And Now, a Complete Code Red Overhaul: Trapped (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

Now in contrast to my last Code Red DVD/ Blu-ray comparison, Trick Or Treats, where very little changed from the first release to the second, here's one where the movie got a complete overhaul: 1982's Trapped.  Again, Code Red handled both the DVD and the blu-ray editions, and seemed to even use the same source materials, but this time the two versions look nothing alike!

Released on VHS as The Killer Instinct, Trapped is another one of those Deliverance-inspired horror films, like Just Before Dawn, Rituals or The Final Terror, where escaping backwoods killers is mixed with the dangers of surviving in the wilderness.  Here, we have a little bit less of the wilderness drama, but we double down on the evil rednecks thanks to a commanding performance by Henry Silva, who makes all those other movies' killers look like certifiable wimps.

We start out with a little cross-cutting between some Southeastern Tennessee State University (which I'm pretty sure is not an actual University) college students pontificating on the unshakeable morality of their value system, and some small town Southerners living up to exactly zero of those principles.  Of course, we can all see it coming: these kids who think they know it all are going to have their values challenged when they decide to spend the weekend camping in the wrong neck of the woods.  Here, Silva rules over his small community with fear and violence, and when they wind up witnessing a local murder, they're going to have to adapt to this old way of life quickly to survive.

This is definitely more of a tacky exploitation film than Deliverance or Rituals, but unlike most horror films, I actually think it improves over repeat viewings.  Like all these wilderness horror flicks, you've got some great backgrounds and locations.  There's a couple really impressive kills and an exciting climax, and while the plot's highly predictable, everyone in the cast does a good job of selling it.  Again, that especially goes for Silva, who really takes the brunt of this film on his shoulders and makes a lot of potentially rote and hackneyed scenes compelling and entertaining.  A subtle but effective soundtrack helps elevate the material as well.  You can tell the filmmakers decided they were going to make the best movie they could with this material.

For whatever reason, despite being a pretty good movie, and certainly better than many of its peers, Trapped is one of those off-the-radar movies that had never been released on DVD, or even laserdisc, before Code Red rescued it from obscurity in 2009.  Their DVD was pretty barebones, but at least it was uncut and widescreen.  After a quiet life of rare fullscreen television and VHS appearances, this was the first time any of us had the opportunity to see it in its original aspect ratio, unless we'd caught it back during its original, limited theatrical release.  But still, it looked kind of over saturated and, well, you'll see in a moment.  So it was welcome news Code Red announced their a fresh HD master for brand new blu-ray release in 2016.  Just look at how far it's come.

2009 Code Red DVD on top; 2016 Code Red blu-ray bottom.

Both transfers were taken from the original interpositive, but the DVD looks really... pixelated?  Or is that video noise?  Certainly the colors and contrast are highly boosted, which does bring make the image pop, but it also looks really unnatural.  It probably looks better in the smaller thumbnails than fullscreen.  I mean, look at the blue on that guy's hat in the second shot, it bleeds almost an inch over the top of his head.  The blu-ray may be flatter and less lively, but it's much more photo-realistic, and the HD doubles up on the detail.  And frankly, the washed, faded look fits the tone of the film much more, anyway - backwoods rednecks who've been wearing the same shirt every day for years probably shouldn't have bright, neon glows.

It also has to be pointed out that, while both films are 1.78:1 and taken from the same IP, the framing is still clearly different.  I don't think either really has more picture information than the other, but the DVD is framed higher and the blu lower.  So what that means is we see more along the top of the DVD, and more along the bottom of the blu.  I can't really say if either looks more correct than the other.  Theoretically, the film should probably be matted to 1.85:1, so the extra picture along the top of the DVD and bottom of the blu are just that: extra; and 100% of what we're supposed to see is in both transfers.  So it's an academic distinction.

2009 Code Red DVD on top; 2016 Code Red blu-ray bottom.

But the look of this new blu is not without some controversy.  While I don't think anyone would argue the bulk of this film looks heaps better on the blu-ray, some scenes - the night scenes - have taken raised some questions.  About maybe twenty or so minutes of this film take place at night, so the majority of this film is "safe," but there's no question that the night scenes on the blu lose a lot of detail, as you can see above.  But here's another thing you'll notice about the scenes above... the DVD scenes look to be taking place mid-day, right?  Basically, the film has one long nighttime sequence.  But some of the scenes were shot day-for-night, and on the DVD, there's no nighttime filtering, so some nighttime shots look like bright afternoon.  And if you watch the film on DVD, it's confusing and makes no sense; it constantly keeps switching back and forth between visible day and night.  Really, even before the blu was released and I could see how the scenes were meant to be filtered, it error was jarring.  You didn't have to be a seasoned critic to realize something was wrong, and it just made you feel like the filmmakers were dummies, and this was the kind of thing you'd see on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

So as far as I'm concerned, this is another huge improvement on the blu-ray's part.  It makes the night scenes look like genuine nighttime and everything matches.  The film finally plays the way it's supposed to.  Yes, we do lose a lot of visual information in some scenes, whole faces are suddenly lost in blackness.  But never to the point where you can't make out the action or anything.  And again, those DVD versions of the scene aren't just wrong in the fact that they're clearly bright daylight, but they still have that boosted, over-saturated look.  Yes, I can imagine another HD transfer that uncrushes some of those blacks a little and gives us more detail, but I'm perfectly fine with the night scenes on the current blu as-is, and I definitely happily take them over the way they're presented on the DVD.

Oh, but that's only controversy #1 of 2 with this blu-ray release, though again I'll come in the blu's defense, though maybe not quite so strongly.  Controversy #2 is this film's sound.  Yeah, it's poor.  If this was one of those sites that gave everything number or letter grades, I couldn't give this sound an A or B... probably not even a C.  So what can I say in its defense?  Well, first of all, the DVD wasn't any better.  In fact, it's even worse.  The sound is really muffled and awash in a see of crackling and hiss, to the point where it can be genuinely hard to make out what's being said in some scenes.  Most of the time it's not too bad, but it's always troubled, and during the worst moments, you'd have to turn up the volume really high to hear what's being said, and then the rest of the noise would hurt your ears.

For the blu-ray, the same mono source was obviously used, but some effort was clearly put into cleaning it up.  The hiss is gone, and so is almost all the crackling (it still pops up a bit at times, especially around reel changes).  Unfortunately, it also reveals that a lot of the sound quality wasn't just being obscured by the excess noise, it just wasn't there.  Take away the hiss, and the dialogue is still quiet and muffled; though at least it's safer to crank the volume without the noise blowing out your eardrums.  And I don't think they did a sloppy, destructive clean-up (I know what that's like, having taught myself how to edit audio); I just think the audio elements Code Red were working with lost a lot of quality over time.  So, short of discovering better source materials, my defense is that I believe this is A) as good as Trapped can sound, and B) a big improvement over the DVD.  But it's still poor sound for blu-ray standards, or even DVD.

As for extras, there's really not much.  The DVD only featured a Spanish version of the original theatrical trailer, plus some Code Red bonus trailers.  And the blu-ray doesn't have much more, but it does improve things nominally.  First of all, they now have the original trailer in English, so we can finally understand what the narrator is saying.  So that's a nice, little upgrade (though it might've been fun if the blu kept the Spanish as a separate audio track).  and the only other thing on here is the addition of the option to watch Trapped in Katarina's Bucket List Theater Mode, where host Katarina Waters gives the film a brief video introduction and wrap-up.  However bad you imagine the Southern accent she puts on for this to be, believe me, it's worse.  haha

So, at the end of the day, I was happy with the Trapped DVD at the time, especially since it was our first crack at the film at all, but I'm really happy to be replacing it with the blu.  And say what you like about the disc's flaws, they're still big improvements over the DVD.  Now, there is a new German blu-ray of Trapped that just came out, too; but from what I've been able to gather, apart from the additional German language options, it's essentially the same as Code Red's, bad audio and all.  So I highly recommend the blu-ray release.  It's an underrated film on an underrated disc.

Get Ready for the Fall Season with Trick Or Treats from Code Red (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

Ah, this is a quirky one.  I think nearly everyone who first stumbles on the poster or DVD cover, or really any of the marketing, essentially expects a Halloween knock-off.  Maybe not a particularly faithful one, but at least some sort of slasher film set on Halloween night, right?  And I guess Trick Or Treats does just barely, technically qualify as that, basically by virtue of the last twenty minutes or so.  But this is a very different movie.  And I don't just mean different from the He Knows You're Alone-style slasher you might be imagining.  I mean, just as a stand-alone sentence to describe the film: this is a very different movie.

So, if it's not a Halloween knock-off, what is it?  Well, in some ways it's closer to my favorite horror genre: evil killer kids, like The Bad Seed or Devil Times Five.  Except the kid here never actually kills anyone or anything so bad as that.  So, in that sense it's closer to Rivals.  But it's also a silly comedy that's only tangentially about the kid in the first place, spending more time trying to get laughs out of a man running around Las Vegas in a dress.  Here, let me just describe the plot, and you see what you can make out of it.

We open up on the rather cold, marriage of veteran character actor Peter Jason (you'll probably recognize him from John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness) and Academy Award nominee (for Diary of a Mad Housewife) Carrie Snodgress.  Apparently she's finally had enough, as she quietly lets in two large orderlies from the local mental hospital in to have her husband involuntarily committed, and they chase him around the swimming pool for literally four minutes of screen time, no joke.  Or maybe it is a joke - some kind of brain damaged slapstick routine - but what I mean is that I'm not joking when I tell you it literally goes on and on, around that pool for minute after minute.  It reminds me of that famous scene in Ingmar Bergman's Hour Of the Wolf, "a minute is actually an immense space of time."  And this is several.

Okay, finally we cut to "several years later."  It's Halloween night, Snodgress has re-married (to David Carradine!), and they're looking for a babysitter while they go to a party.  They call Jackelyn Giroux, who's essentially her protagonist, and introduce her to their hell raiser son, played by the director's own son, Chris Graver.  He's a budding magician and uses his magic tricks to psychologically terrorize Jackelyn all night.  Meanwhile, Peter Jason escapes from the mental hospital dressed as a nurse, and has a series of misadventures (mostly a string of petty robberies) trying to make his way back home.  He plans to kill Snodgress in revenge for having him locked up, but has no idea she's out for the night.  So for the climax, Jackelyn has to team up with the horrific kid to fend off the killer trying to break into the house.

If that sounds fairly coherent, I think I deserve more credit for that in my synopsis than the original screenwriter does in his script, because it's really all over the place.  For example, Jackelyn has two friends who are movie editors, and we suddenly cut away to the movie within the movie that they're working on, tantamount to nothing, except maybe a slightly meta commentary on horror films.  But there's not much direct correlation between the two at all.  And Steve Railsback (Manson) is also in this movie as an actor who's debuting as Othello in a local production on Halloween night, plus Paul Bartel has a fun cameo as a homeless man who Jason robs at knife-point.  The tone and genre are also ever-changing.  Overall, I'd say this is a comedy, but there are long stretches where the film is quite serious, occasionally even going for genuine scares and atmosphere.  Our slasher racks up a body count of 1, though; so again, don't come in looking for a traditional slasher flick, or you're going to be disappointed.

The real star is the kid.  You wouldn't expect much knowing he's the director's son, but he handily steals this picture.  He really should've gone on to be a child actor, because he's awesome.  In the closing credits, we see that the magic tricks he employs were designed by none other than the great Orson Welles himself, which only begins to make sense when you realize the director was a DP and protege of Welles for a number of years.  Still, frankly, most of the tricks are stuff any kid could come up with themselves, if they were twisted enough.  But yeah, the scenes with the kid are by far the best part of this film.  Everything else is kind of a drag, just made slightly amusing at times thanks to the crazy cast this film has.  And I have to admit, the way the film finally comes together, pitting the kid's tricks against the killer, with this poor babysitter caught in the middle, is pretty clever and entertaining.  So I actually do enjoy this film, though I'd only recommend it to a select few with a particular set of tastes, and actually feel compelled to warn more horror fans away from it than to it.  But if you're a fan of that kid who faked his own death in Nightmares In a Damaged Brain, then this is like that times ten!

For years and years, Trick Or Treats had only been available in the junkiest of grey market discs, ripping the old, ugly VHS tape transfer.  But finally, and surprisingly, in 2013, Code Red gave it the special edition treatment, with a restored widescreen transfer from the original 35mm negatives, and an impressive selection of extras.  Then, last year, Code Red returned to the title, giving it its HD debut on blu-ray.  How does it measure up, how do they compare?  Well, I've got both editions right here on my desk, so let's find out!

2013 Code Red DVD on top; 2015 Code Red blu-ray bottom.

First of all, Code Red's DVD looks terrific!  Especially after living with such garbage presentations for all these years, it was a real surprise this film could even look this good.  After decades of VHS cable DVD, it was common for critics to slag off smaller films saying the director didn't even care how their film was shot, etc.  And it wasn't until discs like these, that preserve their OAR, where we can actually see, oh, even on these little films, real care was taken and these movies actually look pretty good!  They're not just the junk everybody's been treating them as.

2013 Code Red DVD left; 2015 Code Red blu-ray right.

The "problem" with a DVD transfer like that - and problem's in quotes because it's not really a problem - is that it doesn't give you much room for improvement when it comes time for the blu-ray.  What's left to improve upon when you get it right the first time?  I suppose technically there's a little flicker and signs of the film's age, but basically it wasn't broke, so they didn't fix it.  This transfer is exactly the same as the DVD except in HD.  Same scan, same 1.78:1 framing, same colors, same strong mono audio track, same master.  But, of course, I'm not suggesting this is an upconvert or anything.  Certainly not.  The full benefit from going from SD to HD is still here, and when you get in close to the details, you can see the more refined lines and far less compressed imagery.  This is a proper 1080p boost.  It's just that these days I'm getting used to brand new 4k scans and old masters getting replaced.  This looks like I'm reviewing a combo pack.  And I'm completely alright with that.

And again, this is a film I never thought we'd see any extras of, but thanks to Code Red, here we are.  The main feature is an audio commentary with stars Peter Jason, Jackie Giroux, Chris Graver and DP R. Michael Stringer.  This is essentially a cast commentary, so expect a lot of laughing and banter, but Chris has a lot of memories of his dad, and everyone remembers the shoot, so it manages to answer some of the many questions we all have from watching this film.   There's also a brief but interesting audio-only interview with Steve Railsback, who has kind words for everyone he worked with on this.  Then the DVD has a nice photo gallery, of Gary Graver on set working with the actors, and bonus trailers for other Code Red titles.

The blu-ray carries everything over from the DVD, except the photo gallery and the bonus trailers.  In their place, though, we get the option to watch this is Katarina's Bucketlist Theater mode, where host Katarina Waters provides a video introduction and wrap-up to the film.  It's nothing special and you're not missing much if you skip it, but you might as well give it a watch if you've got the disc.

I don't really care about stills galleries, I don't even tend to look at them on the discs I own unless I know of something particularly interesting in them.  But it's still a little annoying to see it dropped off the blu.  Like, if you already have it a put together for the DVD, why not leave it on there?  Let the blu be a complete package with everything.  Still, it's an excellent blu-ray release, with all the important features and a great looking transfer.  If you already own the DVD, though, don't expect a huge growth spurt.  This is the best version to own, but since the DVD was already so strong, I'd say it's a very low priority double-dip.  And that's assuming this wacky film is for you in the first place.  But now, after reading this, you should know now whether it is or isn't.

Love & Friendship and Sony & Amazon (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

I am please to find myself covering the brand new blu release of my favorite movie of 2016: Whit Stillman's Love and Friendship, based on the novella by Jane Austen.  I'm always excited for a new Stillman film, and I'm certainly a fan of Austen, albeit a bit weary of the multitude of film and television versions of her very limited collection of novels.  That Keira Knightley flick was alright, but after the Andrew Davies mini-series, has there ever really been a reason to return to the Pride & Prejudice well again?  So this film was especially intriguing because it's the first time this particular Jane Austen story has ever been adapted to film.

Update 9/10/16 - 2/9/17: Originally I just covered the new release blu-ray. But I've just gone ahead and borrowed a copy of the DVD to make this a comparison as well.

Strangely, however, this is not an adaptation of Jane Austen's Love & Freindship[sic].  This is an adaptation of Lady Susan, another Austen novella, which Stillman has curiously decided to title Love & Friendship.  Fine with me, but then I do hope his next film will be an adaptation of Love & Freindship, possibly titled Lady Susan.  ...Although, perhaps not, since Love & Friendship was a parody written by Austen when she was only 14 years old, unpublished until after her death; and there isn't any character named Susan to be found anywhere in it.  But my point is that I'd love to see Stillman tackle Austen a second time, and I'm very curious to see if any more of her unfilmed juvenilia could be mined so successfully.  Perhaps an anthology film of all her short works?

Anyway, onto Love and Friendship itself.  Lady Susan would've taken some translation to bring it to the screen, as it was written in the form of personal letters (you know, like Dracula).  Apparently she also wrote a (now lost to time) first draft of Sense & Sensibility in this same format.  But if there's any writer I'd trust clever and delicate enough to handle this task, it would be Stillman.  He's the modern day master of Austen-like comedies of manners; in fact, her work featured rather prominently in Metropolitan, his first Academy Award nominated screenplay.

And the fun of Austen's earlier work is that it's a bit edgier in its humor.  No more is that evident in than in the leading character of Lady Susan, played by Stillman alum Kate Beckinsale, a widowed mother who's not shy about her ambitions to come back out to society, as it were.  A bit of a precursor to Austen's most famous character, Emma, Susan is a constantly conniving manipulator.  But where the former was a hopeless romantic, naively playing match maker for her friends and acquaintances before learning their true natures, Susan is a out to make situations for herself and her daughter and very aware of the natures the people around her don't show to the world.  There's a bit of Richard III to her, though of course she stops short of murdering everybody off.  And unlike Richard, where the answer is obvious, this story astutely asks us the very sincere question of is she a villain for expertly playing the only cards she's been dealt?

Everything about this film just clicks into place.  I'm a fan of Stillman's last film, Damsels In Distress, and have found myself defending it a number of times to disappointed fans.  But even I will be the first to admit that this film is much stronger.  This may be Stillman's best film yet.  The meshing of Austen and Stillman's sense of humor is perfect.  I've seen many attempts to modernize Austen-era period pieces, to inject contemporary sensibilities into the "outdated" story, and it almost never works, usually feeling like the writers had an over-simplified view of pre-feminist life ("maybe I don't want to marry a prince; I'd rather be a knight and go on adventures!").  But here, Austen was already playing with these concepts in her own time, so it's all wonderfully natural and engaging.  The cast, which also includes Last Days of Disco co-star Chloe Sevigny, Jemma Redgrave, the hilariously scene stealing Tom Bennett and the incomparable Stephen Fry, is terrific, too.  And the film, though probably rather modestly budgeted, looks like a million bucks thanks to some excellent locations, costuming and photography.

Love & Friendship is Amazon Studios' second wide-release theatrical film (they did work on a few limited projects earlier, like Spike Lee's Chi-Raq) to hit home video.  Their first, Todd Solondz's Wiener-Dog, was released as an MOD BD-R available exclusively through Amazon.com.  But just two weeks later, thankfully, their second is being released on a properly pressed blu-ray disc (or DVD, if you prefer).  I got mine at Best Buy.  I think this has more to do with the studio Amazon is in partnership with for the film, in this case Sony.  Sony is also handling the home video release of Amazon Studio's third film, Woody Allen's Cafe Society, which is also getting a standard DVD and blu-ray release.

2016 Sony DVD on top; 2016 Sony blu-ray underneath.

For a new release of a brand new film from Sony, the picture is predictably unblemished.  It's slightly matted to 1.85:1 and looks like a perfectly accurate representation of the theatrical experience I enjoyed just a couple months earlier.  Detail is distinctly strong and clear.  Black levels are a little light in scenes, particularly early in the film; but they get deeper later on.  And anyway I trust this is a creative decision on the the filmmakers' part, as I'm sure they would've sent Sony a finished DCP. The sole audio track is a 5.1 mix in DTS-HD, and it includes optional English, English SDH and Spanish subtitles.

blu-ray left and DVD right, as if that wasn't obvious.

The DVD, however, is noticeably softer, I mean, even more than you'd expect for a standard definition version. I had an especially difficult time matching frames, because I couldn't even make out the small details on the DVD that separated one from another.  I mean, it's not shockingly bad, but it's a greater distinction than you normally get with a concurrent release and makes a stronger case than usual against saving a few bucks.  This is one where you'll want to spring for the blu.

For extras, Love & Friendship pretty much just has one.  A nice, but brief, 'making of' featurette.  It's not too heavy on film clips, opens with Stephen Fry talking about Austen, interviews Stillman and gets soundbites from most of the rest of the cast.  It has a little behind-the-scenes footage, and is better than your average promo featurette, but definitely leaves you wishing it had been longer and gone more in-depth.  Disappointing to have this as the only feature, but the only other thing on here is a collection of bonus trailers, which play on start-up, including some of Amazon's indie film projects and one for Damsels In Distress.

As with The Last Days of Disco, Stillman has also published a novel version of this film, entitled Love & Friendship: In Which Jane Austen's Lady Susan Vernon Is Entirely Vindicated.  Of course Lady Susan already exists in publication, but Stillman's version is rather distinct, told from the point of view of Susan's nephew, responding to Jane Austen herself.  And of course it's not in the style of correspondence.  And Austen's novella is also included at the end, with notes by the narrator nephew.  Stillman fans should definitely check it out, but from what others have said, it's a confusing place to start if you haven't already seen the film or read the original Lady Susan.

This is a terrific, little film and a perfectly fine blu-ray presentation of it.  I'm a little disappointed not to have a lusher special edition, after all we've had Whit Stillman commentaries before.  And in the back of my mind, I can't help but wonder if the Criterion Collection isn't keeping an eye on this (and Wiener-Dog) for a re-release down the line.  But I'm not so optimistic that I'd suggest holding off for that, especially since I'm sure Sony will want their current edition to be the exclusive, definitive release for a couple years anyway.  And lord knows what the state of movies and physical media will be at that point.  Besides, this movie's too much fun not to have in your collection, and the presentation here is 100% spot-on, so there's no reason to dismiss this disc.  If I'm double-dipping in 2023, I won't be cross.  Although in two weeks time, if it turns out the Artificial Eye disc has a commentary, I might just punch someone.  It didn't; just the same featurette as the US release. 😛

Scream Factory Catch-Up, Part 3: Nightbreed (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

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.

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) 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 really 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 is really 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 stuff, including one I won't spoil with Cronenberg and the Narcisse character, and some line replacements are for the better.  Personally, I'm not too convinced either cut is really preferable, 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.

Warner Bros 2001 DVD on top; Scream Factory's 2014 theatrical blu mid;
and Scream Factory's 2014 director's cut blu on the bottom.

Warner Bros 2001 DVD left; Scream Factory's 2014 theatrical blu mid;
and Scream Factory's 2014 director's cut blu on the right.

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.

The 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.

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.

So yeah, I was never quite enough of a Nightbreed fan to big up the generic Warner Bros DVD, but I don't know what kind of genre fan you'd have to be to not be intrigued by this impressive set.  If you missed this when it came out, I would recommend putting in the extra effort to get the 3-disc set, because I think some of the bonus disc stuff really is worth it, plus it turns out the director's cut invalidated the old theatrical version as much as many of us thought it would, so you'll want to have that on blu, too.