TWO EVIL EYES (1990) (Blue Underground 3-Disc Limited Edition Blu-ray Review/Comparison)

TWO EVIL EYES (1990)

3-Disc Limited Edition 4K Remaster 

Label: Blue Underground 
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated 
Duration: 120 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 7.1, 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Directors: George A. Romero, Dario Argento 
Cast: Bingo O'Malley, Adrienne Barbeau, Ramy Zada, E.G. Marshall, Christine Forest, Tom Atkins, Harvey Keitel, John Amos, Martin Balsam, Kim Hunter 

Two-parter fright anthology Two Evil Eyes (1990) pairs legends of horror George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead) and Dario Argento (Suspiria), with each adapting a story by seminal horror writer Edgar Allan Poe, each with ghoulish special effects by Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead) and a gorgeous score from Pino Donnagio (Don't Look Now). By 1990 when this was made I feel that both of these directors were looking at the most vibrant part of their careers in the rear view mirror, but this anthology film offers up some late era chills for fans of both directors, even if it's what I consider to be a minor entry in both the directors careers. 

Romero opens the anthology with ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar’, a spooky tale about a terminally ill older man named Ernest Valdemar (Bingo O'Malley, Creepshow) who is being kept alive well beyond his expiration date by his money-grubbing, younger wife Jessica (Adrienne Barbeau, The Fog). Jessica is banging her husband's personal physician, Dr. Hoffman (Ramy Zada, After Midnight), the duplicitous cheaters have conspired to keep the terminally ill man in a weird state of hypnosis, feeding into a plot to pull the wool over Valdemar's lawyers eyes, played by E.G. Marshall (Creepshow). In this state of hypnosis Valdemar verbally authorizes his lawyer over the phone to liquidate his assets into cash and deposit them into his wife's account. However, there's a stipulation in the will that states that if the old man croaks before the money is transferred that the agreement will be terminated and she will get nothing, so when the old man keel's over prematurely it puts the pair into a bit of a bind. What to do? They place the old man's corpse in a freezer in the basement with a plan to thaw out his body once the money has been deposited, only then will they properly declare him dead. 

It's a convoluted plan but it gets stranger yet when Valdemar's voice can be heard echoing throughout the house, emanating from the basement. When they open the freezer he's still frozen solid and still seemingly very dead, but it turns out that because he was in a state of hypnosis when he died his soul has been trapped in a void between life and death. This new wrinkle intrigues the scientific brain of the doctor who investigates further, but Valdemar's wife is scared witless by the whole ordeal, and with good reason.

This story is a good and proper chiller, but it does run a bit long, making it a slow burn, but it also gives the story a little room to breath and work up a good head of steam before things get weirder. The cast in this one are a bunch of Romero familiars, it was great to see Adrienne Barbeau reunited with her Creepshow co-stars E.G. Marshall, and Tom Atkins (Night of the Creeps), the latter of whom shows up as a detective investigating the bizarre case at the end of the piece.  

It may not be top tier Romero but it's some of the best stuff he did from this point on in my opinion. It's a well-lensed with a terrific looking old stone house with a cool spiral staircase, plus it's great to see Romero playing with a sub-genre he didn't often play in, though there's still an element of the undead. We get some vengeful spirits and supernatural happenings in this one, and I dug the oddball hypnosis element, though I did think that the doc using hypnosis on himself was a bit weird. For the gore-fans we also get Tom Savini creations, including a cool-looking frozen undead  and a gruesome death by digital metronome, which is the bloodiest part of Romero's segment.

Dario Argento tackles Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale 'The Black Cat' starring Harvey Keitel (Blue Collar) as Rod Usher, his name an homage to another Poe story 'The Fall of the House of Usher'. Rod is beret-wearing crime-scene photographer who gets a little too into his work. The film opens on a macabre crime scene of a woman cut in half by a swinging bladed pendulum, another homage to the Poe classic, 'The Pit and the Pendulum'. Right from the get-go you see that the photographer has a curious fascination with death, and throughout the film he is seemingly driven a mad by the arrival of a stray black cat that his violinist gal pal Annabel (Madeleine Potter, The Bostonians) has brought into their home.

The relationship with his Annabel begins to sour after the felines arrival, leading to Rod hitting the bottle and eventually strangling the black cat, going so far as to photographing the crime, and then using the image of the strangled cat on the cover of his new photography book, which is how Annabel discovers that he's killed her beloved cat. She confronts him about it which leads to Rod losing his shit, killing her with a meat cleaver, and then concealing her corpse behind a wall inside his apartment. If you're familiar with the story you know that the black cat returns to ruin his well-laid plans, with some horrific special effects from Tom Savini, who himself turns up in a scene as a grave-robbing lover of dentistry.

Keitel is an actor who never seems anything subtley, he's both intense and a bit over-the-top here, but it works for the character and the film, though the scene of him shrieking "It's fucking cat! Meow! Meow!" always makes me giggle. The special effects are a bit more abundant in the Argento tale than with the Romero, with Savini creating several memorable crime scene corpses, including an homage to Cannibal Holocaust (1980) that would make Vlad the Impaler proud. this scene happens in a surreal dream sequence that finds Rod swept back into medieval times, it's a bit out of place here but I enjoyed it for the strangeness and gruesome imagery. On the whole this mini-film doesn't really have the vintage artful eye feel of Argento's early gialli, but it is attractively shot with some fluid camera movement. 

Be on the lookout for John Amos (The Beastmaster) as an allergy-riddled detective investigating Annabel's disappearance and Martin Balsam (The Stone Killer) and Kim Hunter (Bad Ronald) as an elderly couple who live in the same apartment building as Rod.

I've always thought there should have been some sort of wrap-around story that brought the pair of stories together, maybe an appearance of Keitel's crime scene photographer in Romero's story, something to bridge the gap at least, but there's nothing, and the film's are so disparate in style and tone that watching one run into the other is a bit jarring. Of the pair I prefer Romero's supernatural chiller, it breathes a little better for me, and the tone is more in line with my preferences as a horror fan. I think it holds up a bit better than Argento's tale, which is a story that has been told many times over in cinema and a bit better at that, though perhaps not as gruesomely. 

Audio/Video: Two Evil Eyes (1990) arrives on three-disc limited edition Blu-ray from Blue Underground with a new 4K scam of the original camera negative framed in 1.78:1 widescreen in 1080p HD. The source looks fantastic with nary a blemish in sight, grain had a nice velvety veneer and colors look solid throughout. There's an improved clarity and depth to the image, with gorgeous finely resolved details in clothing textures, facial close-ups and the gruesome special effects, it's just a real pleaser of a presentation. Comparing it to the region B release from 88 Films right away I noticed the Blue Underground disc has a warmer color-grading, that in some scenes a rather significant. I don't have the previous Blue Underground Blu-ray to compare it to, and I cannot say which is truer to the theatrical, but I found this new 4K restoration to be the superior release. To see Blue Underground vs. 88 Films images side by side see the screen captures below in this review.   

Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 and 7.1, though I found myself preferring the original stereo mix, which seems more robust and direct, the 7.1 to my ears sounded a bit thin by comparison. Everything is nicely balanced with the Pino Donaggio (Carrie) score coming through with excellent fidelity, dialogue is always crisp and clean, optional English subtitles are provided.

Blue Underground come through with a wealth of extras both new and archival, with disc one having a new audio commentary with Troy Howarth, author of 'Murder By Design: The Unsane Cinema of Dario Argento'. It's another excellent Howarth commentary loaded with production notes, facts and trivia about the film. Also on the first disc we get a theatrical trailer for the film and a photo gallery of international posters, lobby cards, home video releases and original artwork images from artist Enzo Sciotti.

Disc two contains the bulk of extras, beginning with the half-hour archival 'Two Masters' Eyes', interviews with Dario Argento, George Romero, Special Make-Up Effects Supervisor Tom Savini, Executive Producer Claudio Argento, and Asia Argento. Other archival extras include the 13-min 'Savini's EFX', a behind-the-scenes look at the film's special make-up effects, a 5-min interview with Adrienne Barbeau, plus the 16-min 'At Home With Tom Savini', a guided tour of Savini's home.

New stuff begins with the 13-min 'Before I Wake' interview with star Ramy Zada who speaks about getting into acting, auditioning for several Romero films before finally
landing a role in this one, and the pleasure of working alongside Adrienne Barbeau.
Actress Madeline Potter shows up for the 17-min 'Behind The Wall' discussing being cast in Argento's tale, offering some insights into her character, and commenting on the genius of Argento. In the 16-min 'One Maestro And Two Masters' composer Pino Donaggio speaks about working with Brian De Palma and the opportunities that afforded him, scoring this film and it's nod to Bernard Herman's Psycho score, working with Romero and Argento, and the differences between working in America versus Italy. We also get a 16-min interview with Co-Writer Franco Ferrini, 27-min with Assistant Director Luigi Cozzi, 14-min with Special Make-Up Assistant Everett Burrell, and 9-min with Costume Designer Barbara Anderson.

The third disc in the set is a 21-track CD of the original motion picture soundtrack by Pino Donaggio. This three-disc set arrives in a clear oversized Blu-ray keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork, inside there's a 20-page booklet with new writings on the film from Michael Gingold, plus cast and crew credits, and a track list for the CD soundtrack. This also comes with a cool-looking limited edition 3D lenticular slipcover with different artwork than the reversible sleeve.

Blu-ray Comparison:

Top: Blue Underground Blu-ray (Region A) )

Bottom: 88 Films (Region B) Blu-ray

 

 

 

 

Special Features:
Disc 1 (Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
- NEW! Audio Commentary with Troy Howarth, Author of Murder By Design: The Unsane Cinema of Dario Argento
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) 
- Poster & Still Gallery

Disc 2 (Blu-ray) Extras:
- Two Masters' Eyes - Interviews with Directors Dario Argento & George Romero, Special Make-Up Effects Supervisor Tom Savini, Executive Producer Claudio Argento, and Asia Argento (30 min) HD 
- Savini's EFX - A Behind-the-Scenes look at the film's Special Make-Up Effects (13 min) HD
- At Home With Tom Savini - A Personal Tour of Tom Savini's Home (16 min) 
- Adrienne Barbeau on George Romero (5 min) 
- NEW! Before I Wake - Interview with Star Ramy Zada (13 min) HD 
- NEW! Behind The Wall - Interview with Star Madeleine Potter (17 min) 
- NEW! One Maestro And Two Masters - Interview with Composer Pino Donaggio (16 min) 
- NEW! Rewriting Poe - Interview with Co-Writer Franco Ferrini (16 min 
- NEW! The Cat Who Wouldn't Die - Interview with Assistant Director Luigi Cozzi
- NEW! Two Evil Brothers - Interview with Special Make-Up Assistant Everett Burrell (14 min) 
- NEW! Working With George - Interview with Costume Designer Barbara Anderson (9 min) 

Disc 3 (CD):
- TWO EVIL EYES Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Pino Donaggio
- BONUS! Collectible Booklet with new essay by Michael Gingold

Two Evil Eyes (1999) might not be the best stuff for either Argento or Romero, but it is what I consider to be the best stuff of their late-era careers, offering enough macabre delights and supernatural frights to give it a recommend. This new 3-disc limited edition release from Blue Underground is easily the definitive version of the film for both it's fantastic restoration and hours of extras, making this an essential item for anyone looking to complete their Dario Argento and George A. Romero collections. 

HOAX (2019) (Dread Blu-ray Review)

HOAX (2019) 

Label: Epic Pictures/Dread
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 89 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Matt Allen
Cast: Adrienne Barbeau, Brian Thompson, Ben Browder, Cheryl Texiera, Shoshana Bush, Hutch Dano, Matt Reidy, Anthony Ray Parker, Christopher Soren Kelly, Ryan Lee, Max Decker, Brian Landis Folkins, Karen Slack, Shawn Rickel

Synopsis: An investigative team travels deep into the remote Colorado wilderness  after a group of young campers are viciously murdered by what may be  Bigfoot. While the highly specialized crew  searches for evidence, they find themselves in a fight for survival  against the legendary beast. What they encounter turns out to be more  unexpected and dangerous than anything they could have ever imagined. 

Hoax (2019) opens with that grandest of backwoods horror tropes, the campfire tale, with a group of college kids sitting around the campfire telling the tale of a killer Sasquatch said to roam the nearby forests. There's a goofy scare perpetrated by one of the group before they retire into their tents for some night-time fornication, only to be interrupted by what seems to be a hairy beast ripping open their tents and killing them. 

Weeks later a down-on-his-luck reality TV show producer named Rick Paxton (Ben Browder, Farscape) pitches an idea for a reality show exploring the Bigfoot myth following the unsolved massacre of those teens in the Colorado wilderness. He sets up a research team, comprised of ex-military (Brian Thompson, Cobra), primate scientists (Cheryl Texiera), cryptozoologist (Schuyler Denham), vapid reality TV show host (Shoshana Bush), plus the father of a missing girl (Max Decker) and Paxton's cameraman Justin (Hutch Dano, of Zombeavers, and grandson of Royal Dano!).

The crew head into the Colorado wilderness and it soon becomes clear that producer Paxton is a scumbag who will do anything to revive his ailing career, while the possibility of a real Bigfoot presents itself, along with other more backwoods-type threats which present themselves toward the end of the film with a twist that turns back around on itself, with the film dipping it's toes into the realm of cannibalism with some fun, pan-frying torture scenes.

i thought the film is a fun indie Bigfoot adventure, while it sort of lays it's cards on the table with the title, it also manages to subvert some of those expectation with it's genre-mixing and a final stinger that turns the initial twist on it's head. A really good Bigfoot film is about as elusive as the Sasquatch itself these days, but this one has something to offer that I think goes above the usual indie Bigfoot fare, though it's not exactly perfection in a hair-suit either.

It's a bit long-winded in the middle after an opening that has a lot of what I want from a horror flick, that being horny teens, hairy beasts, carnage, but then it settles into  reality TV crew venturing into the woods with in-fighting among the annoying characters - which is all of them, before settling into the proper backwoods horror with a twist. 

The bloodshed seen here is a bit of a letdown for me, I wanted way more ferocious Bigfoot carnage, and on that level it is a bit disappointing, but I was a huge fan of Brian Thompson as the military vet who joins the group as a security detail, he's hilarious  and by far the best part of the film for me. 

That director Matt Allen was able to get Alan Howarth to do the score is pretty cool, the composer provides a moody and atmospheric score, plus his participation pulled in actress Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog) who appears in a very small cameo, a cameo with numerous references to her previous horror films. The film is heavy with nods to horror classics, which is not always a move that agrees with me, but I found the references here to be quite bit of fun. We even get a Sasquatch-suit designed by FX artist William Munns, who worked on Swamp Thing (1982) with Adrienne Barbeau, and it looks pretty good, though it's seen mostly in fleeting glimpses, which is probably for the best.  

Audio/Video: Hoax (2019) arrives on Blu-ray from Epic Pictures/Dread framed in 2.35:1 widescreen in 1080p HD. The image generally looks good, the exterior shots in bright daylight looks wonderful and crisp, the greenery of the outdoors and mountainous areas are very pleasing, though some of the darker shots suffer a bit with compression and loss of fine detail in the shadows, but overall I found it a rather attractive looking indie feature.

Audio comes by way of en English Dolby Digital 5.1 mix which sounds good, but I am surprised we do not get a lossless audio option, especially considering we get a score from Alan Howarth (Christine). That said, the mix does have it's share of favorable atmospherics, dialogue is crisp and the minimalist synth score sounds terrific, optional English subtitles are provided.

The extras for this one are plentiful, we get a pair of audio commentaries, one with the cast and another with the director, cinematographer, co-writers, and production designer. Then we get over an hour's worth of interviews with actors Cheryl Texiera, Ben Browder, Brian Thompson, Shoshana Bush, Hutch Dano, Max Decker, Adrienne Barbeau and Composer Alan Howarth, plus an overview of the film, a featurette abiout the existence of bigfoot, and the Colorado shooting location, plus a pair of trailers. 

The single-disc release arrives in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork, the a-side being a riff on the iconic Friday the 13th (1980) silhouette movie poster.   

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Director of Photography and Co-Writer, Scott Park, Production Designer, Chris Canfield, Director and Co-Writer, Matt Allen
- Audio Commentary with Cast Members, Ben Browder and Cheryl Texiera
Featurettes:
- Hoax Overview (7 min) HD
- Bigfoot (11 min) HD 
- Cheryl Texiera (3 min) HD 
- Ben Browder (3 min) HD 
- Brian Thompson (6 min) HD 
- Shoshana Bush (5 min) HD 
- Hutch Dano (2 min) HD 
- Max Decker (3 min) HD 
- Made in Colorado (11 min) HD
- Adrienne Barbeau (3 min) HD 
- Hoax Composer Alan Howarth (6 min) HD 
- Hoax Trailer #1 (1 min) HD 
- Hoax Trailer #2 (1 min) HD 

Hoax (2019) is a fun hybrid Bigfoot film, it suffers a bit because the tone is uneven, but it largely succeeds in doing the usual Sasquatch things with a bit of an interesting twist. It's also dampened by the fact that the Bigfoot carnage takes a bit to get going after an initially strong opening, but it finishes strong with some cannibal clan weirdness and a stinger that is a bit of u-turn. A definite recommend for connoisseurs
of Bigfoot-cinema, for all others it might be an acquired taste, but I dug it. 

CREEPSHOW (1982) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

CREEPSHOW (1982) 

Label: Scream Factory

Region Code: A

Rating: R

Duration: 120 Minutes

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0, 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080P HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: George A. Romero

Cast: Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver,  Leslie Nielsen, Carrie Nye, E.G. Marshall, Viveca Lindfors, Ed Harris, Ted Danson, Stephen King

Synopsis: Masters of the macabre – writer Stephen King and director George A. Romero – conjure up five shocking yarns, each a virtuoso exercise in the ghouls-and-gags style of classic '50s horror comics. A murdered man emerges from the grave for Father's Day cake. A meteor's ooze makes everything ... grow. A professor selects his wife as a snack for a crated creature. A scheming husband plants two lovers up to their necks in terror. A malevolent millionaire with an insect phobia becomes the prey of a cockroach army. Add the spirited performances of an excellent cast (Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Leslie Nielsen, Ted Danson, E.G. Marshall and King himself) and the ghoulish makeup wizardry of Tom Savini, and you have a non-stop, thrilling ride that "plays like an anthology of human phobias" (Roger Ebert)!

Creepshow (1982) has long been my absolute favorite horror anthology, a horror project that brought together director George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead) with legendary horror scribe Stephen King (The Shining). These guys were the undisputed kings of horror in the 80s and it was am inspired pairing that in my mind could only be bested by that one time someone stuck Hershey's bar into a jar of peanut butter and thought, 'hey, this is pretty good'! The resulting anthology was a wonderful blend EC Comics morality and pitch perfect campiness that has yet to be matched in my opinion, this is about as near perfect an anthology as I have ever seen. Don't get me wrong, there's some greeat ones out there, from the vintage Amicus stuff on through to new class Trick R Treat, but this one is the best in my book. As a kid I loved that this was such a comic book movie with a mix of live action sequences that dissolve into animated panels, I thought it was cool then and I think it's even cooler now. 

Like every good anthology of terror is begins with a prologue/wraparound story, this one featuring a young horror loving kid named Billy (played by King's son Joe Hill), whose step dad Stan (Tom Atkins, Halloween III: Season of the Witch) is laying into him about reading all this "horror crap", tossing his copy of the Creepshow comic in the trash. It's then that the ghoulish apparition of The Creep (sort of like an early version of the Cryptkeeper from Tales from the Crypt) appears to the boy, dissolving into an animated short with the pages of the comic flipping open and landing on the title page to the story 'Father's Day'. 

The first proper tale about a gathering of old school money types gathered on the family estate to commemorate the family patriarch, the now deceased Nathan Grantham, who as described by the family, was an awful, abusive man, who was murdered by his long-suffering daughter Bedelia (Viveca Lindfors, Exorcist III). As Bedilia visits her father's grave he emerges as a rotting zombie corpse (a very cool-looking zombie) and sets about murdering his living family members around the property, a fun EC-styled romp with a terrific ending with a severed-head father's day cake. 

Up next is a bit of tragic farce, 'The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill' starring Stephen King as the titular hayseed who has big money dreams when a meteor falls from the sky and lands on his property. This one is based on Stephen King short titled "Weeds", though it owes a bit to H.P. Lovecraft by way of "The Color Out of Space". While Jordy is prodding the space rock some "meteor-shit" leaks from it, unbeknownst to Jordy it causes the rampant growth of an alien weed, and after coming into contact with it he makes some poor decisions, leading up to Jordy taking his own life before being choked-out by the alien-weed. The tone of this one is goofy, as is the acting by King, he really hams it up here, but I did find myself feeling bad for the simpleton as he sets about his tragic journey of otherworldly discovery and eventual regret.

'Something to Tide You Over' pairs the comedic talents of Leslie Nielson (Day of the Animals) with future TV mega-star Dan Danson (Cheers) in a tale of cold-blooded revenge.  Filthy rich TV exec Richard Vickers (Nielsen) discovers that his wife Becky (Gaylen Ross, Dawn of the Dead)  has a new lover Harry (Danson). Noy willing to share he sets about burying them up to their necks on a sandy beach during low tide, saying that if they can hold their breath long enough there's a chance they can escape before they drown when the tide rolls in. Nielson is so good her, a sort of over-friendly villain, but make no mistake about it, he's cold-blooded, watching as the tide rolls on a closed circuit TV set-up from the comfort of his beach house property. This one has a fun watery dead revenge with good soggy slice of comeuppance delivered at the end, with the drown lovers returining as water-logged zombies! 

As a kid this next story was a clear favorite, 'The Crate' has to do with a mysterious wooden crate found in a stairwell storage space by a janitor at a local college. The crate is marked with "Arctic Expedition - June 19 1834" imprinted on it. Surpised by the discovery he calls on Professor Dexter Stanley (Fritz Weaver, Demon Seed) to come check it out. What they find when they open it is a scary-toothed ape like creature with a hideous gaping maw, it promptly eats the poor janitor, leaving the professor in a state of shock. Stanley tells his friend and colleague Prof. Northrup (Hal Holbrook, The Fog) about it all, but Northrup sees this creature as a way of ridding himself of his nagging wife Billy, played with overbearing fervor by Holbrook's Fog co-star Adrienne Barbeau (Two Evil Eyes). This woman, oh my, you can see why the professor wants her dead, and I love how he lures her to the campus with the promise of lurid gossip, feeding her to the beast within the box. As a kid I loved creature features, so loving this was a no-brainer, even if the short feels like two separate stories mashed-up into one. One about the discovery of this creature, another about a professor daydreaming about murdering his nagging wife, but they come together nicely and the creature, as silly as it looks, it a toothsome fright.  

The story that brings this flick to a close it 'They're Creeping Up on You', a segment that gave me bug nightmares for weeks when I was 11 years-old. It's the story of a rich old man seemingkly modeled after infamous germaphobe Howard Hughes. E.G. Marshall (Superman II) plays corporate vulture Upson Pratt, a self-made millionaire who run his empire from a hermetically sealed high rise apartment. During a storm we find him glowing in the news that one of his subordinate has killed themselves, so yeah, he's not a nice guy. We find him spritzing bug-spray at the occasional cockroach, keeping his sterilized palace free of bugs is a full-time job, but it's a losing battle. During a power outage the roaches come swarming from the drains and engulf the man, ending with a grotesque scene of the bugs bursting from within his neck, this is a bug-haters worst nightmare! The dummy they used for this bit is not aided by the 4K presentation, looking pretty damn fake these days, butit still sends tingles of fear down by spine! 

Creepshow is finished-up nicely with the epilogue of young horror-fan Billy having his revenge against his wicked step father, using a voodoo doll he acquired with a coupon from the Creepshow comic! This one holds up so well for me, sure there's a lot of nostalgia wrapped-up in it, but the stories are fun and well done, the comic illustration framing is still awesome. 

Audio/Video: Creepshow (1982) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory with a brand new 4K scan from the original camera negative performed by Warner Bros Motion Picture and supervised by the Director of Photography Michael Gornick. Presented in 1080p HD and framed in 1.85:1 widescreen - and it looks rather stunning. There's crisp detail in the faces and textures throughout, a fine layer of film grain, and colors are luminous. There's a new color grading here supervised by DP Michael Gornick and there's some noticeable differences from the previous WB release some years ago, the blues, reds and greens pop right of the screen. Looking at the screenshot comparisons of the 2009 and this new release at the bottom of the review you can see some major color shifts, the water-logged zombies are way greener and not as Dawn of the Dead-ish blue, skin tones on the Scream disc are a bit colder as well, look at Upson Pratt's head with the spurting blood, he's very pale as opposed to the warmer tones of the Warner Bros. disc, there's definitely some key differences, and I'm not 100% on board with all the new color grading, but I love the overall presentation. 

Audio on the disc includes both DTS-HD MA STereo 2.0 and Surround 5.1 mixes, the stereo track is solid, dialogie is crisp and the synth score from John Harrison (Tales from the Darkside: The Movie) sounds great, optional English subtitles are provided. Worth noting, while toggling back and forth between the stereo and surround mixes I did notice a slight pitch difference on the surround track. I didn't notice it at first as leaned toward the stereo track, but while watching "The Crate" segment I switched over to the surround  and I found Billy's grating-voice was even more annoying for some reason, so I toggled back and forth and it became clear that there's a slight pitch issue on with it. Knowing that I went back to "Something To Tide You Over" and noticed it again with Ted Danson's dialogue, after that just listening to the score and dialogie throughout you can hear it, so that's a bummer. As far as I know Scream Factory have not addressed this issue, but I do know it's a conversation on the forums. 

Before we look at the extras on this release let me say that it's a bit sad that Scream Factory couldn't include Michael Felsher's excellent making of doc 'Just Desserts - The Making of Creepshow' on this release as it's currently licensed to Synapse Films, who put it out on Blu-ray - it's an excellent release, if you're a fan of the film definitely buy it.. That aside, if you think there were no more stones left to turn over in regard to extras, Red Short Pictures offer up loads more here! In addition to the existing Audio Commentary With Director George A. Romero And Special Make-Up Effects Creator Tom Savini, which was previously on available on UK Blu-ray, we get two brand new one for a total of three! New commentaries include one with Director Of Photography Michael Gornick, plus another with Composer/First Assistant Director John Harrison And Construction Coordinator Ed Fountain. Thus far I have only listed to the Romero/Savini commentary, and it's everything you would hope it would be.

Then we have 'Terror And The Three Rivers' an intimate round table discussion on the making of the movie with John Amplas, Tom Atkins, Tom Savini, and Marty Schiff. Felsher starts the conversation and then everyone feeds off one another, Tom Atkins speaking about Leslie Nielsen bringing a whoopee cushion to dinner, Tom Savini and Schiff laughing about their roles as garbage men, what it was like acting with Stephen King's son Joe King, and how concerned King Sr. was about Atkins slapping his kid in a scene. Schiff mentions how a comedy bit they performed for King during filming might have inspired a small part in one of King's novels, while Amplas talks about what a joy it was to work with older pros like Carrie Nye, Viveca Lindfors, and Ed Harris. Everyone speaks kindly of Romero, and what a great guy he was, and how comfortable he made everyone on set feel. 

There's a new 13-minute interview with Costume Designer Barbara Anderson who speaks about working with Romero beginning on Knightriders, and how challenging Creepshow was, with it's unique set of circumstances, such as Viveca Lindfors wanting her character to chomp on a cigar, and how hairy chested Stephen King was, which required them to shave his chest to apply the green moss make-up effects, all the while escaped roaches from the "They're Creeping Up on You" were running around! She also speaks about clothes shopping with Adrienne Barbeau, and how chill E.G. Marshall was with having live roaches put on him, being a New Yorker he was used to it! 

Animator Rick Catizone shows up for a 16-min interview who worked on both Creepshow and Creepshow 2, describing how he came to work on the film, the process of the animated transition scenes, and creating the partial comic book for the film which was partly done by EC Comic illustrator Jack Kame, with addition "Creep" panels done by Marvel Comics artists Ron Franz (The Amazing Spider-Man), He also goes into sculpting some of the appliances used for the "fluffy" creature for 'The Crate', in addition to the drowned girl from 'Something to Tide You Over', the re-animated dad from 'Father's Daqy'. He also goes into a scene that was deleted before it was ever shot for 'Something to Tide You Over' that had to do with a stop-motion animation sequence of a severed hand that he built an armature for, but it was deleted before it was shot for budgetary reasons, but which ended up being used in Evil Dead 2.

Director Of Photography Michael Gornick shows up to discuss the color palette of the film, notably he also speaks about going back to the original camera negative for this 4K scan and restoration, and the ability to do 10-hours of color timing to make the film look as good as it does. I can see some purist cringing while hearing him talk about the process, some of it sounding a bit revisionist as he talks about creating a color continuity, but I love what they did, it looks great. 

 

Sound Re-recordist Chris Jenkins appears for 10-min and goes into creating the sounds of Creepshow, starting of by describing Romero as a big Grizzly bear of a human being who was fond of using the phrase "far out", a real Pittsburg filmmaker who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty on production, not afraid to experiment when making a film. Commenting on John Harrison's synth score which he affectionately calls "cheesy", and creating five different sounding mixes for five film segments. 

Mondo Co-Founder Rob Jones And Mondo Gallery Events Planner Josh Curry speak for about 10-min about their love of Romero and Creepshow in particular, pulling out some vintage prints based on the film. Creepshow collector Dave Burian speaks for about 13 minutes about his love of horror and creepshow, collecting props from the film through his friendship with Tom Savini, bargaining his services for a prop of E.G. Marshall's head, from which the roaches emerged in that segment about the bug, how cool is that! He's also got the crate from 'The Crate' which he bought from Romero's PA, and as if those treasures were not enough he own the Creepshow comic book! He tells the story of hounding animator Rick Catizone for it for years before he broke down and sold it to him, even though it was missing a few pages. As he speaks about these he shows them to us, which is great, this guy must be the envy of a lot of collectors.  He also speak about how he sees himself as a keeper of memories, even collecting the cement trowel from Romero's Night of The Living Dead, Morgan's helmet from Knightriders, the Machete from Dawn of the Dead, and Major Cooper's brain from Dawn of the Dead!

One of my favorite returning extras is Horror’s Hallowed Grounds with host Sean Clark who revisits some of the notable locations used in the film, along with Tom Atkins. He visits Billy's house, the former boy's school that served as  the interior sets and Tom Savini's workshop during production, some vintage footage of the Father's Day house (the owners wouldn't let them on the property), the tree where Billy was shot in the head during a fantasy sequence, the faculty party house, Amberson Hall (actually Carnegie Hall). Atkins reenacts a few of his most memorable lines from the film, and of course outtakes from Clark at the end.

There's also about 12-min of deleted and trimmed scenes that didn't make the final cut, some of the more notable stuff includes more of Jordy's dreams, a stop motion animated severed hand that I mentioned earlier, a lot of this stuff is extended dialogue , but nothing much to get excited about, but it's cool to have it! 

Extras are finished-up with a trailer with cool illustrated graphics, TV and Radio Spots, loads of image galleries, and a Spanish Trailer for the film. 

The single disc release comes housed in standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork - we get the traditional one-sheet and the Bernie Wrightson cover art for the comic adaptation. The keepcase is housed in a sturdy, rigid keepcase along the lines of The [REC] Collection that Scream Factory released. The slipcase also houses a 40-page booklet with extensive writings on the film from Michael Gingold, he recounts missing out an advance screening of the film on Rhode Island as teen, going into some of the production history with interviews from key players, detailing each segment and going into the history of anthology film both prior to and after the success of the film. There's also promotional artwork, posters, lobby cards and still images peppered throughout the booklet, in addition to notes about the new 4K scan. I will say that I am a bit disappointed we did not get a reprint of the 8-page comic from the film, or a reprint of the Bernie Wrightson (Swamp Thing) comic adaptation of the film, either or would have been fantastic.  

Special Features: 

- NEW 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative – Color Correction Supervised And Approved By Director Of Photography Michael Gornick

- Audio Commentary With Director George A. Romero And Special Make-Up Effects Creator Tom Savini

- NEW Audio Commentary With Director Of Photography Michael Gornick

- NEW Audio Commentary With Composer/First Assistant Director John Harrison And Construction Coordinator Ed Fountain

- NEW Terror And The Three Rivers – A Round Table Discussion On The Making Of Creepshow With John Amplas, Tom Atkins, Tom Savini, And Marty Schiff (30 min) 

- NEW The Comic Book Look – An Interview With Costume Designer Barbara Anderson (13 min) 

- NEW Ripped From The Pages – An Interview With Animator Rick Catizone (16 min) 

- NEW The Colors Of Creepshow – A Look At The Restoration of Creepshow With Director Of Photography Michael Gornick (10 min) 

- NEW Into The Mix – An Interview With Sound Re-recordist Chris Jenkins (13 min) 

- NEW Mondo Macabre – A Look At Mondo’s Various Creepshow Posters With Mondo Co-Founder Rob Jones And Mondo Gallery Events Planner Josh Curry (10 min) 

- NEW Collecting Creepshow – A Look At Some Of The Original Props And Collectibles From The Film With Collector Dave Burian (13 min) 

- Audio Interviews With Director Of Photography Michael Gornick, Actor John Amplas, Property Master Bruce Alan Miller, And Make-up Effects Assistant Darryl Ferrucci

Tom Savini’s Behind-The-Scenes Footage (26 min) 

- Horror’s Hallowed Grounds – A Look At The Original Film Locations Hosted By Sean Clark (16 min) 

- Deleted Scenes (16 min) 

- Theatrical Trailers (2 min) 

- TV Spot (1 min) 

- Radio Spots (1 min) 

- Still Galleries – Posters, Lobby Cards (7 min) 

- Still Galleries - Color Stills (2 min) 

- Still Galleries – Behind The Scenes Photos (6 min) 

- Still Galleries – Behind The Scenes Photos: Special Make-up FX (6 min) 

- 40-Page Booklet with New Writing by Michael Gingold 

Creepshow (1982) is a fun EC comics inspired blast, a seminal slice of anthology horror from the minds of George A. Romero and Stephen King, for me it doesn't get much better than this right here. The new 4K resoration looks great, and the mix of new and old extras are truly excellent, plus Scream have done a great job with the packaging and presentation, this is highly recommended. 

Blu-ray Screenshot Comparison

Warner Bros. (2009)

Scream Facory (2018)