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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Concorde's interview.

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

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

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

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

Paramount Properly Presents Ordinary People

So I've mentioned a couple times now about how some long-awaited Paramount catalog titles have been popping up on blu for the first time in Australia.  I've been praising Via Vision for their work, but they're not the only Ozzie Prometheuses liberating classic films from the ViacomCBS company.  It's hard to dispute that Ordinary People is a great and important film.  It won Best Picture in 1980, along with three other Academy Awards and two additional noms, plus five Golden Globes, based on a best selling novel.   But somehow it's only been available as a barebones DVD the world over... until this summer, thanks to Australia's Shock Entertainment.

Update 9/20/20 - 4/1/22: Paramount says thanks for the stop-gap release, Shock, but now we've restored the film in 4k and it's part of our fancy Paramount Presents line.

I wrote in my last post that the stars of Marriage Story "never stop digging to reveal intimate truths Hollywood rarely gets near."  Well, Ordinary People is one of those rare exceptions.  Granted, it's hard not to notice that both films' idea of relatable people seems to be the unusually financially privileged, which may strain some viewers' empathy.  But if you can get past that, it's a powerful drama that builds slowly as characters' backstories and the stakes they're playing for are carefully revealed.  As a filmmaker, Robert Redford can always be depended on to deliver a respectable level of mature quality in his work, but I think Judith Guest's writing allows him to reach heights he's never been able to in the rest of his typically more conventional body of work.  But then Redford is able to come back around and compliment that writing by getting performances out of his brilliant cast few other filmmakers could deliver.

Like, obviously veterans like Donald Sutherland and M. Emmet Walsh were always going to be great, but I don't think anybody expected Mary Tyler Moore to jump into the award races so late in her career.  Of course Timothy Hutton was a newcomer who Redford essentially discovered here (though I looked it up, and he had done a couple TV movies already).  And after getting used to him in all those sitcoms and trash roles like Independence Day, this film's a fun reminder that Judd Hirsch actually can act when he's given the opportunity.

If I had one criticism, it's that the film short thrifts Moore's character a bit in the long run, almost concluding with the suggestion that everything would've been fine if she wasn't always such an uptight bitch.  I haven't read the novel, but I bet a little charitability was lost between the original (female) author and the men adapting it for the screen.  But Moore is able to squeeze in some depth between the lines, and of course she's ultimately a supporting character in Hutton's journey, so it's not a crippling flaw.  After all, it's impossible to ignore how moving all the other material is.

Paramount released this as a basic, barebones DVD in 2001, and that's pretty much been the whole story of Ordinary People on disc for twenty years.  The closest thing to any kind of special edition was a 2009 VH1-sponsored "We Love the 80s" edition that came in a colorfully tacky slipcover and included a bonus "Music From the 80s" CD.  The DVD inside is still exactly the same.  It wasn't until early summer 2020 that it made its HD debut on blu-ray, as we've said, from Shock Entertainment in Australia.  It's Region B locked, so its potential reach was fairly limited, but it was better than nothing.  Nothing's no longer the bar, though, because this week Paramount has issued it on blu in the US, and this time it's been restored in 4k as part of their Paramount Presents line.

1) 2001 Paramount DVD; 2) 2020 Shock BD; 3) 2022 Paramount BD.

Part of the mystery as to how such a successful, critically heralded and truly important film could've been relegated to an obscure import is that most labels would've looked at the existent master and said wow, this film needs a restoration before it could be released in HD today.  Sometimes I'll point out how a recent blu doesn't hold up to the modern standard of fresh 4k scans, but looks fine for an older BD.  Well, Shock's blu would get low scores even if it came out in 2006.  First of all, it's clearly using the same master as the original DVD, which was at least anamorphic widescreen and free of interlacing issues.  Moreover, their BD's image is hazy, colors are dull, and there's a bit of a "screen door" effect presumably brought on by an attempt to sharpen film grain that is soft and barely captured.  There are also flecks and spots of film damage, but that's a minor complaint.  Want another major complaint?  Obviously some kind of edge enhancement or unsharpening tool has been applied to try and correct this funky old transfer.  To be fair to Shock, this was probably baked into the master by Paramount decades ago, but that fact doesn't help us viewers now.

So does that mean their BD was some kind of worthless side-grade?  No, we did gain ground here.  The DVD is slightly windowboxed to 1.82:1, which the BD corrects to a properly matted 1.85:1.  I left the borders around the first set of shots so you can see the difference, but the most important difference is that it means Shock's blu winds up revealing more information on the right-hand side (and a sliver along the bottom) that the DVD shouldn't have been cropping.  And while the blu appears to be artificially sharpened, we can see that the DVD's compression makes it even softer; so the blu-ray is preserving at least a smidgen extra detail and clarity.  It's a slight boost, but it's still a boost.

But now, forget about it.  No more screen door effect or other artificial tweaks; no more fuzzy and barely visible film grain.  This is a very attractive restoration, with a generally brighter image, stronger colors and more natural skin tones (people are no longer so red in the face).  I also hadn't really noticed the vertical compression in the older transfers until Paramount fixed it.  I first noticed it in the framing, which surprised me by still being 1.85:1, but cropping tighter on the top and bottom (notice Hutton's disappearing hand in the first set of shots), but not really on the sides.  Now, just a quick glance at Sutherland's face makes the difference obvious, but I didn't realize how off the old master was until I saw this corrected one.

Now, the back of Shock's case lists 5.1 audio, but I'm actually happy to report that is incorrect.  They in fact provide the original mono track in Dolby Digital 2.0, just like the DVD.  I'm less pleased to tell you that they're both also lossy, though.  Oh, and there are no subtitles.  The DVD had subtitles (and also a French dub).  But once again, Paramount Presents solves all of this.  Now they have the original mono in TrueHD; plus the French dub is back, along with German and Japanese.  And the English subtitles are back, along with a second HoH track, and more for French, German, Japanese and Spanish.  You can even select your preferred language for the menu screen.

Shock's blu is also completely barebones.  The DVD at least had the trailer, but I guess Shock couldn't hold onto that either.  In fact, there isn't even a menu screen; it's just the one movie file on a single-layer disc.  They've really done the bare minimum.  Paramount's blu brings the trailer back, but they also do much better.  First up is a brand new interview with Tim Hutton, who talks about everything from his experiences filming to his Oscar memories.  There's also a nice new interview with author Judith Guest, though I wish it was longer.  She talks about her experiences with the film, and also her Oscar experiences, but unfortunately she's never asked about the original novel and the story at the heart of everything.  It just runs over five minutes long, and what we have is great, but I wish they would've given us more.  Paramount's new blu also comes in a fancy slipcover that opens up to reveal the film's original poster artwork.

So credit where it's due to Shock, for at least giving us something to tide us over.  But Paramount Presents has blown it out of the water in all departments.  This is finally the blu-ray edition Ordinary People deserves.  Now we just need Rachel River, but I don't think that's with Paramount.

Obscure Import No More! Larry Cohen's Full Moon High (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

Boy, if you're a serious Larry Cohen fan, you have to work hard for your DVDs. They're out there, but you have to be prepared to track down obscure imports from all sorts of different countries, multiple MOD discs from the various major studios and rare out of print DVDs that have been replaced on the marketplace with inferior counterparts. Today we're gonna go with one of the obscure imports.

Update 1/24/15 - 1/25/19: Obscure import no more!  Full Moon High has since been released by none other than Scream Factory as a mainstream US blu-ray release. Who'da thunk it?

Full Moon High in a way should be a crowd pleaser, as its a genre film (werewolves!), as opposed to some of his artsier dramas and thrillers like Daddy's Gone A-Hunting, The Private Files of J Edgar Hoover or Bone. But on the other hand, it'll probably drive many fans away because it's so goddamn silly. Sure, some of Cohen's most beloved films are pretty damn silly... Q, It's Alive 3, Return To Salem's Lot, The Stuff... But this is more like Zucker Brothers' silly. Except not as undeniably hilarious.

Adam Arkin - yes, Alan Arkin's son, and he pretty much plays the part like "hey, I'm Alan Arkin's son" - stars as Tony, a high school footballer who accompanies his paranoid wacko/ CIA agent father (Ed McMahon, who talks to a framed photo of Sen. Joe McCarthy on his wall) to Romania. There he gets his palm read at a restaurant and is told he carries the curse of the pentagram. "Oh, I always wanted to go to the pentagon," he says. At which point the waiter leans in to say, "pentagram, stupid!" ...That's the tone of this movie, more Young Frankenstein than Teen Wolf. Anyway, Tony naturally gets attacked by a werewolf and returns to his hometown with a taste for dog food and haunted by mysterious gypsy violin music.

Well, decades go by and the town is never able to discover the identity of the mysterious creature by girls on the butt. Tony hasn't age, so just like in the Twilight movies, he re-registers in high school. This time he's determined to win the big game like he never got to do years before. But he also has to avoid the cops, escape his stalker ex-girlfriend, and maybe break his curse.

This movie is definitely not for everyone, but if you're open-minded, this is actually a neat little movie. For every two terrible jokes, there's a smart one; and there's so many jokes, it means we get a lot of smart ones. You just have to not let the fact that the film is full of groaners spoil it for you; if you can take it all in stride, it's a good time. The roles are all (intentionally) broadly played, but there are a lot of enjoyable character parts, including Kenneth Mars, Louis Nye, Sanford & Son's Demond Wilson, center square Jim J Bullock, a young Bob Saget, Cohen favorite Laurene Landon, Alan Arkin himself, and even young Adam is actually quite affable in the lead. Production values are relatively, surprisingly high, and it helps to finally see this film on a good looking DVD to appreciate it. It's also full of Larry Cohen's signature touches including, yes, James Dixon. And I actually wind up enjoying this film more with each rewatch.

2010 Aus Shock DVD top; 2018 US Scream Factory blu bottom.

Here's a nice surprise!  Given that we already had a pretty solid, anamorphic widescreen transfer on the DVD that far exceeded what I'd find on a random import (i.e. something ripped from the VHS), I assumed that's what we'd be getting from SF, too, just in HD on the blu.  In fact, the only real selling point for me to double-dip was the commentary.  But no, they've gone and made a whole new master, which looks even better.  I mean, the first thing you're all probably noticing is how much nicer the colors look.  But there's more to it than that.  While the aspect ratio itself just received a tiny correction from 1.86:1 to 1.85, You can see Scream's new scan pulls in more info on all four sides, particularly the left and right.  How is that possible if the AR stays almost the same?  Well, it also turns out the DVD was slightly horizontally stretched, which Scream fixes, and thus is able to reveal the extra horizontal picture.  And naturally all that ugly SD compression is gone, but not only is SF's blu in clearer HD, but even by blu-ray standards, this has a really natural film grain base.

The audio sounds more robust on the blu, too, not just from the boost to DTS-HD, but it sounds like they genuinely went back and restored the original mono track.  Plus, as Scream routinely does, they've added optional English subs.  Honestly, I'm not so sure it was even a smart business decision for MGM to sink that money into this particular film, but I appreciate it!

Both discs include the theatrical trailer (which you should check out for the nutty narration), but that was it for the DVD.  The blu, however, secures a all new audio commentary by Larry Cohen and moderated by the guy who directed the King Cohen documentary.  If you've heard any Larry Cohen commentary, or watched any of his interviews, you know he's great at these.  He has a lot to say, and as we learn, he takes a little time to bone up with James Dixon before recording, which definitely insures a quality that you can't always rely on from commentaries by other filmmakers.  One downside, though, there are long and distinct pauses throughout.  Considering how energized Cohen is, and the fact that he's got a moderator sitting right with him, I suspect parts of the commentary were edited out, leaving us with disappointing patches of dead air.  But the 85% of the commentary that remains is pretty awesome, so don't let that deter you.  Especially since this is a film we hear so much less about... like, after a while, anecdotes about It's Alive or Maniac Cop start to double up and repeat; but Full Moon High is an untapped well!

Larry Cohen's The Ambulance Finally Done Right (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

A few posts ago, I mentioned that if you're a serious Larry Cohen fan, you have to be prepared to track down obscure imports and MOD discs from the various major studios. Well, today we're going to look at a film that's been released as both; and the definitive version switched from one to the other. I'm talking about 1990's amusing thriller The Ambulance.

Update 2/9/15 - 3/15/18: "Obscure imports and MOD discs" are for suckers; just get the blu-ray!  Okay, no, there are obviously still some terrific, definitive obscure imports and even a few MODs... But since my initial post, this film has finally gotten some proper love from our friends at Scream Factory.  So it's definitely time to reassess The Ambulance situation.

I'm pretty sure everybody who's ever seen The Ambulance has liked it. For non-Cohen fans it's probably just a faded memory of a flick they caught on cable or a weekend rental from Blockbuster, but a pleasant one. A movie that was just a little bit better than most of the others. It's not a showy movie; it's not a great work of art or anybody's favorite. I was going to say it's not ambitious, but actually, considering the cast they enlist even for the small roles, and some of the stunts they go for on an indie budget - they get several live horses running loose for one quick moment just to add a little extra excitement. So it is ambitious, and that's a big part of it's charm. While they could have easily gotten away with a very obvious, generic thriller, they take every opportunity surprise with a great line, creative plot twist, clever character moment and pretty much just making every moment better than you'd expect.

It's a charming story of Eric Roberts (in a complete 180 from the last film I just wrote about him in) as a lovesick comic book writer who falls for a woman he sees walking in the city streets during his lunch breaks. He finally gets up the nerve to talk to her when she passes out. An ambulance comes and collects her before he can get her last name, and the story is his journey to find her and make sure she's alright. But he has no idea just how sinister the ambulance to took her really is. It's such a great cast, from the major roles: Roberts, James Earl Jones, The Young & The Restless's Eric Braeden as the sinister villain and a surprisingly good turn by Red Buttons as a news reporter who gets wind of the story. To the small parts: Stan Lee as himself (Roberts' character doesn't just work for a generic comic book company, but Marvel Comics! Look for more authentic Marvel guys in the background), radio host Tim Byrd, Richard Bright and of course Cohen staple James Dixon.

So, for almost a decade, The Ambulance, like Full Moon High, was only available on Australian DVD. In fact, it was from the same company: Shock. Somebody over there must be a real Larry Cohen fan. Unlike Full Moon High, however, it was just a fullscreen transfer. But eventually, in 2011, MGM released it as one of their MOD discs. And happily, their disc is anamorphic widescreen, slightly letterboxed to a proper 1.85:1. The MOD opens with a message stating that, "[t]his film has been manufactured using the best source material available." That had me expecting a damaged print or something; but it actually looks pretty fine for the most part. There is an issue or two, though, that I reckon it's in reference to.  But that's all academic now, anyway, because just this week, Scream Factory has put it out on blu-ray!

Shock's 2003 DVD on top; MGM's 2011 MOD mid; Scream Factory's 2018 blu bottom.

The upshot for owners of the Shock disc, as you can see, is that it's open matte. Nothing was chopped off the sides or anything. And for the most part, it otherwise looks like the same transfer; the MOD just matted to 1.85:1. It's clearly the right way to view the film however; there's a lot of excess headroom on the Shock disc, and the framing just looks so much more artfully composed on the MOD. And that winds up becoming one more aspect that works in this film's favor, making it all the more enjoyable.  But let's get back to that warning. Here's why it's probably there: their disc is interlaced, as you can clearly tell by the ghosting in the second set of shots. Why? Did they take it from a PAL source? Was the best source material available... Oh jeez, I think it was. I think they only had Shock's PAL transfer (MGM was also involved with that disc) - or perhaps just weren't willing to pay to scan the film elements again for this new release; but their message promises us they used the best they had - and so they just transferred it to NTSC and matted it. ((sigh))

But thank goodness, we no longer have to choose between a burned, interlaced disc and an old PAL DVD in the wrong aspect ratio.  Scream Factory solves all of those issues, also giving us a nice boost in the clarity department by bringing the film to HD!  And just look at the posters on the wall behind Megan Gallagher; they're so much clearer.  Oh, and while you're looking at those posters, you've probably noticed something else.  While Scream's disc is still slightly matted to a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, they've clearly uncovered a little more information around all four sides.  And while both DVDs featured the stereo track, the blu bumps it up to DTS-HD, and also kicks in optional English subtitles.

If you're looking tor extras, I can start by telling you there's none to speak of on either DVD. There's literally nothing on the MOD disc; even the menu is generic and the chapters are just randomly generated at 10 minute intervals. And the Shock release is almost as barren, not even a trailer, despite some misleading packaging. In fact, look at this:

You'd think from reading the above that the theatrical trailer might be included for this film? Ha ha ha.... So naive! No, it's not here, though there are bonus trailers for Vampire's Kiss and Monkey Shines. The photo gallery is on there, at least. It's mostly just stills from the film, but there is a nice shot of Cohen directing the actors. But yeah, that's pretty desperate at this point. There's essentially no bonus features of value on either disc.

But on the blu?  Yeah, we've got an audio commentary by Larry Cohen (and moderated by King Cohen director Steve Mitchell).  Larry Cohen commentaries are always great, and this one's certainly no exception.  He's very enthusiastic about this film, calling it one of his favorites, and fills the track to the brim with great filming stories.  Also, there's a better stills gallery and finally, the trailer.  Scream also includes reversible artwork, with that same original artwork the previous DVDs had.

So yeah, I highly recommend the film for any Larry Cohen fan who hasn't seen it yet, and casually recommend it to anyone interested in an inexpensive B-movie for a good time.It's worth noting, though, that before Scream put this out on blu in the US, a couple other countries beat them to the bunch.  And most notably Koch in Germany released a mediabook that not only has a Cohen commentary, but a unique 70ish minute interview with Cohen, which is apparently more of a career retrospective.  So if you really want to go all out, you might prefer to import.  But I imagine most horror fans will be perfectly happy to just get this new Scream blu and call it a day.  I mean, even I was, and look who's talking here.