America's Forgotten 80s Gooey Horror Nightwish, Unearthed At Last!

Look, I can get into the cheap, trashy 80s slasher films as much as any horror fan, but I wish more 80s horror was like this: creative, stylish, special effects heavy and inventive flicks about supernatural/ sci-fi madness was as appreciated by genre lovers. Sure, much of the same weaknesses tend to carry through: questionable acting, low budgets, contrived scripts that exist just to get the characters into their highly unlikely situations. This obviously isn't the kind of profound movie to rank alongside the classics like Citizen Kane or Cries and Whispers. But I still can't understand how there isn't a fervent cult audience clamoring for a special edition release of this film.

Update 9/17/19:  Man, I love ripping the M.I.A. tag off of posts because they've been updated with proper releases, and that's just what has happened here.  Unearthed Films is releasing their 4k restoration of Nightwish on blu... today.  And it's everything you could want for this film.

A beautiful woman in a fancy red prom dress is wandering the suburban streets at night when she spots a severed arm in someone's front lawn. She comes across a few more body parts before she finds herself being chased through a stylized landscape by an bloodthirsty zombie. She's cornered and suddenly she wakes up. It turns a scientist/professor and his students are studying peoples' fears by reading their dreams as they lay in sensory deprivation tanks. Naturally. Anyway, the info they're getting is okay but frustratingly limited because "none of you has been able to project his own death!" Fortunately, the doc happens to have a haunted, radioactive cabin out in the desert someplace where they can hunt for ghosts and scare up better results. Naturally. So they all go up there, driven by Fright Night II's Brian Thompson, who seems to be a bit of a violent psycho. Well, of course things get out of hand right away, a green ghost materializes, and soon everybody's fears seem to becoming real and they start dying. Are they going crazy and killing each other? Is the ghost killing them? Is the doctor dispatching them as part of a mad experiment? Or is it all the result of a government conspiracy to cover up space aliens? Oh boy, it's all in here!

The plot twists and turns, and there's plenty of misdirections and reveals; but it doesn't necessarily wind up making any sense. It's mostly an excuse just to have a variety of different kinds of horror sequences, including big, slime-covered prosthetic effects by the great KNB team (who are the real stars of this movie), dark atmospheric moments, light shows, broad acting, underground caves, possession and a killer dog. Nudity is sparse but gratuitous. Lights are colorfully gelled. It's all played refreshingly straight, without any of that winking at the audience irony that started creeping into horror in the 90s. There's even a rocking "Nightwish" hair-metal theme song. Sure, by conventional standards it's a bad movie; but it's so awesome!

For years and years, it had never been released on DVD, let alone blu-ray, in the USA. And even what had been released in foreign countries was dodgy and very difficult to track down at best. I spent way too much time and cash tracking down two low quality import DVDs: one from France's Antartic and one from Spain's Manga Films, which we can at least use to compare to Unearthed's new release (there's also a German DVD from Laser Paradise, but that's German audio only with no subtitles), because they've finally done this film justice by releasing it as a special edition blu-ray, with a fresh 4k scan and color correction of the original camera negatives.

1) French 2003 Antartic DVD; 2) Spanish 2006 Manga Films DVD;
3) US 2019 Unearthed BD.

Oh yes, what a difference!   Let's start with the framing.  Both DVDs are 1.30:1 fullscreen.  They're clearly somewhat open matte (can you spot the boom mics?) but have also chopped a lot of information off the sides.  The framing is actually a little different between the two DVDs. In fact, a lot's different between them, but sticking with the framing for now, we see that the French disc has more image on top and the Spanish has more on the bottom. The second shot seems to be zoomed in on all four sides on the Spanish disc, possibly to mask the boom, since that tighter framing crops it out (though they missed it in the first set of shots).  Unearthed goes with an unmatted 1.78:1, which should probably ideally be a little tighter along the top to 1.85:1 - and is also what it claims on the packaging - but how can you complain when this is the first time Nightwish looks like a real movie?  And that's just the framing!

In general picture quality, the Spanish is the worse offender.  It's softer, fuzzier, and paler than even the French DVD, which was evidently taken from a different source.  The French disc has its own issue with edge enhancement, but it's all academic now that Unearthed has come and blown them out of the water.  Grain is natural, if a bit light for 4k, and the image is far clearer and more photo realistic.  The colors really pop, too, compared to the DVDs, which each suffered from varying degrees of fading, particularly the Spanish DVD.  There's sporadic flecking and dirt (the DVDs had a little, too): enough so you'll notice it, but it's never to the point where it's an irritant.

 

So before Unearthed came along, the French disc looked like the overall winner, right?  That's why I ordered the French disc first.  That turned out to be a mistake: you'd think an American English language movie would have its original English audio track on a DVD in any country, but nope. It was more common on older discs like this one to only offer the dub version for its native country. So in this case, the French disc only has French audio (in "Hi-Fi Stereo") and no subtitles.  That's why I then hunted down the Spanish disc, which does have the original English audio, in mono. It also has a Spanish dub and optional/ removable Spanish subtitles.

But of course, there's no need for that anymore, because Unearthed's US blu-ray obviously has the original English audio, in uncompressed/ lossless PCM 2.0.  This time there's just the one track - no "vintage" audio mix like their previous Unearthed Classics discs - and no subtitle options.

Another important reason to go with Unearthed's new blu (as if any additional justification were needed after the above comparison) is the fact that the DVDs are barebones.  Well, the French disc has a stills gallery of five shots from the movie and the poster image.  Whoopdeedoo.  Oh, and the Spanish disc has that infamous "you wouldn't steal a car, would you" autoplay commercial... but in Spanish, which was novel to see.  But yeah, that's it.  Nothing.  But Unearthed gives us a brand new  audio commentary with executive producer Paul White, again moderated by Unearthed's Stephen Biro, the same pairing from their Dark Side Of the Moon disc.  They seem to be locked into a heated competition as to who remembers less about the movie they're watching, and they spend a lot of time awkwardly reading from print-outs of their imdb pages, but it's still worth the listen for fans.

Anyway, Unearthed also has a much more robust photo gallery, which gives you some great behind-the-scenes looks at some of KNB's most elaborate effects and a really weird piece of promo art, plus the trailer and bonus trailers for Unearthed's other Classics titles (including the Unnamable that was missing from its own disc).  This is less than their previous releases, which also featured multiple on-camera interviews, so there's a bit of disappointment there; but it's obviously far more than anybody else has managed to do for this film.  The first run of 1,000 copies also comes in a slick slipcover and includes a full color, 24-page booklet with an essay by Art Ettinger of Ultra Violent magazine and a reproduction of the film's original production notes.

I originally wrapped up this post by talking about how Nightwish really needed the exact kind of release it's just gotten.  Mission accomplished, gang! This is a fun one.  Now let's support it so they can bring us Unnamable II and whatever other overlooked 80s gems they may have their eyes on.

Pulp Fun Lovecraft, The Unnamable I & II (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

Unearthed Films is a fairly underground label that's actually been with us quite a long time.  They're best known for notorious indie gore titles like all the Guinea Pig movies, Black Sun and the Vomit Gore Trilogy.  But poking around my collection, I see they've been responsible for a couple better known cult horror titles like Frankenhooker, 964 Pinocchio and Evil Dead Trap 2.  But today we have the debut entry in their Unearthed Classics line, The Unnamable (as well as its sequel).  It's not exactly a movie that springs to mind when you say "classic."  What's a horror classic?  Frankenstein?  Nosferatu?  Psycho?  Okay, you want to go 80s, then maybe Nightmare On Elm Street, The Shining... You know, it's gonna take an awful lot of guesses before you start landing anywhere close to The Unnamable.  But hey, you know what?  As someone who grew up in those video shop days, renting all the horror titles, I get it.  The Unnamable definitely brings back fond memories: the cool cover with an awesome monster that actually lived up to the promise of its box art.  In its own way, for that brief little window of history, I can get with it being labeled a classic.

The Unnamable is an HP Lovecraft story, and if the movie ever gets brought up, it's usually as an example of how loosely adapted his work tends to be in film.  But if you're familiar with the actual story, it's really not so far off.  It's got a similar problem that Stuart Gordon's From Beyond had, where they fairly faithfully adapted the story as written... and then the opening credits rolled and they had to fill the rest of the 90 minutes.  If you've read The Unnamable, you know it's literally like 2-3 pages long; there's just not a lot of material.  But what was there is all on screen.  A character named Carter and a rival scholar debate the validity of unspeakable horrors...  The Unnamable creature and its origins as a once-human woman locked up in an old house for centuries, its image burned into the window's glass, and the doubting scholars venturing to the house only to get attacked, verifying Carter's claims that something truly unnameable could and does exist.  It's all here.  They even do a few period scenes for the film's backstory.

But then, you know, you've got to pad it out to feature length, so in come the familiar horror staples.  A couple of frat guys talk some pretty freshman girls to spend the night with them in a creepy haunted house, which of course turns out to be the very same house from the story, giving the creature some cannon fodder to dispatch.  The two scholars are expanded to three, there's a love triangle, and soon enough you've got a very traditional 80s horror film built around the thin Lovecraftian skeleton.  And in some ways, it's actually quite a good one.  It's ambitious with a great looking monster, some cool Lovecraft story beats that set it apart from your typical direct to video shovelware, and like I said, it has one of the all time great movie monsters that can stand right alongside Pumpkinhead and the Predator.  The two leads roles, both in terms of writing and performance, are quite appealing and head and shoulders above most horror movie characters, and there's some really clever moments.

But on the other hand, the limited budget really wears through, and this film shows much of the clunkiness typical of a first time filmmaker.  Some nice lighting and limited atmosphere isn't enough to stop the pace from grinding to a slow limp as characters wander around and around a tiny house at night with their flashlights, running into nothing for a very long time.  You just know with a little more money and experience, this film could've been really risen to another tier.  So, what we end up with is an enjoyable, fairly satisfying horror title, but not one of the greats.

So The Unnamable debuted on DVD in 2004, during that period when Anchor Bay UK started getting some cool exclusives that didn't make it stateside.  Their two-disc set of The Unnamable and The Unnamable Returns (we'll circle back around for that) was a shining example of that.  In fact, the original Unnamable never made it to DVD at all here in the US until Unearthed released it this Halloween season.  So, not only is this a brand new 4k master and the film's HD debut, but because of its very limited existence on home video, this is the first time we're even getting to see the film in its proper widescreen format - exciting stuff!

2004 UK Anchor Bay DVD top; 2018 US Unearthed BD bottom.

Apart from being fullscreen, Anchor Bay's DVD really wasn't too bad at all.  And even then, at least it was open matte.  It's certainly a real improvement to finally see the film in its proper aspect ratio, but we're talking more about proper matting than a wealth of new picture on the sides.  We do get some more along the sides, but this new 1.85:1 framing is more about cropping excess vertical information.  The color timing is more natural, where the DVD relied on boosted contrast to make details stand out, the new 4k confidently plays it more photo realistically.  That said, there really isn't much new detail or clarity to be pulled out of these film elements.  We can certainly see the strength of the new 4k scan by the way it cleanly captures the natural film grain, just don't come in expecting to count the individual strands of hair on every actor's head.

Things get a little more complicated in the audio department.  To start with, Anchor Bay gave us a surprising amount of options: DTS, Dolby Stereo 2.0 and a Dolby 5.1 mix (presumably created by AB, as the original film itself certainly never had 5.1).  And we get a similar trio of options on the blu: 5.1 in DTS-HD, the stereo mix in LPCM and another 2.0 mix labeled "Vintage Grindhouse Audio."  But the story here is the 5.1 mix; it's totally borked.  Throughout the film, sounds and music constantly double up, like the tracks got out of sync or something.  Like, quick example, Joel puts his candlestick down on the table, and we hear it twice, like "clunk, clunk."  It's not even an echo; the sound is far enough off that it plays like two separate, distinct sounds.  And in little moments like that, you might not always notice it - maybe you'd think something else just made a similar noise in the spooky house or whatever - but it happens in the music and everything.  At its worst it gets downright maddening and I'd say it's broken to the point where you just can't watch the movie like that.  Now, fortunately, the blu gives us two other audio options, so we're not screwed, and the 5.1 was obviously revisionist in the first place.  But it's extra annoying because the 5.1 mix is the default audio track when you just press play from the main menu, so a lot of fans are going to get an unpleasant surprise.  Oh, and no, the 5.1 mix isn't screwed up like that on the Anchor Bay DVD.

But yeah, don't flip too far out, because the proper stereo mix is on here and has no such issues.  It has a teensy bit of hiss compared to the 5.1, but it's a solid, robust track that's really what we should all be opting for anyway.  And the "vintage grindhouse" mix?  Well, it's a lot flatter and has a lot more hiss.  I guess it's just the raw recording of the audio straight from the film elements with no clean up or something?  Sure, I'll take it, but the 2.0 stereo sound (PCM) is the sweet spot everyone will want to go with.  Oh, and there are no subtitles, which is disappointing, since the DVD did have them.

But Unearthed's about to gain back any points they lost in the audio/ subtitle department and then some.  Because The Anchor Bay DVD?  It just had the trailer and some stills.  But Unearthed's blu is a full-on special edition.  It has very long, like over an hour each, on-camera interviews with stars  Charles Klausmeyer & Mark Kinsey Stephenson, Laura Albert, Eben Ham, Mark Parra, and special effects artists R. Christoper Biggs & Camille Calvet.  The tech quality is a little low, the sound pops and echoes, and one of them, Laura's, is poorly lit.  But none of that really matters because everyone is so enthusiastic and bring a wealth of information, which is all the more valuable because this film's never had any extras before, so it's all new.  I only wish they had edited these down a little, because they are the completely raw, unedited talks from beginning to end.  So questions that don't go anywhere ("do you remember ___?" "No, I don't.  Sorry") are left in, and at one point, the interviewer actually gets up to check on his dog, and we're left watching the two actors sit patiently and silently until he returns.  Pretty crazy!  The only other time I've seen that was on the UK Drag Me To Hell blu-ray, but thankfully the interviews are compelling enough that they manage to get away with it (and the interviewer didn't take too long haha), but for their next endeavor, maybe they could at least trim away some of the really blatant fat.

After all of that, which is already like five hours of content, there's an audio commentary where all of the aforementioned participants get together and watch the film.  Again, they're very enthusiastic, and there's a lot of laughter, but it gets a little tough to make out people talking over and interrupting each other.  Often two distinct conversations are going on at once, so a little moderation would've been nice.  But again, they just narrowly get away with it, because the separate interviews already imparted most of the information, so this is left as more of a light-hearted follow-up romp, and it's hard to be grumpy when everyone's in such good spirits.  Oh, and people who pre-ordered this also got a limited edition slipcover with some very cool alternative artwork.  There's also an image gallery and some bonus trailers - though curiously, no Unnamable trailer - including one for Nightwish, which is meant to be one of Unearthed Classic's next titles, and even just that trailer looks so much better than the previous DVD editions, I'm already excited.

And speaking of exciting upcoming Unearthed Classics, they've hinted that they intend to do the sequel to The Unnamable at some point a little further down the line, too.  And it's a good sequel.  It's made by pretty much all the same people, and our two leads, Howard and Randolph return.  The story even picks up the moment where the first one left off, like Halloween 2.  And this time, they've clearly got that budget and experience they lacked in the first film.  There's just more polish, stronger pacing, even stars performances are more honed.  We get better locations, some name actors this time around - John Rhys-Davies who practically steals the show, David Warbeck in a real "we've only got him for two hours" role, and this time it's scream queen Julie Strain in the monster suit.  The story is even more ambitious with a larger cast and more locations, and the monster finally gets to use those wings we noticed on its back in the last film.

Not that it's a pure improvement.  The comic relief gets a little too heavy handed at times (the naked lady afraid to wear clothes was a step too far) and what was originally a straight-forward tight-knit story gets a little convoluted following too many side characters and fantasy elements that lose some of the original's spooky atmosphere.  And of course, the mystery of the unnamable has been completely blown.  This one's less of a horror flick and more of a lark.  We're just lucky the lead characters are enough to keep us interested.  In fact, I once read that writer/ director Jean-Paul Ouellette had scripts for two more Unnamable films, again with Randolph and Howard, which would've been based on other Lovecraft story.  And I've always been bummed those never happened, because I think these guys proved they had the knack for this stuff.

"If you want me to get out of this chair, that's extra."

Unlike the first film, The Unnamable 2, a.k.a. The Unnamable Returns or The Unnamable II: The Statement Of Randolph Carter, actually did get a DVD release here in the states, from Lions Gate.  It came out in 2004, curiously labeled as "from the creator of Beyond Re-Animator."  No, Yuzna didn't co-produce this, and Ouellette wasn't the DP on that or anything.  They seem to be just referring to Lovecraft, but it's so weird that they'd cite the far less popular second sequel than the original Re-Animator or another Lovecraft project instead.  Oh well, anyway, that came out here right around the same time Anchor Bay put out both Unnamables in the UK.  Let's see how they compare.

2004 US Lions Gate DVD top; 2004 UK Anchor Bay DVD bottom.

Well, on first glance pretty similar, with boxy fullscreen ARs, milky blacks and fuzzy video noise.  But if you pay close attention to the edges, you'll see the framing is different, so this isn't just the same master twice.  Still, while different, it's hard to make a case for one being better than the other; they're more like arbitrary shifting vertically and horizontally.  A much more important distinction, though, is that the Lions Gate DVD has some rather garish interlacing, which the Anchor Bay disc is completely free of.  So while I'm hoping Unearthed gets around to invalidating both with a nice, high quality widescreen scan, in the meantime, AB is a clear winner in terms of PQ.

It's also the winner in terms of audio, again giving us the same trio of options: DTS, Dolby Stereo 2.0 and another Dolby 5.1 mix, while Lions Gate just has the one basic (though perfectly fine) stereo mix.  And again, AB has subtitles, while Lions Gate does not.

And AB wins again with the extras.  This is a very uncomplicated decision.  Lions Gate just has some generic bonus trailers, while AB, which didn't have much for the first Unnamable, has some real special features for the sequel.  First and foremost, they have an audio commentary by Ouellette.  Why they had him do a commentary for the sequel but not the original, I have no idea, but I'm glad to get this one, and he gives a very good talk (though his moderator is terribly mic'd). Then, there's a fun, half-hour behind-the-scenes doc, which focuses primarily on the effects and lets us see Strain as herself.  There's also a brief, vintage promo with Stephenson in character talking to us about the appeal and cinematic history of Lovecraft.  There's also the trailer and an image gallery.  So for whatever reason, they didn't do much for the original, which was after all packaged together, but decked out the sequel.

So, hey, if you're looking for a true classic, don't let the branding mislead you.  But if you enjoy 80s horror, I can't imagine not having any fun with these.  Unearthed's blu of the first one has some flaws as I've pointed out, but nothing that should deter you from picking up an overall excellent disc.  Like, if they maintain this exact level of quality, flaws and all, for their upcoming titles, I'll be very happy.  And I really want this to be successful enough that they get to Nightwish and Unnamable II.  As it stands now, Nightwish has been officially announced and is on their website as an upcoming release, but Unnamable II is still more uncertain.  So you may want to track down the Anchor Bay UK DVD if you don't already have it.  Especially since we don't know if they'll be able to license those sweet extras.