Bowfinger Again, Why Not?

At the end of this summer, Universal has upgraded a handful of back catalog titles to blu, including Problem Child, BASEketball, EDtv, For Love of the Game and my favorite of the bunch: Bowfinger.  At the moment, they're Best Buy exclusives.  It's just for a very limited time, though; they'll be available everywhere else later in October.  But for now, you can only get them from Best Buy.  And you can't argue with the price: $7.99.  So how does it look?

Update 9/26/17 - 8/12/26: Whoopsie!  Best Buy doesn't even sell physical media anymore.  Fortunately now, if you wanted something more than a budget blu-ray, Shout Factory's got you covered, with their new 4k Collector's Edition BD/ UHD combopack.

To a newcomer, I'd describe 1999's Bowfinger in four words: better than it looks.  Just based on the marketing, it just looks like another cartoonish, lame comedy, along the lines of stuff like All About Steve, Tammy, or even other Steve Martin flicks like Bringing Down the House.  But the difference is that this is actually written by Martin, so it's like a fun return to his crazier, earlier films with Carl Reiner, or even more so a return to material like LA Story.  So that's obviously not to say there's nothing cartoonish about this comedy; there's a lot of big, larger than life performances packed into this very goofy send-up of Hollywood.  Eddie Murphy plays dual roles, including one that makes Revenge of the Nerds look subtle.  But for this movie, it works.

Steve Martin is a struggling, independent filmmaker living in Hollywood, and Eddie Murphy is a major Tom Cruise-like movie star.  When Eddie's younger, charisma-less brother applies for a job with Martin's film company, Martin gets an idea for how he can get celebrity Murphy in one of his movies and make the big time.  He'll get his eccentric cast of starving artists to follow Murphy around and play out scenes around him while filming him without his knowledge.  Complicating things further, the movie Martin wants to make is a wacked out alien invasion movie.  It's not exactly a Whit Stillman flick, but it's smarter than you'd think, and is helped immensely by a terrific supporting cast including Heather Graham, Terrance Stamp, Robert Downey Jr., and the eternally underrated Christine Baranski.

Bowfinger came as a new release in the early days of DVD in 2000, and apart from being stuck inside a few budget combo packs like The Eddie Murphy Connection, hasn't been reissued since.  It's fortunate, then, since we never got any alternative choices, that it was a decent, widescreen special edition.  But now, finally in 2017, it's seeing its US HD debut (other countries have already gotten their blu-ray editions in the past year or so).  So is it a worthwhile upgrade?

1) 2000 Universal DVD; 2) 2017 Universal BD;
3) 2026 Shout BD; 4) 2026 Shout UHD.

So, right off the bat, even though it's pretty damn old, it's a fine DVD.  It's anamorphic, not interlaced, and has essentially the same transfer that they kept for the blu-ray.  So it's definitely not a "need to replace" title.  But on the other hand, Universal's blu is a legitimate HD upgrade.  Click through to the fullscreen version of the first set of shots and you can see how much clearer the detail on his skin and glasses is, and how much cleaner all the edges are.  Even the leaves on the left... everything is so much softer and flatter on the DVD.  The DVD also has a strange pillar box on the left-hand side (I left the bars on the top set of comparison shots, so you can see for yourself).  Both discs are slightly letterboxed, but the bar on the right-hand side makes the DVD 1.83:1.  The BD removes that bar, revealing a sliver extra picture on the right, and correcting the aspect ratio to its proper 1.85:1.

Shout's new scan is also 1.85:1, though it reveals tiny slivers of additional picture along the edges.  More importantly, it now preserves the film grain - a little uneven on their BD, but perfect on their 4k UHD - with slightly more natural colors thanks to the Dolby Vision.  Most importantly, however, is that the funky edge enhancement on the old disc is gone.  See that weird haloing light running down the right side of his tie in that first set of shots on the Universal discs?  Yeah, that should not be there... and now it isn't.  We can finally say goodbye to those hallmarks of an old master.

For the audio, the DVD offered both DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, plus a French dub.  The Universal BD trimmed the fat to just the DTS 5.1, but of course in DTS-HD.  It also adds optional English and French subtitles.  Shout drops the French dub, keeps the 5.1 and English subtitles, and also throws in a stereo track, also in DTS-HD.

Extras-wise, there's no difference between the two Universal discs.  We didn't get anything new, but at least none of the 2000 special features were dropped.  Director Frank Oz provides a quality audio commentary.  It's a little dry if you're expecting laughs on the Bowfinger commentary, but there's almost no dead air, and he's full of great info for fans of this flick.  There's a fundamental 'making of' featurette, which was clearly made for television, but gives you some decent interview clips and peaks behind the scenes.  Finally, there are some very brief deleted scenes and outtakes, plus the trailer.  The old disc had a few bonus trailers, text bios and an insert, but everything that matters from the DVD is still here.

And on the Shout set, something has changed.  First of all, everything from the Universal discs is still here: the commentary, deleted scenes, featurette, trailer and outtakes.  But now we also get a new on-camera interview with Oz.  And I'm happy to report it's not him repeating all the same things he said on the earlier stuff.  He does explain how they filmed the freeway scene, which he also did in the commentary and the featurette... but everything else is new.  Also, it's professionally shot in HD; it's not another webcam interview.  So I don't want to kick up too much of a celebration over this.  It's just over thirteen minutes and it's the only new feature.  But I gotta give credit where it's due, especially since so many labels lately have been cutting corners in this area lately.  Oh, and this edition also comes in a slipcover.

So we went from a solid DVD to a bare minimum blu-ray upgrade to a solid 4k edition.  It doesn't look like it's been getting much attention, but as a real fan of this film, I'm glad to see the previous release wasn't its last stop.  This might not be one for the showroom floor, but it really is a good improvement on what we had been given.

The Frighteners, Or How I Learned To Stop Waiting for Arrow and Love the Turbine

Y'know, I think 1996's The Frighteners may well be my favorite Peter Jackson film.  He's certainly made more ambitious films, and more charmingly scrappy indie flicks.  Heavenly Creatures may be more moving, The Lord Of the Rings trilogy more epic, and Braindead more gleefully gruesome.  But this one just situates in the perfect middle: Baby Bear's Just Right porridge (and featuring Jeffrey Combs' greatest performance after Re-Animator).  Interestingly, Jackson originally presented this to Robert Zemeckis as a potential Tales From the Crypt feature film.  Zemeckis says in the documentary (discussed below) that he didn't think it was a good fit, but wanted to produce it anyway.  Really, he didn't think The Frighteners made a good match for the tone of Tales From the Crypt, but Bordello of Blood did?  The Frighteners' distinct blend of humor turning increasingly dark feels like the ideal encapsulation of the TFtC spirit; the best you could ask for outside of an authentic EC tale.  But hey, whatever got us to this end point, I wouldn't change it now, because the movie we've got now, as it is, is just about perfect.

So it's interesting that it largely lives on now as an extended "director's cut."  I put that in quotes because, in his own documentary on this film, Jackson specifies the theatrical cut is still his preferred director's cut, and he considers the extended cut a fun alternative for fans.  I enjoy the restored material, but I agree, the tighter cut is better.  The extended version, which runs a hefty twelve and a half minutes longer, mostly features more comic bits with the comic relief ghost characters, and there's a pinch too much of that for my tastes in the theatrical cut already.  Some of it is clever, many of the effects are well done and a couple of the action sequences feel a little more fleshed out; but there's a reason he cut it in the first place.  There's only one cut I regret, and it's no coincidence that it's the only cut imposed by censors rather than the filmmaker's inclination towards making a superior picture, where Dee Wallace stabs Jake Busey for their mutual enjoyment.  It's a great little moment that says everything about who they are and where they're at in life; and I'd actually love a third cut of the film that's just the theatrical version plus that.  But c'est la vie.  At least we get to see it in the extended cut.

Universal first released The Frighteners on DVD all the way back in 1998.  It was anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1, but pretty disappointing considering that same year there had been a massive special edition with four and a half hours of extras and a new extended cut, while this DVD just had the basic theatrical cut and a fullscreen trailer.  But in 2005, overseas fans got what we all wanted when Universal released special edition DVD sets in various regions around the world, with everything from the laserdisc and a new introduction by Jackson.  I personally opted to import the German version because it was spread over four discs rather then three like in most other countries.  There was no additional content or anything, but I hoped it might have a better encode?  Anyway, they did make a US version, too, but it was a single flipper disc that dropped the theatrical cut, so it was clearly the worst option.

And apart from reissues with variant covers or whatever, that was it until the days of HD, when Universal did pretty good by the movie in 2011 with a 15th Anniversary edition, which included both cuts and all the legacy extras.  Unlike Jackson's earlier work, it was looking pretty sweet on home video, and that BD carried us over to the 4k era.  In 2022, Germany's Turbine produced an exclusive 4k restoration as a pretty massive, and certainly not cheap, 6-disc BD/ UHD set.  That included a BD and UHD of a 1.78:1 open matte version, which I guess has marginal novelty value for truly enraptured Jackson lovers; but if you asked me, it basically just came down to paying a lot of money for an intentionally misframed version.  So I held out...

...Especially since there was strong reason to hope for a preferable alternative!  Arrow included a promotional postcard for a Frighteners release of their own in their 2020 4k UHD release of King of New York (confirmed in this unboxing video, screenshot above).  So when Turbine came out, many of us were already in ye olde' "wait and see which is better" mode.  Of course, there still has yet to be an official announcement to this day, and everyone assuming it was just around the corner is feeling pretty deflated.  Speculation is that Turbine signed an exclusivity agreement to be the sole international distributor for this film for X number of years, foiling Arrow's initial plans.  Maybe it's still coming eventually.  But then there's also always the concern that even if it does happen, Jackson will want to create some kind of janky AI-enhanced, 200fps DNR'd redux that would actually be worse than the 2011 blu-ray anyway.  Meanwhile, Turbine eventually released a much more reasonably priced edition that dropped the 1.78:1 discs and the 1080p version, but still included both cuts in 4k plus all of the special features in a very handsome 3-disc BD/ UHD set.  So I finally broke down and gave up on Arrow (which probably means it will be announced tomorrow, amiright?), and copped the Turbine, which I have for you now.

1) 1998 Universal DVD; 2) 2005 Universal DVD theatrical; 3) 2005 Universal DVD ext;
4) 2011 Universal BD theatrical; 5) 2011 Universal BD ext;
6) 2025 Turbine UHD theatrical; 7) 2025 Turbine UHD ext.

The US disc starts us off at 2.40, while the German disc (on both cuts... on every release with the two cuts; their transfers are identical) opens it up a smidgen to 2.35:1.  You can also see the framing shift vertically, showing more along the bottom and less along the top.  This framing persists through the rest of the subsequent releases, which are also 2.35, though the UHD reveals slivers more picture along the edges.  Color-wise, there are never any vast swings.  The original DVD is a bit red, which was corrected by the special edition DVD, and the UHD is a pinch cooler than all previous editions.  Turbine's Dolby Vision HDR pulls a bit out of the shadows, but it's not like the previous blu was crushing stuff.  It is more naturally defuse, though, and the 4k resolution definitely captures the film grain much more thoroughly and naturally.  In short, each edition is a subtle but distinct improvement over the previous, but you'll really appreciate the boost if you've skipped any of them along the way.

The initial 1998 DVD starts us off with the original 5.1 track, optional English subtitles, plus a French dub and Spanish subs.  The special edition keeps all of that and also adds a new DTS 5.1 to the director's cut.  They also add a German dub (of course) and additional French, German, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovenian, Swedish and Turkish subs.  Then the blu-ray scales back all those options, returning us to just the 5.1 (now in DTS-HD) and French dub (still lossy) with English, Spanish and French subtitles.  And finally, Turbine gives us The English and German tracks in 5.1 DTS-HD, 2.0 mix-downs also in DTS-HD and a new Atmos mix for the extended cut, with optional English and German subtitles.

So, as I mentioned above, the original DVD only included a fullscreen trailer as an extra.  But the the special edition DVD, and the subsequent releases covered here, rounded up all of the extras from the laserdisc, which is a ton.  We're talking four and a half hours, not even including the commentary.  And it's a great commentary.  Jackson delivers it over the extended cut, and enthusiastically discusses all manner of the production, from pre to post.  But then that's like a pittance to the elaborate documentary he crafted, rivaled only by his Lord of the Rings appendixes.  This has everything, from the deleted scenes, extensive behind the scenes footage that sticks with scenes for long stretches of time (as opposed to your usual B-roll, which just gives us frustrating glimpses), outtakes, cast and crew interviews and more.  There's one section where he animates the film's storyboards, scores them and provides an audio commentary for that, pointing out all the ideas that didn't make it to the final film, etc.  It's a real treasure.  Jackson also shot a brief, new introduction to the bonus features for the special edition DVD, which has also made its way to the BD and UHD editions.

Now, besides that, Turbine has created an all new, feature-length retrospective.  And I am not just happy but surprised to report this new doc is great and doesn't simply repeat details adequately covered in the previous extras.  It features a Jake Busey, Dee Wallace and a whole bunch of crew members sharing additional, unheard memories of what it was like when LA came to New Zealand.  Besides just having the additional perspective of time, they get into less promotional-areas that the original supplementary materials skipped, like working with Michael J. Fox as his Parkinson's symptoms were staring to flare up or effects artist Wes Takahashi talking about how he was made to act as a sort of spy for ILM and Zemeckis when working with WETA.  This feels like the filmmakers did what I always pleading for them to do: watch the original extras and cut out all the repetition, so everything is fresh and adds to the conversation rather than repeating it.  So this is a great addition to the already comprehensive collection of extras, which to be clear, have been carried over in full on the Turbine release.

The 2022 edition came in an outer slipbox with a hefty 196-page book (but remember, it's all in German), plus a fold-out poster, six art cards and a replica of Frank Bannister's Psychic Investigator business card.  The three disc-set did away with all the swag, but was also released in three cover slipbox variants (using the same art pieces) with a back slip that does pass Grindhouse Mike's "does it fit int he box" test.  There's also a steelbook version of the three disc set that comes in a slipcover.

So who knows?  Maybe Arrow will still come out with their version one of these days, and hopefully not processed through Jackson's virtual reality machine.  But even if that day comes, I'm not sure there's much that bears improving upon here.

The Sleekest Nightcrawler

2014's Nightcrawler is such a smart, dynamic film.  The biggest criticism I could think of if pressed is that it follows a little too closely in Taxi Driver's footsteps.  But it's definitely its own, distinct film with its own things to say.  Jake Gyllenhaal gives a career best performance as a small-time, sociopathic criminal who works his way into the local news team as a stringer or "nightcrawler."  The whole cast is fantastic really, including Riz Ahmed, Rene Russo, who made something of a comeback here, and Bill Paxton.  But they're all united in service of a fantastic script, which is even further complimented by some stylish photography and a terrific score.  It's just one of those times where everything came together perfectly, albeit to tell a very dark, cynical story.  It turns out today's economy might be best suited for a criminal sociopath.

Universal originally released Nightcrawler as a new released BD/ DVD combopack in 2015.  They reissued the blu as a separate single disc release in 2020.  And apart from similar releases in other regions, that's been the whole story with Nightcrawler on home video until now.  The film has been restored in 4k, and Shout Factory has released that in a fancy, new BD/ UHD steelbook combo.

1) 2015 Universal DVD; 2) 2015 Universal BD;
3) 2026 Shout Factory BD; 4) 2026 Shout Factory UHD.

If you're a big movie nerd (and admit, why else would you be here?), you might've asked yourself, why release this film in 4k when this film was shot in digital 2k?  Well, because most of this film, which takes place at nighttime (hence the title) was shot on digital; but the daytime stuff was actually shot on 35mm film.  So theoretically, there's room to grow.  You'll notice I picked one daylight shot and one night shot for our comparisons, although honestly, there isn't a great deal of difference.  Grain is light to the point of being barely perceptible even in the 35mm footage (my guess: reduced during the filmmakers' post-production process, and not particularly related to the home video transfers). 

Anyway, getting down to disc v disc, we see the aspect ratio shift very slightly across releases.  Universal's DVD is 2.41:1, their blu is 2.40:1 (the DVD is matted just a couple of pixels more tightly) and both of Shout's discs are 2.39:1.  The most obvious boost in resolution is between the DVD and the blus, where a lot of fuzziness gets cleared up in HD.  Between Universal's blu and Shout's discs, the biggest change is really just the colors, which are a little more subtle in the new transfer.  The UHD's increased resolution (heftily encoded on a triple-layer disc) does give more naturally rounded resolution and less pixelation when you zoom way in, but not really any additional detail in the day or night shots.

Universal gives us the original 5.1 mix, in DTS-HD on the blu, with optional English, Spanish and French subtitles.  Shout drops the foreign subs, but keeps the English ones and the DTS-HD 5.1.  They've also a 2.0 in DTS-HD, which sounds virtually the same, and a new Dolby Atmos mix, which spreads things out to 7.1; but otherwise doesn't sound particularly different.

Universal's discs aren't quite "fully loaded," but they've got some decent extras.  One in particular really: an audio commentary by writer/ director Dan Gilroy, along with producer Tony Gilroy and editor John Gilroy (yes, of course they're related).  It's an enthusiastic and candid track, and with the three of them, energetic and they never run low to things to discuss.  Besides that, there's an all-too brief 'making of' with cast and crew interviews, B-roll and even a chat with two real stringers who advised on the film.  But that's about it besides a whole mess of bonus trailers (over ten, easily), unfortunately excluding Nightcrawler's.  Oh, and it comes in a slipcover.

Shout's discs carry all of that over (apart from the bonus trailers) and cooks up some new stuff, too.  Chiefly, there's a new audio commentary by film historian Joe von Appen, but it turned out to be a disappointment.  He just doesn't have that much to say, which is less his fault than the studio that hired him, honestly.  Boutiques are in a rush to slap new commentaries on everything, whether one is called for or not.  What information he does provide is basically lifted from the Gilroys' commentary... and someday I really wish DVD labels would take a moment to examine the systematic failure of creating commentary tracks that source their information from other commentary tracks available on the same disc.  Then, anytime Appen did get close to a unique analysis of the film's themes, he stops himself by saying, "but let's not get ahead of ourselves" and changing the subject.  Seriously, he says this like twelve to fifteen times throughout the commentary; it's a little maddening.  On the other hand, the other new feature, a Ballyhoo interview with composer James Newton Howard, is quite good and well worth the watch.  So we do get a little rewarded, at least, for double-dipping.  Shout Factory has also recovered the film's official trailer, which is a nice touch.

So this is the new, definitive edition of the film.  But is it worth upgrading if you already own the blu?  I think it depends whether you love this film or just like it.  Because the technical upgrade is a bit thin, and the special features got a small increase.  But if Nightcrawler's one of those films you've just gotta have on UHD in the fancy new steelbook, well, it really is a worthy film.

Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell, Worth Yet Another Revisit?

So, I've now covered all three of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead films, but I'd sort of feel like I was leaving things incomplete if I didn't follow those up with Drag Me To Hell (what'd you think I was gonna say Diablo Cody's Evil Dead remake?). Especially since there's a compelling reason to post about Drag here anyway. Besides it being almost, if not just, as good as the films in the Evil Dead trilogy but without the reverential status, so I feel like it's a bit neglected and deserving of another look... Did you know there's a UK import blu-ray with more, better extras?

Update 6/2/18: Shout Factory's new Collector's Edition is out, but how much of an upgrade is it?  And is there another replacement disc issue going on with it (spoilers: yes).  Let's dig in and find out!

Update 11/10/24: And now it's back in 4k on UHD, again from Scream Factory.  Drag's a real favorite of mine, so they didn't have any trouble talking me into quintuple-dipping for this one.  Let's see how it looks.

Drag Me To Hell is Sam Raimi's return to horror, as well as a return to smaller films he has more creative control of, after having worked on a bunch of more traditional Hollywood films, particularly the Spider-Man trilogy. Fans had been calling for him to return to his roots for ages, and by all accounts Raimi was having the same feelings. And while he didn't quite come up with the Evil Dead 4 fans kept asking for, he gave us something very much in the same spirit. In fact, some will argue that it could be considered a direct sequel, operating in the same world and mythos (and one demonically possessed character, about midway through the film, is straight-up doing the entire Evil Dead schtick), just not in name and not focusing on Bruce Campbell's character this time around. There's something a little more traditional in Drag's concept though, centering things around a literal old gypsy's curse; but once it gets going it gets as crazy and enthusiastically insane as the ED films, and that's the heart of what we were all asking for anyway, isn't it?

Now, Drag Me To Hell's another one that came out in that period when blu-rays were a thing, but I was still buying DVDs. So I've got the original, wide release Universal DVD, which came in a nice slipcover, and provided both the theatrical PG-13 cut of the film, and the unrated director's cut. Because it was such a major, broadly released title, and then perhaps undervalued by fans afterwards, it's one of those discs that can be picked up very cheap pretty much anyplace. So I figured it was a nice opportunity for an inexpensive upgrade to blu. And when I was looking into it, I discovered that the Lions Gate version released concurrently in the UK back in 2009 had more extras. And the US Drag was a good little release, but it had always been light on special features. And best of all, the UK discs had plummeted in price just like the US ones, so - score!

But then in 2018, a new contender entered the scene, looking to usurp both previous editions.  Scream Factory has put out a 2-disc Collector's Edition, with new HD masters of the theatrical and unrated cuts taken from the 2k digital intermediates, plus all new extras.  Unfortunately, when it first hit streets, there was a little problem with one of the discs.  The "unrated" cut still had shots from the R-rated theatrical cut in them rather than the alternate unrated shots.  Thankfully, though, Shout has implemented a replacement program.  And copies available in stores like Best Buy already include the corrected disc.  So just look for the little "V2" at the end of the code on disc 2, like in the shot above.  If you have that, you're good to go.  And yes, it's only disc 2 that ever had a problem and should have a "V2" on it.

Or you can just forget all that and cop the new 2024 edition, also from Scream Factory!  This one's a 3-discer, with both cuts restored in 4k from the original digital intermediary film negative... which is to say the film was shot, digitized from the original negative and finished (CGI effects, color timing, etc), then transferred back to a new negative for prints and discs to be struck from.  The new scans of both cuts are on UHD and new 1080p BDs.  Oh, and there's a whole new feature length documentary.

1) 2009 Universal DVD; 2) 2009 Universal US BD; 3) 2009 Universal UK BD;
4) 2018 Scream Factory BD; 5) 2024 Scream Factory BD;
6) 2024 Scream Factory UHD.

In the interests of being ultra-thorough, I started out including comparison shots of both cuts, but with more and more editions being added to this page, I've streamlined to one cut each.  Trust me, they really are identical every time.  They're different encodes (as opposed to using branching or something), but they're very close to the same file size, always using the same transfer and practically speaking, there's no visible distinction. Of course, between differing editions, like the DVD and original blu, it's another matter. Sure, it's the same root master, framed at 2.40:1 (the DVD is technically 2.41:1 and slightly pinched, though it reveals slivers more on each side as a consequence), with the same color timing, etc. But standard def compression really didn't do this movie any favors, and the HD version is really beautiful.

UK blu-ray left; US DVD right.

Just look at it up close. What's in the shop window? A bunch of smeary, indiscernible objects? Everything is so much more clear and defined on the blu, you can tell what everything is, even items further in the background. And just looking at the flat side of the truck, grain is very evident, but on the DVD it's soft with smudged edges. It's an impressive difference. And speaking of impressive differences, how awesome are Scream Factory's new 2k scans?  Well actually, I think most viewers would be hard-pressed to spot the difference even in a direct comparison like this.  They are technically different, of course.  The 2018 versions seem to boast some slightly stronger colors and a slightly smoother image.  But it's not a difference you'll ever notice just watching it on your television.  They look the frikken' same.  Yes, zooming in on close-ups, I can tell the new discs differ slightly from the old ones, but it's a very minimal step forward.

And their 2024 4k scans?  Well, they're still precisely 2.40:1 for a start, but ever so slightly more zoomed out, including those extra slivers from the DVD without the pinching.  That alone puts the latest version in the lead as the best available edition.  But look, they had to use the DI as opposed to going back to the original negative, so these new scans were never going to be super revelatory.  Film grain isn't really improved, nor is fine detail.  Comparing the BDs, there's no gains at all, though jumping to the actual UHD disc, it at least gives us smoother, less pixelated images when you zoom way in.  The newer colors are a bit darker (yes, even on the 2024 BD) and less saturated - note the red flowers to the left of Alison Lohman in the first set of shots), but it's tough to declare one better than the other in that regard.  It's just a bit different.

All versions featured 5.1 audio, but you can hear the extra punch in the blu-rays' DTS-HD track. All versions also have optional subtitles in English, but only the US Universal releases include Spanish and French dubs and subs, if those are a concern to you.  Curiously, Scream Factory has also added a DTS-HD Stereo mix into the equation for both their 2018 and 2024 editions.  Bonus?

Now what's the deal with the two cuts, anyway? I mean, why would anyone care to watch the edited PG-13 version when they've got the uncensored director's cut on the same disc? Well, it is a little bit of overkill, but there's a reason they've bothered to preserve the theatrical cut as well. The cut version isn't just missing shots (although there are a few moments that really lose their impact precisely due to removed shots), it's also got some alternative bits that are unique to that version. Some of it's pretty inconsequential, like a demon's CGI blood being colored black instead of red, which I guess bothers the MPAA more. But one scene in particular, where our lead character decides to sacrifice her cat to appease the angry spirits haunting her, are 100% reshot, and not even in a similar way.

Top: a shot only in the theatrical cut; bottom: a shot only in the uncut version.

In the PG-13 cut, we see her looking around for her cat, finding it, and then cutting away to the exterior of the house as we hear sounds letting us know the gruesome deed was done. So, in the unrated version, it's the same but instead of cutting away, we see a shot of her killing it... right? No. Actually, it's totally different, and there is no bit of her looking around for and finding her cat in the laundry basket. Instead, it's a very dramatically shot moment where she comes towards the camera from shadowed silhouette to scream and repeatedly stab it. Two totally different scenes conveying the same plot point.

Still, like I said, it's pretty much overkill. It's definitely better that they include both cuts rather than letting those alternate moments fade away into anecdotal film history. But the cat scene is the only hugely different scene. The rest is all short insert shots or slightly altered CGI. I think fans would have gotten a lot more out of just including the alternate cat scene in a little 5-minute featurette that also went over and showed the extra changes. Because it's really not worth sitting through the entire film a second time just to go, "oh, I see, that close up where the staple actually goes into her forehead has been removed, but everything else is exactly the same." But if it was a quick deleted scene, we could just quickly watch it and have the same take-away. Plus, a little deleted scenes feature would make the special features less barren and make this feel a little more like the special edition we all want.

The Universal DVD only had one extra, but at least it was a good one. It was a roughly 30-minute featurette called Production Diaries, which is a series of short segments looking at different behind-the-scenes moments during the filmmaking. It's all hosted by Justin Long (who played the boyfriend in the film), and because it zeroes in on moments and details, it's a lot more interesting than your standard, promotional featurette where each actor describes their character and says how wonderful everybody else was to work with. It's fun and engaging. The only problem is how lonely it looks sitting all by itself on the special features page of the DVD menu. Great, but that's it? There's not even a trailer, although it autoplays a bunch of unrelated trailers at the start of the disc. Blah.

Universal's blu-ray is a mirror of the DVD, except it has BD-Live... so it loads up "fresh" ads (when I tried it in 2015, it brought up the Seth Rogen feature Neighbors and an ad for Universal's horror classics from the 40s).  That's hardly an advantage. A genuine plus, I suppose, if you're one of the very select few people with a use for it, is that it's enhanced for D-Box. That's that thing where if you own a special chair wired to your entertainment system, it will vibrate at select times during the film. Not even the UK blu has that.

Now, Lions Gate didn't exactly turn this into the fully loaded special edition we'd expect for a big Sam Raimi horror bonanza; but they at least managed to double what Universal had. The UK blu does also have the Production Diaries, so it's 100% profit, no trade-off. But it's also added another 30+ minutes worth of interviews. They talk to Raimi, Long and star Alison Lohman in three separate sit-downs. These are clearly promotional, but the woman doing the interviews is obviously a genuine fan, so she asks questions we really want to hear the answers to, like "where's our Bruce Campbell cameo?" (which gets an honest answer) rather than just prompting them to fawn all over each other. They're also delightfully uncut, showing us moments like when they take a break and Sam Raimi steps out of frame so a crewman can walk by, leaving us with a steady shot of an empty chair. So again, it's still no great collection of feature length documentaries and audio commentaries with the entire cast and crew; but they're good, fun pieces worth watching.  Zavvi also reissued the UK blu as a steelbook, if you're a fan of those.

And then we come to the reason why anybody might've really wanted to double-dip for the 2018 Scream edition: brand new special features.  Well, first of all, I'm happy to report, they've carried over everything from the previous editions, including those extra interviews from the UK disc.  Sweet.  But they've also added three new on-camera interviews, one with Alison Lohman, one with Lorna Raver (she played the gypsy and really enjoyed herself) and one with composer Christopher Young.  Plus they added a new stills gallery.  Honestly, that's a little underwhelming.  Is it worth upgrading for just three 15 minute-ish interviews?  Well, I will say that all three new interviews are really good and fun.  And I'm glad they went back to get the second Lohman interview, because she doesn't just repeat the one we already have. And I should mention that the Scream edition features reversible artwork and a slipcover. But at the end of the day, it's an expensive release for three little interviews.

The 2024 is version is more satisfying in that regard.  First, yes, it has all the previous extras, including the UK and 2018 interviews.  But they've made one new, very significant addition: a full, two hour 'making of' documentary by the fine folks at Ballyhoo.  They interview a bunch more of the cast and crew, and edit together a very professional, fully satisfying experience.  Honestly, while the legacy extra still hold some exclusive value (i.e. this doc didn't go back and re-interview Lohman, so her 2018 talk is still great to have).  My one gripe, and it's a minor one, is that they do a long section on the score, and their interview with Young repeats a bunch of stuff, practically verbatim, from Shout's 2018 one.  It would've been nice if they trimmed that out and just left the new material.  We've already got him explaining the devil fiddling with his tail thing, the early affinity he felt for Raimi, etc; we don't need to hear it all twice in the same sitting.  But otherwise, this doc is terrific and fairly comprehensive and could really stand-alone as the only companion piece the film needs.  I wrapped up my earlier coverage asking for "more interviews with the likes of Dileep Rao, Bob Murowski and a segment with KNB," and guys, we got it.  If all you watched was Drag and this, you'd be a satisfied fan.  Oh, and this latest set also includes a nice slipcover - I'm very pleased to see them return to the original, superior poster art.

So, hey.  The first and easiest conclusion to draw is that, with the fullest collection of extras and all transfers being essentially equal, the latest Scream Factory set is the best release on the market.  Still, if you already own the film on blu, any blu, it's one of the slimmer upgrades, at least in terms of the film itself.  But the film's such a blast, every horror fan should own it in some fashion; and really, the only worthwhile extra I could imagine any future release adding is a commentary track with the Raimis, which I'm sure is a practically impossible dream as long as he's busy playing with Marvel/ Disney.  Oh, and maybe a sit down with Reggie Lee.  But yeah, I'm quite happy to have re-bought this film for a fifth time, which is something you won't hear me say often.  I wouldn't have recommended the previous double-dips, but this one I do.  This 2024 set finally totals up enough special features to give us Drag Me To Hell as the special edition it's always deserved to be.