The Re-Animator Is the Dominator

Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator is in the weirdly unique position where its unrated version is actually shorter than its censored, R-rated version. By several minutes, too; not just a few seconds. I remember holding both VHS tapes in my hands back in the day and thinking they had to have been mislabeled; but no, it's true. Why? Because the R-rated version, though missing the most extreme, controversial shots like you'd expect, features a bunch of less shocking scenes trimmed out of the unrated version. I guess for pacing. But I grew up with both versions, and so, while horror fans naturally gravitate towards the bloody unrated version, I always thought something special was missing from it. Of course, something special was missing from the R-rated version, too; and if you've seen the film, you know exactly what moment I'm thinking about.  heh

Update 7/17/15 - 6/7/26: Wow, talk about a page in need of an update, huh?  Well, I've skipped a few editions since I originally wrote this, but I'm back with the new 4k UHD from Second Sight.  Oh, and yes, the title of this post does come from the fact that I'm listening to this song.  I'm easily susceptible.

When Elite Entertainment released their excellent 10th anniversary Re-Animator laserdisc, it included, amongst many other things, the unrated version with all of the deleted scenes as extras and a detailed timeline of where each of those would fit into the complete film. I always wanted to use those to make a composite cut, but back in those days, getting a digital recording of a laserdisc and trying to edit a high quality movie file on a personal computer was technically possible, but rather daunting.

So, when Elite came out with their Millennium Edition special edition, I got that; and when Anchor Bay came out with their re-release, including a new 70-odd minute making of documentary I switched to that version. And I've still got that one, so we can use it for a comparison here. Yeah, Image put out a blu-ray; but I never felt compelled to upgrade. And I'm glad I didn't, because a year later, the German DVD company Capelight came out with their own 3-disc special edition blu. And not only did it feature a new and much improved 4k scan and restoration from the original negatives, which frankly would've been enough, but they used that new transfer to create "the Integral Cut," which combined all of the extra R-rated version's footage with the essential unrated moments. It's the Re-Animator I've always wanted... although admittedly some of those long scenes of Bruce Abbot and Barbara Crampton could've been left on the cutting room floor. But still, this is now my definitive Re-Animator; it's great.

Now, Capelight's released a couple different versions of their new Re-Animator blu. A cheaper single disc edition, a combo pack with Bride of Re-Animator, and the one I opted for: the 3-disc mediabook set. The 3-disc set is two dual-layer blus and one DVD, containing all the extras (more on that later). It has the Integral cut, of course, but also the traditional unrated version from the same 4k scan, in case you're not as sure of the new cut as I am. And it has a standard def presentation of the TV cut as well, for completists, or yaknow, just for fun.  It was the cutting edge ten years ago.

But now we've had some new contenders.  Arrow released a blu-ray which is basically the same as Capelight's, but with some extra features mostly about Re-Animator: The Musical.  And more recently, Ignite in the US and Second Sight in the UK have made a new scan (well, I think Ignite made it and SS licensed it) for a proper 4k Ultra HD release, taking it to the next generation for the next decade.  Let's take a look.

1) 2007 Anchor Bay 2007 DVD; 2) 2013 Capelight Integral BD;
3) 2013 Capelight Unrated BD; 4) 2013 Capelight unrated DVD; 5) 2013 Capelight TV BD;
6) 2025 Second Sight Integral UHD; 7) 2025 Second Sight Unrated UHD.

I'll get one thing out of the way right off the bat: not only are Capelight's Unrated and Integral cuts using the exact same transfer, so is Second Sight's Integral cut, which despite being on a UHD disc is still just 1920x1080.  Their unrated version boasts the new transfer, but their Integral cut is just a carry over from 2013 (and the same is true, for the record, of Ignite's release), no upgrade to be had there.

Now, let's get into the framing.  Anchor Bay's 1.82:1 aspect ratio may be more correct than Capelight's 1.78:1 numerically, but seeing how it chops off Dean Halsey's hand, I'd say the Capelight more properly reveals more.  But Second Sight finally perfects it with an exact 1.85:1 ratio and most of the picture AB lacked.  Also interesting is the TV cut, included on one of the blu-rays but in standard definition none the less. Sure, it's the fuzziest and worst looking of the lot, but it's also open matte.  At 1.32:1, while it has all the same picture on the sides (compared to the older framing, of course, as seen on the AB shots), there's additional picture on the tops and bottoms.  Ugly, boxy misframing, of course, but fans may want to at least pop it in and scan through it as a curiosity piece.

The new colors, even starting with the Capelight, are far more natural than the red-heavy look of AB disc. Grain is very real there, too; though of course the UHD really perfects it.  Its Dolby Vision also pulls out a smidgen from the shadows, but honestly not very much.  Capelight's restoration was already excellent, there wasn't much else to do in 2026 besides tweak the AR and slap it on a proper 4k disc.  The colors and HDR differences are pretty subtle.  Don't get me wrong; it's excellent, arguably perfect; The Re-Animator was just in a really good place already.

Anchor Bay starts us off with stereo and 5.1 remixes, and no subtitles.  Besides the multiple German audio tracks, the unrated version (on both Capelight's blu and DVD) sports 5.1 and 2.0 stereo English mixes. And it's got optional English subtitles as well. The Integral cut doesn't have the subs or 2.0 mix, but does have a DTS-HD 5.1 English track. Capelight has also added an isolated music score.

And Second Sight?  They've gone back and restored the original mono in DTS-HD, as well as the stereo and 5.1 mixes on the unrated cut, as well as included English subtitles on both cuts.  Unfortunately, not only does their Integral cut only have the 5.1 remix, but it's lossy.  Their one point of downgrade.  I think they really regard the Integral cut as just an extra.  Oh, and they've dropped the isolated score. Another niggling disappointment.

Extras are a pretty solid lock for the Capelight blu, carrying over everything from past editions. Re-Animator covered itself in the special features department pretty early on. The old laserdisc already had two excellent audio commentaries with all the major players, plus the long list of deleted scenes and trailers. Then the Millennium DVD set added interviews with just about everybody, plus some storyboards and odds & ends and even an isolated music score; and those extras have stuck with just about every subsequent release. Anchor Bay, being Anchor Bay, of course added something new to the mix: that 70 minute documentary I mentioned earlier. And that, along with all those other extras have been ported over to Capelight's release. No, they didn't really come up with any new extras, but there's not much left that needs to be added that wouldn't just be redundant at this point. Re-Animator already came fully-loaded.

The media book packaging includes a nice 24-page booklet, but the text is all in German. Looks nice, though. There's also a couple inserts and auto-playing bonus trailers for other Capelight releases on each disc. But that's the only non-English friendly content. Every cut of the film and all of the extras are in English.

Redundant or not, though, we have new extras now.  Like I said, between Capelight and now, Arrow added the musical-related stuff, plus a new interview with Crampton, that goes over more of the rest of her career, and a long featurette about Lovecraft adaptations on film.  Second Sight hasn't carried over the musical stuff (though for the record, Ignite did), but they do have the Crampton and Lovecraft interviews.  Then Ignite and Second Sight share a bunch of new stuff, including Re-Animator at 40, a new conversation between Brian Yuzna, Combs and Crampton, which is a nice look back, but repeating many of the same anecdotes we've heard already in these things.  But there are also new on-camera interviews with editor Lee Percy, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon and a featurette where filmmakers like Mick Garris and Joe Lynch sing Re-Animator's praises.  And Second Sight has a couple of exclusives, both by expert Mike Muncer: a video essay and an audio commentary.

Second Sight's release comes as a single UHD disc or a limited edition which throws in an extra BD copy of the film, plus a 150-page hardcover book and six collector's art cards.

You could tell the people at Capelight really cared about this film, and came up with a blu-ray package that didn't just upgrade our old DVDs to HD but really strove to give us a definitive release.  Other countries are started to pick up on their 4k scan and integral cut and release it around the world, including Second Sight (hey!), Arrow and Umbrella.  It wasn't until 2025, when they were able to land this film on a higher gen disc, that there was really cause to upgrade.  And even now, more casual fans may be satisfied with any of the BDs with the Capelight scan, and hold out for a UHD restoration of the integral cut, too.  But there's no denying that they've been topped.  Time comes for us all.  And then we're left carrying our heads around in a small surgical pan.

Barbara Crampton Takes Us Back To Miskatonic In Suitable Flesh

If you're not familiar with Suitable Flesh, allow me to bring you into the fold.  In brief, it's an HP Lovecraft adaptation (specifically of "That Thing On the Doorstep") Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli had been trying to get funded since the 90s.  Think of his Shadow Over Innsmouth project if Dagon never finally got made.  Well, apparently, Barbara Crampton, who's been having a very gratifying scream queen comeback thee days, has enough pull with Shudder now to get a project funded.  So she reached out to Paoli, who gave her the screenplay, which she is now producing and starring in, along with Brian Yuzna, who's executive producing.  It played in a bunch of horror festivals last year, went to Shudder and just now came out on a special edition blu from RLJ (formerly Image) Entertainment.

But, of course, Gordon didn't get to actually direct this.  Instead they enlisted Joe Lynch, who frankly, I was worried about when I saw his name attached.  I mean, Mayhem is perfectly watchable if you don't go in expecting too much, but this is the guy who turned Wrong Turn into a cornball reality TV parody, did that ridiculous hitman flick with Salma Hayek where she breaks the fourth wall to make lame quips and the title Knights of Badassdom speaks for itself.  I was worried.  But Joe Lynch has proven an excellent steward for Stuart's vision.

That's not to say this is 100% the masterpiece that Re-Animator or From Beyond were, but it's better than Castle Freak and absolutely worthy of their company.  Heather Graham, of all people, stars and proves willing to go as far as out as this movie needs her to.  If you know the Lovecraft story, you can anticipate some of the body-swapping hi-jinks everybody gets up to, but of course Paoli and Co. have to crank things up a notch or two before the show's over.  A lot of this plays like a fun Tales From the Crypt episode, with whole cast having fun with its murderous premise.  But then it pushes the envelope with the sex and violence... maybe not quite as gonzo as Gordon would've taken it, but definitely in that same, demented direction.  And they manage not to lose the thread and get silly, helped by composer Steve Moore, who does a nice job capturing the spirit of what Richard Band would've done, if perhaps just a little more subtle.

2024 RLJ BD.

RLJ's blu preserves Suitable Flesh's very wide 2.35:1 aspect ratio.  This is a new release, presumably taken right from a DCP; so there's not a lot for this blu to have gotten wrong and happily they don't.  Things actually look kinda soft, but that may just be down to the look of the film itself (i.e. to look less digital and hue to its 80s predecessors).  Because this is a lot clearer than when I watched it streaming in 1080p, and we've been given a dual-layer disc for a relatively short flick, so I don't think compression would be at issue.  It's always a little tougher to gauge without film grain, how much detail is missing from a modern digital transfer.  Heck, I'd love to see a UHD of this, even without HDR, but generally I think we're lucky to even be getting BDs of these Shudder titles, so I have no complaints.

And we get a nice, bold DTS-HD transfer of the 5.1 track with optional English subtitles.  There's even an audio descriptive track, as well as Spanish and French subtitles, so RLJ has us covered.

And definitely that includes the special features department.  For starters, there's an audio commentary by Lynch, Crampton and co-producer Bob Portal.  Lynch, of course, is co-host of the Movie Crypt podcast, so he's great at doing commentaries, especially with Crampton and Portal to bounce off of.  Then there's a making of, which is fairly substantial.  I was expecting one of those ultra-brief promo featurettes, but this is a good little retrospective with Lynch and most of the cast, reminiscent of the featurettes Scream Factory creates.  Good stuff.  There's also a Zoom-style interview between Lynch and Steve Moore, a look at the storyboards (with a video intro by Lynch), a blooper reel and a couple of bonus trailers (though not the trailer for Suitable Flesh itself).

So this is a really satisfying release of a really satisfying little horror flick: the kind of thing they don't make much of anymore.  Admittedly, if you come in holding this to the extreme expectations of Gordon's all-time greatest moments in cinema, I suppose this could be a little disappointing.  But if you're not at least having fun with this title, you've brought the wrong attitude.  Everybody involved got it right and managed to deliver us one more exciting chapter from what we thought was a long finished necronomicon.

Stuart Gordon's Screaming Empire of Dolls

For my money, Dolls is the best of Stuart Gordon's non-Lovecraftian adaptations, and maybe even better than one or two of those. It already received a pretty nice DVD from MGM, with an excellent OAR transfer and two strong audio commentaries. But still, a special edition with no video extras (i.e. any documentaries, deleted scenes, interviews) feels a little incomplete. So I was happy to see Scream Factory filling that gap when it came time for their blu-ray upgrade.

Update 2/14/15 - 7/47/17: I just picked up an interesting 2011 DVD set from MGM, called 6 Horror Movies.  Dolls is one of those six, so I'm adding it to the comparison.

Update 8/11/23: Arrow has decided to show Dolls a little more love, giving it a fresh 2k scan and all new special features in their fancy new 'Enter the Video Store' set.  Is it enough to justify tracking down a copy of this immediately OOP and very pricey box?  Let's open it up and see.

This film has more of an almost family-friendly, children's' story feel to it, even though it's still a pretty gruesome story. It's a dark and stormy night when a little girl, her father and wicked stepmother (played to the hilt by Carolyn Purdy-Gordon) wind up having to spend the night with a creepy old couple who live in an old, isolated mansion with no telephone. The house is full of Victorian-style porcelain dolls because the old man is a toy maker living in seclusion. A cheerful salesman (Stephen Lee, who you probably remember from Gordon's Pit & the Pendulum) soon also arrives with two colorful punk rock hitchhikers, and they wind up stirring the dolls, who are actually little killer monsters who have a really negative reaction to rude behavior.

Dolls has an interesting production history I didn't realize until watching the extras. Apparently, as they were about to begin filming From Beyond, Charles Band gave him the script to Dolls and asked him to shoot it on the same sets first. So that's why it's not written by Gordon's usual guy, Dennis Paoli (though Brian Yuzna is still on board as a producer). And even though he shot it first, it didn't come out until after From Beyond, because the film took so long in post-production, adding insert shots and especially David Allen's awesome stop-motion imagery of living dolls. Everything here is just about having fun with the horror genre, often with a very classic, early Hollywood feel. The fantasy sequence at the beginning with the killer teddy bear is worth the price of admission alone, one of my favorite horror moments as a kid that still plays just as well watching it again today.

MGM released this as a pretty sweet special edition in 2005.  Remember when they used to put out all those sweet Midnite Movies discs of all their cult and horror titles, and they'd be there on the shelf at all your local stores?  Ah, I miss those days.  Anyway, I've got that here, and it's a two-sided flipper disc, with a fullscreen version on the other side.  I've also got MGM's 2011 6 Horror Movies collection, and its Dolls disc is also a flipper, but loses its fullscreen side in favor of being backed with another of the six films (they do six films on three discs).  Scream bumped this deserving title to blu in 2014 as one of their signature Collector's Editions.  And now in 2023, Arrow has brought the title back as part of their limited 'Enter the Video Store: Empire of Screams' 5-film boxed set.

1) 2005 MGM DVD; 2) 2011 MGM DVD;
3) 2014 Scream Factory BD; 4) 2023 Arrow BD.

Scream Factory's 2014 blu looks great, but they really didn't have to do much beyond taking MGM's already top notch transfer from their original 2005 DVD and putting it on blu.  It's clearly the same master, with identical 1.75 framing, colors, etc.  And unsurprisingly, MGM's 2011 DVD is a precise match for their the 2005 DVD - no differences there.  Scream's blu obviously benefits from the upgrade to high definition of course, making everything cleaner and more attractive, which especially helps in a film like this, with a heightened, stylized look.  But Arrow's latest scan (and encode) is a distinct cut above, with film grain neatly captured and finally making this film look truly filmic for the first time.  But with that said, the adjusted 1.85:1 geometry is just barely perceptible even when directly comparing screenshots, and the colors (it's a shade brighter and cooler), detail, etc are nearly the same across editions.  There were never any issues like edge enhancement, DNR or interlacing down the line that cried out for fixing.  So whether you can appreciate the upgrade will depend almost entirely on your screen size.

2005 MGM DVD.

Oh, and for the curious, the full screen version is another one of those semi-open matte deals. It gives us a little more information vertically, along the bottom. But it cuts off chunks of the sides, too. I suppose they're trying their best to make it look good for 4:3 TVs by splitting the difference; but it winds up being less interesting than a standard open matte, as it doesn't even give us much more picture for curiosity's sake.

The DVDs, both full and wide, offer the original Dolby stereo track with optional subtitles in English, French and Spanish.  Both blus have that stereo mix, in DTS-HD on the Scream and LPCM on Arrow's, and also a new 5.1 remix, in DTS-HD on both blus.  Scream and Arrow also have just the English subtitles.

MGM's DVDs already started strong (yes, the 6-pack retains all the extras from the solo releases, which is absolutely appreciated) with two audio commentaries.  The first is a really informative one by Stuart Gordon and screenwriter Ed Naha. And the second one is a more upbeat cast commentary by Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Stephen Lee, Ian Patrick Williams and Carrie Lorraine, who played the little girl. The latter might've benefited from a moderator, as it often gets stuck when the actors can't think of anything to say; but they do have a lot to offer when they start gathering momentum.  Besides that, there's the trailer, a photo gallery and storyboard comparison.  All of which Scream carried over to their edition.

Oh, MGM's discs also had an additional commercial for their horror line of DVDs and opened with one of those annoying "YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A HANDBAG" [silly, how else do they think I pay for all their DVDs?] anti-piracy commercials.  Thankfully, Scream let those go.

But the real treat is that they've also created a new 30-minute retrospective documentary called Toys of Terror: The Making of Dolls, featuring interviews with Stuart Gordon, Charles Band, Brian Yuzna, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Ian Patrick Williams, effects artists Gabe Bartalos, Gino Crognale, and John Vulich. It really does add a lot of depth to the release, and while it is sometimes a little redundant, repeating facts and stories that we already heard in the commentaries, it's kind of fun to hear how Gordon's tale of inspiration has changed over the years.  In the commentary, he and his wife talk about how he was looking at a collection of very old dolls late at night in a museum and thought to himself, wouldn't it be scary if he'd gotten locked inside? In the documentary, he flat out says he was locked inside the museum and had to spend the night with the dolls.

Scream Factory's blu also features a couple bonus trailers, reversible artwork and a slipcover with their then-typical comic book-style cover, which I don't think ever suited these movies.

Happily, Arrow preserves all of that.  And they've added more to boot.  First of, there's an excellent, in-depth interview with the editor, who has a lot of good memories and insight to share about working with Gordon.  And then there's a new audio commentary by David Decoteau (Creepozoids, Nightmare Sisters), "Empire alumnus and friend of Stuart Gordon."  He starts off talking about his connections to Gordon and Dolls through Empire (i.e. he cast Guy Rolfe in Puppet Master 3 based on Gordon's recommendation after working with him in this), but is mostly just a rambling disquisition about his own career.  Curiously, the box credits two moderators, despite Decoteau clearly being alone during this recording.  He has plenty of fun anecdotes, and I still enjoyed the experience, but this is a commentary for fans of Decoteau, not Gordon.  It makes a little more sense when you remember this BD is part of the Empire boxed set, but it's something you'll probably want to bear in mind before dedicating the your evening to it.

Dolls also includes two additional trailers, a fold-out double-sided poster, three art cards and reversible artwork.  It doesn't come with its own booklet, but the set itself includes an 80-page hardbound book with writings on all the films and Empire in general.  That box also comes with a giant slipcover and a replica video store membership card.

So is it worth it?  Well, like I said about Scream's disc in 2015, "it's not some fancy restoration, since we didn't need one here. It's simply the basic boost from SD to HD, plus a nice, new documentary to sweeten the deal.  A very good release for a very good movie."  Well, now we've got the restoration, and it is an improvement.  And the new extras are nice, especially the interview with the editor.  If you love Dolls, this is the ideal version, no question.  We've gone from a very good to great release.  But if you're looking at a $150 EBay price-tag, and you're not particularly interested in the other four films, Scream's blu will still probably prove to be good enough for most folks.

Brace Yourself For the Dentist 1 & 2

It's a great month for Brian Yuzna fans.  We just had a major new From Beyond upgrade from Vinegar Syndrome, and now we've got all new blu-rays of both Dentist movies from Vestron!  And heck, it was just over a month ago they gave us the blu-ray debuts of his Silent Night, Deadly Night movies, too.  Could this mean Progeny is just around the corner?  Now, these aren't technically The Dentists' HD debuts... there have been German mediabooks and dubious Spanish blus before this (and I wouldn't be surprised if they used the same masters), but The Dentist Collection 2-disc set presents their first official US releases, and Vestron has turned them into proper special editions with a bunch of first-class features.

Update 4/22/26: It's the beginning of a brand new run of updates, and one thing I've got for us today is the original DVD of The Dentist 2.  Does the comparison show off how much of an impressive upgrade Vestron's HD set is?  Ehhhh...

I hadn't seen The Dentist since it debuted on HBO in 1996, and the sequel since I rented it from Blockbuster in '98.  I've never been super enthusiastic about them, but I remember Corbin Bersen being pretty great in the titular role, and the first film having an entertaining madcap vibe.  And it's a killer premise - who hasn't felt at least slightly terrorized by a trip to the dentist?  Still, I remembered them as largely perfunctory slashers, and I wouldn't have bothered with The Dentist Collection if it wasn't for the extras (if nothing else, the story behind the making of these movies should be interesting) and the great price Vestron sells these at (I got mine on release day for $11.99 at Best Buy).  But having revisited them, and in widescreen for the first time, I have to say I'm quite glad I did.

The original Dentist especially is not just a slasher; it isn't the lower budget Dr. Giggles with dental-specific puns I feared.  For one thing, it's based on a screenplay by Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli.  And instead of a bunch of generic partying teens running afoul of a serial killer, it's a real (demented) character study told from the perspective of a dentist obsessed with eradicating decay... from teeth, from his clothing, from his marriage.  Events pile up and eventually he's left trying to cover up a series of murders he's committed at his dental office, from his patients and staff alike.  It's even more madcap than I remember.  The supporting cast is packed with great character actors like Molly Hagan, Earl Boen and a young Mark Ruffalo.

Not that it doesn't have its flaws.  By the third act, it loses its motivation and stops building to a meaningful climax so much as just adds a random series of extra events.  And there's a whole subplot with Ken Foree as a police detective on Bersen's trail that only serves to pull you away from the drama and make you sit in an empty police procedural.  From the extras, we learn that most of these additions were done in a rewrite by another, and it makes me wish they'd stuck more closely to the original story.  I'm not saying all the changes are bad or that they were completely wrong in their assessment that the original script needed work (I've never read it, after all), but I think they've thrown out at least some of the baby with the bathwater.  Still, forgetting about what could have been and just accepting what we actually got: what we have here is a lot of fun and consistently rewarding little horror flick.

The Dentist 2, though, not so much.  Gordon and Paoli didn't have a hand in this one, and it shows.  It's still not just a slasher - Yuzna and especially Bernsen bring a lot of great energy to the show.  It's nice that they follow the story of the original enough to bring back a second key character besides just Bersen's.  Clint Howard pops in for a good scene.  But this is basically a generic thriller with the Dentist IP haphazardly poured on top of it, losing most of the magic of the first film to fit the mold of a hundred other DTV little pot boilers, winding up somewhere in between The Stepfather 2 and 3.  It's not a film I'd buy on its own, but it's great to get it in support of the original feature.

But I got my hands on the original DVD anyway, just for this.  It came out in 1999 from Trimark.  A DVD this old, they're surely not sharing the same master, right...?

The Dentist 1 2023 Vestron BD.

The Dentist 2 1999 Trimark DVD.

The Dentist 2 2023 Vestron BD.

In one of the audio commentaries, Yuzna mentions looking at this film in 4k, but I really don't believe that's what we have here.  I'd already written that both Dentist movies do indeed seem to be from old high def masters (which, after all, is frequently Vestron's MO), and now that we're able to compare it to one of the DVDs, that's just further confirmation.  But, still, for the two Dentist movies in a $12 double-feature, it's fine.  The blus look reasonably good - The first film is ever so slightly pillarboxed to 1.77:1, and the second is windowboxed to 1.90:1.  Both were shot on 35mm, but grain is merely hinted at, represented more by soft digital noise than actually captured grain.  There's light print damage, mostly on the first film, but nothing distracting.  Honestly, the blu is barely an upgrade from the DVD, the main difference being that it's just less compressed and fuzzy.  Trimark's old disc is slightly windowboxed, which the BD fixes, but the DVD's 1.85:1 aspect ratio is presumably the more accurate.  But the image is clear and generally free of defects.  It basically just boils down to a slight squeeze, though, so it's pretty academic.  A fresh scan would surely perfect the AR and nail the framing - here, we're probably picking between two minor compromises.

Both blus present the original 2.0 mix in lossless DTS-HD with English, HoH and Spanish subtitle options.  The DVD has all the same plus French subs, but their audio is, of course, lossy.

What Trimark doesn't offer is extras.  All it has is the trailer and a bonus trailer for Dead/ Alive.  And here's where Vestron really excels.  Before I get into the weeds of the features, though, let me just warn you that the extras on the first movie's disc spoil the Hell out of Part 2, so watch both movies first before coming back to the goodies.  Seriously, that was pretty careless, and I'm frankly a little disappointed in Mr. Felsher.  But that's really my only criticism, because it's all great stuff.  Both films feature audio commentaries by Yuzna and his effects supervisor who are very open about all the pros and cons of their experiences with these films.  Would you believe Chevy Chase and Bruce Campbell both came very close to landing the role of the dentist?  I'd love to see those movies, although I still wouldn't trade what Bersen gave us for them.

Bersen is also quite forthcoming in his on-camera interview.  He's a great sport and I'm glad Vestron was able to get him to come in for this.  We also get the effects team from the first film in a joint featurette, Dennis Paoli who I always love to hear from, Part 2's Jillian McWhirter and producer Pierre David.  They're all great interviews; don't skip any of 'em.  And we get two more of those composer/ isolated score tracks Vestron has consistently crafted, this time also with DoP Levie Isaacks and editor Chris Roth.  I'm happy to see these tracks branch out into more than just the music.  There are also stills galleries and trailers for each film, and the set comes in a glossy slipcover.

The Dentist Collection started out as something I just picked up because it was cheap.  But having watched it now, I'd recommend it at twice the price.  The first movie in particular is better than I expected/ remembered, and Vestron has done a lot to make this a really satisfying package, even if not in the PQ Dept so much.