Grappling With Day Of the Dead

For many years, Day Of the Dead was the under-appreciated, unloved entry in George Romero's epic "Dead Trilogy."  It was the dumb, trashy 80s film that followed two horror masterpieces that each had dramatically revolutionized the genre.  And okay, Day didn't have the formative impact its predecessors had; but over the decades, its reputation has grown and solidified as, if nothing else, one of the great zombie films.  And accordingly, it's received a series of compelling special editions, on both DVD and blu, here and abroad.  Very different special editions, in fact, with all sorts of unique quirks, faults and special features.  I'd actually been holding off getting any version of Day on blu, in fact, in a sort of "which is the right one to buy" paralysis.  But now that I'm the DVDExotica guy, I figured that's no longer acceptable, so I had to work it all out.

Update 2/6/18 - 8/6/18: I already talked about it to death on this page, but now I've actually got my hands on a copy of the Anchor Bay blu-ray, so I added screenshots to give you all a 100% complete all-around comparison.

Update 7/26/26: Ten years later, and we've finally got a real upgrade.  During that time, Umbrella released what could arguably've been a contender for a better disc, bur really, with the negatives lost, we were circling around lackluster masters.  Until now - the interpositive has been found (no, not the negatives; those are still lost) and Scream Factory are the first to burst out the gate with a brand new 4k, fancy four-disc special edition!  Let's just hope they weren't in such a rush that they screwed something up...

I've always dug this film, but I get why others haven't.  It's got big performances and heavy-handed characterizations, it's a lot less scary, particularly with its eccentric, calypso-inspired upbeat soundtrack (I mean, come on, Dawn had Goblin!), and it doesn't help that all the fans know Romero's original concept for the film had to be greatly scaled back from his original vision, including half the action taking place on an above-ground army base with an army of trained zombies and what would eventually become Land Of the Dead's centerpiece: Dead Reckoning. 

On the other hand, this film gets so much right.  The characters might be overdrawn, intentionally or not, but Joseph Pilato's Captain Rhodes, John Liberty's cheerfully demented turn as "Frankenstein" and of course Bub are all characters that forever stick with you.  It's got one of the all-time great locations.  And Day is the film where Tom Savini, assisted by a young Greg Nicotero brought just not top of the line gore, but elevated the zombies themselves from extras slopped in grease paint into jaw-dropping special effect show-pieces.  Practically all of the peaks and valleys that would become The Walking Dead can be found in this film, even the way the zombies wind up getting side-lined by the in-fighting of the survivors.  But even within the short run of a single movie, Romero takes the story farther with his idea of evolving zombie intelligence and views of the outer world at large, than TWD has in all of its seasons to date.

So, Day of the Dead was naturally in the hands of pretty much the #1 horror and cult DVD label during the 1990s and early 2000s, Anchor Bay.  They first released it in 1998 as a widescreen, but non-anamorphic single disc edition in 1998.  I've actually still got that one.  Then they reissued it in 2003 as a proper, anamorphic, 2-disc Divimax special edition.  I've got that one, too.  They also repackaged that as a cheaper, single disc edition without the fancy packaging in 2004.  But really, that 2003 DVD's been king until the age of HD.  Then, things get a little tricky.  Anchor Bay released a very early blu-ray edition of it in 2007, then Arrow put it out in the UK as a DVD/ blu-ray combo-pack in 2010 with all new special features.  They reissued that as a limited edition, 3-disc set in 2012 with even more special features.  They also put out a steelbook in 2014, but unfortunately without that third disc.  And back here in the States, Scream Factory picked it up for their own edition, with more unique special features, in 2013.  All of these blus have stuff on them that the others don't... and that includes technical problems.  This isn't gonna be a quick and easy comparison, so let's not waste any more time.

1) AB 1998 DVD; 2) AB 2003 DVD; 3) AB 2007 BD; 4) Arrow 2012 DVD;
5) Arrow 2012 BD; 5) SF 2013 BD; 6) SF 2026 BD; 7) SF 2026 UHD.

So the first set of shots shows exactly why the original DVD is hopelessly out of date.  It's a tiny, little 1.80:1 non-anamorphic image.  That alone is reason enough to replace it, which Anchor Bay did themselves, giving it a fresher, thankfully anamorphic 1.85:1 transfer on their newer DVD.  The older DVD also had washed out colors, hot brights, artifacting, and all the obvious stuff you can expect from an old 90s DVD.  I won't waste anymore time harping on that; the pictures speak for themselves and the situation is already obvious.  Anchor Bay's blu?  Well, it gets rid of the artifacting.  Color are a little more robust, it's a bit clearer.  Interestingly, it's also the last we see of the traditional 1.85 framing.  Arrow and Scream Factory both opt for a 1.78:1 frame (though Arrow's DVD is a little rough around the edges and could be maybe considered 1.79:1).  It's never a massive boost in detail and clarity from the DVDs, but the difference is there.  You can actually read the numbers on the yellow sticker of that car on the blus (even the Anchor Bay), which you certainly can't on the original DVD.

And between the blus?  Well, there's room for improvement on all three, but Arrow has a real smoothed out, DNR'd look.  Scream Factory isn't exactly a microscopically perfect 4k scan of every inch of grain, but it's more natural and filmic than Arrow's.  It also has richer colors.  Also, despite Arrow and Scream both being in 1.78, the framing is shifted slightly.  But they're close enough that it's hard to guess which one is more correct or to say that one looks better.  Strictly speaking, AB's blu might be the most accurate just by virtue of being in 1.85.  But they just offer slightly different slivers around the edges.  But in general, yeah, I doubt many would contest Scream's win in terms of PQ.  Everything's pretty natural and straight-forward so far.

Anyway, that's all ancient history now, right?  What about the new scan?  Well, we're back to 1.85:1, and that's not just from matting the 1.78 framing; there's a bit more picture now along the sides than any previous disc.  New detail isn't as prevalent as one might've hoped, but remember, the negatives are still missing; this is from an interpositive.  Even with that in mind, though, film grain is surprisingly light, even on the UHD.  There's still a softness to the image I wasn't expecting this time around.  In short, this is the best version yet, but I feel a little let down here.

Going back to that old 1998 DVD, it did get something right - the audio!  Now, it just gives us the original mono audio track in 2.0 (and no subtitles, for the record).  But having that original mono audio is going to prove important here.  Yeah, the mono has a little sibilance (on all the releases), but it's nowhere on the level of Black Christmas or anything.  But problems were introduced with the new 2003 edition, problems that would plague this film for years to come.  And this is ironic, considering we're talking about Anchor Bay's special Divimax edition, where their fancy new audio was a big part of their marketing.  They included three audio tracks: Dolby Digital Surround EX (a 5.1 mix), DTS-ES (a 6.1 mix) and Dolby Surround 2.0.  Oh, and now with English captions.  Just one problem with all three of those audio tracks - they're censored!  Lines with curse words, or even phrases like "oh, Jesus" as the scientists watch Bub eat human flesh st the 1:11:40 mark, are muted.

Now, I can't take credit for being the first to spot this problem; it's been written about plenty online.  This page on istherefood.com does a great job of finding specific instances and including audio clips of both the censored and uncensored versions; I definitely recommend pouring through that.  So I'm just going to focus on which tracks on which discs are censored or uncensored.  And so far, the answer is 1998 uncensored, and all the tracks on AB's 2003 DVD are censored.  Now that page I linked writes about Arrow's audio being still censored.  But that article is from 2006, so thankfully he's talking about an older DVD set they released that year.  Checking Arrow's blu-ray, which offers both the original mono in 2.0 and a 5.1 mix in DTS-HD (but unfortunately, no subs), I'm happy to report that both tracks are uncensored.  As for Anchor Bay, it's a mixed bag.  Their LPCM 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks are both censored, but their Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is the original.  And the 2013 Scream Factory, which just offers the original mono in DTS-HD (and yes, subtitles)?  Also uncensored.

So it was a big surprise, and huge disappointment, to see that the fancy new audio tracks on Scream's new 2026 release are... censored again.  WTF, guys?  There's a fancy new Dolby Atmos mix, a DTS-HD 5.1 and DTS-HD 2.0 mono track - all censored.  That mono isn't even areal mono, just the Atmos downmixed.  Fortunately, they also threw in the old stereo track from the laserdisc, probably as a bit of a novelty nod to completionism (it's not even mentioned on the back of the package with the other ones0.  But it winds up being the only way to hear the uncensored audio, and honestly, it's a pretty decent sounding-track, apart from messing up the closing credits song.  So it's not an "avoid this edition" problem, but it's certainly not a good look.  ...Oh, and yes, optional English subtitles are also available.

But we haven't even gotten to the most complicated part of the comparison yet: the extras.  It starts out simple enough.  The original DVD had a 20 minute collection of behind-the-scenes footage, the trailer, and an insert.  Curiously, it was a double-sided disc, with the film on one side and the brief extras on the other.  Anyway, the 2003 DVD really ramped it up, with fancy packaging of a 3-dimensional zombie acting as a little Velcro gateway to the foldout case (protected in a clear plastic shell), and a neat booklet designed to look like Dr. Frankenstein's notepad.  They actually lost the original behind-the-scenes footage, though, replacing it with a new, longer behind-the-scenes footage featurette.  They're very different, though.  The original was apparently shot by Nicotero and interviews a lot of the crew and interns, while the latter was shot by Savini and focuses largely on the development of the special effects.  There's no overlap between them and they're both quite good and worthwhile.

Anyway, Anchor Bay's DVD also added a lot more, including an excellent audio commentary by Romero, Savini, star Lori Cardille, and production designer Cletus Anderson, plus another commentary by Roger Avery (Rules of Attraction, Pulp Fiction).  The second commentary is somewhat interesting, but runs out of steam about halfway through.  They also have a solid 'making of' documentary that runs about 40 minutes with a lot of interviews, an audio-only interview with the deceased Richard Liberty (the actor who played Frankenstein), and a fun promo video for the mines the film was shot in.  Also included are stills galleries, three trailers, three TV spots, and the original script as a DVD-ROM bonus.  Anchor Bay's blu-ray has exactly the same extras as their 2-disc set, minus the DVD-ROM.

Which brings us to Arrow.  Interestingly, Arrow's 2010 blu-ray featured all new extras, but none of the old ones.  These were all made by Highrising Pictures, during Calum Waddell's time with Arrow, and they're all pretty good (and yes, feature those cute animations by his wife).  There's an all new audio commentary by Nicotero and fellow effects artists Howard Berger, Everett Burrell and Mike Deak, which starts out really fun and informative, but like the Avery commentary, starts to run low on material in the second half.  Then there's a nearly hour-long interview with Joe Pilato, which goes quite in depth, and another seventeen minute "travelogue" of footage of Joe at various European conventions.  All great stuff, but by itself, pretty light.  Like, most of the major players aren't included.

And that's why they re-released it as a 3-disc set.  Now the original DVD and blu from the combo-pack are exactly the same, but they've added a third disc of extras, which basically restores most of the Anchor Bay special features.  Their 'making of,' the Liberty interview, the Nicotero behind-the-scenes footage (but not the Savini one!), even the mine promo.  Also this disc has all the trailers, TV spots and stills galleries.  Arrow's set also includes a 16-page booklet by Waddell, a card for a different Arrow release (mine was Withnail and I), and reversible artwork.

And the Scream Factory blu?  It's another weird hodge-podge of old and new extras.  They have the two Anchor Bay audio commentaries (but not Arrow's), Savini's behind-the-scenes footage (but not Nicotero's!), the mine promo, and the trailers and galleries.  But they also have an all new, feature length 'making of' documentary.  This is better than the AB one, covering a lot of the same material but a lot more besides (though it has to be noted that the original AB one has some exclusive interviews, too, like Romero's wife).  And Scream also made a new featurette visiting the mine location (not to be confused with the promo video), which is kinda cool and a little bit weird, honestly.  Scream's release also includes reversible artwork.

Now that brings us to Scream's new 4-disc set.  Is it the ultimate collection of all preceding legacy extras?  That would have been sweet, but no.  It doesn't even have all the extras from their 2013 set.  But before you get too disappointed, it does have most of them, and makes up for anything it didn't carry over with a bunch of new stuff.  So let's start with what's gone missing.  Essentially, the extras here match their previous blu, minus the Roger Avery commentary.  And frankly, I don't miss it.  I would've rather had Nicotero's behind the scenes footage from the Arrow release if we're being honest.  And what do we get instead?  There's a new expert commentary by Daniel Kraus and Drew McWeeny, which is probably more interesting than Avery''s, but the two you really want are the Romero one (on this disc) and Nicotero one (not on this disc).  Then there's a surprisingly in-depth look at the new restoration, which I really appreciated (more of these in the future, please!).  And there's a grip of new, mostly webcam (I'm not saying Covid's been completely eradicated from this Earth, but I think it's time to start filming your interviews in person again) interviews with Lori Cardille, John Amplas, Greg Nicotero, composer John Harrison, 2nd unit cameraman Ernest Dickerson (he's a good addition, because he wasn't already featured in the documentary like all these others), Suzanne Romero and Tina Romero.  There's also a bonus featurette called "Stink Of the Dead" - you can guess what that's about if you've watched many of the previous extras.

This release also includes an isolated music/ sound effects track, plus several trailers and TV spots.  There's a neat collection of twelve lobby cards, and the set itself comes in two amary cases housed in a satisfyingly solid slipbox.  ...There have also been accusations of AI being used on the cover and the artist wanting his name removed, so I think we can definitely file this release under controversial.

So let's say you want all the extras.  Admittedly, some of it gets redundant (you'll hear the story about the guts used for the zombie attack scene going rancid about eighteen times), but each release has some interesting exclusives.  Well, if you can track down Arrow's 3-disc set, that and the Scream Factory eould pretty much do ya.  Between those two, you'll have both companies' new content plus all of the Anchor Bay material.  But Arrow's 3-disc set was limited and out of print, so it'll take some digging.  Your only option using the regular, more readily available Arrow release is to buy all three blus: Arrow, Scream and Anchor Bay (or, at least, the Anchor Bay DVD set, which would at least save you a few bucks).  Another route to go now would be the Umbrella 2018 (not their previous 2010 release) and Scream Factory sets, which would even net you a bonus interview with Romero filmed at some Australian film festival, and a copy of the NotLD doc, Reflections Of the Dead.  But then you'd still be missing out on the Richard Liberty interview...  You really need at least three older releases to get all the pre-existing stuff no matter how you slice it.  But practically speaking, just the 2026 release's extras should be more than enough for most viewers, even serious fans. What I'd recommend is just this: if you have any older copies with unique extras, hang onto 'em, but don't bother hunting down any old editions now.

As far as the film itself though, what was once a tough call is no longer a question: 4k restoration wins.  Yes, it's imperfect, and some audio nut is going to insist on the Arrow for the uncensored 5.1 mix or something, but this is still the best version on the market, even if it's not by as wide a margin as folks anticipated.  And the uncensored stereo mix isn't perfect, but saves the audio from being the complete disaster it almost was.

The Re-Animator Is the Dominator

Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator is in the weirdly unique position where its unrated version is actually shorter than its censored, R-rated version. By several minutes, too; not just a few seconds. I remember holding both VHS tapes in my hands back in the day and thinking they had to have been mislabeled; but no, it's true. Why? Because the R-rated version, though missing the most extreme, controversial shots like you'd expect, features a bunch of less shocking scenes trimmed out of the unrated version. I guess for pacing. But I grew up with both versions, and so, while horror fans naturally gravitate towards the bloody unrated version, I always thought something special was missing from it. Of course, something special was missing from the R-rated version, too; and if you've seen the film, you know exactly what moment I'm thinking about.  heh

Update 7/17/15 - 6/7/26: Wow, talk about a page in need of an update, huh?  Well, I've skipped a few editions since I originally wrote this, but I'm back with the new 4k UHD from Second Sight.  Oh, and yes, the title of this post does come from the fact that I'm listening to this song.  I'm easily susceptible.

When Elite Entertainment released their excellent 10th anniversary Re-Animator laserdisc, it included, amongst many other things, the unrated version with all of the deleted scenes as extras and a detailed timeline of where each of those would fit into the complete film. I always wanted to use those to make a composite cut, but back in those days, getting a digital recording of a laserdisc and trying to edit a high quality movie file on a personal computer was technically possible, but rather daunting.

So, when Elite came out with their Millennium Edition special edition, I got that; and when Anchor Bay came out with their re-release, including a new 70-odd minute making of documentary I switched to that version. And I've still got that one, so we can use it for a comparison here. Yeah, Image put out a blu-ray; but I never felt compelled to upgrade. And I'm glad I didn't, because a year later, the German DVD company Capelight came out with their own 3-disc special edition blu. And not only did it feature a new and much improved 4k scan and restoration from the original negatives, which frankly would've been enough, but they used that new transfer to create "the Integral Cut," which combined all of the extra R-rated version's footage with the essential unrated moments. It's the Re-Animator I've always wanted... although admittedly some of those long scenes of Bruce Abbot and Barbara Crampton could've been left on the cutting room floor. But still, this is now my definitive Re-Animator; it's great.

Now, Capelight's released a couple different versions of their new Re-Animator blu. A cheaper single disc edition, a combo pack with Bride of Re-Animator, and the one I opted for: the 3-disc mediabook set. The 3-disc set is two dual-layer blus and one DVD, containing all the extras (more on that later). It has the Integral cut, of course, but also the traditional unrated version from the same 4k scan, in case you're not as sure of the new cut as I am. And it has a standard def presentation of the TV cut as well, for completists, or yaknow, just for fun.  It was the cutting edge ten years ago.

But now we've had some new contenders.  Arrow released a blu-ray which is basically the same as Capelight's, but with some extra features mostly about Re-Animator: The Musical.  And more recently, Ignite in the US and Second Sight in the UK have made a new scan (well, I think Ignite made it and SS licensed it) for a proper 4k Ultra HD release, taking it to the next generation for the next decade.  Let's take a look.

1) 2007 Anchor Bay 2007 DVD; 2) 2013 Capelight Integral BD;
3) 2013 Capelight Unrated BD; 4) 2013 Capelight unrated DVD; 5) 2013 Capelight TV BD;
6) 2025 Second Sight Integral UHD; 7) 2025 Second Sight Unrated UHD.

I'll get one thing out of the way right off the bat: not only are Capelight's Unrated and Integral cuts using the exact same transfer, so is Second Sight's Integral cut, which despite being on a UHD disc is still just 1920x1080.  Their unrated version boasts the new transfer, but their Integral cut is just a carry over from 2013 (and the same is true, for the record, of Ignite's release), no upgrade to be had there.

Now, let's get into the framing.  Anchor Bay's 1.82:1 aspect ratio may be more correct than Capelight's 1.78:1 numerically, but seeing how it chops off Dean Halsey's hand, I'd say the Capelight more properly reveals more.  But Second Sight finally perfects it with an exact 1.85:1 ratio and most of the picture AB lacked.  Also interesting is the TV cut, included on one of the blu-rays but in standard definition none the less. Sure, it's the fuzziest and worst looking of the lot, but it's also open matte.  At 1.32:1, while it has all the same picture on the sides (compared to the older framing, of course, as seen on the AB shots), there's additional picture on the tops and bottoms.  Ugly, boxy misframing, of course, but fans may want to at least pop it in and scan through it as a curiosity piece.

The new colors, even starting with the Capelight, are far more natural than the red-heavy look of AB disc. Grain is very real there, too; though of course the UHD really perfects it.  Its Dolby Vision also pulls out a smidgen from the shadows, but honestly not very much.  Capelight's restoration was already excellent, there wasn't much else to do in 2026 besides tweak the AR and slap it on a proper 4k disc.  The colors and HDR differences are pretty subtle.  Don't get me wrong; it's excellent, arguably perfect; The Re-Animator was just in a really good place already.

Anchor Bay starts us off with stereo and 5.1 remixes, and no subtitles.  Besides the multiple German audio tracks, the unrated version (on both Capelight's blu and DVD) sports 5.1 and 2.0 stereo English mixes. And it's got optional English subtitles as well. The Integral cut doesn't have the subs or 2.0 mix, but does have a DTS-HD 5.1 English track. Capelight has also added an isolated music score.

And Second Sight?  They've gone back and restored the original mono in DTS-HD, as well as the stereo and 5.1 mixes on the unrated cut, as well as included English subtitles on both cuts.  Unfortunately, not only does their Integral cut only have the 5.1 remix, but it's lossy.  Their one point of downgrade.  I think they really regard the Integral cut as just an extra.  Oh, and they've dropped the isolated score. Another niggling disappointment.

Extras are a pretty solid lock for the Capelight blu, carrying over everything from past editions. Re-Animator covered itself in the special features department pretty early on. The old laserdisc already had two excellent audio commentaries with all the major players, plus the long list of deleted scenes and trailers. Then the Millennium DVD set added interviews with just about everybody, plus some storyboards and odds & ends and even an isolated music score; and those extras have stuck with just about every subsequent release. Anchor Bay, being Anchor Bay, of course added something new to the mix: that 70 minute documentary I mentioned earlier. And that, along with all those other extras have been ported over to Capelight's release. No, they didn't really come up with any new extras, but there's not much left that needs to be added that wouldn't just be redundant at this point. Re-Animator already came fully-loaded.

The media book packaging includes a nice 24-page booklet, but the text is all in German. Looks nice, though. There's also a couple inserts and auto-playing bonus trailers for other Capelight releases on each disc. But that's the only non-English friendly content. Every cut of the film and all of the extras are in English.

Redundant or not, though, we have new extras now.  Like I said, between Capelight and now, Arrow added the musical-related stuff, plus a new interview with Crampton, that goes over more of the rest of her career, and a long featurette about Lovecraft adaptations on film.  Second Sight hasn't carried over the musical stuff (though for the record, Ignite did), but they do have the Crampton and Lovecraft interviews.  Then Ignite and Second Sight share a bunch of new stuff, including Re-Animator at 40, a new conversation between Brian Yuzna, Combs and Crampton, which is a nice look back, but repeating many of the same anecdotes we've heard already in these things.  But there are also new on-camera interviews with editor Lee Percy, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon and a featurette where filmmakers like Mick Garris and Joe Lynch sing Re-Animator's praises.  And Second Sight has a couple of exclusives, both by expert Mike Muncer: a video essay and an audio commentary.

Second Sight's release comes as a single UHD disc or a limited edition which throws in an extra BD copy of the film, plus a 150-page hardcover book and six collector's art cards.

You could tell the people at Capelight really cared about this film, and came up with a blu-ray package that didn't just upgrade our old DVDs to HD but really strove to give us a definitive release.  Other countries are started to pick up on their 4k scan and integral cut and release it around the world, including Second Sight (hey!), Arrow and Umbrella.  It wasn't until 2025, when they were able to land this film on a higher gen disc, that there was really cause to upgrade.  And even now, more casual fans may be satisfied with any of the BDs with the Capelight scan, and hold out for a UHD restoration of the integral cut, too.  But there's no denying that they've been topped.  Time comes for us all.  And then we're left carrying our heads around in a small surgical pan.

Update Megaweek, Day 10: Withnail & I & I & I & I & I

Here's a fairly colossal four-way comparison for you: Criterion, Anchor Bay, Image and Arrow. Yes, all these major players have at one time or another released England's cult British comedy Withnail and I, and I've got them all on hand. Not that I expect to surprise anyone about which is the preferable edition, at least not if you've been keeping up with the film's history on home video; but it's still a pretty interesting little journey, culminating in a relatively recent release worth looking into in its own right.

Update 11/2/15 - 5/7/26: We're adding Arrow's fancy UHD release of Withnail & I for Update Megaweek.  I've also gone ahead and added the DVD version to my Anora page.

1987's Withnail & I is the directorial debut of Bruce Robinson, writer of The Killing Fields. Try to wrap your mind around what the writer of extremely heavy The Killing Fields would do with the premise of "a light comedy about two young, out of work actors who go to the country for a brief holiday."  And if you're thinking it would have to be something verbose, cynical, urbane, and bleak, then you've nailed it. It actually has a lot in common with The Killing Fields if you look strictly under the surface - superficially, they couldn't be further apart. Our two actors have run out of booze and convince Withnail's uncle to lend them the keys to his country cottage where they hope to refuel. They naturally wind up completely out of their element, and its a predictably comedy of culture shock in that regard; but it's all servicing an existential crisis, and another look at survival during cultural devastation amid a massive economic downturn.

Withnail & I has all the charms of a self-indulgent autobiographical nostalgia trip, but thanks to some excellent writing and performances, almost none of the usual drawbacks. It's the kind of film many young filmmakers have tried to create, but few if any of matched. It's like Clerks meets Metropolitan, and in fact both of those films were surely influenced by this one. The entire cast is spot on. Richard Grant made himself in this film, while Ralph Brown creates a wonderful comic character that would be over the top in a more typical stoner comedy without Robinson's brilliant speeches. Paul McGann is somewhat the thankless straight man to the madness around him, but he brings a strong reality to his character, and Richard Griffiths is just delightful. Robinson gives this film an attractive shadowy look you wouldn't expect for a film like this, and explodes the soundtrack with big music tracks by Jimi Hendrix and Al Bowlly. It's definitely a young man's movie, but if you're up for that, this is quite possibly the best.

This film saw its DVD debut courtesy of The Criterion Collection in 2001, which is pretty impressive. But the disc itself received a lot of justified flack for being non-anamorphic and interlaced. The word got out that fans should instead pick Anchor Bay's UK release, which had additional extras. But it wasn't any less interlaced or more anamorphic. That was eventually corrected when Image released Withnail & I on blu-ray in 2010, but that was barebones, not even carrying over any of the extras from the past editions. Then, in 2015, Arrow rolled into the game and decided to trump any and everyone who'd touched the film before with their special edition blu.  And in 2024, they took it up another notch, debuting the film on UHD.

2001 Criterion DVD 1st, 2001 Anchor Bay DVD 2nd, 2011 Image blu-ray 3rd,
2015 Arrow blu-ray 4th, 2024 Arrow UHD 5th.

Credit where it's due, Image did a respectable job upgrading from the old DVD releases. I mean, just correcting that interlacing was a big plus. But it looks DNR'd, or maybe it's just soft. Plus it's a little green. But Arrow went back to the original negative for their 2015 release and gave it a brand new 2k scan (supervised by the cinematographer, Peter Hannan) which really opens your eyes. The detail, the richer colors, the natural film grain. I remember being satisfied with the US blu in 2010; but I could never go back.  It's also worth noting that Arrow's is cropped a little tighter to 1.85:1, whereas Image is full 16x9 at 1.78:1. The DVDs are at some weird, nebulous AR somewhere in between, at about 1.80:1. The most visible distinction is that Arrow's blu has got more picture on the sides.

And it's still framed in the same 1.85 AR on the UHD, which Arrow scanned and restored from the original camera negative with Dolby Vision HDR.  And you can even tell from the tone-mapped screenshots that the colors are deeper and more vivid than ever before.  Fine detail and film grain looks similar to their excellently encoded blu but sharper (and of course nukes the old Image blu, which barely suggests any grain had ever been present, off the map).

All the releases have the original 2.0 mono audio - though the blus and UHD are naturally uncompressed in DTS-HD.  Anchor Bay's DVD did have its own exclusive 5.1 remix, until Arrow's 2024 release, which brings it back and bumps it up to LPCM.  Also, all of the releases except Anchor Bay include English subtitles.

Criterion had a single, nice 22+ minute featurette entitled Withnail & Us, originally made for British TV. By and large it's quite good, telling the story of the film and interviewing most of the major players. it also gets a bit silly and possibly annoying, depending on your temperament, when they interview a group of teenage fans and get them to quote the film or share silly anecdotes. I definitely could've done without those parts, but overall it was quite worthwhile. Anchor Bay stepped it up by not only including that featurette, but also including an audio commentary by stars McGann and Brown, who engage in a brisk and informed chat throughout.

Image, as I said, has nothing.

Arrow again dominates (with all the same supplements on their 2015 and 2024 releases), by not only bringing Withnail & Us back, but also three other British television pieces on Withnail made by the same people. One is a nice overview of Robinson's career, while another is a more skippable piece about making a drinking game out of the film. Arrow has also brought in Robinson for a commentary track, and then they made another audio commentary with a film critic, which isn't too dry. They also interview UK television writer Sam Bain about his memories of the film, which is a little extraneous but alright. And more interestingly, they also shot an interview with the film's production designer, Michael Pickwoad. The only thing they miss is Anchor Bay's actor commentary.

Criterion, Anchor Bay and Arrow's releases all include nice booklets with notes - the UHD even has a 40-page bound book that fits alongside the amary case (with reversible art) inside a hard slipbox; and Criterion has a poster. Image... has nothing.

I should point out here, that Arrow has two versions of their 2014 blu-ray release. The one I've just described, and a 4-disc set. Disc 1 is the same, while disc 2 is a blu-ray of Bruce Robinson's subsequent film, How To Get Ahead In Advertising, also starring Richard Grant. That film really isn't as good as Withnail or The Killing Fields, but it certainly is an interesting curiosity piece with some value. If Withnail was self indulgence done right; Advertising feels like an example of everything wrong with it. Lovers of Withnail will surely get a kick out of watching it, but whether it's worth spending the extra money to keep it in your collection... well, I'll just say I got the single disc edition.  Discs 3 and 4 are just DVD copies of discs 1 and 2, for the record. Pre-orderers of Arrow's limited version, however, also had the opportunity to have their printed case personalized, which I think is a first.

There is no version of the UHD with How To Get Ahead.  The one I'm reviewing is the original Limited edition, and there's a 2025 standard edition without the slipbox or the book.  But Arrow only included How in their initial, fancy 2014 box.  If you're interested, though, Criterion recently released a stand-alone blu-ray of the movie in 2025.

Withnail & I isn't a mainstream film for everyone, but even those for whom it's not for would have to begrudgingly admit that many elements of it are quite good.  And it's been receiving regular loving care on the home video market, so you have some great options.  If you're a serious fan, I'd recommend the Arrow UHD (Criterion's is still lighter on extras), and you might also want to pick up a cheap Anchor Bay in addition, just for that extra commentary.