We Watched... We Waited... Now Our Time Has Come. Lifeforce, the Director's Cut in 4k!

Lifeforce has a hell of a pedigree.  It's a script by Dan O'Bannon, adapting Colin Wilson's novel Space Vampires, directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.  For Cannon, this was their entry into blockbuster budgeted special effects epics meant to compete with the likes of Star Wars and Krull.  For Hooper, this was his homage to Hammer; the kind of film they'd be making had they still been making them in the 80s.  In terms of box office, this movie wasn't such a success, but in terms of what's up on the screen, I'd say both parties pulled off exactly what they were going for.  This is the Hammer summer tent-pole release that never was.  It stars Steve Railsback (Helter Skelter, Trick Or Treats), Peter Firth (Equus, Northanger Abbey), Patrick Stewart and most iconically, Mathilda May.  The effects are lead by Star Wars' own John Dykstra and there's an amazing score by Henry Mancini and The London Symphony Orchestra.  In short, it's a blast.

Significantly, there are two cuts of this film: the theatrical cut and the international cut.  The latter is over fifteen minutes longer, with many alternate shots and takes.  I recommend movie-censorship.com's detailed break-down if you really want to study the differences.  Now, calling the longer version the International version can be misleading, implying that it's an extended alternate cut, sure, but maybe excessively lengthy or extended arbitrarily.  One need only dip your toes into the film's many special features (more on them later) to hear that this is unquestionably the director's cut.  It's the whole crew's preferred cut.  The distributors (Trimark) took the film away from the filmmakers, and even Cannon, and cut it down against everybody's wishes.  They also changed the title from the novel-accurate Space Vampires, though some of the crew concede that may've been a wiser choice.

The original Vestron laserdisc of Lifeforce was a cropped, fuzzy 1:33 presentation of the theatrical cut that barely felt better than watching a VHS, so it was a big deal when MGM introduced the director's cut in 2.35:1 in 1995.  And it's that second laser that MGM carried over to DVD back in 1998.  Unfortunately, as you could probably guess of a disc that old, it was non-anamorphic; and all of these discs were barebones.  They reissued it on DVD in 2005, and I copped it at the time hoping for an upgrade, but sadly the actual contents of the disc were the same.  So it was a big deal when Scream Factory and Arrow released special editions of both cuts in 2013.  I went with Arrow because they had more extras, and their steelbook retained the original poster art.  And when the film was remastered in 4k, both companies released it again.

But I figured a proper 4k disc would be coming around the corner soon enough, and predictably, Scream released an actual UHD release in 2022.  But what's this?  They only put the theatrical cut on 4k?  Yes, it's proven to be one in a long, infuriating line of Scream Factory cheaping out on their 4k editions (see also: Army of Darkness, Exorcist III, Night Of the Creeps, etc).  I understand times are tough and budgets can't be unlimited, but I'm sure not gonna pay for a UHD when the only version I'm ever going to watch is still BD-only!  So I kept the faith in Arrow and sure enough, now in 2025, they've released both cuts in true Ultra 4k HD via their latest 2-disc limited edition.  It even has some more, new extras.

1) 2005 MGM DVD; 2) 2013 arrow BD; 3) 2025 Arrow UHD.

Well, the back of the MGM case says it's 2.35:1, but it's actually 2.42:1, cropping a little more around the edges than Arrow's actual 2.35 discs.  But it's really the non-anamorphic part that makes it unacceptable now, even by SD standards.  Also, whoops!  Is the DVD missing a red filter for the early space tunnel sequence?  Lifeforce was released in 70mm, so it's primed to benefit from the higher resolution of a UHD than almost any other movie actually shot on film.  And that bears out.  Besides just much better encoded film grain, the UHD has more real detail.  Like, you can read the word "MEDICAL" on the doctor's badge in the first set of shots on the UHD, but not the DVD or BD, where you can't even make out the semblance of letters.

Arrow's new booklet keys us into some interesting facts about their image.  Specifically, that they're using Scream's transfer for the theatrical cut, which was scanned from the original 35mm negative (yes, the film was shot in 35 and blown up for 70mm prints... so I guess the increased detail is actually just the natural benefit of a fresh 4k scan) in HDR10/ Dolby Vision.  But then Arrow restored the international cut in 2024 by scanning a 35mm interpositive in 4k and compositing that in on their own.  So most of this is the 2022 transfer with newly scanned IP footage spliced in.  Above, I took the first set of shots from the theatrical cut and the second is a shot only in the international cut.  I have to say, I never spotted the seams in motion, but zooming into the footage on PC, the grain is definitely less defined.  You can barely make any out in that last screenshot, which is also true of the older blu.  So yeah, the difference in quality is there, but I can't imagine using it as an excuse not to release the composite cut in 4k.

For the audio, MGM just gave us a 5.1 mix (obviously not original for a 1985 movie) with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.  In 2013, Arrow preserved that 5.1 mix in lossless DTS-HD, but also gave us the original stereo in LPCM, with just the English subs.  And now in 2025, Arrow keeps both of those tracks (and subs) but also adds a third Dolby Atmos mix, which was apparently also made (for the theatrical cut) by Scream.  But Arrow went ahead and produced their own Dolby Atmos mix for the International cut as well.

MGM started us off with the bare minimum special features: an equally non-anamorphic trailer and an insert booklet with notes.  It's Scream Factory and Arrow who brought the extras to the table, and many were the same across their dual releases.  For starters, both have audio commentaries with Hooper (excellent despite his moderator constantly cutting him off) and effects artist Nick Maley, who worked more on the make-up side of the effects.  Both also have three excellent on-camera interviews with Hooper, Railsback (a little short) and Mathilda May.  Seriously, if you're only willing to spend a little bit of time with Lifeforce, just watch these.  Then there's the trailer and some TV spots.

Scream Factory also, briefly, had one other extra: a vintage half-hour documentary called The Making Of..... Lifeforce.  I say "briefly" because, apparently Shout Factory assumed they had the rights to this along with the film itself, but apparently they didn't and got in trouble for it, so they had to re-issue the disc with this removed.  Only people who pre-ordered or scored very early copies have the version with this doc on it, which is a shame, because it's excellent.  Unlike every other extra for this film, including on future releases, this is full of behind-the-scenes footage.  It has quick interviews with the cast and crew on location, including some not otherwise interviewed on any Lifeforce release, but more important is all the impressive footage of the amazing giant sets, explosions and scores of extras running around in "walking shriveled" make-up.  I'd be even more bothered by the loss of this doc, however, if it hadn't already been released on laserdisc, not as an extra for the film, but as its own release.  It's The Making Of..... Lifeforce on one side, and The Making Of..... Invaders From Mars (the Hooper remake, natch) on the other.  It's a shame neither Scream nor Arrow could make a deal to include this on any of their releases, but at least it's out there.

So, anyway, that wraps it up for Scream Factory's extras.  It also came with reversible artwork, a slipcover, and a poster if you pre-ordered directly from Shout.  But Arrow had more.  First off, they've got a third commentary with effects artist Douglas Smith, who did more of the outer space visuals.  This one's a little dry (the moderator is full of "CGI just doesn't feel as real as physical effects" observations that plagued every commentary from that time), but Smith has some good memories fans will enjoy hearing.  And they've got an original feature-length retrospective documentary.  It's often redundant if you've watched the other extras, but there's also some candid talk (i.e. about drug use on set) that nobody got into in other features, and some cast and crew members nobody else got to talk to them, so it's definitely worth your time.  Arrow also has an isolated music and effects track (in LPCM stereo) nobody else included.  Their release also included a 28-page booklet by Bill Warrens and a slipcover, though as I already mentioned, their alternate steelbook release looks much better for using the iconic original artwork.

That's been the whole story for extras until now.   Arrow's and Scream Factory's respective 2017 and 2018 remastered editions didn't include any new extras, nor does Scream's 2022 UHD.  But now in 2025, yes, Arrow has included some new stuff.  First of all, there's over 45-minutes of never before released interviews with Hooper and several other crew members shot for the 2014 Cannon Films documentary Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films.  Hooper in particular repeats a lot of anecdotes we've heard already, but there's new stuff here, too, particularly (as you'd expect) involving their working relationship with Golan and Globus.  And there's a new, roughly fifteen minute comparison between the theatrical and television versions of Lifeforce[above], which uses several alternate shots and other edits to make it broadcast safe.  They've also thrown in the original credits sequence without the text covering it.  This release includes a new, completely different 24-page booklet by Frank Collins, an art-card for Bastard Swordsman from their recent 'Shawscope Volume 3' boxed set, reversible artwork and a slipcover... though disappointingly, they've ditched the original artwork again.

That all adds up to Arrow's 2-disc UHD set easily being the definitive edition.  I hope you held out and didn't get suckered in my Scream's edition.  And I hope fans support this superior release, and it in turn helps nudge Scream into putting all of their films' versions onto UHD, not just the theatrical cuts.  Let's reverse this depressing trend.  More sales of a higher quality product ought to win out over cutting corners to save a few bucks.