Creepshow has always been released barebones in the USA. But in the UK, it had a sweet 2-disc DVD special edition. When it was time for blu-ray,
Creepshow stayed barebones in the US, but the UK blu got even more extras! But finally, the director of the
Creepshow documentary
Just Desserts from the UK releases, Redshirt's
Michael Felsher, put together
an indiegogo campaign to release just his doc in the USA, even if it had to be by itself, as opposed to paired with Warner Bros'
Creepshow discs. Well, that happened, and Synapse picked it up, including a bunch more special features. Just what's carried over from one special edition to another - and what isn't - can be a little confusing, so let's break it all down.
Update 10/14/18: And suddenly there's a lot more to the
Creepshow story! Scream Factory has restored the film in 4k from the original camera negative, and they've issued it in a fancy new special edition, with even more all new special features.
Update 7/1/23: And now that we're solidly in the 4k Ultra HD age, it only make sense that Scream Factory circle back around and release
Creepshow on a proper UHD, which they've now done, in a brand new 2-disc BD/ UHD combo-pack.
First of all,
Creepshow is a blast. It's one of those movies I loved as a kid and still get just as much out of today. You know, usually movies fall on one side of that line or the other, but this is one of those treats that fills both spaces. It's an anthology film directed by
George Romero, written by (and co-starring)
Stephen King, based on the old E.C. horror comics of the 1950s. That's already some top of the line talent, bolstered by the fact that they have a respectable (for a horror movie) budget and a big studio behind them. But then add to that the effects-work of
Tom Savini and a terrific all-star cast, all delightfully shot and dramatically framed over-the-top, capturing the style of the original comic books perhaps better than any other, with the possible exceptions of much later entries like
Sin City or
Ang Lee's
The Hulk. But unlike
The Hulk, this doesn't suck, so it's really the best of both worlds.
;)
Every story is great. You have a wrap-around segment where a young boy is forbidden to read his trashy comic books by his father,
Tom Atkins. But he reads anyway, and each story is is one of our anthology's segments, starting with
Father's Day, starring
Ed Harris. He marries into a wealthy family who owe all their spoils to their deceased patriarch, but their lack of respect has him not just rolling in his grave, but crawling up out of it. Next, King himself stars as an over-the-top hillbilly hick who thinks his luck has turned when a meteorite lands in his backyard, but we all know things can't go as well as he hopes. Next,
Leslie Neilsen exacts some morbidly fatal revenge on his wife and the man she cheats on him with (
Ted Danson), but it winds up backfiring on him. And speaking of murderous solutions to marital problems,
Hal Holbrook thinks he may have figured out a way to finally rid himself of his delightfully shrewish wife,
Adrienne Barbeau, when he finds a mysterious crate in the basement of his university. And finally
E.G. Marshall is a rich man who takes germophobia to new extremes in his futuristically designed penthouse apartment, but unfortunately for him, nature always finds a way.
Creepshow was originally released on DVD in 1999. I unfortunately sold it off long ago, so I don't have it for today's comparison, but it at least an anamorphic widescreen presentation. I got rid of it, though, because in 2007 Second Sight put out their loaded 2007 special edition 2-disc DVD set, which I do still have and am including here. Back in the USA, Warner Bros gave this film its HD debut with their 2009 blu-ray, but it was barebones. Eventually in 2013, Second Sight gave us the best of both worlds: a special edition blu-ray. At the time, it was the champ. But then in 2018, Scream Factory raised the stakes with a fresh 4k restoration from the original camera negative on BD. And although that release had remained unchallenged to this day, SF are raising the stakes again, with an all new 4k scan of the OCN in Dolby Vision HDR, now released on a proper 2160p UHD disc (and a 1080p BD, too).
|
1) 2007 SS DVD; 2) 2009 WB BD; 3) 2013 SS BD; 4) 2018 SF BD. |
So, by and large, it's the same root transfer on the DVD bumped up to HD on the original blus. It's got the same occasional flecks and dirt (look at the white speck at the top left of all three Halbrook shots), roughly the same colors etc. I say roughly, because the DVD's a teensy bit darker, but only so's you'd notice in a direct comparison like this. One more notable difference, however, is the framing. Second Sight matted it to 1.85:1 on the DVD, but Warner Bros left it open to 1.78:1 on the blu-ray, and so did they. Apart from that, though, they're pretty similar. What was a great looking DVD becomes an okay looking blu. It is a bit cleaner and more clear without the DVD compression, but it's still soft and generally feels like the older master that it is. A mild upgrade from the already pretty strong DVD.
But now the new blu! First, to start off, the proper 1.85:1 aspect ratio is back. And that white speck in the Halbrook shot is gone, along with plenty of others like it (though I did still catch a few specks). The film's a bit darker, with more naturalistic colors, except in key shots where the impressionistic, comic book-influenced coloring comes in, and it actually goes a bit further in that direction. Detail is improved and grain is definitely more distinct and natural by a wide margin. The older blus didn't have any problems per se, crying out for correction; they're just older. And Scream's edition brings
Creepshow to the higher standards of quality on par with today's tech.
|
5) 2023 SF BD; 6) 2023 SF UHD. |
And yes, in 2023, it's another new 4k scan, not just the 2018 transfer on a higher res disc. Just comparing the two BDs, you'll notice the colors are a little subtler. The encodes and grain distribution are clearly different, though it's hard to say one's really better than the other in that regard. I was happy to notice, though, that the already very minor film damage, like a few tiny white spots behind Leslie in the sky there, have been cleaned up between the 2018 and 2023 releases. And the UHD is, as you'd hope, an even bigger improvement, with much more consistent and thorough grain representation and more natural coloring and resolution of fine detail, notable, for instance, on his necklace.
The DVD gave us a choice between a 5.1 remix or the original Dolby 2.0
stereo track, plus English subtitles. The Second Sight blu gives us the
same audio options, but bumps them up to DTS-HD and LPCM respectively.
However, unfortunately, this time around they neglected the subs. On
the other hand, Warner Bros remembered the subtitles (and French ones as
well), but left off the 5.1 option, leaving us with just the TrueHD
stereo 2.0. And Scream? Well, its 2018 release claims "DTS-HD Master Audio Mono" on
the back of the case, but that's a little incorrect. In fact, both the 2018 and 2023 releases offer us the
choice of a 5.1 Surround mix or the 2.0 Stereo track, both in DTS-HD.
And yes, they have English subtitles. The UHD also adds a new Dolby Atmos track, not mentioned on the back cover.
Now, like I
said, the US Warner Bros release is barebones except for the trailer and
a lame ad for Warner Bros releases in general. So just forget about
that and let's start with the DVD, which provides all the key staples.
First, there's a very cool audio commentary by Romero and Savini, who
provide a lot of great backstory to this film. But topping that is the
feature length documentary
Just Desserts, making its debut here.
This is a great, very upbeat retrospective which talks to all the key
players. It's very well made, in Red Shirt's usual, top notch fashion.
And besides those two key features, there's also fifteen minutes of
deleted scenes, a featurette compiling almost half an hour of Tom
Savini's behind-the-scenes footage, the trailer and a stills gallery.
The DVD also came in a cool slip-sleeve box.
Again, the US blu-ray didn't pick up any of that and remained barebones.
Well, except for the trailer. But Second Sight's blu-ray carried over
everything from their excellent DVD set, right down to the stills
gallery, even bumping
Just Desserts up to HD. Then, they added an
all new audio commentary. This one, isn't really a proper audio
commentary, though. It's more a collection of audio interviews that are
laid over the film, but not commenting directly on it. They talk to
director of photography
Michael Gornick, actor
John Amplas (the father in
Father's Day), property master
Bruce Alan Miller, make-up effects assistant
Darryl Ferrucci and
Bernie Wrightson, the artist who did the poster and the awesome oversized
Creepshow comic
book that my best friend and I used to borrow from the library like
every other week for years. Plus, they added an additional vintage TV
spot.
And then we come to Synapse's 2016 blu-ray release of just
Just Desserts.
|
1) 2007 SS DVD; 2) 2013 SS BD; 3) 2016 Synapse BD. |
So, not much has changed apart from what you'd expect. The DVD looks a
little more compressed, naturally, being in standard def. All three are
framed at 1.78:1, but the 2013 blu-ray looks a little bit lighter than
the other two, and the DVD is a little heavier saturated. I think I like
Synapse's middle-of-the-road look the best. But oh no, wait - there is a
big difference here: the whole lower third label is missing from the
DVD shot! Well, watching the doc through, that label is on the DVD
version, too; it just fades out a little earlier. So I guess Felsher did a
little tinkering with the edit for the blu-ray reissue? I didn't notice
any substantial changes between the two versions, though, but there
might be more subtle alterations and flourishes for the particularly
curious to discover.
So anyway, you might think getting
Just Desserts is great for the Region A locked who've been stuck with entirely featureless
Creepshow releases,
and it is. But Synapse has packed their release with additional
features which might just tempt owners of the Second Sight special
editions. First, though, let me cover the other stuff they included from
the Second Sight blu, because they did do some of that. You remember
that collection of Savini's behind-the-scenes footage I mentioned
before? That's been ported over to here, as has the not-quite-an-audio
commentary with Gornick, Amplas, Miller, Ferrucci and Wrightson, which
now plays as a commentary over the documentary (again, they're not
commenting on anything in particular, so it's the same difference). They
also carried over the stills gallery.
|
Scream Greats: Volume One |
But Syanpse's blu also has a bunch of new stuff. There's an audio commentary (for the documentary, not
Creepshow)
by Felsher, an on-camera interview with Michael Gornick (which is
actually the same interview heard on that second audio commentary,
except slightly re-edited and now we get to see him), extended interview
clips from the doc with Romero, Savini and Wrightson (the last of
which, like the Gornick interview, is the same as on the audio
commentary). There's also a
Creepshow episode of
Horror's Hallowed Grounds (these are always a blast), and a vintage segment of the Pittsburgh public access show
Evening Magazine
that interviews Romero and shows some behind-the-scenes footage of the
filming of the movie. Finally, but perhaps most excitingly, is
Fangoria's old
Scream Greats: Volume One
documentary that they released on VHS way back in the day, interviewing
Tom Savini in his studio. It's presented here, along with its own audio
commentary track by Savini. I imagine some fans will find this release
worth the purchase price for this alone.
Also, if you supported the indiegogo campaign, you got an exclusive booklet and poster. Good on ya.
|
The original cell animations. |
And what about Scream Factory's new blu? They have an interesting mix
of new features and older stuff they carried over. So let's start with
the old. The two commentaries, deleted scenes, trailers, galleries and
half hour of Savini footage from the UK blu-ray are here. In other
words, everything except the
Just Desserts doc. And the
Horror's Hallowed Grounds from the Synapse
Just Desserts disc is here.
So the new stuff? It's mostly also by Red Shirt Pictures, and basically
feels like a collection of every other little thing they missed with
their Synapse disc. There are great new interviews with the costume
designer
Barbara Anderson and animator
Rick Catizone. There's a round-table discussion with Felsher, Amplas, Atkins, Savini and
Marty Schiff
which manages to cough up a few anecdotes which I don't think were in
the previous extras. And there's a couple interviews where it really
begins to feel like they're stretching it, including one with a guy who
collects
Creepshow props, and another with two guys who commission new posters for older films, including
Creepshow,
though none of them compared to the classic original posters. There's
also two new audio commentaries. One by Michael Gornick, which was good
but repeated stuff from some of his other interviews, and another with
composer/ assistant director
John Harrison and construction coordinator
Ed Fountain,
which was fairly low energy and frankly boring. More interesting for
me, though possibly not for more casual viewers just interested in the
film rather than the technical stuff, were new interviews with Gornick
and sound designer
Chris Jenkins, who talked about the finer
points of the new 4k restoration. However, fair warning: purists may
wince at some of the changes Gornick made that border on the
revisionist.
Scream Factory's 2018 blu comes in a thick hardbox, with reversible artwork for the inner case, and a glossy, 40 page book by
Michael Gingold.
Also, if you pre-ordered early enough, you got a limited edition poster
and lithograph. And their 2023 set makes no changes, additions or
subtractions, to their extras package, but comes in a standard amary
case with reversible artwork and a slipcover. It also came with a
poster if you pre-ordered directly from Shout. And if you really went
all-in, you could their flush set with two slipcovers, two posters, five
lobby cards, five enamel pins and a prism sticker.
So, together, Scream's UHD set and Synapse's
Just Desserts disc
nets you everything. If you have those, there's nothing left exclusive
on the Second Sight blu, or any of the other past releases. If you
don't have
Just Desserts, though, Scream's disc feels a little
bit off in terms of extras. Like you've got a lot of odds and ends, but
they never talk to the major cast members or anything. I feel like
Felsher specifically designed this set of extras to work as a companion
piece, in conjunction with the Synapse blu, rather than something meant
to stand alone. And that's fine if you're happy to get both, but could
be a little annoying to fans who think just shelling out for Scream's
Collector's Edition should be pretty definitive on its own (especially
if you laid down the $140 for the full swag set!), and feel stuck watching a
couple of hipsters showing off their drawings instead of Adrienne
Barbeau and Ed Harris. In the end, it's certainly worth it, though,
with a smashing new transfer of the film and - again, if you get both
releases - an incredibly comprehensive and enjoyable set of features
documenting what's still one of the most fun horror movies going.