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.

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.

A Spectacular Bay of Blood

1971's A Bay Of Blood may have slowly wormed its way into being my favorite Mario Bava film.  The last segment in Black Sabbath is the most artfully shot, and Black Sunday is his most overtly stylish giallo.  But for just being the all around most rewarding film, the one I appreciate more and more with each revisit, it's Bay of Blood.  It's still got fancy photography in spades, from the opulent opening scene of the countess's murder to its inventive combination of zooms pushing in and out of focus.  A lot has been made of how this film is a proto-slasher, inspiring the Friday the 13th series in particular.  And it's true, this has some great kills, truly cutting edge for their time, and a high enough body count to keep the grumpiest teenager from getting bored.  But it's also got a pretty great, completely wild and utterly entertaining story courtesy of the underrated Dardano Sacchetti, full of betrayal, passion, plot twists and an array of colorful killers even the Scream franchise can't match.

original defective disc left; replacement disc right.

Update 3/5/26: The replacement discs are here - that was quick!  As I described lower in this post, there was a replication error on the second blu-ray disc that interrupted playback of both Italian cuts of the film (the UHD version is).  Well, Severin has already released and mailed out corrected discs, and all future versions you can order should feature the fixed disc, but to be sure, look for the V2 [circled, above] on the label's run-out text.

A Bay of Blood has had a crapton (to use a technical term) of releases over the year.  Simitar first released a non-anamorphic in 1999, which Image then corrected with their own edition under the title Twitch Of the Death Nerve in 2001.  I got the 2005 Raro DVD because it had the Italian language version for the first time, and also a neat little documentary, which I'll get into later.  Anchor Bay released it, and a whole Mario Bava collection, in 2007, and their were plenty of other DVDs around the world.  Arrow was the first to give us an HD version, releasing their limited edition blu-ray in 2010.  They put out their non-limited version in 2013; and that same year, Kino released it in the US.  And again, there were plenty of other BDs released subsequently around the world.  But there hasn't been a major progression until now that Severin has restored the film in 4k and issued it as whopping a 4-disc BD/ UHD combo-pack.

1) 2005 Raro DVD; 2) 2010 Arrow BD, English version;
3) 2010 Arrow BD, Italian version; 4) 2026 Severin BD English version;
5) 2026 Severin BD Italian version; 6) 2026 Severin BD longer Italian version;
7) 2026 Severin BD shorter Italian version; 8) 2026 Severin UHD English version;
9) 2026 Severin UHD longer Italian version; 10) 2026 Severin UHD shorter Italian version.

Wondering why the second set of shots don't always match?  It's because that's a shot that differs between the English and Italian cuts.  Different cuts?  Yeah, I'll just briefly explain.  Unlike the usual I-horror title, there isn't just an English and Italian dub track that can be applied to the same video. Bava actually shot alternate takes with the actors speaking English and Italian.  So they're still dubbed, but the English and Italian versions actually include different footage, too.  And to be real completionists about it, Severin has released a third but, basically a second Italian cut that's a few seconds shorter.  So they're all featured here in the comparisons above; though as you can see the two Italian cuts in the Severin set are identical, picture quality-wise.

So, okay, beginning at the beginning.  Raro's DVD is anamorphic widescreen at 1.86:1, and obviously taken from a print, with its strong over-contrast and yellowed colors.  And Arrow's presentation of the Italian cut, though upconverted to HD, is clearly based on the same yellow transfer, 1.86 framing and all.  But their English version looks much better.  It's worth noting the back of their case only promises a "brand new transfer" of that version.  Kino did the same thing, which is one of the reasons the new Severin release is such a big deal; it's the first time anyone's made an effort to bring the Italian version up to modern standards.  Colors are much more natural and film grain is captured surprisingly well for a blu as old as 2010.  It's matted to 1.89, revealing more on the left side in particular.

But now of course, we come to the Severin, which we're told have been restored in 4k "from superior vault elements."  I believe that's left a little vague because the Italian cuts seem to be composite cuts.  You can see how the first set of shots, which uses the same footage across all three versions, is virtually identical, but the second set of shots, which has distinct footage between the English and Italian versions, has a shift in quality.  Look how much more faded and orange the woman's shawl looks in the Italian cut, as opposed to the deeper red in the English.  All three versions are precisely matted to 1.85, now, tightening back in on the sides than Arrow's, which showed more on both, plus along the bottom.

But comparing the best of each world - Arrow and Severin's English versions - this is a clear improvement, even just looking at Severin's BD.  Their colors are better separated; Arrow's BD doesn't look nearly as yellow as the older Italian versions, but it still has a yellow hue cast over the whole thing which Severin has cleaned up.  That gives Arrow's version a flatter feel, making Severin's play as more vibrant and alive.  Detail is fairly equivalent though, until we switch over to the actual UHD.  We still can't quite make out the title of that yellow book on the table in the first set of shots, but the letters look rounded and photo realistic as opposed to how pixelated it is on the Arrow.

Raro's DVD has the Italian mono in Dolby Digital with optional English subtitles.  Arrow has both the Italian and English mono tracks in LPCM, with optional English subtitles for both versions.  And Severin has the all three versions in DTS-HD with optional subs for all of them.

So the original Bay of Blood DVDs were barebones, apart from the trailer or the odd radio spot.  Raro's 2005 DVD was the first one with a real, important extra: a half-hour documentary called The Art Of Crime, which got interviews with Lamberto Bava, Roy Bava, Sacchetti, the original set photographer, a couple Italian critics and even Joe Dante, who they point out wrote one of this film's very few rave reviews during its original theatrical release.  It's a great piece that fortunately has stayed with us through future releases.  That and the trailer is all Raro had, but it was enough to round it out to a very satisfying release at the time.

But Arrow really turned it into a special edition.  And yes, they have The Art of Crime.  They also have one of Tim Lucas's famous Mario Bava commentary tracks that originated from Anchor Bay's 2007 DVDs.  Then they introduce some brand new stuff, including on-camera interviews with Lamberto Bava, cinematographer Gianlorenzo Battagalia.  And they conduct a new, audio-only interview with Joe Dante, and include the two Trailers From Hell for this film, hosted by Edgar Wright.  They also add two radio spots, though, apart from the TFHs, they don't have the actual trailer proper.  It came with an 8-page booklet by Jay Slater and a double-sided fold-out poster, with reversible artwork and one of those windowed slipboxes Arrow used to always do.

And now Severin comes with the most loaded edition yet.  For starters, yep, The Art of Crime is still here, as well as that Dante audio piece.  They don't however, have any of the other Arrow extras.  But before you get too bummed about that, there's a good reason for it.  They got all new, better interviews with Lamberto and Battagalia, which are more focused and are more professionally shot with HD equipment.  In fact, there are two new Bava interviews, the second one being just about Lamberto's memories of his father.  And they brought back Lucas to record an all new, improved commentary, where he corrects some errors from his previous track.  So, it's a bit of a shame to lose the Trailers From Hell, but otherwise it's all an upgrade.  And they've added plenty more, including an interview with Nicoletta Elmi, who played the little girl, and a new, much fuller interview with Sacchetti.

There are also two expert interviews, with Stephen Thrower and Stephen R. Bissette, although I have to say, both of them and Tim Lucas mostly say much of the same things, covering the film's many alternate titles, campaigns and release history.  It becomes a redundant grind, so I'd recommend just picking one of the three, and only delving into the others on later rewatches.  Severin also has two trailers - English and Italian - the radio spots, a brief introduction by Lamberto Bava filmed at some festival and a brief look at the storyboards.    

This initial limited edition also includes some neat bonus goods, including the soundtrack as a fifth disc.  It comes in a black amary case with reversible artwork, which is then housed in an embossed slipbox.  There's also a lobby card insert with the CD track-listing on the back, and a reproduction of the film's original barf bag that was given out at screenings when it played under the title Carnage.

Before I leave you, a final note about "V2."  Severin's Bay of Blood debuted as a pre-order in their Black Friday sale, and it shipped in 2026.  But it shipped with a problem.  Disc four, the BD with the Italian cuts, has a replication error, messing with the playback of both cuts (the extras play fine).  It's just the blu-ray version, not the UHDs, so it's not the worst thing in the world.  But for the price they charge, you expect every disc to work.  And they're aware and are fixing it.  Anyone who already has it will be getting V2 mailed to them.  If you don't already have it, though, you have to wait; V2 is currently on pre-order so it will only be sold with the fixed disc.  So if you're wondering what's the hold up, that's it.  But it'll be worth the wait.