The Latest Chapter of H.P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon

Here's one I've been eagerly anticipating!  Necronomicon is a severely under-appreciated 1993 horror anthology based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, produced and partially directed by Brian Yuzna.  It's struggled long and hard to find its way to us, as you'll see, but Germany's Wicked Vision is finally getting their new 3-disc (blu-ray/ DVD + bonus disc combo pack) edition into fans' hands around the world.  It's a mediabook, which is fitting for a film named after one of the most infamous books of all time.

Yuzna's work seems to be going through a bit of a revival lately, with fresh fans discovering the demented brilliance of films like Society and Return Of the Living Dead 3.  And Necronomicon is one of his absolute best.  The idea here was to create a more international flavor, so this ambitious anthology features a French segment directed by Cristophe Gans (Crying Freeman) and a Japanese segment by Shûsuke Kaneko (the Gamera and Death Note films) in addition to his American one.  These guys add a slightly artier, more stylized feel to Yuzna's fun, gory romp, creating a collaboration somewhat reminiscent of his work with Stuart Gordon.  It's a great blend, especially with the Lovecraft source material as well.  It's got a great little cast, including Richard Lynch, Bruce Payne, David Warner and Return Of the Living Dead's Don Calfa, plus a whole bunch of wild, practical effects.  Jeffrey Combs even appears in the wrap-around (also directed by Yuzna) to play Lovecraft himself, sporting a fake chin that gives him a surprising resemblance to Bruce Campbell.

I remember desperately trying to track down a copy of a crappy, fullscreen DVD of Necronomicon from Brazil.  And then I remember how happy I was when I could give up the search in 2004 because Metropolitan came out with a stunning, widescreen 2-disc special edition in France.  Plenty of much bigger and better known horror films weren't getting releases that nice from major studios in the US.  That DVD was all you needed to know about Necronomicon through the whole SD era.  Then ten years later, Metropolitan turned their one and only DVD release into a one and only blu-ray.  But something's finally come along to dethrone it: the new, 2019 3-disc mediabook release from Wicked-Vision.  First announced back in 2016 for a 2017 release, it's obviously run into a few hurdles along the way, but it's finally here.

One of those hurdles actually came after the film's release, when it turned out the blu-ray had a mastering error.  So everyone who had this pre-ordered got a bum disc.  But full credit to WV, they jumped on it quick and started a replacement program and have already issued corrected versions to stores.  Those who ordered it direct from the label were automatically issued a replacement, and everyone else can fill out a form for a free one here.  If you bought this and aren't sure if you've got the faulty or corrected disc, it's easy to tell the difference, as you can see in the photo above.  That's the original faulty disc on the left with the blue and red tentacles, and the corrected version on the right, with the purple and green. 

1) 2004 French Metropolitan DVD; 2) 2019 German Wicked Vision DVD;
3) 2019 German Wicked Vision BD.

So, we're obviously looking at the same master here; the new release hasn't changed anything in that regard.  Metropolitan and Wicked Vision even share the same wonky pillarboxing that shifts from shot to shot in the overscan area... notice how it's all on the right in the first set of shots, then split thinner onto both sides in the second?  The film is essentially presented as 1.78:1, but usually hovers around 1.76:1.  Otherwise though, for an older master, it holds up on a modern blu fairly well.  Grain is a little patchy and a little digital-looking, the exact sort of thing a 2 or 4k remaster would fix up nicely; but I've seen plenty of newer blus looking worse.  So as long as you're not expecting anything cutting edge, you should be pretty happy.  The two DVDs look nearly identical, though WV's has a ever so slightly more contrast, and the HD blu genuinely does reveal more fine detail that you couldn't make out in SD.

So if they're virtually identical, what makes Wicked Vision's release superior?  Well, to start with, the Metropolitan DVD had forced French subtitles when you played the English audio track (it includes both the original English and a French dub, both in 5.1).  I believe they did fix that on their blu (and bump both tracks up to DTS-HD), but the subs are still forced on many of the special features.  Also, neither Metropolitan disc has English subtitle options.  Wicked Vision, on the other hand, has the same English 5.1 mix, with an German stereo mix instead of the French dub (both in DTS-HD on the blu) and this time, Both German and English subtitles are optional on the film and the extras.   So that already puts it in the lead, but the best is yet to come.

As great as it was to see Necronomicon restored to widescreen, the biggest surprise of Metropolitan's release was that it was packed with extras.  There aren't a lot of fully loaded, completely exclusive special editions in France, but here was one.  For starters, there's a lively audio commentary by Christophe Gans and Brian Yuzna.  Then there's an hour long documentary that's packed with great behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes and some surprisingly funny anecdotes.  That's followed up by five more featurettes, which are basically just like another hour's worth of documentary broken up into smaller bits.  But it does bring in some more people, like composer Joseph LoDuca and the other international producers.  Then there's also a vintage promo featurette, the trailer, two galleries (including one that shows a full set of storyboards for a deleted fourth segment!), and a 12-page booklet (in French).  It also has a pretty sweet easter egg: Gans' student 15-minute student film called The Silver Slime.  It's all style and no substance, and in some ways feels as clunky as you'd expect a student film to be, but it's got a great look and pays homage to Mario Bava.  Metropolitan also added the complete soundtrack as another extra on their BD.

The Silver Slime

And Wicked Vision?  They carry over everything from the French releases, except unfortunately, for that easter egg.  But they make up for it by creating a bunch of new special features.  For starters, we get a brand new, hour long(!) interview with Brian Yuzna.  Actually, that's the least valuable, only because he mostly just repeats what he says in the previous features, often verbatim.  There's also a fun new, on-camera interview with effects artist Steve Johnson, who only worked on one quick effects scene on the film, so he talks about that for three minutes and spends the rest of the time chatting about the nature of physical vs. CGI effects, etc.  The best of the new interviews, then, is screenwriter Brent V. Friedman, who's an important voice who'd been left out of the original French features.  There's a second audio commentary by two German experts, too, but that's the only thing that isn't English friendly on their discs.  They've also added a couple additional trailers, which is nice, a bonus trailer for Highway To Hell (that annoyingly plays on start-up) and their book is 24-pages (in German).  It's also worth noting that Wicked Vision's mediabook comes in three variant covers, each limited to 333 copies.  Mine, shown above, is cover B.  And they're planning to release a standard edition, but that'll be a single disc release, minus most of the extras, including the doc, which was easily the best feature.

So, I do kinda miss The Silver Slime, but overall, Wicked Vision's is a more flush and satisfying edition that's also free of those pesky French subs.  Yeah, it's the same transfer, so if you already have the French blu and aren't fussed about extras (the DVD had forced subs on the film, but the BD only has 'em on some of the special features), it may not be worth double-dipping.  But if you're picking up the film for the first time, the Wicked Vision is the one to get.  It's also region free, which is more than can be said for the B-locked Metropolitan.

American Psycho, Thanks for the Upgrade! (DVD/ Blu-ray/ UHD Comparison)

Man, I'm a big fan of Bret Easton Ellis movies.  Obviously not all the adaptations are born equal, and some are far better than others.  But I'm on board for 'em all.  Yes, I even liked that one with Lindsey Lohan and the porn star. But American Psycho, despite some early misgivings I had with the film when I first saw it in films, is really the one that put him on the zeitgeist forever.  Even if you hate the movie and the novel, you have to admit, Patrick Bateman has become part of our cultural language.  Like Sophie's Choice, just speaking the words communicates exactly what you mean.  So, naturally, it's been released and re-released a number of times.  And frankly, I think it's time again.

Update 6/5/17 - 9/27/18: So we've had a couple DVDs, we've had a blu-ray.  But now we've got a brand new American Psycho UHD!  It was an older blu, so this new 4k Ultra HD disc should be a major upgrade, unless they mess it up somehow.  Did they get it right?  Time to put our investigator's caps on.

Did I mention issues I had with this film?  Well, yes.  I'd read the book before the film came out, so admittedly, I was a little "where's Bombadil?!" about the whole thing.  I mean, fans were all a little disappointed some of the most extreme scenes were left out, and I was too, but I also understood the filmmakers were trying to deliver something that could play in theaters.  But there were other little changes that made me feel like the filmmakers had possibly not understood the book.  Like beefing Willem Dafoe's character to turn the police investigation into a whole running subplot (there's even another one in the DVD deleted scenes), like a conventional "will he get caught" thriller.  And it probably is that to a degree, and just showing off that they got Dafoe; but now I can appreciate more that he just works as an extension of Bateman's inner monologue.  I always appreciated that they nailed the look of the film, like Less Than Zero, and the performances.  But revisiting the film more recently, I'm impressed with how thoroughly they brought the novel it to the silver screen.

And American Psycho's success with audiences is all the more impressive given that it's an indie film.  At one time Oliver Stone was in talks to direct this with Leonardo DiCaprio to star ...as well as Stuart Gordon with Johnny Depp and David Cronenberg with Brad Pitt.  It took years to eventually trickle down to Mary Hannon, who'd previously directed the excellent I Shot Andy Warhol, and Christian Bale right off of Velvet Goldmine and a small role in the Kevin Kline version of A Midsummer Night's Dream.  The budget shrunk, the theatrical run was small; but it still managed to land with audiences.  In fact, it was successful enough to garner a sequel, but the less said about that the better.

So like I said, this film was released multiple times.  It originally came out as a new release in 2000, right after its theatrical run, in both R and unrated editions.  Then Lions Gate reissued it with a bunch a slightly improved picture, a heap more special features and called it the Killer Collector's Edition in 2003.  In 2007, they released it in HD, which yes, makes it a fairly early blu-ray release.  And that's not even counting all the foreign editions, of course, like the 2001 French DVD from Metropolitan Film & Video I picked up because it had a collection of unique extras (that was before the Killer edition, so I was feeling a bit starved).  And now there's a 2018 4k Ultra HD disc and blu-ray combo-pack that just about renders them all obsolete.

1) 2001 Metropolitan DVD; 2) 2003 Lions Gate Killer DVD; 3) 2007
Lions Gate blu; 4) 2018 Lions Gate blu; 5) 2018 Lions Gate UHD.

Real quick before I dive in, I'll just tell you that the blu-ray disc included in the 2018 combo-pack is actually the 2007 disc.  I don't just mean that it features the same old transfer, although yes it does; but it's the exact same disc, with the same alternate set of special features, the same label and everything.  I'm including the screenshots from both discs just fro the sake of being absolutely thorough, but don't get it twisted.  They're 100% identical because they're literally the same discs.

So now, I no longer have my original 2000 unrated DVD since I replaced it with the Killer Edition almost fifteen years ago; but from memory, it was virtually identical to the French DVD, which used the same root master.  All the pre-2018 versions shown here are framed to 2.35:1, but the older DVD is zoomed in a little on all four sides, and slightly window-boxed.  The Killer edition essentially found the extra picture by lifting the tiny mattes on all four sides; and the blus seemed to use the same transfer as the 2003 DVD, though it naturally benefits in clarity and compression by being an HD disc.  Unfortunately, that means it shares the same issues as the older DVD, with a sharpening/ edge enhancement effect that they just about got away with in standard def, but on the blus, leaves the image looking like it's been tampered with in an unflattering way.  Like, even that shot of the business cards above has a clear and unfortunate haloing effect around all the edges.  All this, despite grain looking smoothed away.  Yes, those shots are from the blu-rays.  The edge enhancement also causes horizontal lines running along the top and bottom of the screen.  All editions also showcase some speckling and slight film dirt that's never been cleaned.

2003 Lions Gate Killer DVD left; 2007 Lions Gate blu mid; 2018 Lions Gate UHD right.

But of course now we get to go up another level to the UHD.  First of all, happily that edge enhancement and all is finally gone.  And the added resolution really looks nicer.  Look on the blu where the lines of Bale's face get jagged and pixelated, and how smooth and clear they are now.  Or just the blu's nasty macroblocks.  Gone.  The boost to 4k is sah-weet.  Film grain is a little light but finally present and much more natural than it was on the blu.  The color timing's shifted, too, ultimately looking a bit greener and darker, but on a 4k screen, they definitely sizzle more than any previous edition.  I also have to point out that the UHD is matted slightly tighter, and probably more accurately, at 2.40:1 compared to the previous releases' 2.35:1, cropping a sliver more vertical information, but unveiling a bit more along the sides. 

Curiously, one shot is mis-framed.  It's like that on the Killer DVD and the blu-ray, with black pillar-boxing bars appearing for just this one zoom-in shot early in the film.  It temporarily frames the picture to 2.22:1.  Even the older, French DVD has it' though it's less noticeable since it's already slightly window-boxed.  The bars just appear for that one shot and disappear as soon as the camera cuts; it's very strange.  It reminds me of the recent gaff on Scream Factory's Serial Mom blu.  Most viewers probably wouldn't even catch it on repeat viewings, but something's clearly awry.  Happily, the new UHD corrects this, too.  👍

Anyway, the original DVDs, including the French DVD, included 5.1 audio, but the Killer Edition expanded our options a bit by including both 5.1 and a 2.0 Dolby Surround mix.  The blu-ray, then, went a step backwards, losing the 2.0 option and just giving us the 5.1, although they offer it in DTS-HD with an alternative (lossy?) Digital Surround EX mix.  Oh well, none of the sound mixes are really amazing or terrible.  They all sound just fine.  Also, every release, except the French DVD, has optional English subtitles.  The new UHD's menu makes it look like they've dropped all previous audio options and gives us just a single, new 7.1 Dolby Atmos track.  But if you poke around with the audio options on your player, you'll find the 5.1 mix is actually tucked away on there as well.  It gives us a third subtitle option, too, making a distinction between English and English SDH subs, as well as Spanish ones.

Now, the original US DVDs only had a few, brief extras: a 5-minute behind-the-scenes 'making of' featurette, some brief on-set interviews and trailers.  That's why I imported.  The Metropolitan disc kept the featurette, trailers and interviews, as well as dug up a bunch more of those interview clips, divided into arbitrary categories like "My Life" and "Newspaper Killer."  They're all short, on-location talks, but they do get in-depth in the sense that they even talk to the costumer and other crew members usually left out of DVD extras.  It also has a video of the film premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, but it's very brief with no real substance.  But much more excitingly, they found some deleted scenes, including a noteworthy scene from the book I'm surprised they cut out.  And they had the trailer.  When the Killer Edition came out, it blew both of those versions out of the water, but didn't render them completely obsolete, as it frustratingly left off the 'making of' featurette and most of the on-set interviews.
 

But the Killer Edition came up with bigger and better stuff.  Firstly, how about two audio commentaries: one by Harron and an even more interesting one by screenwriter Guinevere Turner?  Then there's a full-length documentary called From Book To Screen, which is broken up into sections covering everything from the struggles the book found in getting published to a very VH1-like retrospective of the 80s.  They bring in a lot of interesting people, including critics, publishers and musicians.  It definitely shouldn't be overlooked.  Also, the Killer Edition not only kept the deleted scenes, but gave them optional director's commentary, and introductions by-way of a couple of those on-set interview clips.  Unfortunately, these are the only interview clips they kept, and since From Book To Screen didn't bring them back for seconds, it means we don't hear from most of the cast, who were on the older discs.  The Killer Edition also came in a cool slipcover and included a fold-out insert with notes by Holly Willis, co-founder of Filmmaker Magazine.

From Book To Screen

And the blu-ray?  Ah, that's the most frustrating of all!  They completely left off all of the From Book To Screen documentary, except for the VH1 80s chapter; the final half hour.  All the best material is left on the DVD.  And no, they didn't bring back the older interviews or featurette either, nor did they add anything new.  They've just given us less.  They even dropped the trailer for some odd reason.  I hate upgrades that take steps backwards like this!

On the other hand, I love upgrades that correct missteps like that and go strictly forward.  The new 2018 blu brings back the From Book To Screen documentary, which still preserving the 80s retrospective and deleted scenes (not restored in 4k, for the record).  And this time, they have given us something new, an additional third commentary, freshly recorded by Mary Harron.  Don't get too excited, though.  She basically says all the same things at all the points she did on the previous commentary.  I kept flipping back and forth between them and she was saying the exact same anecdotes and observations all the way through.  They should've gotten, well, anybody else, to do a new commentary instead.  But hey, I guess I'll take it over no new content at all.  The UHD set also comes in an attractive slipcover and a cool black case.  The only thing it doesn't have are those extra little interviews and stuff (including the trailer) from the old French disc; so maybe hang onto that if you have it.  Also, the new commentary and Book To Screen doc are only on the UHD, not the blu-ray, because again, the 2018 blu-ray is just another copy of the 2007 blu-ray.

When I first made this post, I was suggesting Lions Gate give this film a new scan and update a very creaky old blu-ray.  Well, they did me one better and gave it a new scan and issued it on UHD.  The new commentary's pretty pointless, but I'm glad they recovered the doc from the DVD, so this is definitely a strong, welcome upgrade in terms of the quality and special features, and the definitive edition to own.  The only stipulation, I suppose, is that if you're able to play UHDs, buying this set for the blu-ray will not be an upgrade over your 2007 disc in any way, shape or form.  But if you're 4k'd out and ready to go, this is the American Psycho for you.

In the Mouth of Madness's Wide World of Special Features (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

So I just got my hands on Scream Factory's brand new special edition of John Carpenter's (last great?) movie, In the Mouth of Madness.  I don't have the older blu-ray to compare it to, because I was always annoyed by the lack of special features for such a wild, beloved cult film that obviously cried out for all kinds of fun bonus content.  And, as we now see, my holding out eventualllllllllly paid off.  But here's the thing.  Did you ever look up a movie on DVDCompare and wonder about all those foreign editions of a movie you like that have all these random, exclusive little extras?  Usually short running times, probably EPK (Electronic Press Kit) stuff; but better than the nothing we were getting in the US.  Well, for this film, I decided to break the bank and import a few additional DVD editions to see just what all that stuff was, and maybe scrap together a halfway decent special edition for a film that so deserved one.  Let's see how worthwhile that endeavor was.

Oh, and you're probably wondering how much of that material is on Scream's new Collector's Edition.  We're going to sort all that out, too.

Suggesting this might be Carpenter's last great movie is probably pretty contentious of me.  I imagine most fans would point to Vampires.  That's certainly a good one, but there's just something so much more evocative about the way Carpenter handles his far out apocalyptic horror - especially this one, where he gracefully ties it into our Stephen King-style small town Americana - that elevates it to a much higher level for me.  I'd trade ten Vampires for one In the Mouth of Madness.  Now I'll admit, we're probably sinking pretty deep into personal taste and preference more than any pretense of objective artistic merit at this point.  But I don't know... if nothing else there's a thrilling level of ambition in telling this particular kind of "absolutely anything can happen, and does" story that sets it apart from most other horror films.

And this film has so much else going for it besides.  Carpenter seems to be playing with one of his highest ever budgets, steeping the film in production values that enable him to bounce from one incredible set piece or massive KNB special effect to another.  And he's got a pretty strong all-star cast with Sam Neill, Das Boot's Jürgen Prochnow, David Warner, John Glover, Carpenter staple Peter Jason and Charlton fuckin' Heston.  And even the small roles are filled with great character actors like Bernie Casey, Willhelm von Homburg (Ghostbusters 2's Vigo) and Frances Bay.  You know who played that little paperboy kid at the end of the film?  A pre-Star Wars Hayden Christensen.  I'm not pulling your leg; look it up.  And speaking of looking up the cast, I couldn't place where I new Julie Carmen from until I visited her imdb - she's the head vamp in Fright Night 2!  Top it all off with a rockin' Carpenter score, and you've got one of those great, "anytime I see it's on television; I have to sit down and watch it" movies.

So happy DVDs did I have to scrap together to assemble every single special feature?  Actually, not all that many (the picture at the top was probably a spoiler, huh?), which should be encouraging if anybody else feels compelled to follow in my footsteps.  But I'd suggest waiting until we see how they stack up to the Scream features before committing to any decisions on that front.  So, we start out with the original US New Line DVD from 2000.  That one's not entirely barebones; it actually features an audio commentary by John Carpenter and his DoP Gary B. Kibbe.  But it's infamous as one of the worst audio commentaries of all time... anyway, we'll come back to that.  It's also a flipper with both a widescreen and fullscreen transfer, so it should be interesting to see how they handled that, especially since Carpenter is so famous for shooting in 'scope.

Then we've got the 2002 Italian DVD from Cecchi Gori.  If you're checking my work against the DVDCompare page, you might be thinking I made a mistake.  The German DVD from BMG Video has the same features as the Italian one, plus one more.  But - and I only know this by virtue of having the Italian DVD right here on my desk in front of me - that listing is missing an entry, and the "B-roll featurette" is actually on the Italian DVD as well.  So, at least in terms of special features, they're entirely interchangeable.

Anyway, then I've got the 2006 French DVD from Metropolitan, who you might remember also brought us the exclusive special features for American Psycho.  I'm beginning to realize those guys are an under-appreciated label, because they scared up some really good, all new special features for their edition, not just EPK stuff that New Line, for whatever reason, neglected.  And, of course, now I've got Scream Factory's 2018 Collector's Edition due to be released on July 24th.

1) New Line wide 2) New Line full 3) Cecchi Gori 4) Metropolitan 5) Scream

So, okay, first of all, that's a nasty fullscreen transfer.  I think they actually managed to chop off more than they left in.  I guess Carpenter didn't leave them any vertical matte area to play around with, going from 2.31:1 to 1.33:1.  Woof.  Apart from that, I'm not too mad at the 2000 DVD despite its age.  It's certainly better than the murky 2003 Italian DVD, which I'm guessing taken from the laserdisc.  It's somewhat windowboxed, zooming in a bit to crop all four sides to 2.21:1; and the edges look they were enhanced with a black magic marker.  Even before the days of HD, if you had gotten that disc for the extra extras, you still would've needed at least one other edition to watch the movie.  The French disc looks almost identical to the US disc, except a smidgen greener and slightly more accurately framed at 2.36:1.  The blu is at an even more perfect 2.35:1, but you'll notice manages to uncover more information on the sides than ever seen before.  It also loses that French greenness, and being in HD is naturally sharper and more clearly defined.  This is a new 4k scan of the "original film elements," which I guess is safe to assume isn't the OCN or they would've said so.  Grain is evident but not super distinct; it's obviously an entire class above any of the previous DVDs.

So the original DVD gave us a stereo and 5.1 mix, plus optional subtitles. No one should be using the Italian DVD to watch the movie in 2018, but just for the record, the Italian DVD just gives us the English stereo mix (plus two Italian 5.1 mixes), with English and Italian subtitles.  France gave us English and French 5.1 mixes plus French subtitles which are hard to remove (and no English ones).  Scram just gives us the English 5.1 mix, boosted to DTS-HD, plus optional English subtitles.  The previous US blu-ray didn't keep the stereo mix either, so really the only difference is the Warners blu had a bunch of additional foreign dubs and subs.

So let's talk extras!  And we can begin with that notorious commentary.  Carpenter enjoys a well-earned reputation for doing really good commentaries.  They're lively, easy to listen to, yet still enjoyable.  So I think part of the blow-back for this one was just that expectations were really high.  I've heard plenty worse commentaries, and this one has its share of good information.  But the fact that the DP doesn't seem to want to engage, and Carpenter insists on throwing it back to him routinely even though he seems pretty checked out is a bit of a downer.  Plus, it's just a more technical commentary where they're talking about lights instead of talking about stunts and goofing around on-set like he'd often do with Kurt Russell on other commentaries.  So yeah, it's kind of a dud, but not the unlistenable disaster it seems to be known as.  Anyway, that was all we had on the original 2000 DVD... and the original 2013 blu-ray.  You can see why I wasn't super eager to double-dip.

Cecchi Gori exclusive

So we'll go to the Cecchi Gori disc next, because it's actually not much.  Just three short things, all EPK material.  First is a five-minute promotional featurette, which is heavy on clips from the film and almost more like an extended trailer.  Next is a about four and a half minutes of on-set interview clips, with Sam Neill, Prochnow, Heston and Carpenter.  The best part of that is just getting to hear Heston talk a little about being on a John Carpenter horror movie, which is kinda neat.  Then, finally, there's about five minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, which gives some cool glimpses at how some of the more elaborate special effects sequences were made, and little exchanges captured on set.  Fun little odds and ends, but nothing to make a big deal of.  It also includes the trailer and a full-color insert.

Metropolitan exclusive

France's Metropolitan DVD, on the other hand, actually went out and got the big names to provide brand new content exclusively for their release.  They got new, on camera interviews with both John Carpenter and Julie Carmen, which weren't super long but both quite good and well edited.  Then there's a fairly long, eighteen minute featurette with Greg Nicotero going over the many creature effects of the film.  Honestly, getting this DVD in 2006 was pretty satisfying; the kind of thing that should've always been packaged with the film.  Metropolitan also included the old commentary, plus a couple of bonus trailers.  It was certainly a smarter option compared to the US DVD.

Scream Factory exclusive

But that was then and this is now.  Along comes Scream Factory, with a whole bunch of new, awesome stuff, and some older stuff.  Yes, they have the old commentary; but they also have a brand new commentary with Carpenter and his wife/ producer Sandy King Carpenter.  And this is a more loose kind of commentary, basically what fans were expecting and hoping for the first time around.  If you've heard the old commentary, he does repeat quite a few observations, but Sandy really is a good partner for John on here, keeping things engaging.  Even more fun is another episode of Horror's Hallowed Grounds, which really, I can't get enough of.  Then, there's about a sixteen minute on-camera interview with Greg Nicotero, which is essentially a rehash of the Metropolitan one.  It's not the same, it's brand new; but he covers pretty much all the same things and even shows some of the same video clips.  Similarly, there's a brand new Julie Carmen interview, which stays fairly close to the one she gave Metropolitan.  Besides that, there's about twelve minutes of behind-the-scenes video footage shot by Nicotero, the five minute promo featurette, the trailer, and an impressive ten minutes worth of TV spots.  It also comes with a slip cover, reversible artwork, and if you ordered it from Shout's site directly, a limited edition poster.

So, let's review.  How much of the older extras did Scream carry over?  Unfortunately, not all that much.  The original commentary and the featurette.  Not the EPK interviews or B-roll footage from the Italian DVD, and none of the new(er) interviews from the French disc.  And yes, I checked, and the behind-the-scenes footage from the Italian disc is not included in Scream's behind-the-scenes footage, although they both spend a lot of time covering the same scene of Neill running down the tunnel being chased by monsters.  But it's different footage shot by different people.

With that said, though, Scream did make most of what they didn't carry over fairly redundant.  They came up with their own Carmen and Nicotero interviews, got Carpenter to do the new commentary, and found their own batch of B-roll footage.  So on the one hand, if you're a die-hard collector, yeah, all that other stuff is still out there on the foreign discs.  But for most of us, basically all that content is closely represented here, plus more, making this the only release you really need.  I'm keeping my imports, so when I rewatch this film's extras I can include Heston's soundbites and stuff; but if I didn't already own them, I wouldn't hunt them down now.  At the time, importing was worth it.  But Scream Factory has finally given this film the treatment it always should've had.  Today's an awesome day.