The Stone Tape On Disc

Admittedly, the upgrade potential was low for this one.  Nigel Kneale's The Stone Tape was shot entirely on, appropriately, tape.  But I've still been eagerly awaiting the day I could replace my DVD with a blu, and this Christmas, we got it.  101 Films has released a fancy, boxed special edition, as part of their Black Label series.

One of the treats of a Kneale story is that the pseudoscience isn't just meaningless exposition to rush through as quickly as possible to justify your set pieces; it's fascinating material to enjoy in its own right.  The debate here over whether a ghost is self aware, and thus presumably trapped in perpetual self torment, is a sad, relatable notion on its own terms, not just the motivation needed to push the drama between the main characters along.  Another trademark Kneale quality is his rich, witty ensemble casts.  The Quatermass serials may be titled "Quatermass," but he's always got a team of strong characters who contribute just as much, sometimes more, to the resolution of the story.  And those qualities are never stronger than they are here, one of his best works, and a sort of off-brand Ghost Story for Christmas (it's a ghost story, made for the BBC and aired on Christmas, but lacks the official on-screen branding).

The BFI first released The Stone Tape on DVD in 2001.  It was then reissued by 101 Films in 2013, both as a stand-alone and a double-bill with Ghostwatch.  Now, in the case of Ghostwatch, 101 rather notoriously dropped all the extras from BFI's special edition, so the prevailing wisdom was to stay away from the 101 disc.  But that's not the case with The Stone Tape, which retained BFI's excellent commentary.  And now 101's is the definitive release with their new blu-ray, a packed special edition released in a fancy boxed limited edition as part of their Black Label series.  Oh, and all of this is in the UK.  Here in the US, we just had a not necessarily official, barebones DVD from Sinister Cinema.

2001 BFI DVD top; 2024 101 Films BD bottom.

As I said up top, unlike the other Ghost Stories for Christmas, The Stone Tape was shot on tape (no, not even the exteriors, as the BBC often split their productions, a la Fawlty Towers, Monty Python, etc).  Consequently, I wasn't expecting any revelations from seeing this arrive on blu.  101 even asks, right on the back of the case, that we "please approach the technical quality of this upscale with empathy."  Yeah, upscale.  So is this just the DVD with less compression noise?  No, there are some differences, starting with the aspect ratio.  BFI's disc was 1.27:1 and 101's is a more correct sounding 1.35:1.  But it's not just a little vertical pinch being fixed.  101 actually mattes it down a little, and crops a sliver off he right-hand side, so we've actually got a little less picture now... yay?  Well, hopefully we can trust 101 that it was always supposed to be framed a little tighter.

What else is different?  Well, the blu is a bit brighter, particularly in the shadows.  That might be an attempt to bring a little detail out of this very detail-free footage.  But if it is, I don't think it does; so it's more of just a slum, arbitrary distinction.  Is there any definitive improvement?  Yes.  The colors seem to bleed slightly less.  And both discs are interlaced (broadcast television tape?  There was never going to be anything they could do about that), but if you look closely, you'll see the combing is a finer, and therefore less destructive to the root image, on the blu.  And yes, there is slightly less compression noise.  That might almost make the film look too smooth at first glance, since there's such a lack of detail inherent to the source.  But no, we don't actually want any video noise cluttering up the picture.

101 also bumps the original mono track up to lossless LPCM, and theirs is the first release to throw in optional English subtitles.

But the big victory comes in the special features.  BFI just had one, but pretty great, special feature: an audio commentary with Nigel Kneale, in discussion with Kim Newman, who proves to be the absolutely ideal moderator to get Kneale talking, informed and curious.  They do a good job staying focused on what's on screen, though they also take a couple interesting detours into subjects like Kneale's issues with Halloween 3 and what his Creature From the Black Lagoon film with John Landis was going to be like.  But apart from some text stuff, that was it.

Again, 101 keeps the commentary, but they've added a whole lot more.  First is an expert commentary.  I was wary, but they knew their stuff and were lively without being jokey or otherwise annoying.  They have a video essay by Kneale's biographer, which also exceeded my expectations.  It's shot a little weird, but he's got the goods, hangs around the island Kneale grew up and even includes some recording of an exclusive interview with the man.  The same biographer also turns up in 101's new documentary, which is about 45 minutes and talks some appreciators not involved with the production, like Mark Gatiss, who makes the new Christmas Ghost Stories for BBC, the producer of Ghostwatch, and two guys who made a Stone Tape radio play for the BBC in 2015.  They talk to a guy who wrote a book about folk horror, who seemed like he wasn't going to have much to add, but it turns up he did a lot of research on the science(?) behind Kneale's script and quotes some obscure sources.  But the best part is that they've got the sound recordist from the original crew (not exactly the highest rank, but uniquely relevant to this project) and star Jane Asher, who still has a lot of enthusiasm for the project.

And the swag is real with this one.  101's Limited Edition comes in a thick, hard box, with a massive 193-page reproduction of the original screenplay, another 32-page booklet with essays by Andy Murray & John Doran, three art cards, and reversible artwork for the amary case.  Sadly, however, I have to point out another set where the back paper fails Grindhouse Mike's "will it fit in the box" test.  But that's my sole, tiny gripe against this extremely welcome release of one of my favorite (non)ghost stories.