Update 5/15/19 - 9/17/22: Updating a UHD? Well, when the filmmakers want to take another crack at the HDR grade, and the publisher is prepared to put together a suite of compelling new special features, it doesn't sound unreasonable. So today we'll look at their limited edition, BD/ UHD combo-pack, with a single disc release scheduled for release this October.
The VVitch (double v's to tip us off to the film's old English trappings) is an immediately impressive horror film: an atmospheric slow burn. Subtitled on-screen as A New England Folk-Tale, the film follows a family of early American settlers who separate from their puritan community and attempt to make their way on their own. And almost immediately they are set upon by a seemingly endless succession of signs and effects of witchcraft. It's a real potpourri of classic early American folklore and earnest reports of witches out of New England history. This gives us a wonderful combination of authenticity - helped immensely by the cast and production design's ability to capture the period - and an entertaining kind of hellzapoppin' madness where anything can happen next and you never know what's around the next corner. And despite centering around a nuclear family, The VVitch isn't precious about keeping the unit whole or elevating children and animals out of harm's way. It's a rare horror film where you genuinely don't know who, if anyone, will be alive by the end of the film. And yet the characters are flush enough that it winds up satisfying on a dramatic level as well.
1) 2016 LG DVD; 2) 2016 LG BD; 3) 2019 LG UHD. |
Now, two years after the initial version of this post was written, there was a bit of a controversy about the HDR of Lions Gate's UHD. Writer/ director Robert Eggers and his DP Jarin Blaschke appeared on the Team Deakins podcast, saying:
Eggers: We had to do an HDR version of the film, which for such a low contrast movie, like, it really did not work at all.
Blaschke: Yeah, don't watch that.
So Second Sight delayed their release in order to work with Eggers in creating a new HDR grade. And this summer, it started shipping.
4) 2022 SS BD; 5) 2022 SS UHD. |
All five discs give you just the one, official 5.1 mix, lossy on the DVD but in DTS-HD on the blus and UHDs (yes, it's the same DTS-HD track on all four). And they all include optional English, with additional Spanish ones on the US discs.
Extras are also good but the same across all US editions, except for the one minor advantage that the UHD doesn't have an over ten minute stretch of on-startup bonus trailers you have to skip like the DVD and blu. But they've all got a fairly engaging, if not super enlightening, audio commentary by the director, a roughly half hour Q&A with the director, star & two authors on Salem witches who dominate a little too much of the conversation, a nice but brief featurette that finally lets us hear from the rest of the cast, and a neat little stills gallery of design sketches. All three US editions also come in slick slipcovers. Oh and yes, the BD in the UHD combo-pack is the exact same BD that was sold in 2016, including the outer label.
Extras are not the same, however, in the UK. Key US supplements have been retained, including the commentary and on-set featurette. And a whole bunch of new goodies have been created. First up is a second audio commentary, this time by Anna Bogutskaya, one of the critics from the Kermode and Mayo radio show. And... it's alright. She doesn't provide much if any info that can't be found in the other extras, and there are periods of dead air and a strangely repeated anecdote, verbatim, near the beginning and end of the track. But when she gets into analysis, she gets more interesting. I'll take it.
Better still, though, are all the on-camera interviews. Eggers' new interview offers plenty that wasn't already covered in the commentary or other features, and is probably his best piece across all discs. And they interview all four leads, who all have good memories and insight to share. Anya Taylor-Joy is an impressive get now that she's become an in-vogue movie star, and Kate Dickie has an amazing story about working with the raven. There's also a roughly 10-minute Q&A with several of the cast and crew, and the "proof of concept" short film Eggers made called Brothers when he was trying to get The VVitch funded. Plus, as you can see above, the swag is truly impressive. There is a hefty, 150-page full-color hardcover book full of essays, six art cards, a digipack for the two discs, and a nice and sturdy outer box.
We did lose a two things, though. The Salem Q&A is gone, though that was pretty much the weakest feature on the original discs. And the stills gallery is also gone, however the book is replete with images, which definitely trumps the on-disc gallery. It would've been nice to hang onto those, and dig up the trailer, but SS has the overall superior set of features for sure.
So, is it worth triple-dipping? It depends how hardcore of a fan you are. Second Sight's new UHD is the best presentation of the film, the extras are more rewarding, and the packaging is quite impressive. Lions Gate already gave us a solid 4k UHD that honors the uptick in format, and even then, we weren't getting a massively improved transfer (due to the dark, low contrast nature of the film) or any new special features. So most horror fans will probably still be perfectly satisfied with the original 2016 discs. But 2019 and 2022 were both genuine steps forward, and if you want the best edition of this film, Second Sight has indeed taken the lead.
The original 1973 Dont Be Afraid of the Dark is superior to the 2010 remake. The original stars William Demarest, better known as Uncle Charlie, a beloved character. This movie is genuinely scary, and some of the scariest scenes are when the three goblins in the house watch Sally behind a bookshelf and when they tie her up and drag her to the fireplace. We learn that she becomes one of these creatures at the end of the movie. Anyone who opens up the fireplace frees the creatures, and has to join them and become one of them. It's not clear if the person who frees these creatures becomes physically transformed into one of these monsters. Just exactly what these creatures are isn't explained.
ReplyDeleteThe creatures were played by dwarfs, and Felix Silla played one of them. One of the creatures was played by a very short actress who wore the ET costume in 1981. The creatures are somewhat ape like and resemble goblins and can speak and have human like intelligence. The film is one of the scariest and focuses on the fear of monsters living behind walls and behind furniture, and also the fear of being watched and stalked. One of the best horror movies.