Grindhouse's The Beyond Truly Goes Beyond

There have been a few delays and push backs, but Grindhouse's new blu-ray special edition set of Lucio Fulci's The Beyond has finally reached my doorstep. But it's been worth it, because you know what they say about rushing greatness. Grindhouse originally released this on DVD through Anchor Bay in a very cool, special edition collector's tin in 2000. But now, fifteen years later, it's time to see how they've topped themselves.

Update 3/31/15 - 4/30/25: Wow, my first update to span a full decade.  I can't believe I've been at this that long already; it doesn't feel like it.  Anyway, y'all know what this is; we're taking a look at Grindhouse's new 4k restoration 6-disc UHD/ BD/ DVD/ CD mega-set.

The Beyond, of course, is pretty much THE Lucio Fulci film. I mean, hardcore zombie or giallo fans might prefer Zombi or Don't Torture a Duckling. And serious long-term fans who've watched all his classics a dozen or more times might have slowly edged City Of the Living Dead up over this through the years. But by and large, The Beyond is generally considered his masterpiece. Set in New Orleans, the plot is practically indescribable. Hell just literally breaks loose and every horrific supernatural thing that can go wrong does go wrong, from spider attacks to psychics to zombies. It's very gruesome and thankfully takes itself entirely seriously; but it's still got a very colorful, fantastic tone that gives the proceedings a soft, inoffensive edge. It's just great music and great lighting capturing one captivating set-piece after another. And giving this film almost an action here with David Warbeck gives the film a bit of adventure film flavor.  It's pretty much the ultimate.

1) 2000 Grindhouse DVD; 2) 2011 Arrow DVD; 3) 2015 Grindhouse BD;
4) 2025 Grindhouse BD; 5) 2025 Grindhouse UHD; 6) 2025 Grindhouse DVD.

The 2.32:1 anamorphic DVD looked pretty fantastic when it was released in 2000, but as time passed and technology improved, it was starting to look a little stiff. There's no denying us fans were hoping for a new 2k or 4k scan in 2015, since it's pretty much the crown jewel in Grindhouse's catalog. But even using the old HD master, their first blu showed us how much better the film could look. A color re-balance certainly helps a lot here, but it's just a cleaner, more natural and detailed image all around. With a wider, 2.41:1 AR, we also seem to have a little extra picture information on all four sides.  Oh, and Arrow's 2.35:1 DVD (which, for the record, is the corrected version, not the original recalled one with the black & white intro) leans more towards the red, closer to Anchor Bay, but milder, and keeps that extra info around the edges.

On this new 4k version, which you can watch with the intro properly sepia-toned or in full color, Grindhouse has settled on 2.39:1, and it's clearly the most colorful version.  Even if we just compare the 1080p blus, rather than the Dolby Vision/ HDR UHD, The Beyond has a bolder, more saturated look.  Just look how blue that morgue is now.  Grain is much better captured here than on the old blu, which was far ahead of the DVDs, but still somewhat patchy and pixelated.  Also, just for fun, and perhaps to show off how impressive their new restoration is by comparison, Grindhouse has included an SD/ DVD transfer of the 7 Doors of Death cut, too.  It's 1.50:1, with the sides lopped off.  Even for DVD, it's soft, with grain only represented by vague lumpiness, and presumably taken from an old tape master, with color timing closest to the AB disc.  It's a fun curiosity piece.  But the UHD is gorgeous.

A lot of times, Italian horror has been given to us in English dub only, and we had to wait for fancier re-releases to get our choice of the English or  Italian tracks.  But Anchor Bay gave us both right away, including the original English mono, a stereo and a 5.1 mix, plus the Italian mono with optional English subtitles.  What can I say, The Beyond's always been recognized as special.  Interestingly, Arrow kept all three versions of the English audio, and the subs, but ditched the Italian track.

In 2015, Grindhouse brought it back, bumping up the English mono and 5.1 mixes to DTS-HD, but keeping the Italian lossy.  There was also some discussion on the blu-ray.com forums of little pops in the audio of the original English mono track. I've listened for myself and yup, I do hear them. And I can also confirm that they're not there on Anchor Bay's mono track. It's a little disappointing, and I do wish they weren't there; but it feels very minor especially within the context of the audio track generally feeling much fuller and stronger overall.  And anyway, it's been cleaned up on the new 2025 set, so forget about it!  Now we have the original mono, stereo, 5.1 and Italian mono all in DTS-HD, and the English subtitles.  Some online listings mention two sets of English subs - standard and SDH - but the SDH are not actually on here.  It's just the one set of "dubtitles" that match the English audio, plus subtitle tracks for two of the audio commentaries.

...And perhaps most notably (although I don't want to under0state just how excited I am to finally get both mono tracks lossless), Grindhouse has included The Composer's Cut!  Strictly speaking, it's the same cut of the film, but it's been entirely re-scored by original composer Fabio Frizzi with all new music.  It's a little calmer and more noodley - I prefer the original myself - but it's interesting to hear the variations.  Fans should be excited to at least check it out once.  And Grindhouse gives us the best of both worlds, because we get the choice, with the new track also in DTS-HD 5.1.

But let's talk about extras! If you weren't already bowled over by Grindhouse's updated presentation of the film itself, you certainly will be by the massive amount and quality of features they've delivered. There's so much, in fact, I've decided to itemize everything on the original DVD and each subsequent set:

Anchor Bay DVD extras:

• Commentary by David Warbeck and Catriona MacColl
• Images From the Beyond: a collection of stills galleries (less interesting) and video (more interesting), including a short interview with Fulci, a short clip of David Warbeck and Catriona MacColl at a convention, Darvid Warbeck speaking at a convention, and Lucio and Warbeck doing a Q&A
• US, International and German trailers
• The opening sequence in color
• Necrophagia music video
• Easter Eggs) 7 Doors of Death trailer and a trailer for Cat In the Brain (there also seems to be another highlight-able link for a third easter egg on the second page of special features that doesn't actually work)

Grindhouse BD extras:

• Commentary by David Warbeck and Catriona MacColl
• Intro by Catriona MacColl
• 48 minute documentary on the making of The Beyond
• A 2-part phone interview with Fulci
• Interview with Larry Ray
• Interview with Catrina MacColl
• Interview with Cinzea Monreale
• Interview with Gianetto De Rossi and Manrizio Trani
• Footage of Catriona MacColl speaking at a convention
• Footage of David Warbeck speaking at a convention
• Interview with Terry Levene
• The opening sequence in color
• US, International and German trailers + US rerelease trailer
• US TV spots
• US re-release radio spot
• An overwhelming number of stills galleries
• 14 bonus trailers for Grindhouse's other titles
  
• Easter Eggs: the full set of Images From the Beyond extras (some of which are duplicated on disc 2 of this blu as well), a series of brief interviews (23 minutes worth) from Paura, the 7 Doors of Death trailer, a 10+ minute audio track of whispering and moaning(?), the Necrophagia music video, and a brief but nice featurette comparing location shots from the films to footage of them as they look now

Grindhouse UHD extras:

• Commentary by David Warbeck and Catriona MacColl
• Commentary by Sergio Salvati
• Commentary by Gianetto De Rossi
• Intro by Catriona MacColl
• Intro to the Composer's Cut by Fabio Frizzi
  
• Interview with scholar/ director of Fulci for Fake Simone Scafidi (over an hour long!)
  
• Interview with Fabio Frizzi about the new Composer's Cut
• Footage of Frizzi and his band performing the Composer's Cut live, with an introduction by Bruce Campbell(!)
  
• 48 minute documentary on the making of The Beyond
• A 2-part phone interview with Fulci
• Interview with Larry Ray
• Interview with Al Cliver
  
• Interview with Catrina MacColl
• Interview with Cinzea Monreale
• Newer interview with Cinzea Monreale
• Interview with Michele Mirabella 
• Interview with Dardano Sacchetti
• Interview with Giorgo Mariuzzo
• Interview with stuntmen Ottaviano Dell'Acqua & Massimo Vanni
• Interview with Ugo Celani
• Ugo Celani outtake
  
• Interview with Pino Colizzi
• Interview with Michele Romagnoli (Fulci's biographer, who worked on a draft of The Beyond 2 with Fulci)
  
• Interview with poster artist Emanuele Taglietti (though for the record, he just made the new poster on the cover of this box, not the original movie poster)
  
• Interview with Gianetto De Rossi and Manrizio Trani
• Footage of Catriona MacColl speaking at a convention
• Footage of David Warbeck speaking at a convention
• Footage of Catriona MacColl and David Warbeck speaking together at a convention
• Footage of Lucio Fulci and David Warbeck speaking at a convention (a separate, 46 minute video, not the short one from Images From the Beyond)
  
• Brief footage of Catriona MacColl and David Warbeck at yet another a convention
• Interview with Terry Levene
• The Beyond In the Age of Aquarius, a new 40-minute featurette talking to Terry Levene and editor Jim Markovic on the 7 Doors of Death cut
• Terry Levene outtake 
• Jim Markovic outtake
• US, International and German trailers + US rerelease trailer
• US TV spots
• US re-release radio spot
• More 7 Doors of Death spots
  
• An overwhelming number of stills galleries
• The bonus trailers for Grindhouse's other titles
• All the old Easter Eggs: the full set of Images From the Beyond extras, the interviews from Paura, the 7 Doors of Death trailer, that 10+ minute audio track of whispering and moaning (yes, it's back), the Necrophagia music video, and the location featurette

Everything in purple is new to the blu-ray and everything in red is new to the UHD.  That is an increasingly massive and impressive load of features. You might even say overwhelming. Many of the interviews are quite lengthy and they're all substantial. Grindhouse has linked up with Freak-O-Rama, who've done a bunch of excellent features for high profile Italian horror titles from Scorpion and Code Red, among others.  And you might recall that UK's Shameless Screen Entertainment released a blu-ray of The Beyond in 2020 with a bunch of exclusive extras, including a Salvati commentary (actually recorded for a French DVD back in 2004, but Shameless were the first to translate it to English) and an interview with actor Michele Mirabella, who had never been on a Beyond disc before.  Well, Grindhouse licensed those and they're all here on the new 2025 set.  The only extras of note they didn't snag are Arrow's, so let's look at those.

Arrow DVD extras:

• Commentary by David Warbeck and Catriona MacColl
• A second commentary by Antonella Fulci (Fulci's daughter) and moderator Callum Waddell, which I'd recommend to hardcore fans only.
• Intro by Cinzea Monreale
• Interview with Cinzea Monreale
• Q&A session with Catriona MacColl
• Interview with Terry Levene (perhaps it's worth noting that Grindhouse trimmed over a minute out of Naomi Holwill's opening animation, so theirs is technically shorter, though the actual interview length is the same)
  
• Interview with Gianetto Di Rossi
• 25 minute featurette where Roberto Forges Davanzati, Daria Nicolodi, Antonella Fulci, Dario Argento, Giannetto De Rossi and Sergio Stivaletti remember Fulci (not the same as the one on GH's disc; this set of different interviews purports to come from a future Paura part 2).
  
• Interview with Catriona MacColl
• The opening sequence in color
• International trailer
• Easter Egg: Darren Ward remembering David Warbeck - a brief (4+ minutes) interview with the director of Warbeck's final film, Sudden Fury

Their collection is pretty impressive in its own right. Some of what's here stems from the old Anchor Bay release, and a little of what originated here got ported to the Grindhouse set. But still everything in blue is exclusive to the Arrow release, which as you can see, is most of it. Admittedly, some of it is pretty redundant. Both discs interview Cinzae Monreale, for example, the actress who played the blind woman. They're different interviews, filmed at different times in different locations; but naturally she winds up saying most of the same stuff in both. You'll hear some of the same anecdotes almost word for word from Catriona MacColl - her stuff was already getting redundant on the Grindhouse disc, now it's more. But other features, like the exclusive interviews with cameraman Roberto Forges Davanzati or the Darren Ward easter egg, are more original and rewarding even if you've already got the Grindhouse set.

Here's how it looks in the dark.

And usually I don't devote too much space to the packaging, but how can I not here? The original DVD release came in a very cool tin case. Inside, it also had six international poster replicas and a chapter insert of cardstock, and a fat, 48-page booklet. And it was a numbered limited edition of 20,000 copies. Holy cow, it's crazy to think 20,000 was a tight limited pressing in the days of Twilight Time making 3000 of even their Oscar-winning titles, and Code Red still shifting units of a blu they only made 1000 editions of two years prior.

Anyway, it might seem hard to top that DVD tin, but I think Grindhouse at least equaled it. Their blu-ray set comes in a very cool, glow in the dark slipcover. You've gotta charge it up under some strong light; but when you do, it looks pretty great. It also comes with a slimmer booklet and a bonus CD of the film's soundtrack, which has also been remastered. That's something a lot of fans would pay the cost of this blu for all on its own.

Meanwhile, the Arrow set comes in their usual (in those days) windowpane slipcover with reversible artwork inside, a substantial, 32-page blu-ray sized booklet and a fold-out poster.

And now Grindhouse's UHD set is a thick, side-loading slipbox housing a fancy book designed to resemble the book of Eibon, which looks really cool, but unfortunately houses all the discs in cardboard sleeve pages.  Pray you don't get any scratched!  Anyway, there's also a 100-page full-color book, which includes multiple essays and gallery pages, but also Sacchetti's complete, original treatment.  And they include another soundtrack CD, this time of the new  Composer's Cut score (hang on to your previous soundtrack CD for the original score, which thankfully came in its own separate sleeve, so you can just slot it into this box).  And if you ordered one of the first 3,500 copies direct from Grindhouse you got a fun bit of swag: the Eye of Eibon(!), a creepy little eyeball that always looks up no matter how you turn it.

The new set's a little pricey ($66.66), but with all its versions (with the intro in color or sepia, the Composer's Cut, your choice of English or Italian, the 7 Doors of Death cut), this massive 6-disc set looks like it'll be the definitive release of this true horror classic for a long time to come.  And you can't say it doesn't include enough content to justify the expense.  Before the update, I used to recommend picking up the Arrow, too, for their exclusive extras; and you still might want to if you're a die-hard collector, or the sort of hardcore fan who has the mark of Eibon tattooed somewhere on your body.  But at this point, Grindhouse's edition is so exhaustive, it would take the dedication of a druidic scholar to come away from it wanting to watch any more special features.

The More Cat In the Brains, The Merrier!

Admit it, whenever you first heard the title of Lucio Fulci's Cat In the Brain, you never would've expected this film to actually deliver you the image of a cat in a brain. Whatever criticism you may have of this film, you gotta admit, Fulci delivered. Today's film is a high concept but low shelf entry in the Fulci catalog. It's fun, got of lot of cheesy gore, plus you could say Wes Craven ganked the basic idea for his New Nightmare film years later. And it's been issued a number of times on DVD around the world. But that was capped pretty thoroughly when Grindhouse released a fairly definitive 2-disc set in 2009. But I still hang onto my old, banned Astro-Film DVD, which goes under the title Nightmare Concert. And we're going to find out why as we look back at Cat In the Brain...

Update 3/28/15 - 7/20/16 - 5/29/18: More cats in more brains!  First the Grindhouse blu-ray upgrade, and now 88 Films has just released a brand new edition of this crazy Fulci oddity over in the UK.

So one of the appeals of this film is that Fulci himself stars in it. He's often given himself little cameo roles in his film, as a cop or a coroner with a line or two of dialogue. But here he stars, as essentially himself: a horror movie director played by gruesome nightmares inspired by the scenes of his own films. And what's worse - the murders he's dreaming may actually be happening around him? Is he going insane? Or is some mysterious murderer out there somewhere, copying his films? Find out as Fulci reuses a whole bunch of old movies and stitches them together into one, semi-coherent narrative. That's right, instead of filming new murder scenes for his movie like most people do, he just uses clips of other movies' murders and cuts them into the movie. How cheap! Fortunately, Fulci is charming, and he does put in some genuine effort to match his newly shot footage of himself with the scenes from the old films. So while you'd never rank this anywhere near his best films, it does make for a bemusing watch.

From the opening credits of Bloody Psycho

Specifically, the films cut into Cat In the Brain include two directed by Fulci himself: The Ghosts of Sodom and Touch of Death, and an Andrea Bianchi film he produced called Massacre. But the other four are films he was less officially responsible for: The Broken Mirror, Hansel & Gretel a.k.a. Never Hurt Children - the only film directed by one of Cat's co-writers, Giovanni Simonelli, Escape From Death and Bloody Psycho, both of which were also written by Simonelli.  All four of those latter films were released under the heading "Lucio Fulci Presents," and in two of them, he's listed in the credits as "Supervised by."  So it's hard to say exactly how much of those films he was or wasn't responsible for behind the scenes, but I guess enough that he felt comfortable re-purposing them here.

Oh, and did I say the Astro-Film disc was "banned?" Yes, a bunch of the films they released were banned in their home country of Germany, and the head of the company was even arrested and imprisoned. That's pretty terrible, since they were just releasing old 80s horror movies - bloodier than some, but not exactly shocking snuff films or anything.

1) 2001 German Astro-Film DVD 2) 2009 US Grindhouse DVD
3) 2016 US Grindhouse blu 4) 2018 UK 88 Films blu

Okay, first the DVDs. Both discs claim to present the film in the correct aspect ratio of 1.66:1, but the Astro-disc is really closer to 1.47:1, so you can see the framing is noticeably different in the second set of shots. Almost as importantly, if not more so, the Grindhouse disc is anamorphic and pillarboxed, while Astro's disc is a smaller, non-anamorphic image floating in a windowbox. The image quality shifts around a bit as the film jumps between film clips spliced from other movies; but the Grindhouse's HD restoration is always substantially superior to the Astro disc. I mean, those comparisons speak for themselves. The colors, the lighting, everything. Even the flecks and scratches (like the white mark on the guy's cheek in the top shot) have been cleaned up on Grindhouse's disc.

Grindhouse DVD vs. Grindhouse blu

But now, seven years later, Grindhouse has upgraded their DVD to a new HD blu. It's sharper. Though the grain looks a little blocky and uneven.  And considering this isn't one of Grindhouse's new 4k or even 2k scans, yeah, I see what people have been kvetching about. Still, this is a blu-ray, and doesn't have the muddying compression of SD. So it is a definite upgrade over the DVD (it also squeezes in a pinch more vertical information), just not as big of one as we might've hoped for from Grindhouse. But given that this film is a hodgepodge of old, lesser quality filmstock, I can also understand why they might not've seen much value in paying for a high-end scan. Even with a new 4k pass, I doubt we'd be seeing much new detail or anything. It's not like there's a button you could push to make this film look like Lawrence Of Arabia that they're neglecting to push.

And 88's blu?  Clearly they're using the same master, but that doesn't mean the transfers are strictly identical.  They're both presented in 1.65:1 and the quality of detail and all is the same, but even without clicking through to see the screenshots full-sized, the difference in color-timing should be clear.  Grindhouse leans more greenish/ yellow, whereas 88 goes to the more blue/ red end of the scale.  Actually, 88's color-timing is similar to Grindhouse's DVD rather than their blu.  And I think I might slightly prefer it.  A slim distinction to be sure, but Grindhouse's blu looks a little overly orange to me compared to 88's new edition.

At least the blus mean we've gotten an audio upgrade from Dolby 2.0, which both the Astro and Grindhouse DVD had, to the original mono in DTS-HD (Grindhouse) or LPCM (88) tracks. And both blus and the Grindhouse DVD give you the option of English or Italian audio (Astro only has English and a German dub), with English subs.

Now when Grindhouse came out with their DVD, they only stepped it up with the transfer, but they brought us a whole second disc worth of extras, mostly in the form of some very in-depth interviews. There are two 40+ minute interviews with Fulci (which are really one long interview split into two parts) and a 46 minute one with Brett Halsey, who wound up in this film only by way of his starring in Touch of Death. There are also three very brief interviews with Jeofrey Kennedy, Sacha Maria Darwin and Malisa Longo, all of which are taken from the Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered Volume 1 DVD. Besides those and a collection of trailers (including Cat In the Brain's), there are a couple easter eggs with additional footage of Fulci at conventions and clips of Halsey commenting on some of his other films. It also comes with a substantial booklet and a very cool lenticular 3D cover.

But Astro-Film has a 35 minute unique extra of its own, which is why I hang onto it. Basically, it's a menu screen with links to a clips from the films that were cut into Cat, showing you a reminder of how it was seen in this movie and then showing you how the scenes played in their original context immediately after. Unfortunately, they only use the German audio, bu this is still a very cool feature, and I'm surprised Grindhouse didn't attempt something like this on their disc. Because the clips inserted into Cat weren't just dropped in as whole chunks that play exactly like they did in the old films. Fulci edits himself into these scenes (well, some more than others), so they're new and different. And even if Grindhouse couldn't actually show you the long portions of the other films like this disc does (understandable... something tells me Astro pulled it off only because they were operating outside copyright law), they could've at least done something to talk about which clips were edited into Cat and what those films were about. That just seems like a very essential issue for understanding and appreciating Cat In the Brain that really ought to be in a special edition.  And to be fair, Grindhouse does this in text in their booklet.  But obviously that's nowhere near the same as actually seeing all the footage.

Oh, and the Astro-Film disc has the trailer, too.

But while Grindhouse's new blu-ray may've been underwhelming in the transfer department, they did step things even further up in the special features department. First of all, everything from their DVD is back, including the Easter eggs, Paura clips, everything. It has an equivalent booklet (which does a nice job covering each of the film's Fulci inserted into Cat), but instead of a lenticular cover, in comes in a glow in the dark slipbox [right], and also includes the soundtrack CD and a bonus portrait of Lucio. But besides the superfluous, they've also added some substantial new content to the second disc of extras. Because this is such an unusually constructed film, the interview I was most looking forward to was with co-writer, Antonio Tentori, and he does not disappoint. He talks for 27 minutes, answer many of our long-held Cat In the Brain questions. Then there are all new interviews with cinematographer Sandro Grossi, Fabio Frizzi, They also uncovered another vintage Fulci interview, this time a 1987 radio one with Tentori. And there's a clip of Frizzi performing Cat's main theme live in Hollywood in 2015. And finally, there's the familiar round of Grindhouse bonus trailers. Interestingly, they again included Pigs, even though that wound up coming out from Vinegar Syndrome.

And what does 88 bring to the table?  Well, this is interesting, actually.  They don't have all of Grindhouse's stuff, but they do have an all-new, original 45-minute documentary.  It's primarily critic-driven instead of participant-driven, but you can hardly fault them there, considering some of the key players are no longer with us.  Like, getting Simonelli to talk about the merger of his own work into this new script he wrote would've been great, but sadly, he passed on in 2007.  And 88 does get the most important person they could've: Tentori.  Then the critics/ scholars on hand are Calum Waddell of course, Mikel J. Koven, the disgraced Allan Bryce and the ever endearing Kim Newman.

But what's also interesting about this doc is that it's not just about Cat, but Fulci's later-period films in general.  This means we get to hear some pretty interesting stuff, not covered in other pre-existing special editions.  We get serious discussion of films like Door To Silence and Sodoma's Ghost.  Unfortunately, no, they don't take the time to cover all the "Lucio Fulci Presents" films, which would've been perfect here since they're all featured in Cat In the Brain.  But it means we get to hear Tentori talk about his work on Demonia (for instance, he points out some interesting Lovecraft influences I'd never noticed), which again, is only covered here, since there are no Demonia discs with Tentori interviews on them.  There's some good Aenigma talk, too, which is a little odd that 88 didn't use that for their Aenigma disc; but we've got it now, so it's all good.  And yes, there's plenty of Cat In the Brain coverage, too.  This isn't one of those features like the Caroline Munro interview on 88's The Last Horror Film, where The Last Horror Film isn't even mentioned and they just slapped it on there because they happened to have it.  You'll learn plenty about Cat In the Brain here.  My only wish is it could've been longer to include Fulci's TV movies (I kept waiting for House of Clocks) and his "Presents" titles; and you know you've got something good when you're when your only complaint is that you want more.

Besides that, 88's release (#39 in their Italian Collection line, by the way) features the same video of Frizzi performing the Cat theme that was on the Grindhouse blu, plus the theatrical trailer.  It features reversible artwork, a booklet with notes by Calum Waddell, which quotes the doc and takes some serious jabs at giving a more intellectual understanding of the thinking behind this film.  Plus, the first 300 copies pressed come in a limited edition slipcover.

I think the difference in color timing is just going to come down to a judgement call of personal taste, so essentially either blu will present you with a definitive viewing of the film.  So it really comes down to the special features.  For me, Grindhouse's blu-ray extras made it more than worth double-dipping on the Grindhouse DVD for.  And 88's combines with Grindhouse's to make an even more satisfying, full special edition (since 88's doc covers so many of Fulci's other films, there's not a lot of repetition between each label's extras) if you're a big enough fan.  If you're just more casually interested in the film, either blu will probably do just as well, so you can just get whichever is more convenient in your region.  But I have to say, it's pretty damn having the ultimate Astro-Grindhouse-88 mega edition of this crazy flick.  😸

I Drink Your Blood and I Eat Your Skin, Together Again (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

Okay, this film is not for everyone.  But I'll tell you what, it's sure for me.  1970's I Drink Your Blood is a crazy exploitation/ horror movie I like better each time I see it.  Of course, it helps that I keep seeing it in better and better quality.  I first saw it in theaters in the early 2000s via a print that had turned bright pink.  Then I got Grindhouse's restored special edition DVD in 2003.  And now in 2016 I've got their further restored 2 disc blu-ray set.

Update 5/8/17 - 8/8/18: For those interested in the second feature, I Eat Your Skin, I've added DVD comparisons to the Alpha Video DVD, so you can see how the new HD transfer for that flick stands up to a previous SD release, and the Code Red DVD, so you can see, uh, how weird things can get.

If you haven't seen it, I Drink Your Blood is one of those rare envelope-pushing 70s horror that really sets up the 80s wave, alongside films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn of the Dead.  This isn't one of those myriad 60s and 70s flicks where the posters and trailers really try to sell you on how gruesome and depraved it is, only to finally present you with some completely tepid, dull talky with three men sitting around yammering about something vague and off-camera for seventy minutes.  I Drink Your Blood goes for broke.

A pack of Satan worshipers arrive in a small Upstate New York town, and rape a young woman.  Now the townsfolk to drive them out, but that's going to become a small war.  Sounds similar to the plot of a bunch of 70s sleazy drive-in fair, right?  But that's just like the first fifteen minutes.  Because in seeking revenge, the woman's nephew - who definitely earns his place in the pantheon of Great Horror Movie Kids, along with his young peers in films like Trick Or Treats, Nightmare and Beyond the Door 2 - comes up with a twisted plan inspired by his veterinarian grandfather.  He kills a rabid dog, takes its blood, and injects it into the cultists' meat pies, turning them all into foaming, homicidal maniacs.  Meanwhile, there's also a new dam being constructed, and the whole team of construction workers also manage to get infected and invade the town.  It's a blast.

There's non-stop violent murders, crazy LSD freak-outs, depraved sex and somehow a giant snake even gets caught up in the fray.  Lynn Lowry appears as a deaf, mute hippy, and everybody goes insane in their own, unique way.  If you're thinking this is sounding somewhat like George Romero's The Crazies, only crazier, well it is, but remember this one actually came first.  It's wild and nihilistic at the same time; like the horror version of Road Warrior.  Is the bizarre mix of characters a little bit silly?  For my money, that actually adds to it.  Is it a little low budget and clunky?  Sure.  Just like those classic, early Romero flicks only even more over the top, if you can imagine it.  A lot of people are going to be turned off by the superficial flaws, and those are bountiful; but if you can appreciate these grainy slices of cinematic dementia, this is one of the most entertaining.

A scene only in Grindhouse's restored director's cut

One of the great things about Grindhouse's releases, both the DVD and blu, is the inclusion of two cuts of the film.  Both the DVD and blu-ray edition present us with the full-length, "Uncensored, X-Rated Theatrical Cut," which runs 83 minutes and has all the frequently cut gore re-instated.  But then there's also the "Original Director's Cut," which restores multiple scenes including the terrific original ending via seamless branching, that the producers made him cut.  I 100% recommend the director's cut; it's even more awesome and gonzo.

2003 Grindhouse DVD top; 2016 Grindhouse blu-ray bottom.

And I'm happy to report the blu is a strong upgrade.  The original DVD was fullscreen 1.33:1; but for HD, they've not just matted it down to 1.66:1, they've uncovered new information on the sides.  The composition is so much better now; the full-frame was much boxier, with too much empty space.  The colors are also so much more natural.  You can tell from the damage in the first set of shots that the blu was sourced from the same elements as the DVD, so we're not exactly getting a wealth of new detail, but the HD, framing and corrected colors are a huge distinction already.  The inserted scenes for the director's cut are a little lower quality; they exhibit more scratches and dirt and generally seem a bit softer and more contrasty.  But those shots still benefit from the increased resolution.

Both releases feature the original mono track in 2.0, but the blu bumps it up to DTS-HD.  The blu-ray also adds English subtitles, which the DVD was lacking.

And now you may be thinking we're "already" up to special features, but there's so much, it's like we're just beginning.  First of all, the DVD was pretty packed.  And I have to point out, there's actually more than one version of the DVD.  There was a limited edition only available through Fangoria, which had a different cover, and another limited edition only available through Grindhouse directly.  That's the one I've got here.  It's hand-numbered from 500 copies (mine's #205), and is signed by the director David Durston and much of the cast on the inside artwork.  It also came with an exclusive signed insert by Lynn Lowry.  And there's a later, non-limited version.  But as far as what's actually on the disc, they're all the same.

There's a terrific audio commentary by Durston and star Bhaskar.  The scenes included into the director's cut are also available to watch as separate deleted scenes, and those also have optional audio commentary.  Then there's a silly but terrific half-hour featurette called The I Drink Your Blood Show, where Durston interviews several members of the cast and crew in his home, in the style of a late-night talk show.  He even talks to the ad-man who changed the title of his film on him (his original title was Phobia).  There's a stills gallery which also includes another audio interview with Durston playing over it, three minutes of outtakes, trailers, radio spots, a collection of Grindhouse bonus trailers, and a fold-out poster with notes by David Szulkin.  AND, there are several easter eggs, including a recording of Bhaskar doing the "evil king cobra dance"(!), a clip of Durston and Bhaskar recording the audio commentary, Durston singing an original song about being a horror movie director(!!), and a six minute clip from I Eat Your Skin, the film I Drink Your Blood famously played as a double-bill with theatrically.

Impressive, but it turns out Grindhouse was just warming up.  Two of the biggest additions to the blu-ray set are two complete additional feature films.  First we get Blue Sextet, an earlier film by Durston that features many of the case from I Drink Your Blood.  It's more of a micro-budget art film than a horror film, and lucky us, Grindhouse has unearthed the longer, European cut with additional sex scenes added to make it more saleable overseas.  It's presented in HD at 1.78:1 and looking like a pretty great scan from a print.  It's the story of a famous sculptor (Jack Damon, who played the heroic foreman in I Drink Your Blood) who commits suicide, and his six closest friends get together and try to piece together what drove him to it, each revealing darker and more twisted secrets they shared with the man.  It's not a horror film (though it has one brief, horror segment); but if you're open minded, it's pretty entertaining.

Blue Sextet also has its own audio commentary by Jack Damon, who also executive produced and co-edited the film.  And I definitely recommend listening to that if you've watched the film.  He is not afraid to speak very critically about everyone involved!  You rarely hear a commentary this honest.

2003 Grindhouse DVD top; 2016 Grindhouse blu-ray bottom.

Then the other feature they've included is I Eat Your Skin!  It's a weird Floridian horror film from the early 60s that went unreleased for almost a decade until producer Jerry Gross bought it and made it a double-bill with I Drink Your Blood.  It's a very different film, that will strike some familiar chords with fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000, as it's super dated and cheesy.  A famous author/ James Bond wannabe goes to Voodoo Island to write his next book, where a doctor is actually turning the local natives into bug-eyed zombies.  But if you're a fan of this dorky cult movie, this is its HD debut!  And I'm throwing in a screenshot of the clip from the 2003 Grindhouse DVD so you can see just how different it looks.  The blu is widescreen at 1.85:1, and this is no open/closed matte affair here.  It was an old, cut off the sides affair, now restored.  Just look; that's a massive improvement.

But wait, you shout!  It's not fair to compare the blu to a little movie clip that was a bonus feature on a DVD.  Let's see how a real, commercial release of this film sizes up.  Well, alright; here's Alpha Video's DVD, which came out the same year as Grindhouse's DVD.  And to keep it interesting, here's the 2013 "party" disc from Code Red that puts Zom'biez, as they've dubbed it, in a double bill with Night Of the Livin' Deadz, as they've called it.  It's a party disc because they throw in silly commercials, crop the film to 2.35:1 and present both films "in Lollipop Covermation!"  What the heck is that?  Scroll down, friends, and see for yourselves.

2003 US Alpha DVD on top; 2013 US Code Red DVD below.

Well, you know, it might not be fair to compare a real release to an Alpha Video DVD either.  haha  It's just as fullscreen, of course, but also as compressed and interlaced.  In fact, it's even more faded than Grindhouse's old clip.  I think they (Grindhouse) must've made an effort to improve the quality a tiny bit.  Code Red's, on the other hand, looks much clearer.  Unfortunately, that extra vertical cropping is excessive - that is definitely not the OAR, and just sacrifices picture for the novelty of the framing - and the "Lollipop Covermation," which consists of putting random color filters over different parts of the film, is downright ridiculous.

I should also point out that there is a longer cut of I Eat Your Skin.  That version has a longer intro and a few trims restored.  However, Grindhouse, Alpha and Code Red all feature the more common, shorter cut.

And I Eat Your Skin has its own special features, too.  On the Grindhouse blu, I mean.  The Alpha DVD is completely barebones, and Code Red just includes Night (which they give the same treatment to) and the handful of commercials.  But here you'll find a great interview with the film's second unit director, who's almost as forthcoming as Damon.  There's a bonus trailer for a documentary about that guy, which looks like a lot of fun, and even better, a hidden Easter Egg of Elvira introducing the film!

On top of all that, Grindhouse has also secured a bunch of new features about I Drink Your Blood itself.  There's a great, hour-long interview with Durston where he goes over his whole career and is really interesting.  There are multiple clips of Durston, as well as several of the cast members, speaking and doing Q&As at different screenings.  Durston repeats himself a lot in these, but there's also new stuff to be found in each one.  Actors Jack Damon and Tyde Kierney also turn up to provide an all-new commentary track for the film, and they have a lot of fun with it.  We also get two German super 8 shortened versions of the film... I haven't seen those on a DVD since that old, Astro Filmworks DVD of Antropophagus. Of course everything from the DVD is ported over, easter eggs and all.  And there are a couple NEW easter eggs, including a short industrial film called Sanitation - Rodent and Insect Control, which I must assume is directed by Durston though no one's actually credited, and another interview clip of Durston talking about Bela Lugosi, who he acted in a play with early in his career.  That adds up to a lot of easter eggs, so don't stop poking around the menus until you've found 'em all.

This package comes in cool slip-box, with a booklet including the same notes from the DVD edition, plus new tributes to Durston written by Damon and Kierney.  And last but certainly not least, the first 3000 copies include a life-sized toy hypodermic needle, like the one seen in the film, as you can see in the film above.  Definitely one of the coolest packaging gimmicks I've ever seen.

Before I'm accused of over-selling this film, though, let me reiterate: this movie is not for everyone.  It looks dated and cheap, and while the casting is pretty great, you're not going to find a lot of subtle, naturalistic performances around these parts.  If you're used to glossy, 80s or modern horror, this is the polar opposite.  But if you like grounded violence mixed with over-the-top absurdia, mixed into one trashy, messy pie, this is the cream of the crop.  And Grindhouse has positively outdone themselves creating the ultimate possible edition.  Yee-ha!