Shoah... New for 2026?

So, after The Sorrow and the Pity, which I described as "one of the great WWII holocaust documentaries of all time," let's move on to pretty much the definitive, greatest holocaust documentary of all time, period: Shoah. And I don't call it that because of its length, although clocking in at over 9 and a half hours, I'd say it's running time gives it a hefty advantage in being thorough. But even just in terms of its power, on being a compelling and fascinating collection of individual interviews and personal accounts, Shoah is just never going to be topped no matter how many more holocaust documentaries they make.

Update 8/5/15 - 8/16/24: When I initially wrote this, I didn't bother with the Criterion DVD.  I just jumped from the old DVD to the new BD.  But it's Update Week, so I'm going back and adding Criterion's DVD, too.

Update 11/7/26: There's a new Shoah in town... sort of.  People have been clamoring for a reissue since Criterion's 2013 BD went out of print, and this year we got one.  And they went and turned it from a 3-disc set to a 4-disc set.  Great for newcomers, but if you've got the last one, is it worth the double-dip?

If you haven't seen it yet, Shoah may not be what you expect. It isn't an academic account with a narrator telling you what happened when over crunchy, black and white shots of Hitler shouting speeches and animated maps. This is documentary as deeply personal art, not a history lesson. This is Claude Lanzmann wandering the entire globe interviewing everybody with a personal attachment to the holocaust and not letting go until he gets to the profound heart of the matter every single time. He shares some colorful personality traits with Marcus Ophüls, sometimes giving an air of subversive almost naughtiness in where he goes with his camera. He's of course appropriately respectful and reverent to the survivors and the tragedy, but he also pushes some people pretty far: like Polish citizens who possibly found the silver linings in their Jewish neighbors' disappearances, or brazenly walking into a former Nazi's workplace, cameras rolling (remember, this was long before Michael Moore developed his brand of filmmaking). And yet it's never brash spectacle, this is no trashy Vice documentary. When he secretly records a former death camp guard, at first there might be an air of giddy "look what we're up to" energy, but then as he talks more and more, revealing details not preserved in any other historical documents, it becomes an existentially challenging conversation, not to mention a very important historical record.

Now, this has been released all around the world, I used to have a Korean 4-disc set which I unfortunately sold off before I started doing comparisons here. But I do have the original 2003 US 4-disc DVD set from New Yorker Video, and of course the 2013 Criterion blu-ray, which gives the film a new 2k scan. Plus their concurrent DVD edition. And now I've got their latest, 2026 reissue, which utilizes the previous 2k restoration, but may not be 100% identical...

1) 2003 New Yorker DVD; 2) 2013 Criterion DVD;
3) 2013 Criterion BD; 4) 2026 Criterion BD.

The original DVDs are framed a bit oddly, slightly taller than 1.33 at 1.29:1. They don't seem to actually have any additional vertical information, however. Instead, to seem to have lost some picture on the sides (chiefly the right), which is restored in Criterion's new 1.37:1 scan. At least for their blu-ray.  Curiously, their DVD is slightly window-boxed to 1.35:1. No idea why the difference, but neither one reveals any additional picture; the DVD is just squeezed a little bit. Still, either is a nice improvement over the New Yorker. Otherwise, their DVD was alright for its time, but the film definitely benefit from the HD treatment. Thanks to the 2k, there is a bit more detail in there as well, but we really seem to have hit the limits of how much can be pulled from the original negatives, especially as this was a 16mm film. So it's going to be grainy, but the grain is very natural here. Dirt and scratches have been cleaned up, too. My only criticism is that the color-timing seems to lean a bit too heavily on the green end; but it's a big improvement on everything that's come before it.

And yes, the 2026 BD is using the same remaster as the 2013, but it's clearly a different encode.  Comparing the file sizes on disc 1 (the first four hours and thirty-five minutes of the movie), the file size actually shrinks from 44.2GB to 39.4GB.  With that said, though, I think I actually prefer the new encode.  It can be a bit maddening zooming in and comparing grain structure, when every frame can be better on one disc or the other.  But just from spot-checking a handful of random frames (including the ones in the comparison above) the new encode seems to capture grains a little more thoroughly and have less "blotchy" spots.  Certainly not a reason to replace one edition for another, but if you're double dipping for the new fourth disc, it's nice that you might be getting a slight, if practically microscopic, upgrade in PQ, too.

And, of course, being a documentary with different types of archival footage, quality will vary in different scenes. The above shot, for example, was taken from a small, hidden camera which was broadcasting (like live TV, not taping) to a van parked across the street. And that footage was shot with a film camera pointed at the little monitor in the van as it was happening live. So naturally those scenes look much worse. But like all elements of the film, they look as good as they ever have or could here on this blu-ray.

Both of Criterion's blu-rays' multi-lingual audio is uncompressed, presented in its original mono form, with both regular English subtitles and English closed captioning. The DVDs, of course, are lossy.  And the New Yorker disc just has the one set of English subtitles, as well as French ones.

Now unsurprisingly, the New Yorker discs didn't have any special features with it. But very impressively, Criterion has provided a good deal of supplemental material. There are two interviews with Lanzmann himself, which combined add up to about 75 minutes, so like the film itself, they get fairly thorough. Then there's another 30+ minute feature where they interview camera operator Caroline Champetier. Basically, you're going to have questions after viewing this film, and these do a good job answering them. And they've got the trailer, which actually you'd think New Yorker could've come up with.

But even more importantly, Criterion's 3-BD set also includes three additional Lanzmann films: A Visitor from the Living from 1999, Sobibór, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m. from 2001 and 2010's The Karski Report. They're not even little, short films. The shortest is 49 minutes, and the longest is a full-length feature clocking in at over 100. All three are essentially addendums to Shoah, although they do stand on their own. Some new film was shot for these, but they're primarily made up of interview footage shot for Shoah that wasn't included in that film. A Visitor From the Living, for example, is centered around an interview with Maurice Rossel, a red cross leader who controversially visited a Nazi death camp and claims to have found nothing breaking the Geneva conventions. It's a whole, powerful story onto itself that was too much of a divergence to just include as a tangent in Shoah.

Lanzmann wearing a wire in All I Had Was Nothingness

The new 2026 edition keeps all of those first three discs' content exactly the same, except they add a new trailer for the film's 2025 theatrical re-release.  But then they add a fourth disc, with an all new feature0-length doc called All I Had Was Nothingness.  This is a pretty fascinating look back at the making of Shoah, comprised entirely of unseen outtakes and narrated by an actor reading from Lanzmann's memoirs.  We're given a fascinating look back at everything he went through to make this film, including a time he was caught filming a former Nazi officer surreptitiously and had to flee the police.  Most of it hits on a more personal level, though, taking us deeper into the witnesses' lives and the effect their stories had on Lanzmann and his crew.  It's kind of a stand-alone film, certainly more than a mere "extra," but if you just watched this, it would just make you feel the need to see Shoah right away.  It is also in HD on a dual-layer blu-ray disc, presented in 1.33:1 with a 5.1 DTS-HD mix and removable English subtitles.  Also included is the All I Had trailer.

So Shoah is an amazing film, which too many people probably skip because of its length, but that's their loss. And past DVDs have been okay, but Criterion eventually gave it first class treatment it always deserved. There's basically no excuse not to have this on your shelf. As for whether it's worth double-dipping, well, the new doc is pretty great, but the price tag is also quite steep... especially since they missed the opportunity to redo this in 4k and issue a proper UHD.  So if you're not rich, maybe just find a way to watch it online or something.  But it really does make the 2026 edition stronger.

Werner Herzog's Fire Within Finally On Blu!

Is it too soon to make an M.I.A. post about this movie?  I guess I wanted to get in ahead of the movie languishing for several years in complete neglect for once.  There's no sign of a physical release, current or pending, in any region, and it's already been available to stream for several months now, despite very few people seeming to be aware that it's done and it's out.  So maybe if there's any chance of having an influence on getting this movie properly released somewhere, anywhere, it's worth speaking up while the film is still fresh?

I'm talking about Werner Herzog's latest documentary, 2022's The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft.  Yes, it's another volcano movie, following La Soufrière and Into the Inferno, but this one might be the most powerful and compelling yet, in part because it has just as much in common with Grizzly Man as those other two.  This is another story about, in this case, two people who filmed their own deaths following their dangerous obsessions, and capturing unique, beautiful and fascinating film along the way.

Update 9/9/22 - 10/28/26: Yay, another M.I.A. tag baleeted!  It took a few more years than it should've, but we finally got The Fire Within on disc, by way of France.

Maurice and Katia Krafft were French volcanologists who spent their lives traveling to active volcanoes to film their eruptions and the aftermath.  So we have access to footage of decades worth of exotic locales, wild close-up footage of massive volcanic activity and fascinating visuals from their global travels, all heading to another major tragedy the Kraffts (and others) wound up being done in by what they were chasing.  I say "access to footage" because this is essentially a compilation of footage the Kraffts shot, and some by a nearby Japanese videographer during the eruption that took them, rather than original material by Herzog himself.  Herzog only shot one brief scene in Alsace.  But he (and editor Marco Capalbo) shaped the footage into Herzog's vision, which he then narrates.  The way it lingers on beautiful shots of nature and zeroes in on the unusual really makes this feel like a Herzog film, moreso even than some of his other recent docs, like say Lo and Behold, which at times has the tone of a more conventional documentary.  Not this one, especially the way it marries the footage to the music of Ernst Reijseger (Wind Blue Yonder, Salt and Fire, etc).

Of course, you can't talk about Fire Within without at least mentioning that Fire Of Love, another documentary about the Kraffts and using their footage, was released the same year.  This one's narrated by Miranda July, and I guess you'd say it's a more personal, romantic take on the couple and their art, taking more from television interviews, adding little animations (I could've done without those, to be honest) and speculating more about the relationship.  Herzog is actually surprisingly critical in his commentary, repeatedly pointing out how some shots have been staged or "faked for the camera," citing the flaws in their techniques and even attacks the the chairs they sit on during their downtime: "the Kraffts apparently found it cool to use pathetic looking inflatable seats."  But he also admires and rhapsodically sings the praises of the incredible footage they were able to capture, even expressing his disappointment at not being able to have traveled with them.  So both are good films and in some ways, their differing approaches justify the existence of each.  But on the other hand, the majority of the most spectacular footage is central to both and seeing either will make the other feel like a very repetitive experience.  Most audiences, therefore, will probably just pick one, like last year's simultaneous Fyre Festival docs, or Hulu and HBO's dueling Nxivm exposes.  And in that case, yes, I'd recommend Herzog's.

For that matter, the Krafft's volcano footage has appeared in a number of television documentaries over the years, including one about them in 1987 called The Volcano Watchers.  Even Herzog fans might find this stuff familiar, since he devoted a brief segment of Into the Inferno to the Kraffts and their work.  But you'd be doing yourself a serious disservice by skipping this just because you've already seen either of those.  Especially now that you have a better option to view it, as Potemkine (the same label that released that massive Eric Rohmer boxed set years ago) have finally released the film on blu in France, under the title A cœur des volcans: Requiem pour Katia et Maurice Krafft.

2025 Potemkine BD.

So this film looks pretty great in HD.  If you've streamed this on Amazon, it's virtually identical, though the blu offers a tighter encode, while the stream is slightly smoother, but not in a way you'd notice without zooming in close to scrutinize matching screenshots.  The color timing, gamma levels, etc are all identical.  Both present the film in 1.78:1, and the quality naturally varies throughout the film as it's compiled from footage shot by different cameramen with different equipment over the span of decades.  Most of it seems to have been in 16mm, with minimal but noticeable film damage, and there are a couple modern shots of Japan which are much sharper and but also a bit interlaced.  We're mostly looking at great looking old film, however.

Potemkine gives us the original English 5.1 mix in DTS-HD as well as a stereo French dub track also in DTS-HD (yes, it's a different narrator).  The one down-side of this disc: French subtitles are forced for the English track.  They're not burnt in, so if you have a player that can hide unwanted subs, that works perfectly here.  But you should definitely know before going in; that's the weak point here.

But swinging the pendulum back towards the positive, this edition has some nice extras, the most important of which are English-friendly.  The biggest one is an almost half hour interview with Herzog and producer Julien Dumont.  It's a great talk.  Then, also of interest is a shorter interview with Herzog and his editor, showing you a piece of the film as they work on it.  There are a couple more features, but unfortunately, they're not English friendly.  Dumont does an interview in the Krafft's archives, and there's a German language, French subtitled copy of Herzog's short La Soufrière.  The latter is a nice inclusion, especially since Herzog and Dumont talk about it during their interview, and it turns out to have an interesting connection to this film (besides "they're both about volcanoes), but not having it translated isn't such a bummer since it's already received multiple releases with English subs.

So yes, the subtitles are annoying (unless you have a player that can hide unwanted subs, which I can attest works perfectly here).  But they're not too distracting, since much of this film plays to just music anyway.  And considering there's no other option, I definitely wouldn't let them put me off the disc.  It helps, too, that the interviews turned out to be in English - I wasn't expecting that.

You Simply Must Visit Natchez

Natchez is one of those movies that comes along after you've seen a year's worth of bad to mediocre movies to remind you how great cinema still can be.  Director Suzannah Herbert's first film, 2018's Wrestle, about a Southern high school wrestling team, was good, too; but this is so much better.  This is shockingly good.  And now it's on disc.

Remember that viral video a couple years ago of a Southern vendor selling "plantation chilluns" dolls and freaking out when she realized it was being recorded?  This is like the feature length expansion of that video.  Not literally - that woman and those dolls are not featured here (they were in North Carolina; this is about a city in Mississippi).  But this documentary is a deep and honest dive into that whole way of life.  The city of Natchez lives off of a massive tourism trade of showcasing old Antebellum homes.  It's basically old money wealth porn, but now they're having to deal with people questioning what all that wealth was built on (slavery, in case you skipped a lifetime of History class).

This film starts very gently, taking us along on some official tours of mansions by their proud owners in period costumes, and then slowly expands to introduce us to other locals and outsiders who work there. And let me tell you, many, many layers are peeled away by the end of this.  It's fascinating, empathetic and tragic in both obvious and unexpected ways.  This is not an overtly political film; it's not like settling in to watch 13th or No Other Land... Not that I wouldn't also recommend those films, but this is one I'd suggest even if you're not in the mood to wade into a contentious debate.  Natchez is a very humanistic, emotional film filmed with charming and and delightful characters.  It's beautifully shot and sometimes quite funny.  But it's highly charged under the surface and it slowly bubbles up until it's powerfully overflowing.

2026's (most listings say 2025, but that's all festival screenings) Natchez came out in July as a limited edition digibook on Oscilloscope Laboratories' site, but the retail version has since been given its wide release on both DVD and BD in August.  The only difference is they're in standard amary cases, while the digibook folds out and comes in a nice slipbox.  The discs are identical, though for the record, what we're looking at here is the July BD and the August DVD: 

2026 Oscilloscope DVD top; 2026 Oscilloscope BD bottom.

Both discs present the film in its OAR of 1.78:1.  This film was shot on digital, though it looks like there is a soft layer of "fake" grain applied to the image.  You can only see it on the blu, though, because it's too subtle for the DVD to capture.  And looking closely at the comparison shots here, it's obvious the blu-ray is sharper and more detailed in terms of the actual subject of the image as well.  For example, you can make out the "L" on either disc, but only on the blu-ray can you read the full "LEVITICUS" on the second guy's sign in the first set of shots.

The back of the cases just mention a stereo mix, but actually both discs offer the choice between a stereo and 5.1 mix, in DTS-HD on the blu, with optional English subtitles.

The extras, identical on each release, are surprisingly extensive.  There's an upbeat and thorough audio commentary by the director, producer, cinematographer and editor.  There are three Q&As with the filmmakers and associates from different screenings, four extended interviews with the stars of the doc, a bunch of deleted scenes, a "soundtrack mood piece" (basically four minutes of the score play over clips from the film, music video style) and the trailer.  Some of it gets redundant, and you could probably just skip the extended interviews, but the Q&As have some good "where are they now" updates, and the first couple of deleted scenes are interesting.  Overall it's quite good and I'm glad we got so much, but you might find yourself tuning out before you reach the end of it, which is fine.  But at least scrub through for the highlights.

Herbert says that this is her second doc about a Southern state, and her goal is to make one for each of the rest.  Natchez has me thrilled at that prospect, but I certainly wouldn't hold it against her if she never tops this.  This is a lifetime masterpiece, and anything afterwards will be gravy.  Though I'm reasonably confident they'll all be worth watching, they may not all turn out to be collection essentials.  But this one is, and I've had my fingers crossed that this would get any kind of physical release.  It turns out it got a first rate special edition worthy of the work itself.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Introducing the Real Nightbreed 4k

Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Director's Cut - Limited Edition.  This is the one that really precipitated the whole Scream Factory Catch-Up in the first place.  I mean, wow.  It may not be the best movie Scream Factory has ever released, but it's got to be the most impressive work they've ever done for a film.  I mean, just licensing a catalog title from Warner Bros for a start - ha ha!  But seriously, they recovered the long lost footage of Clive Barker's original version, sat down with Clive, and had him personally reconstruct his director's cut, even getting Doug Bradley come in to re-dub his lines when necessary.  Plus, you know, it's just the HD debut of the film in the first place, so we're getting a new HD scan of the theatrical version, and a massive collection of all new special features for a film that had (crazily) never had any extras with it before on DVD.  This is like the utopian ideal vision of a special edition release.

Update 9/9/16 - 10/7/26: Well, I guess even a "utopian ideal vision" can be improved upon.  It was only a matter of time until Nightbreed got upgraded to 4k, but who knew Scream Factory would wind up disappointing?  Thankfully, Arrow has now come around with far more impressive and satisfying results.

Now, when I said "may not be the best film," I didn't mean to imply that Nightbreed is a piece of crap.  It's a very flawed, interesting film that probably plays better for dedicated Clive Barker fans than general audiences.  But there's a lot to like here, including David Cronenberg as the mad slasher, cool matte shots and the colorful collection of weird supporting monster characters.  The story's ambitious and doesn't cheap out on the thrills or spectacle.  A man (Craig Sheffer of A River Runs Through It and Hellraiser 5) is troubled by memories of committing gruesome murders, which leads him to believe that he's secretly a literal monster and should live in a secret monster city hidden underneath a graveyard that he's seen in his dreams.  Naturally, that place turns out to actually exist and it's a place you can just casually drive to.  But everyone from the cops, his girlfriend to his twisted psychiatrist and a crazy priest are on his trail, and the resulting conflict could result in the end of the world, because those monsters also have an ancient tree god-type guy secretly ensconced with them... or something.

So if you want bloodbaths, monster fights, crazy characters and a little originality, you'll find it all here.  But you'll also find sloppy direction, lead actors who feel like they've been picked out of USA Network's talent pool, flaccid relationship drama, frequently bland photography and cloying attempts at cutesy humor.  But the good stuff makes this at least worth one solid watch.  I like that it's not afraid to get dark; giving it a little edge at times.  Performances range from subtle and restrained to Hee Haw, which makes it hard to believe Barker had previously directed the much more refined Hellraiser.  I guess this project away from him; after all, he's been famously unhappy with the version that was taken out of his hands, recut, screened and flopped theatrically.  It's one thing to judge this version of the film, but we'd never gotten to see Barker's true vision... until now.

I'm so glad we finally got to see this film as it was originally intended; it's certainly illuminating, and it does cement some connections that were always a little tenuous in the theatrical version.  But it may hurt as much as it helps.  Is it really an improvement to stop the plot so we can hear Anne Bobby cover the entire "Johnny Get Angry" song in her nightclub?  And some scenes between Sheffer and Cronenberg are said to make the latter's plans more explicit, but was anyone really unclear about what he was up to in the theatrical version?  The restored scene of the police gearing up and gushing over their weapons gets downright goofy.  And, frankly, I prefer the original, darker ending with Cronenberg's character, then the amended one in the director's cut.  On the other hand, the director's cut has some neat new scenes, including one I won't spoil with Cronenberg and the Narcisse character, and some line replacements are for the better.  Bradley's voice does sound more natural.  Personally, I'm not entirely convinced either cut is particularly superior, but any fan of the film will definitely want to see both.

Nightbreed has pretty much always been available from Warner Bros on a no frills DVD.  It was widescreen, at least, but completely barebones except for the trailer.  It eventually went out of print and up in price, prompting Warner Bros to reissue it in 2011 as an MOD DV-R in their Warner Archives collection.  But I never even bothered with it, holding out for the special edition that was bound to eventually happen.  I mean, even if the missing footage had never been recovered, it's still one of a very few Clive Barker films where he was able to direct his own work, and it's loaded with stuff to talk about.  But it took the surfacing of the workprint tapes, re-edited into the Cabal Cut, to finally push the project into being, and Scream Factory announced their grand 2014 restoration.  Then suddenly, whattayaknow, the original film elements came out of the woodwork, and now we have a beautiful, fully restored director's cut in HD.  And they threw in the HD debut of the theatrical cut into the same set.

But as we rolled into the 4k age, Scream really fumbled the ball.  In 2023, they gave us a 4k Ultra HD version... of just the theatrical cut??  Yeah, they just added a UHD disc with just the theatrical cut upgraded to 4k and slipped it alongside the three older BDs in streamlined packaging and called it a day.  After the massive (and fully justified) hullabaloo they made over this new director's cut, they weren't going to even give us a composite cut?  Many fans probably never plan to watch the theatrical cut again now that Clive has declared the new cut be his true vision.  If anything, releasing the director's cut in 4k and just leaving the theatrical cut in 1080p would've made more sense.  But no worries.  Arrow came along and saved the day, with a fancy new 2 UHD limited edition featuring both cuts in 4k, plus everything from the Scream Limited Edition and more, all new special features to boot.

1) 2001 WB DVD; 2) 2014 SF theatrical BD; 3) 2014 SF director's BD;
4) 2026 Arrow theatrical UHD; 5) 2026 Arrow director's UHD.

You might expect Scream's theatrical blu to look just like the Warner's disc but in HD, but no.  They've done new scans for both versions.  Even Scream's two cuts look slightly different when they share the same footage, with the director's cut looking ever so slightly more detailed with the most natural grain.  The old DVD is paler (although considering how dark and low contrast much of this movie is, I could see a case for preferring the extra brightness) and much softer - more than just the difference between SD and HD - and the blu is redder.  What's perhaps most interesting, though, is the framing difference on the DVD.  Both releases list 1.78:1 in their specs, but the old DVD is really a slightly taller, pillar-boxed 1.76:1, giving it extra information along the bottom.

So for starters, Arrow is the first to correct the aspect ratio to 1.85:1.  This is not the same transfer from the 2014 Shout disc on a 4k disc, because that was scanned in 2k.  So they gave it a new 4k scan in 2023, and that's the same master Arrow used, and both utilize HDR10 and Dolby Vision (you can see how much more vibrant the colors are than the old editions, and these screenshots are in SD).  French label ESC were the first to make a composite cut and release the director's cut in 4k utilizing the 2023 scan and upgraded footage from the 2014 BD.  Arrow is using that same ESC transfer, though according to the booklet, they had Fidelity In Motion conduct "additional grading and restoration work."  And whatever they did, it paid off - it looks great.  I notice the seams between the new and old footage less now than I did in 2014 when it was all in the same resolution, and with FIM, you know the encode is extremely crisp.

Scream's director's cut has mostly high quality sound, but some scenes' audio are sourced from the old workprint tape, and you can really hear the noise gate struggling against the hiss.  You only really notice it in a handful of scenes, however (like the restored Cronenberg's restored phone call near the beginning of the film), and even then they do a decent job of keeping it from becoming too noticeable.  Warner Bros gave us the choice between a 5.1 mix and the original stereo mix, which Shout also does on their director's cut (but now in DTS-HD, of course), but they only have the stereo mix for the theatrical cut.  All versions have optional English subtitles, though WB also threw in Spanish and French ones.

And Arrow has done additional audio restoration, too.  Those problematic moments in the director's cut now sound a lot closer to the rest of the film; you won't notice the difference unless you make a point of listening for it.  Now both cuts have the DTS-HD 5.1 mixes, as well as the stereo in LPCM, with optional English subtitles.

I should point out that Scream Factory also released this has a two disc set, with 1 blu-ray and 1 DVD copy of the director's cut.  But of course we're going to look at the limited (albeit to 10,000 copies, which is barely limited) edition boxed set, which is 3 blu-ray discs of both cuts of the film and even more special features on the third disc.  And I've a few people say they felt Scream just left the filler for the bonus disc and all the best stuff was on the main Director's cut disc, but I disagree.  I actually found some of the more interesting stuff to be on the bonus disc, including a frank interview with the editor who re-cut Nightbreed against Barker's wishes and a cool look at some stop motion creatures that never made it into either cut of the film.  Meanwhile, one of the "big" features on the main disc was a drawn out series of interviews with the cast where they were each asked to describe their characters, which wasn't terribly illuminating at all to anyone who'd already seen the film, and actually gets a little tedious.

Still, of course, both versions have some great and crucial extras.  There's an introduction and audio commentary by Barker, in-depth interviews with the effects team, 2nd unit director and stunt man, and that documentary I criticized in the previous paragraph, which did also include some good content with the cast.  That stuff and the trailer are what's in both sets.

Besides the aforementioned looks at the stop motion and editor, the bonus disc also offers over 25 minutes of deleted scenes not included in either cut - including an interesting, unseen kill or two - some in full quality and others sourced from video tape.  We also get a series of shorter featurettes looking at the matte paintings, makeup tests, rehearsal, artwork, and a more in-depth interview with effects artist Bob Keen (who was included in the effects piece on the other disc), including his behind-the-scenes footage.  Plus, it's got like five stills galleries.  The 3-disc set comes in two separate amaray cases, both with reversible artwork, housed in a nice, solid slip-box, which also contains a pretty lavish, 40-page booklet, telling the story of the Cabal and director's cuts.  And if you were one of the first 3000 people to order it direct from Shout's website, it came with a large 18"x24" poster as well.

And Arrow has everything from the Scream set, including the third bonus disc.  And they have more great stuff!  First they have two new audio commentaries.  One is with Kim Newman (he's mainly here as an expert moderator, but he did spend a day on set and is closer to the whole thing than most expert commentators), Peter Atkins (who besides what he's credited for, also wrote the original screenplay adaptation of Barker's novel before Clive wrote his own) and Stephen Jones.  It's great until the last half hour or so, when Jones gets hung up on making an argument that goes nowhere.  Then the other one is with the editor and producer of the director's cut; and it's also quite good.  They have a lot of candid info about how the director's cut came to be, though they spend a lot of time laughing hysterically at inscrutable in-jokes, and you'll wish they took their time here more seriously (honestly, I suspect inebriation).  But if you can put up with it, it''ll pay off.  The third big, new addition is a feature-length documentary, made entirely of footage Stephen Jones shot on the set of Nightbreed.  The interviews are far more extensive than your usual promotional EPK featurette, and there's also tons of great behind-the-scenes footage.  Arrow also includes the "Johnny Get Angry" music video that was made for the 2014 release, but Scream rejected.

And they have their own swag.  Arrow's discs come in a black amary case with reversible cover art housed in a solid slipbox.  And there's a slipcover to go over that box.  Also in there is a double-sided fold-out poster, a 56-page perfect-bound booklet by Mark Salisbury and Phil & Sarah Stokes, plus the standard Arrow card (mine was for Wildstyle).

This set is pretty close to perfect.  One can't help wonder why, if the director's cut footage was found in 2014, it couldn't be scanned it again for the 4k.  But the composite cut is so well done, it almost doesn't matter.  The picture's better, the audio's better, the special features are better... the only thing they could've thrown in to sweeten the pot is the Cabal cut.  You can always buy that separately if you really need it.  You don't need that digitized VHS footage in 4k.