really don't think anybody was thinking, hey, maybe the full-screen version will turn out to be the definitive one! So let's get back to the important stuff.

There is one flaw with the new UHD, and it's in the audio.  The DVD started us off with the original stereo mix, which is faintly hissy with occasional pops, but still perfectly satisfying.  It also has a French dub with English and French subtitles.  Twilight Time bumped the stereo up to DTS-HD, added a DTS-HD 5.1 remix, which cleans up the hiss and pops, and dropped the French stuff.  And this new set keeps the old mixes, still in DTS-HD, plus the English subs, restores the French options and also adds Spanish audio and subs.  All good so far.  But one big deal they make in the marketing of this is a new 7.1 Dolby Atmos mix.  And for the most part, it's great (putting aside the revisionism), except for one substantial mistake.  The song that takes place in the nightclub, when the vampire first walks in and all the way through to the dance, is missing its vocals!  It just plays as an instrumental track.  And it's not just a brief snippet of a tune that plays in the background of a scene.  The whole song plays all the way through and the characters do an important dance to it.  So gutting that song is makes a major difference.  Fortunately, the vocals are still on the original stereo track, which is really the only one that matters, plus the 5.1.  But anyone excited for the new, high-end 7.1 mix is going to be disappointed.

Of course, whether you're coming to the 30th Anniversary Edition from the DVD or from any of the older blus, by far the biggest advancement is in the extras department. First of all, that there are any at all. And secondly, there's a lot, and it's great, high-quality stuff. For starters, there's both the audio commentaries that were released online as mp3s years ago. They're lively, both informative and fun, and between them gather together almost everybody from the film: Tom Holland, Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Stephen Geoffreys, Jonathan Stark, special effects artist Randall Cook, plus moderators.  Both trailers (one more than the DVDs got) and the isolated score are carried over from the 2011 blu, and they've added a stills gallery.

Frankly, that's all I needed to be happy with that release. But there's a lot more, including a reunion panel from 2008 that's just under an hour long, and brings together Tom Holland, Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Stephen Geoffreys, Amanda Bearse (especially nice to get here, as she was missing from the commentaries) and Jonathan Stark. And there's a set of three in-depth interviews with Tom Holland that add up to a solid half hour.  Oh, and there's also a nice insert booklet. The DVD had one of those, too; but the 2011 blu came with a collector's magnet which this one doesn't have.

And finally there's a Vintage Electronic Press Kit, which is kind of a mess, but a beautiful mess. When Twilight Time first announced this, my mind just read that as one of those six minute featureless made to promote the film that are comprised of clips of the film interspersed with a few on-set interview soundbites, and maybe a few seconds of behind-the-scenes footage if we're lucky. Nothing great, but still nice to have for the little glimpses of the past, right?

Well, now let me tell you it's over 90 minutes. Awesome! It's also not a single, edited documentary. It's just all the footage that was included in the film's electronic press kit. That means, for example, that yes, there is a short featurette like I just described included here, and it has a neat into by Roddy McDowall. And then it's included again, minus the intro. So it's not like 95 minutes of great stuff, so much as 85 minutes of stuff with greatness mixed in. Fortunately, it's carefully broken up into chapters so you can jump to each little section and just hit Forward to skip one.

So, there's the featurette, a music video of the main theme and a little making of for the that music video, which are all pretty great. And there's individual interviews Tom Holland, William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon, Roddy McDowall and Amanda Bearse, plus another featurette about visual effects artist Richard Edlund. Oh, and four brief "newswrap" stories about the film. But there's also stuff you're going to want to skip, like the same music video but with Spanish titles, or a series of clips from the film, which are nothing but short chunks of the film in low video quality. Oh yeah, all of this is in low video quality and has a big time counter embedded into the lower center of the image, which I guess is why Sony never put any of it on their DVD. But I'm sure glad Twilight Time didn't pass it over. Just sit there with your finger on the Forward button ready to skip the repeats, and it's a good 45 minute or so watch. And for the diehard fans who really want both versions of the featurette, etc; hey, it's nice they've got the option.

I was surprised we got the whole EPK on the 2022 set.  I was expecting them to trim it to just the highlights, if that.  But no, Sony is on an admirable "all legacy extras" kick, and I'm here for it.  So the commentaries, EPK and everything from the Twilight Time disc is here, and so is the cut-down (the Fright Night 2 half is still absent) from the Eureka disc is here, as well as the YSCB featurettes they carried over.  You can read all about that doc on my dedicated page for it.  So this is already the best, and a fully packed, set of special features.  But there's also a bunch of new stuff.

The least but longest is the 35th anniversary script read.  It's just a script read over zoom and lasts longer than the film itself.  They did pack in a few nice little touches: Tom Holland records an intro, Rosario Dawson and Jason Patric make cameo appearances, the cast don vampire fangs when appropriate, and they get Mark Hamill to stand in for Roddy McDowell.  But who wants to sit through a 2-hour script read when you've got the proper film on the same disc?  What you might want to do, however, is skip ahead to the last 35-minutes, because after the read-through, they have a fun reunion chat and Q&A with all the participants.  They even found Dorothy Fielding, who was MIA for the commentaries and documentary.  So that bit's fun.

And there's some other fun stuff, though sadly it's almost all shot on low quality webcams.  Oh well.  There's a great little featurette about the novelization that interviews the two authors, a short clip of Holland describing an unfilmed scene from the script with storyboards (turns we didn't miss much).  Oh, and you might remember from Holland and his editor in YSCB talking about how they disliked Columbia's trailer for the film and made their own?  Well, they found that, plus some more storyboards.  And there's also an interesting new interview with Amanda Bearse specifically on the queer themes of Fright Night that goes surprisingly in depth, running for almost an hour.  And it all comes in a very stylish steelbook with the classic poster art.  Though the accompanying J-card fails the Grindhouse Video "does it fit in the case" test.

 

It took ages, but by 2015, Fright Night finally started getting worthy home video releases.  And in 2022, we've got the best one yet.  I can't imagine anyone topping it, or even trying, until the next generation of movie tech, where they inject nanites with little film projectors into our bloodstream or something.  Maybe a replacement disc to fix the botched 7.1 track, or the same discs repackaged with a coffee table photo book and life-sized Jerry Dandridge figure, but not another upgrade.  I daresay we've peaked.