The One and Only Unborn One and Two

Roger Corman's The Unborn films are a real staple of the early 90s horror scene.  It was always on cable TV, and every video store had 'em.  Once the It's Alive movies ended, these began.  The original came out in 1991 and honestly, it plays like an unaired Thirtysomething Halloween special, which I mean in all the best and the worst ways.  Seriously, from the dialogue and performances to the sets and camerawork, you could air it between two random episodes and never spot the shift.  It's a pretty honest expose of the same generation's yuppie angst over the ordeal of pregnancy with a fairly obvious but effective horror spin.  The disturbing stuff is generally disturbing and well executed given the otherwise fast and cheap vibe of this production (it is a Corman production, after all).  The cat scene will go down in history of upsetting horror moments.

It's got a surprisingly strong cast, with Brooke Adams (who was in an episode of Thirtysomething this same year, by the way) and Return Of the Living Dead's James Karen doing real first rate work.  Kathy Griffin is perfectly cast as an admittedly pre-enlightened lesbian birth coach (the cool housewife leaving her speechless by telling her to "suck my dick" couldn't have been more transparently written by a pair of male screenwriters threatened by feminism if her husband rode into the office on a motorcycle to carry her off).  And Corman's secret weapon Matt Roe is the king of sleazy sharks.  Oh, also look out for a pre-fame cameo by Lisa Kudrow.  It also has a pretty cool, understated synth soundtrack by Gary Numan (of "Cars" fame).

On the other hand, naysayers are right about one thing: it's kinda boring!  It's not just a slow burn, it's spinning its wheels.  Whole five to ten minute segments could have been twenty second montages.  And it's always headed to the most obvious, predictable places.  You know what it's leading up to just from the poster, but it doesn't get there until the last fifteen minutes.  Full of surprises, this movie is not.  Nice touches yes (I love that Adams keeps taking her mother, who is otherwise a completely superfluous character, everywhere with her in the last act, just to make everything a little more gonzo), and it picks up in the climax, but the unexpected no.  This is a movie that sets up all the pins and then makes you wait and wait and wait for them to drop.  Fortunately, it's worth it when they do, and everything was just weird and well done enough in the meantime.

2018 Scream Factory BD.

(New) Concorde released a fullscreen, barebones DVD of this back in 2001; but I knew it was only a matter of time until a proper edition came along, so I held out.  That turned out to be a long wait, but eventually Scream Factory stepped up to the plate, releasing this on blu with an all new 2k remaster.  This was our first chance to see the movie widescreen since it played theatrically (cable TV, VHS, laserdisc and the DVD were all 1.33), and the quality of its cinematography (by Academy Award winner Wally Pfister... perhaps you've heard of The Dark Knight?) is a bit of a revelation, making this feel more like a real movie, and less like an 80s network show.  Appropriately, the transfer it gets is properly filmic.  Grain abounds, if a little inconsistently.  It's not quite a Fidelity In Motion encode or a UHD, but for a standard 1080p BD, I'd give it an A-.  And we get a pretty strong DTS-HD stereo track with optional English subtitles.

It also comes with a really good audio commentary by director Rodman Flender (Idle Hands, Leprechaun 2), along with fellow Corman filmmaker Adam Simon (Brain Dead), who mostly acts as a buddy/ moderator on the track, but it turns out he does have a particular connection to this film.  The only other extra is the trailer, so Scream didn't bill it as a proper "Collector's Edition," but everything we do get is top shelf all the way.

And then we come to 1994's The Unborn II by Rick Jacobson, director of Bloodfist Parts 6 and 8, and starring LA Law's Michelle Greene & Family Ties' Scott Valentine.  This one never went to theaters and is evidently cheaper, but rewards you by also being zanier.  In the opening scene, a lady in a business suit walks up tome kids playing in a playground, pulls out a gun, and puts two in his face.  And it doesn't really let up.  Couple that with the decision to give the titular unborn considerably more screentime while making it look like one of The Garbage Pail Kids, and you've really got... something.

And it helps if you've just watched the original film.  No, Brooke Adams and the rest of the cast are not back, but if you're well versed in The Unborn, you can start to suss out that the playground shooter is meant to be Adams' character: a former mother of one of the babies running around with a gun on a mission to kill them all, right?  She's even the same basic look and type as Adams.  But then you meet Greene's character, who's also heavily signaling that she could be Adams character returned.  This movie's playing a game with us: are we following the pro- or an-tagonist from the previous film?  It keeps you on your toes as the stakes stay surprisingly high, at least until the drawn out and lackluster climax, which is admittedly a let down.  But the movie is so fun up to then, the lame ending isn't enough to spoil it.

2003 Concorde DVD.

This one went direct to video, so it almost certainly was always intended to be 1.33:1, but they may've also optimistically shot it safe for 1.85:1.  Either way, it was clearly shot on film (I'm guessing 16mm), so it would benefit considerably from a remaster.  Especially since this disc isn't even 1.33; it's more like 1.30:1 rounding up.  But at least this disc's not interlaced or anything.  It's just your basic, un-futzed with SD transfer.  Nothing fancy but nothing screwy, including your basic stereo mix in Dolby 2.0 with no subs.  The only extra is the trailer (watch them cheat by showing the creature from the end of the first movie), plus a couple of bonus trailers.

It's also worth noting that in 2009, David S. Goyer wrote and directed a very loose Platinum Dunes remake starring Gary Oldman and... actually, never mind.  I've seen it; it's not worth noting.

Anyway, I'd love to see a label like Arrow issue the real Unborn I & II on 4k with even more special features one day.  But considering how long it took us just to get the first one on a widescreen disc at all, I'm not holding my breath.  So until that day, these discs are the way to go.  The Unborn II DVD is a little hard to find (given its long OOP and still the definitive release of a well known horror flick), but be wary of importing cheaper alternatives.  The only one I'm aware of is a French DVD, but it has no English language options, just the French dub.  It's a trap.  You need the US DVD or, I guess, the laserdisc.

Demon Witch Child and Friends

So, ever since I first did a "Catch-Up" series on this site, I knew it was only a matter of time until Code Red's.  There's just all these great, older Code Red releases that need covering on here: great but overlooked DVD-only horrors and yes, a couple more DVD/ blu-ray comparisons.  And we start out with one of my favorite horror DVD, which I can't believe isn't better known and in more fans' collections.  I mean, don't get me wrong; I completely understand why it isn't in most peoples' collections and isn't regarded alongside mainstream horror classics like A Nightmare On Elm St or The Omen.  We're talking crazy, cult, obscure 70's insanity, not slick, streamlined, and glossy high production values.  This is for a select audience only.  But that select audience should be all over this disc.

Update 11/26/17 - 5/4/24: Aw yeah, now it's on!  Demon Witch Child has been restored and released on blu from Ediciones 79 in Spain.  Big thanks to Bruce of Cinema Arcana for hipping us to that in the comments.  And thanks to JMan for pointing out that Help Me... has also been released on blu from AGFA, but I don't think I'll be reviewing that one anytime soon.  😜

Update 10/23/25: Another upgrade, this time from Vinegar Syndrome. Though, again, it's not available on its own, but in a 3-disc set of Spanish horror flicks, including Vampires Night Orgy and Curse Of the Devil, which we'll also be examining here.  But real quick, first, do you need a replacement?

When Vinegar Syndrome first released this new set, the sound for Demon Witch Child goes out of sync in the back half of the movie because of a repeated shot.  Just DWC; the other films are fine.  But yeah, they started a replacement program for that disc, so you can get one that plays correctly.  Now, copies you buy from places on Amazon mostly have the corrected disc in the set.  But to check for yourself, look for that "V2" on the blue stripe of their disc[see above].  If you don't have it, contact VS.  And again, it's just disc 3, the others should not have "V2"s on them.  So having gotten that out of the way...

Since Code Red's disc is a double-feature, before we get to the neglected masterpiece, let's get the other film out of the way first: the "piece of crap" from this post's title.  It's a little film called The Possessed.  Actually, both films have been called The Possessed.  That's why they're paired up on the same disc.  Otherwise, they have nothing in common.

This The Possessed - on-screen title: Help Me... I'm Possessed - is an American film from 1974.  Screenwriter Bill Green also stars as a doctor of a sanitarium/ castle somewhere in Southern California.  He has a hunchbacked assistant, a mad woman for a sister and a new bride who begins to suspect unorthodox things are going on behind closed doors.  Patients are tortured and killed, and an unseen monster chases a nurse through the woods.  But things aren't nearly as interesting as that description makes it sound.  It's mostly long, droll scenes of conversations as characters stand around in front of a static camera.  It's just tongue-in-cheek enough that there's nothing to get invested in, but utterly fails in its attempts at humor with dialogue like, "who are you?"  "I'm fine.  How are you?"

I have to admit... I do love this location.

The police come and just... mill about the grounds aimlessly.  The premise and marketing promise sleaze and shocks, but that mostly just amounts to women in their bras pretending to be dead and a rubber leg or two.  It's absolutely Mystery Science Theater fodder-level (Season 14 show runners, take note), and deserves a little credit for trying to be an 'everything and the kitchen sink' movie where you never know what's coming around the next corner - mad scientist, hunchback, lunatic or off-camera monster?  But it's all just so flat and lifeless in execution, the fun the premise could offer just makes the film all the more disappointing.  If you're in the absolute right mood, and very patient, you might be slightly amused, in a laughing at it as opposed to with it kind of way.  But it's definitely not the reason to add this DVD to your collection.

2013 Code Red DVD.

...Of course, it's not a pristine, or in any way cleaned or remastered, film print.  This is another one of Code Red's patented "grindhouse" experiences, where the print is covered in dirt and chemicals, with green spots and lines everywhere.  It's also got a faded, washed out and soft look.  But it's still 100% more authentic and satisfying than any of VHS dub.  It's 1.78:1 (or more like 1.76 with the dead space in the overscan area's edges) anamorphic, progressive, and the mono audio, well, it matches the print.  There's a bassline soft hiss that isn't too distracting, with plenty of pops, but surprisingly robust library music and clear dialogue.  There are no subtitles or alternate audio tracks.

But the real gem is 1976's The Possessed - on-screen title: Demon Witch Child - a delightful killer kid film from Spain.  This one's written and directed by none other than Amando de Ossorio, the man behind The Blind Dead and Lorelei's Grasp.  But Demon Witch Child may have actually usurped all his other work as my favorite de Ossorio film.  It's just so much fun.  If you appreciated Cathy's Curse, oh boy, this is like its equally nutty prequel.

The premise is perfectly simple: the local police bust up a coven of witches, so their leader takes revenge by possessing the chief's daughter.  It starts off in some predictable Exorcist rip-off territory - not that that's a bad thing - with the girl floating out of her bed and a priest being brought in to chase the evil out of her.  But she quickly transforms into a delightful, balding foul-mouthed witch child, using her powers to wreak havoc on everyone in her life.  She laughs maniacally as she displays all kinds of fun magical powers and goes pretty psycho in some edgy ways that I'm super tempted to spoil right now, but I won't.

Meanwhile, everyone's trudging around in super 70's earth tones, and there's a melodramatic subplot where the priest's ex-girlfriend has become a prostitute.  The local townspeople form a mob and dig up graves, the bad-ass police captain, the parents, the priest and an ace reporter are all following separate paths to find the truth, and the witch cult comes back to help their crazy little girl kidnap a baby.

Admittedly, the pacing drags at points, with dubbed dialogue and scenes which can only be honestly described as bad writing.  The score is also clunky, though it concludes with a pretty dramatic, rousing number, that reminded me of Frizzi's main theme for The Beyond.  And Code Red clearly agrees with me, because it's the music they use for the DVD menu.  There's also a weird aspect to the DVD  presentation where the first minute of footage repeats with alternate credits over it.  Unsurprisingly, Ediciones 79 fixes that.

This print's been badly damaged, but we've got the fingerprint of the man responsible!

This time Code Red's disc wasn't the only release of Demon Witch Child.  It was included in one of those no frills budget packs of multiple films called Grindhouse Experience: 20 Film Feature Collection from 2007.  But that's reportedly another one of those 4:3 VHS-sourced editions.  Meanwhile, just like the other The Possessed, Code Red's got another, much more satisfying anamorphic widescreen transfer of a film print.  That was a nice, if battered, upgrade for its time.  But as of October '23, we've got a brand new 2k restoration clearly using superior film elements on BD (no, not BDR) from Ediciones 79, and it takes the film into a whole new world.

1) 2013 Code Red DVD; 2) 2023 Ediciones 79 BD; 3) 2024 Vinegar Syndrome BD.

Code Red's transfer looks just like their other The Possessed.  I could pretty much copy the entire paragraph I wrote about that transfer and it would apply equally to this one.  1.78:1 anamorphic, progressive transfer, with slivers of pillar-boxing down the sides making it more accurately 1.76:1.  Tinted and drained colors with washed exposure, and yes, plenty more green chemical damage all over the place.  But now, just look at it!  The framing has been tweaked to 1.94:1, which is a little curious, but basically just means there's more information on both sides compared to the Code Red.  The washed colors, over exposure, chemical damage, horizontal pinching... all of that is completely gone, giving this film a total make-over, now looking far more vivid and life-like.  Plenty of detail that had been missing is now visible for the first time... look out the windows in that second set of shots.  Grain is light and a little patchy; the encode could probably have been better.

And now we've got Vinegar Syndrome's pass on it.  The back of their case clarifies that this was scanned in 4k from the original 35mm camera negatives, but it looks to be the same one Ediciones used.  Still, they've made some adjustments.  The framing is a much more expected 1.85:1, though that basically just means they've shaved a little off of the sides as compared to Educiones' transfer.  But still, that's probably the intended AR.  And VS's encode is a distinctly improvement.  Film grain is captured much more thoroughly.  A UHD could do it even better, but most of the grain is rendered here, where it was washed out and smoothed away on the previous blu.  This new blu is also slightly brighter and a pinch less red.

Meanwhile, the DVD's mono audio is about the same as the other The Possessed; except the crackly hiss and pops are just a little bit worse.  A word or two are dropped when damage causes the film to be spliced, but for the most part, you can get used to it.  You won't have to, though, with the new blus which are infinitely cleaner and clearer.

Better still, they now give us both the Spanish and English tracks.  On the Edicione 79 though, only the Spanish is in DTS-HD and the English track is lossy.  Both are DTS-HD now on the VS.  And more importantly, the only subtitles included on the Edicione are (removable) Spanish ones, so unless you're fluent, you were still essentially stuck with the English dub.  But VS now includes English subtitles, so we have our choice.  In fact, they include two sets of English subs: a faithful translation of the Spanish track and another set of "dubtitles" that match the English track.

There's basically nothing by way of special features on the double-feature DVD; we don't even get the films' trailers.  We just get the traditional Family Honor trailer on start up and a couple of Code Red bonus trailers.  But Ediciones 79 has some real goodies.  Unfortunately, the only English friendly one among them is the trailer.  That's nice to get, but some of the other stuff is so tantalizing and frustratingly untranslated.  Chief among them is a 20+ minute interview with the demon witch child herself, Marian Salgado!  There's also another brief featurette that talks to her a bit more at a film festival, and introduction by the Ediciones 79 guys, a longer discussion between the Ediciones guys about the film, and a short horror film from 2023 called Angustias, which also stars Maria Salgado.  Their release also includes fun, reversible artwork styled after an old VHS cover, and the first limited run of 666 copies also includes a slipcover, booklet and poster.

And Vinegar Syndrome?  Yes, they've translated the Ediciones 79 extras!  So we finally get Salgado's interview, as well as the other featurettes and the trailer.  The only thing they drop is Angustias, which is disappointing, but it's still a huge win for English audiences overall.  And, of course, this release includes the other two films and their special features, as well as reversible cover art: one that features art for just Curse Of the Devil, and one that includes all three.

Speaking of Curse Of the Devil, let's get into it!  Also known as Return Of the Werewolf, this is Paul Naschy's... sixth or seventh werewolf movie out of fifteen or so.  It gets complicated, and you have to figure out for yourself what to include, like the lost film that may never have actually existed, the modern day Fred Olen Ray one, or movies where he just has a brief cameo as a werewolf.  But this one's right there in the sweet spot, 1976; and once again, he's playing his regular character, Waldemar Daninsky, following his own script.  But don't worry, this is a stand-alone story that once again restarts his origin story.  There's no continuity to cling to, so you don't need to have seen any of the others to dive in.

And it's ambitious.  First of all, it's a period piece with some attractive locations and a large cast of interconnected characters.  And it has a prologue set even further back, in medieval times, with a castle and witches and knights on horseback.  On the other hand, it's a fairly bloodless, very traditional werewolf story that hues very close to the Universal classics and all the same werewolf story points you've seen before.  The wolfman himself definitely hasn't aged well, and even for its time looked fairly hokey, but I do like how he keeps taking huge, flying leaps at his victims.  Otherwise, though, it's rather quaint, with a lot of Hammer influence as well.  Honestly, I appreciate them more now, but I'm still not a huge fan.  And as a teenager, I found them fully sleep inducing.  Of course, my old VHS tapes were mostly censored, and we get a little more exploitative nudity now.  But you still have to be in the mood for something dry with these.

2024 Vinegar Syndrome BD.

Vinegar Syndrome again presents this film scanned in 4k from its original 35mm OCN in 1.85:1, so it looks about as good as it possible can in 1080p.  Well, except for the opening scenes which are going for a sepia tint, but are actually heavily shaded in a hideous yellow, but I assume that's an issue with the original filmmaking, not anything VS did wrong bringing this film to disc (although you can see it un-tinted in the extras, so I guess it doesn't necessarily always look like that).  Film grain is softer than it was on Demon Witch Child, and the image as a whole is maybe a pinch softer, but otherwise they're both comparable and excellent, with great colors, contrast and a lifelike image.

And, like the other two films in this set, VS has really done right by this film in terms of language options.  We get both the Spanish and English mono tracks in DTS-HD, again with our choice of subtitles and dubtitles.  We even get both the English and Spanish opening credits.

Speaking of nice bonuses, there are more goodies for sure.  First, we get the vintage Paul Naschy interview from the old Anchor Bay DVD.  Then, we get a new interview with his son and another interview with Angel Sala, the expert interviewed for the other two films.  Plus, we get an alternate clothed version of one of the film's nude scenes (that sheet isn't covering up so much in the international version of the film that we get).  And finally, there's the theatrical trailer.  So basically all three films get roughly 45 minutes of extras, including interviews with one of the movie's stars, and some experts/ affiliates elucidating the history.  It's a great set.

Code Red's presentations sure beat our dodgy, old fullscreen VHS transfers, but they were what they were direct, unrestored standard def scans from a pair of beat up old film prints.  But time has been kind, and we now have all these films looking much better in HD.  Or at least the Spanish ones; I still haven't brought myself to check out Help Me... I'm Possessed's blu, but from what I understand, it looks a lot rougher than these BDs.

Devil Times Five Times Four

I've figured it's time to reach back into the vaults of Code Red to pick out another cool, cult release; and when I stumbled across the same title in one of those Mill Creek 50 packs, I knew this would make a great comparison piece. The film is 1974's Devil Times Five, one I was particularly interested in since it features my favorite kind of movie monster: children! Code Red released this all the way back in 2006, when they were working with Media Blasters, and later re-released it in 2009, but I'll come to that later. Mill Creek, meanwhile, has included this in a number of their jumbo horror movie collection sets, but the particular one I've got is their Chilling Classics box of 12 double-sided discs. Now, the Chilling Classics box technically came out first, but Mill Creek has this strange habit of swapping out some titles for others over the years (presumably as rights ownerships change) but without changing the set title or online listings. So I'm not sure if Mill Creek got a hold of it before or after Code Red, and more importantly, if you order Chilling Classics from Amazon or someplace, there's about a 50/50 chance you'll get the version with Devil Times Five, as opposed to another which replaced several titles including Devil with others.

Update 7/30/15 - 6/10/16: Oh boy, it's time to step it up again! Code Red has just re-released this movie (making it their third time), with an all new blu-ray edition. Is it worth the double-(or tripe- or quadruple-, depending where you are with this movie) dip? Let's get into it, people!

Update 11/28/24: Now the Devil has changed hands again, and Vinegar Syndrome is issuing a new release for 2024.  They've restored it to 4k, issued it on UHD, and cooked up some new special features.  Does this movie deserve it?  I don't know, but it sure is fun!

So, I wasn't kidding when I said kids are my favorite movie monster. Forget zombies, forget vampires. Give me little kids turned rampant murders any day. The obvious mainstream examples would include Village Of the Damned and The Omen, which I'm all for, but I really love the crazier indie ones like Who Can Kill a Child, The Children, Bloody Birthday, Cathy's Curse, Bad Ronald, or Julie Darling. Heh, I think I just gave you hints of about six or seven reviews you can expect to see on this site in the future. Oh man, I'm so on board for a bunch of cute little kids on the rampage. And Devil Times Five? Well, it's not as good as any of those movies... in fact, objectively speaking, you probably couldn't call it a good movie at all. But it's got its moments, and those moments are enough to make this worth seeing, especially if you're predisposed to the obscure killer children subgenre like I am.

There's a scene with a mentally challenged character, ham-fistedly overplayed in an Of Mice and Men "aw, shucks" kind of way. And when this attractive married women visits the house, she randomly decides to invite him into her room to seduce him, laughing as she tells him to pull down his pants. Lord knows why, the only explanation seems to be that she's an alcoholic so this sort of activity is in her daily wheelhouse. Anyway, as the guy strips down to old western movie style long underwear, an attractive blonde woman walks into the bedroom and demands to know what's going on. The brunette says, "I've had him before, and I can have him any... time... I... want." So the blonde woman yells, "you bitch!" grabs her, and they wrestle on the floor as very dramatic action music with blaring horns kicks in. Then a third woman walks in (the long underwear guy has just quietly stepped out of the room at this point), and at this point the two fighting women's robes have opened in the standard, sleazy exploitation kind of way, and the fight stops and the blonde goes, "we were just having a little... fun?" And the third woman says, "whatever turns you on honey," brushes her hair and leaves the room. End scene. And none of that has any bearing on the rest of the story whatsoever. Did I mention that this wasn't an objectively good movie?

Anyway, eventually some kids - who've been wandering around the woods since the bus taking them to an asylum crashed - show up and start killing all the people who stay at the house one by one. Again, this isn't anywhere near the same level as, say, Who Can Kill a Child, which is a genuinely pretty great film. It's all kind of amateurish, but it gets entertainingly weird, with some great kills and odd-ball scenes. There's a bit of a Neon Maniacs feel to things, as each of the kids as an over-the-top identity: one boy acts like a soldier, carries a toy gun and has his own military marching band theme in the soundtrack, another one dresses and acts like a nun. A third is child pop star Leif Garrett who turns out to have a cross-dressing fetish. Of course, there's five all together, hence the title. It has a low budget, almost home made feel much of the time, despite featuring a number of recognizable television actors like Sorrell Booke, a.k.a. Boss Hog on The Dukes of Hazard. But for my money, it's not the campy laughable moments that make this movie (though there's some fun to be mined from there, too) but the dark, demented moments that really stand out as genuinely powerful despite the goofiness of the rest of the film.

1) 2005 Mill Creek DVD; 2) 2006 Code Red DVD; 3) 2016 Code Red BD;
4) 2024 Vinegar Syndrome BD; 5) 2024 Vinegar Syndrome UHD.

One mark against Mill Creek's version is that they've added a watermark (boo!) that occasionally fades in and out of the lower right corner of the picture. Yuck. I understand Mill Creek has given up this practice, but it's common on their older discs.

About the only thing Mill Creek has going in its favor is that it's open matte. Mill Creek's is full-screen, while Code Red has matted the picture down to an anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen on both their DVD and blu. It's not a question of additional info gained on the sides, but rather lost on the top and bottom. And I guess there's some contention about the aspect ratio being either 1.78 or 1.33, because people complained, and in 2009, Code Red re-released Devil Times Five open matte in a double bill with Mark Of the Witch, but missing all the extras.  Vinegar Syndrome, meanwhile, has come down on a more likely side of 1.85:1, which mattes the image slightly more, but also reveals a smidgen more along the sides.

Otherwise, it's not exactly a photo finish in terms of which label beats out which. Both DVD transfers seem to be from the same print, as evidenced by the weird bit of damage that pops up in a single frame in the top set of shots. But only Mill Creek has the very serious interlacing problem, as seen in the second set of shots. There's actually very little print damage on hand, by the way, that frame is a rare instance of anything bigger than a small speck, but it shows both companies started at the same place. And the back of Code Red's case tells us their transfer is from "original 35mm elements." Mill Creek's looks dark and murky, while Code Red's is much more colorful and clear. Detail is lacking in both though.

Code Red's DVD is clearly a new scan far ahead of Mill Creek's, but their blu, which we're told is a new 2k scan of the original negatives, is so much more alive and photo realistic! The film has come a long way in HD. Vinegar Syndrome's blu is another step forward, especially on the UHD, but there's less less ground for improvement.  Still, even just comparing the BDs, grain is more thoroughly captured and looks like true film.  Very fine detail is clearer, too - like the veins of his eyes in the first set of shots - BD to BD, and especially on the UHD.  The increased resolution also gives more rounded edges and reduced pixelation when you zoom in further.

As for audio, Code Red's blu has some soft fuzz to it, but the mono audio track is otherwise very distinct, with clear, easily discernible dialogue and music.  It's also lossless DTS-HD, putting it ahead of both DVDs.  Vinegar Syndrome's is DTS-HD, too, but sounds a little more robust.  They've also added optional English subtitles for the first time ever.

And Code Red came up with some great extras for this. There's a terrific audio commentary by producer Michael Blowitz, director #2 David Sheldon (Grizzly, Just Before Dawn) and actresses: Joan McCall and Dawn Lyn. They're all enthusiastic, have some good memories of the production, and thanks to a good moderator, answer a lot of the questions viewers will be bound to have after watching this film. A key thing we learn is that the original director was deemed to be shooting too slow, so was taken off the film and replaced by another director, and big sections of the script were "torn out," leaving key plot points and things unexplained. So that's why you have stuff like that crazy cat-fight I described earlier that doesn't fit into the story - it was filmed later in LA and not part of the original screenplay. I think it's safe to say all the good, compelling content was by the original director and the campier, more laughable stuff was the later guys. It's too bad... I would've loved to have seen the film completed as it was originally intended; but I can't deny that some of the new stuff isn't entertaining in a different way, and the mish-mash of the two makes for a more bizarre, possibly more memorable, film.

Then there's on-camera interviews with all four commentary participants plus actor Tierre Turner. They're all edited into a featurette that runs a little over twenty minutes and is pretty informative, plus it's neat to see the little soldier boy all grown up and laughing about this crazy film he made. Then there's an alternate opening title using the Devil Times Five title card (which is the one on the Mill Creek transfer), since the one on the film uses The Horrible House On the Hill. Plus there's also a cool theatrical trailer ("The Devil Times Five leaves nobody alive!"), a very short poster gallery and six bonus Code Red trailers. AND there are three easter eggs with extra footage from the interviews, which are fairly substantial by easter egg standards, so be sure to hunt those down (they're not hard to find). The Mill Creek set, of course, has no extras.

Code Red's blu carries pretty much everything over from their special edition DVD. The commentary's here, the interview's here, the trailer's here, and the Easter Eggs are now plainly on the menu as "Bonus Interviews." The only things missing are the alternate title card, gallery and Code Red bonus trailers, and who cares about those?

Happily, Vinegar Syndrome retains all of the Code Red extras, so if you missed their release at the time, you don't have to drive yourself nuts trying to find a copy on EBay to fill out your special edition.  And they've come up with new stuff, including an audio commentary by The Hysteria Continues gang.  I feel like the results are always mixed with these guys, and if I wasn't giving this disc a proper review, I probably would've skipped the track.  But there are some good parts.  There's your usual mix of childhood anecdotes, opinions and stuff you won't care about unless you know these people personally.  And they throw out a lot of half-researched rumors, like speculating that the director's girlfriend, who plays the nun, was underage at the time (no, she was in her mid-twenties, which they'd have known if they'd listened to the Code Red extras).  But they - mostly the main guy, the British author - did dig up some vintage reviews that he reads from and throws in some actual facts.  It's honestly not bad and overall better than I went in expecting.  Give it a listen if you're in the mood.

Much better though, are the new on-camera interviews.  The second AD actually has some great memories, including one very interesting story none of the other special features hint at.  And the son of the executive producer was a kid at the time of filming and hung out with the "Five" on-set, so he has some fun memories.  Then, finally Stephen Thrower comes on for a deep dive into the original director's career and an appraisal of his work on this (especially interesting since the people in the Code Red extras are constantly throwing the director under the bus).  Honestly, these days, Thrower is the film expert for cult titles.  Usually when I see an expert commentary or interview on a horror title, I roll my eyes, because they tend to be so lazy, indulgent and no more informed than the casual viewer.  But I've learned never to skip a Thrower.

Anyway, VS has also brought back the alternate title card that Code Red dropped.  Their release comes in an embossed slipcover, though I don't care for the art style on this one, and reversible cover art with the original poster on the flip.

The infamous, slow motion black and white sequence.

Man, I don't know who complained about the matting (well, actually I think I do... there are a couple Amazon reviews and a guy who posted on the Latarnia forums). Surely the film was shot full-frame with the intention to matte it to 1.85 or so for theatrical exhibition, like pretty much every movie from that time. So, sure, there's a bit of curiosity value for the hardcore film lover to see the fullframe version and discover the odd little detail here and there. But I'll take the widescreen OAR any day. Couple that with the surprisingly compelling collection of extras and vastly improved transfer, and that makes the Vinegar Syndrome's new Devil Times Five the definitive choice by a wide margin. Though I guess it's nice that the full-frame versions are out there as an option; maybe there are a couple hardcore fans out there who feel they need both. And if that's you, I'd recommend the Code Red double bill over the crummy Mill Creek discs unless you're buying one of their boxed sets already anyway.