Update Megaweek, Day 12: ALL the Salem's Lots!

I've never owned Salem's Lot before.  I always appreciated it.  I even saw a few scenes as a little kid when it aired on TV and they were some of the few really scary horror moments for me.  But the fact that it was made for TV did put me off a little in the prime days of DVD.  Couple that with the fact that it never got a special edition, or even could quite decide whether it should be the shorter theatrical cut or widescreen or the TV version or what, and I just never felt compelled to pull the trigger.  But now that Warner Bros has released a killer new HD restoration blu with an all-new audio commentary by Tobe Hooper at a sell-through price, and who could pass that up?  Especially since I've already got the sequel.

Update 12/3/16 - 1/27/17: I figured instead of just having a little, throw-away paragraph about the remake, I'd give that one proper DVD coverage, too, and make this a definitive Salem's Lot post - enjoy!

Update 8/23/21:  I originally ended my post by hoping Scream Factory would give us A Return To Salem's Lot on blu, and now they have.  Ergo, full credit goes to me. 😎  You're welcome, world!

Update 5/12/26: Well, Arrow has issued us now a fairly definitive super edition of the original in 4k.  And in the interest of being thorough, I've added the King of Horror Collection blu-ray, too.  Plus there's been a whole new Salem's Lot movie since the last update, so I added a bit about that as well.  I titled this entry "ALL the Salem's Lots," so now I've gotta live up to it, right?  Also, since this is Update Megaweek, I've also gone ahead and added the Criterion DVD to the Antichrist page.

Stephen King novels don't exactly have a spotless track record for being adapted to film, especially not on television (remember The Langoliers?).  But this one nails it pretty hard, being genuinely creepy and atmospheric with some great, inspired vampire scenes.  If you want an idea of how influential this was, watch Salem's Lot and Fright Night back to back and count all the times they cribbed from it.  James Mason is one cool customer of a villain and David Soul (Hutch of Starsky and Hutch) is surprisingly good as the leading man.  Except for airing in fullscreen with a little extra reliance on close-ups, Hooper does a great job of making this feel like a big-budget film, with a sweeping score and some great effects.  In its full 3+ hour version, Salem's Lot takes it's time building a whole little world of characters to then revel in ransacking.

Is it perfect? Well, no.  As much as I enjoyed seeing Fred Willard perform (well) in a rare, serious part, we do spend the first ninety minutes or so following a sub-plot of him having an affair with Julie Cobb behind George (Law & Order) Dzundza's back, only to have it make absolutely no difference to the overall story (spoilers, I guess? lol).  King likes his over-the-top Norman Rockwell meets broad satire style ensembles, and while Hooper thankfully plays that down and keeps most of the characters real, there are definitely hints poking through.  Plus, the story's Mexican wrap-around does come from the novel, but it's fairly anticlimactic.  And even with Hopoer at the helm, a lot of camera set-ups still have a cheaper, flatter feel than we probably would've gotten from an actual movie.  ...But for all of that, it's still pretty great.

thanks to Arrow for finally giving us this shot.

It can also feel a little less "TV safe" if you watch one of the racier versions.  Not that there's a version with nudity or anything weird in it, but there are different cuts, which I'll break down for us now.  There's the original broadcast version, split into two parts (as it aired, one episode per week) a little over 90 minutes each.  Then there's a theatrical version, made for the European market, which cuts the whole thing down to one feature-length film, under two hours long.  Third, there's an "extended movie" version, which is basically the two episodes edited into one long, 3+ hour piece, which is what was included on the laserdisc, DVD and initial blu-ray.

But it gets a little more complicated than just that, as some extra violent bits were shot exclusively for the foreign theatrical version.  Willard puts the shotgun in his mouth, not just on his forehead, and Ed Flanders gets gruesomely impaled.  Confusingly, the DVD and initial blu released a kind of hybrid cut, with the censored Willard shots, but the uncensored Flanders shot.  Arrow does the same thing, except they add an option to watch the broadcast episode with your choice of the censored or uncensored Flanders death.  And they include all three cuts (broadcast, theatrical and extended), so fans should really be satisfied now.

Like I said, I've never owned it, but Salem's Lot has been available on DVD since 1999, and I've managed to get my hands on a copy for this piece.  It's in one of those crappy snapper cases and everything.  It was full-screen, but in this case that's acceptable.  But as you'll see, for a 2016 blu-ray, the master was too old to just slap onto an HD disc like the major studios do with a lot of their catalog titles.  So we get a very welcome, updated transfer.  In 2017, Salem's Lot was included in the 2017 King of Horror Collection blu-ray set, alongside The Shining, Cat's Eye and It.  All of these include the extended hybrid cut.  And now, in 2026, it's been restored in a fancy, limited 2 UHD set from Arrow, which restores the film in 4k and gives us multiple cuts: the theatrical, the extended hybrid, the original broadcast, and a bit of a broadcast hybrid (it includes the gorier antler kill), plus a bunch of new special features.

1) 1999 WB DVD; 2) 2016 WB BD; 3) 2017 WB BD;
4) 2026 Arrow UHD (theatrical); 5) 2026 Arrow UHD (broadcast).

[This shot does not appear in the theatrical cut.]

So, let me just start out by saying that the King of Fear BD is exactly the same disc as the 2016 BD (what I expected; but it was good to check and be sure), and all three cuts on the Arrow discs utilize the same master.  So there are basically three transfers to compare: the DVD,. the BDs and the UHDs.  Warner Bros didn't put out much information on what they've done that I've seen, but it looks like they made taken a fresh scan of the original negatives in 2016.  I hadn't been expecting it to look that good.  There has clearly been some color-timing work done, or undone, as you can see in the blue tint removed from the nighttime shot above.  The aspect shifted from 1.32:1 to 1.37:1 on the BDs and UHDs (I'm really surprised, and a little disappointed, Arrow didn't matte the theatrical cut to 1.85 or so).  And, in fact, they're actually a little zoomed in compared to the DVD.  But before you bemoan any lost slivers of picture, you can briefly catch glimpses of boom mics on the DVD, so the slightly tighter framing is surely more correct.  The biggest gain in resolution comes from the jump to BD, where the DVD just looks soft, smudgy and washed in comparison.  There's certainly another jump to UHD (which we do know was scanned from the OCN, with the interpositive used for some exclusive footage in the theatrical cut; and you really don't notice the seams), you can see grain is more consistent, but it's not as dramatic a step forward in that regard.   The Dolby Vision HDR is a nice gain, too; but again, Warner really did a nice job with their blu, so there's nothing that needed correcting; they're just taking us up a generation.

The DVD has the original mono with optional English and French subtitles.  The blu-rays upgrade the audio to DTS-HD audio and have also included optional English subtitles, plus subs in 13(!) other languages and five audio dubs.  They really went all-out.  Arrow dials it back down, but sticks to what's important.  They have DTS-HD on the broadcast and extended cuts, and LPCM on the theatrical, with optional English subs on every cut.

But is this a special edition?  Ehh... it's right on the edge.  It's main extra, and the first substantial extra this film's ever gotten, is a brand new audio commentary by Tobe Hooper.  And it's pretty good.  On one hand, it's actually great, with Hooper answering a lot of questions that come up as a viewer, plus some interesting anecdotes you never would've thought to wonder about.  But on the other hand, presumably to pace himself for a commentary that's over three hours long with no moderator, he pauses.  Like all the time.  He basically says a paragraph's worth of stuff, pauses, then another paragraph's worth, and so on.  So when he does talk, he's not stretching for things to say or low on energy, but that leaves a lot of dead air interspersed throughout.  It's definitely worth the listen, but also takes patience.  But unlike some other slow commentaries, that patience is rewarded.  That and the theatrical trailer are all that's here, but that's still a big step forward.

the trailer at least gives us a glimpse of what the widescreen framing looks like

And Arrow takes another big step forward.  Besides adding the multiple versions, they've added a bunch of new extras.  The Hooper commentary and the trailer are still here, and honestly, they're still the best and most important stuff.  We also get two new audio commentaries, both by experts.  One is Bill Ackerman and Amanda Reyes, which is a little clumsy but very informed and worth checking out.  And the other is by Chris Alexander and sucks.  It's basically just him casually carrying on about whatever pops into his head for the entire run of the film.  Then there's a bunch of video essays and on-camera interviews by/ with experts, and most of these are skippable, too (though they're all better than the self-indulgent Alexander commentary).  Specifically, there are five: an interview with King biographer Douglas Winter, a video essay by critic Grady Hendrix, an interview with Mick Garris, a video essay by film critic Heather Wixson and a video essay by podcast hosts Joe Lipsett & Trace Thurman.  The problem with all of these is that they all basically just repeat info already delivered by Ackerman and Reyes' commentary.  For example, the podcast guys give a smart interpretation of the film's theme of gay panic, but Ackerman already went into all that in the commentary, so they don't wind up saying anything we didn't already just here.  So I'd recommend listening to that one commentary (and Hooper's, of course), but skipping the rest unless you enjoy being bored to tears.

One neat treat Arrow came up with is a video tour of the original shooting locations, though.  That one definitely is worth your time.  They also throw in two stills gallery (including the entire original shooting script), commercial bumpers, the edited antler scene as a separate clip, and a trailer for the sequel.  And if you're a fan of swag, Arrow's limited edition comes equipped.  There's a double-sided, fold-out poster, a slipbox which itself comes in  slipcover, reversible artwork for the amary case, a cute sticker, an Arrow card (mine was for Red Sonja), and a bound booklet with multiple essays and a couple vintage interviews.

And why yes, there was a 2004 remake starring Rob Lowe, as well.  To its credit, it's also a two-part TV series, meaning it didn't have to compress the characters and details into 90 minutes.  It updates the story to 2004, forsaking the scary atmosphere for internet references, lame quips and rapping, but it's got an interesting supporting cast, including Donald Sutherland, Andre Braugher and Rutger Hauer.  Some scenes are new, while others are direct re-stagings of the 1979 film.  The scene where the two men wait in the morgue for the dead wife to rise from under her sheet while the one tapes together a cross out of tongue depressors is a beat-for-beat reproduction of the original scene, right up until the end, where some awful CGI takes over, covering up the actress's face and then she flies up into the ceiling and turns into sparkly computer dust.  But then, there's a whole new subplot about a hunchback who works at a garbage dump and has a crush on a high school girl, which to be fair does actually come right from the book.

So I guess the idea is that this is a more faithful "return to the book," which I appreciate.  It at least justifies this version's existence and gives serious King devotees something to pour through.  But like The Shining and its 1997 remake, it really just shows that talented filmmakers tend to know better than literary purists what works best on screen.  And it doesn't help that a lot of the acting and staging is awfully stilted, sometimes to the point of being downright embarrassing.  You've never seen so many over-the-shoulder dialogue shots in your life, Lowe's narration is downright painful, and the CGI looks like cartoonish garbage, unlike the effects from the 1970s that still pack quite a punch.  So give it a pass unless you're a serious fan who just wants to see what's been changed or kept faithful between this, the original film, and the novel.  The most notable being that the vampire Barlowe is back to being a speaking part instead of a snarling blue monster, some major scenes take place in a different order, the priest plays more of a role and there's no Mexico material.  And as I said, that Mexico stuff was in the book.  Plus with the film's need to modernize, I'm not really sure it can be called more faithful.  It's just... differently faithful.

2004 WB DVD.

But if you are determined to see for yourself, Warner Bros did at least put it out as a no frills, widescreen DVD in late 2004.  And I mean really no frills.  No trailer, no nuffin'.  The film looks fine, though, presented in 1.78:1, which is presumably just how it originally aired on the TNT network.  It's alright for a TV show on an older DVD, suffering a bit in the compression department but otherwise fine.  It's anamorphic, has a 5.1 mix and optional English, Spanish and French subtitles.  Apparently though, this was shot on 35mm, so in theory a fresh HD scan of the negatives could yield a nice improvement.  But that would require people taking an interest in 2004's Salem's Lot, which doesn't seem to be in its future.  And I'm fine with that; I wouldn't buy a blu-ray special edition of this anyway.  Update 2026: Actually, as of December 2024, there is a barebones Spanish greymarket blu-ray out now from Llamentol; that probably is at least a slim upgrade, if anyone cares enough.

In 2024, we got one more Salem's Lot, this one made as a streaming exclusive for HBO Max.  It's feature-length, and therefore very abridged; but it's also the least faithful adaptation because of the wild liberties it takes.  Like, it ends with a crazy shotgun wielding lady chasing our heroes through a drive-in movie theater surrounded by dozens of flaming vampires.  Given that director Gary Dauberman's only other movie has been an Annabelle sequel, though, this is less awful than I was expecting - it's actually kinda fun!  Every time it replicates a scene from the actual Salem's Lot story, it does it much worse, but whenever he starts doing his own thing, it's an energetic, entertaining vampire flick that's surprisingly well shot.  There's no physical release of this film, which I find a little surprising.  Given the recognition value of King's name and the title alone, I'm sure a cheap, barebones blu-ray would sell well better than a lot of titles that are currently sitting on Walmart and Target shelves across the country.  Or you'd think some label in Germany would license it.  But no, as of this writing, it remains a streaming-only title in every region.

A Return To Salem's Lot cannot be said to be a true sequel to Salem's Lot.  Not only do none of the characters return or get a mention, but the history of the Salem's Lot vampires as told in Return directly contradicts what we saw in the original.  This cannot be the same town after the vampires took over in the first one.  But, having watched them back to back for the first time after previously only having seen them years apart, there are enough similarities that I'm sure Cohen was at least making intentional nods back besides placing more vamps in the same town.  Both have a middle-aged man and a teenage boy for protagonists.  Both films' opening scenes are in Mexico, which is an odd choice each time.  There's a scene in Return of a child vampire hovering outside a window beckoning the teenage boy to let them in, a clear reprisal of one of the original's most iconic scenes.  Of course, in both films, the vampires mostly look like typical humans with fangs, but the biggest baddest one is a blue, monstrous one.  And there are plenty more I could list, including this fun fact: because they couldn't afford to burn a whole house down, Hooper took B-roll footage that wasn't used in Eli Kazan's 1969 film, The Arrangement. And when a completely different house burns down in A Return To Salem's Lot, Cohen clearly used the same Kazan footage.

1) 2016 WB BD of Salem's Lot; 2) 2006 WB DVD of A Return to Salem's Lot.

Salem's Lot fans looking for more of the same are surely disappointed by this film.  Scary vampires really aren't what's for sale this time around.  But if you're a Larry Cohen fan, you should be happy.  There are his usual clever moments, there's Michael Moriarity giving another great and quirky lead performance, and just as you think maybe you're getting a little bored with his character and he's becoming too much of a generic, straight leading man... in comes Samuel Fuller as one of the most entertaining characters in any vampire movie ever.  Also look for Tara Reid looking lovely in her first acting role, Andrew Duggan in his final role and Cohen regular James Dixon, who this time also gets a co-writing credit.  This isn't a terribly ambitious picture; and Cohen's let it be known that he only made the film as part of a contract so Warner Bros would fund It's Alive 3.  It's no passion project.  But if you want a low-key enjoyable watch, hey, here ya go.

For ages, A Return To Salem's Lot was unavailable on DVD, which was awfully frustrating for a Cohen fan like myself.  But in 2006, Warner Bros released it in Germany under the title Salem II: Die Ruckkehr, as an anamorphic widescreen disc to boot!  More recently, in 2010, Warner Archives finally released it, and that's anamorphic widescreen, too.  It's an MOD DV-R, though, so I'd still stick with the import.  But none of that matters now, because this week, Scream Factory is releasing the film on blu for the first time, with an all new 4k scan of the OCN!

1) 2006 WB DVD; 2) 2021 SF BD.

Yeah, it's a little soft and obviously standard def, but I just fired the DVD up on my 65" television and it still looks surprisingly good.  Solid darks, no interlacing.  It's basically 16x9 exactly, but with a little bit of blank space in what would've been the over-scan area, giving us a 1.79:1 aspect ratio.  For a plain old DVD, you couldn't really ask for much more.  But for a blu-ray, of course you can.  And Scream Factory delivers.  Now framed in a proper 1.85:1, it's actually surprisingly tighter not just along the bottom, but on the left.  So, I'll call that just a slim improvement.  But otherwise, the new scan is a strong improvement, with the new scan bringing fine detail grain to fresh, authentic life.  The encode could be a little more natural, with grain getting a little pixelated, especially for a barebones disc (more on that in a sec), but this ain't a UHD.  For a BD, this is quite satisfying and we've clearly come a long way.  Colors are more vibrant and restored to authentic tones (the DVD was a bit on the purple side).  Honestly, I would've taken the old master slapped onto a BD disc, just for the extra clarity.  So this new 4k transfer is a treat.

Yes, the German DVD is English friendly.  It has optional German subtitles, but they're removable directly from the menu or the remote, and it gives you the choice of the original English audio (mono in 2.0) or a German dub.  Unfortunately, it has no extras, not even the trailer (neither does the Warner Archives disc), except for a slightly amusing commercial that plays on start-up.  But it does come in a cool, red case.

Scream Factory boosts the 2.0 track to DTS-HD (though it's still a bit hissy) and adds optional English subtitles, making this the definitive presentation of the film by every count.  The sole disappointment is the extras.  There basically aren't any, apart from the trailer ...though even just that does technically put it ahead of the previous discs.  I felt sure we'd at least get a commentary from the King Cohen guy, but oh well.

So at this point, I really can't ask for anything more for Salem's Lot on home video.  I guess somebody will probably release the 2024 version on disc someday, and maybe another region will come out with another edition of one or more of the others some day.  At this point, I'm fine either way.  Salem's Lot has been thoroughly handled, and we can rest peacefully in our coffins.

We Watched... We Waited... Now Our Time Has Come. Lifeforce, the Director's Cut in 4k!

Lifeforce has a hell of a pedigree.  It's a script by Dan O'Bannon, adapting Colin Wilson's novel Space Vampires, directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.  For Cannon, this was their entry into blockbuster budgeted special effects epics meant to compete with the likes of Star Wars and Krull.  For Hooper, this was his homage to Hammer; the kind of film they'd be making had they still been making them in the 80s.  In terms of box office, this movie wasn't such a success, but in terms of what's up on the screen, I'd say both parties pulled off exactly what they were going for.  This is the Hammer summer tent-pole release that never was.  It stars Steve Railsback (Helter Skelter, Trick Or Treats), Peter Firth (Equus, Northanger Abbey), Patrick Stewart and most iconically, Mathilda May.  The effects are lead by Star Wars' own John Dykstra and there's an amazing score by Henry Mancini and The London Symphony Orchestra.  In short, it's a blast.

Significantly, there are two cuts of this film: the theatrical cut and the international cut.  The latter is over fifteen minutes longer, with many alternate shots and takes.  I recommend movie-censorship.com's detailed break-down if you really want to study the differences.  Now, calling the longer version the International version can be misleading, implying that it's an extended alternate cut, sure, but maybe excessively lengthy or extended arbitrarily.  One need only dip your toes into the film's many special features (more on them later) to hear that this is unquestionably the director's cut.  It's the whole crew's preferred cut.  The distributors (Trimark) took the film away from the filmmakers, and even Cannon, and cut it down against everybody's wishes.  They also changed the title from the novel-accurate Space Vampires, though some of the crew concede that may've been a wiser choice.

The original Vestron laserdisc of Lifeforce was a cropped, fuzzy 1:33 presentation of the theatrical cut that barely felt better than watching a VHS, so it was a big deal when MGM introduced the director's cut in 2.35:1 in 1995.  And it's that second laser that MGM carried over to DVD back in 1998.  Unfortunately, as you could probably guess of a disc that old, it was non-anamorphic; and all of these discs were barebones.  They reissued it on DVD in 2005, and I copped it at the time hoping for an upgrade, but sadly the actual contents of the disc were the same.  So it was a big deal when Scream Factory and Arrow released special editions of both cuts in 2013.  I went with Arrow because they had more extras, and their steelbook retained the original poster art.  And when the film was remastered in 4k, both companies released it again.

But I figured a proper 4k disc would be coming around the corner soon enough, and predictably, Scream released an actual UHD release in 2022.  But what's this?  They only put the theatrical cut on 4k?  Yes, it's proven to be one in a long, infuriating line of Scream Factory cheaping out on their 4k editions (see also: Army of Darkness, Exorcist III, Night Of the Creeps, etc).  I understand times are tough and budgets can't be unlimited, but I'm sure not gonna pay for a UHD when the only version I'm ever going to watch is still BD-only!  So I kept the faith in Arrow and sure enough, now in 2025, they've released both cuts in true Ultra 4k HD via their latest 2-disc limited edition.  It even has some more, new extras.

1) 2005 MGM DVD; 2) 2013 arrow BD; 3) 2025 Arrow UHD.

Well, the back of the MGM case says it's 2.35:1, but it's actually 2.42:1, cropping a little more around the edges than Arrow's actual 2.35 discs.  But it's really the non-anamorphic part that makes it unacceptable now, even by SD standards.  Also, whoops!  Is the DVD missing a red filter for the early space tunnel sequence?  Lifeforce was released in 70mm, so it's primed to benefit from the higher resolution of a UHD than almost any other movie actually shot on film.  And that bears out.  Besides just much better encoded film grain, the UHD has more real detail.  Like, you can read the word "MEDICAL" on the doctor's badge in the first set of shots on the UHD, but not the DVD or BD, where you can't even make out the semblance of letters.

Arrow's new booklet keys us into some interesting facts about their image.  Specifically, that they're using Scream's transfer for the theatrical cut, which was scanned from the original 35mm negative (yes, the film was shot in 35 and blown up for 70mm prints... so I guess the increased detail is actually just the natural benefit of a fresh 4k scan) in HDR10/ Dolby Vision.  But then Arrow restored the international cut in 2024 by scanning a 35mm interpositive in 4k and compositing that in on their own.  So most of this is the 2022 transfer with newly scanned IP footage spliced in.  Above, I took the first set of shots from the theatrical cut and the second is a shot only in the international cut.  I have to say, I never spotted the seams in motion, but zooming into the footage on PC, the grain is definitely less defined.  You can barely make any out in that last screenshot, which is also true of the older blu.  So yeah, the difference in quality is there, but I can't imagine using it as an excuse not to release the composite cut in 4k.

For the audio, MGM just gave us a 5.1 mix (obviously not original for a 1985 movie) with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.  In 2013, Arrow preserved that 5.1 mix in lossless DTS-HD, but also gave us the original stereo in LPCM, with just the English subs.  For the record, Scream did the same with their release, except their 2.0 was also DTS-HD.  Anyway, now in 2025, Arrow keeps both of those tracks (and subs) but also adds a third Dolby Atmos mix, which was apparently also made (for the theatrical cut) by Scream.  Then Arrow went ahead and produced their own Dolby Atmos mix for the International cut as well.

MGM started us off with the bare minimum special features: an equally non-anamorphic trailer and an insert booklet with notes.  It's Scream Factory and Arrow who brought the extras to the table, and many were the same across their dual releases.  For starters, both have audio commentaries with Hooper (excellent despite his moderator constantly cutting him off) and effects artist Nick Maley, who worked more on the make-up side of the effects.  Both also have three excellent on-camera interviews with Hooper, Railsback (a little short) and Mathilda May.  Seriously, if you're only willing to spend a little bit of time with Lifeforce, just watch these.  Then there's the trailer and some TV spots.

Scream Factory also, briefly, had one other extra: a vintage half-hour documentary called The Making Of..... Lifeforce.  I say "briefly" because, apparently Shout Factory assumed they had the rights to this along with the film itself, but apparently they didn't and got in trouble for it, so they had to re-issue the disc with this removed.  Only people who pre-ordered or scored very early copies have the version with this doc on it, which is a shame, because it's excellent.  Unlike every other extra for this film, including on future releases, this is full of behind-the-scenes footage.  It has quick interviews with the cast and crew on location, including some not otherwise interviewed on any Lifeforce release, but more important is all the impressive footage of the amazing giant sets, explosions and scores of extras running around in "walking shriveled" make-up.  I'd be even more bothered by the loss of this doc, however, if it hadn't already been released on laserdisc, not as an extra for the film, but as its own release.  It's The Making Of..... Lifeforce on one side, and The Making Of..... Invaders From Mars (the Hooper remake, natch) on the other.  It's a shame neither Scream nor Arrow could make a deal to include this on any of their releases, but at least it's out there.

So, anyway, that wraps it up for Scream Factory's extras.  It also came with reversible artwork, a slipcover, and a poster if you pre-ordered directly from Shout.  But Arrow had more.  First off, they've got a third commentary with effects artist Douglas Smith, who did more of the outer space visuals.  This one's a little dry (the moderator is full of "CGI just doesn't feel as real as physical effects" observations that plagued every commentary from that time), but Smith has some good memories fans will enjoy hearing.  And they've got an original feature-length retrospective documentary.  It's often redundant if you've watched the other extras, but there's also some candid talk (i.e. about drug use on set) that nobody got into in other features, and some cast and crew members nobody else got to talk to them, so it's definitely worth your time.  Arrow also has an isolated music and effects track (in LPCM stereo) nobody else included.  Their release also included a 28-page booklet by Bill Warrens and a slipcover, though as I already mentioned, their alternate steelbook release looks much better for using the iconic original artwork.

That's been the whole story for extras until now.   Arrow's and Scream Factory's respective 2017 and 2018 remastered editions didn't include any new extras, nor does Scream's 2022 UHD.  But now in 2025, yes, Arrow has included some new stuff.  First of all, there's over 45-minutes of never before released interviews with Hooper and several other crew members shot for the 2014 Cannon Films documentary Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films.  Hooper in particular repeats a lot of anecdotes we've heard already, but there's new stuff here, too, particularly (as you'd expect) involving their working relationship with Golan and Globus.  And there's a new, roughly fifteen minute comparison between the theatrical and television versions of Lifeforce[above], which uses several alternate shots and other edits to make it broadcast safe.  They've also thrown in the original credits sequence without the text covering it.  This release includes a new, completely different 24-page booklet by Frank Collins, an art-card for Bastard Swordsman from their recent 'Shawscope Volume 3' boxed set, reversible artwork and a slipcover... though disappointingly, they've ditched the original artwork again.

That all adds up to Arrow's 2-disc UHD set easily being the definitive edition.  I hope you held out and didn't get suckered in my Scream's edition.  And I hope fans support this superior release, and it in turn helps nudge Scream into putting all of their films' versions onto UHD, not just the theatrical cuts.  Let's reverse this depressing trend.  More sales of a higher quality product ought to win out over cutting corners to save a few bucks.

The One and Only True Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Well, gee, somehow I've done all the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre films, even "Part 5," but not the original original.  Some of those other films are cool (The Beginning, 3D and 2017's Leatherface?  Not so much), but Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel's 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a legit horror classic; a great film that holds up perfectly to this day.  So we're going to correct this egregious oversight.  From Pioneer's non-anamorphic DVD to Turbine's UHD, this is THE Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Update 2/28/20 - 5/31/23: This kind of reminds me of when Blue Underground said there was no point in releasing Shock Waves on blu because it was 16mm, so it wouldn't benefit from being upgraded to HD.  Of course, years later, their eventual blu wound up looking observably better than the DVD.  After Turbine's TCM UHD sans-HDR, fan demand has lead to new 4k Ultra HD discs with it.  Do they similarly disprove the notion that this low budget 16mm wouldn't benefit from it?  Let's take a look!

Every time I rewatch this one, I'm surprised how strong every element of this film is.  The performances, the production design, the music, the writing, the editing and direction are all so damn good.  This isn't just effective because it got in early and managed to shock audiences before they were desensitized; this is an excellently crafted films made by virtual amateurs that all the major studios consistently fail to match, decade after decade.  A genuine masterpiece.

Chain Saw is, I suppose, the next step after Psycho: a disturbing film that takes loose, tabloid-esque inspiration from true crime horror and turns it into twisted psychological theater.  Both films capture mental illnesses in a more raw, realistic film than any of their peers and mix it up with an over-the-top exploitative thrill ride.  And both famously pushed the envelope of what was acceptable to put on screen; the difference is that decades later, Hitchcock's shock pieces now feel quaint, whereas most horror even today is afraid to go as far as Hooper went.  But they wind up closer together than further apart, since both are more than capable of standing up as compelling art pieces once you get past their initial shock value.  They're great twisted tales.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre debuted on DVD back in 1998, with a barebones, non-anamorphic DVD from Pioneer.  They re-released it in 2003 with new artwork, but it was the same disc, which is the first one we'll be looking at here.  Then Dark Sky got the rights, remastered the film and proper, 2-disc special edition in 2006.  We've got that one, too.  They put that same transfer on blu in 2008, but they replaced that with an even more loaded 40th Anniversary edition blu with a 4k remaster in 2014, which we've also got on hand.  And in the US, that's still the definitive edition.  They've re-issued it multiple times, in limited steelbooks, Best Buy and FYE exclusives, and even a special 5-disc set that comes in a box shaped like the truck from the film's finale, but it's all basically that same 40th edition.  In Germany, however, Turbine took it one step farther, giving us the 4k master in actual 4k with a BD/ UHD combo-pack in 2016.  That 3-disc set was later repackaged as a steelbook release in 2019, which we'll be looking at here.  And most recently, it's been remastered, again in 4k, but this time with HDR.  It was released in the US by Dark Sky, Germany by Turbine (yes, again) and the UK be Second Light, the last of which I've got for us today.

1) 2003 Pioneer DVD; 2) 2006 Dark Sky DVD; 3) 2014 Dark Sky BD;
4) 2019 Turbine BD; 5) 2019 Turbine UHD; 6) 2023 Second Sight UHD.

Pioneer's DVD insert describes their initial release as a "letterboxed high-definition SuperScan... painstakingly restored from the original 16mm ECO negatives."  Unfortunately, compressed into non-anamorphic 520x300 resolution, it's hard to appreciate that.  It's soft and riddled with compression noise, which is only worsened by the fact that it's interlaced.  It's also missing some picture along the left, because they've framed it at an unusual 1.72:1, which Dark Sky restores to 1.78:1.  They also make an interesting point about the film's colors and levels saying that the look they're presenting was "redesigned to reflect Hooper's original vision of higher contrast images and color. The hot sun now casts an amber hue upon the dry Texas landscape."  So, looking at the different color timings above, this makes me guess that the Dark Sky DVD might be the most authentic scan of the elements, but the warmer tones and yellower skies of the other editions might be Hooper's preference?

At any rate, this film was shot on 16mm, which means detail is inherently low, and so there's some question how useful higher-def presentations are.  Well, one look at the DVD makes it obvious that the original DVD isn't high enough.  But the gains going from the Dark Sky DVD to the BDs and eventually to the UHD are more subtle.  Every iteration after the first has more detail and life to the image.  But even looking at the Dark Sky DVD, it's clearly softer, with the film grain just semi-visible as smoothed over blotches.  Despite being just 16, the new 4k scan really is a beautiful upgrade.  If you're still holding onto a DVD thinking this film doesn't need an upgrade, think again.  But how about the UHD?  It has no HDR and uses the same 4k master, so the only real distinction is in the still higher resolution disc.  And there the difference really is hard to spot on first glance.

2014 Dark Sky BD left; 2019 Turbine UHD right.

It is there, though.   Well, first of all, they also matte their UHD (but not their blu-ray) to a slightly tighter 1.85:1.  But moving beyond that, if you get in real close, you can see areas on the blus where individual specks of grain are unresolved, and we get tiny macroblocks.  Even the UHD does if you really scour, but much less and more grain is more clearly defined.  But are you ever going to see this in motion?  I'm going to say probably not, especially if you don't have a huge TV.  But you might get a less direct sense of watching something more authentically filmic.  To put it in real terms, yes, the UHD is the best edition and objectively superior to the blu.  But if you've got a blu, I'd say it's a very slim upgrade, and just in terms of PQ, should be a low priority upgrade.

And the new Dolby Vision/ HDR10 version?  Well, first of all, the Second Sight shots will, like any HDR shot, look darker on an SD display.  But viewed on a proper HD screen, I'd say the colors look a little more saturated, particularly in the reds, but not much.  It's still 1.85:1 with virtually identical framing (it shifts about one pixel's worth to the right).  Grain is slightly better captured now, especially in areas like the sky of the first set of shots, or the orange reflector, where it's washed out on the Turbine.  This gives it a slightly sharper look.  And actually, some film damage has been cleaned up (note the spot on the van door, for example, above the front handle, that's present on the Turbine but not the SS in the second set of shots).  Most viewers probably won't notice the difference outside of a direct comparison like this, so I'm not sure if the distinction is important, but it is there.  For the record, Second Sight has the best transfer.

As far as audio, the original DVDs used the original audio elements "to create a digitally remastered stereo surround soundtrack."  They had no subtitle options.  Dark Sky, then and went and recovered the original mono track... but, it turned out, with a few sound effects missing.  They also included the newer stereo mix as well as their own 5.1 mix.  And yes, they created optional English and Spanish subtitles.  For their 40th blu, then, they kept all three sound mixes and also made a newer 7.1 mix, in lossless DTS-HD and LPCM, and kept the subtitles.  Because the mono track was flawed, though, they replaced it with a downmix of their 7.1 track, which made things less authentic, not more.  In the Turbine set, we get mono, stereo and 7.1 in DTS-HD, plus newer Dolby Atmos and Auro-3D 13.1 mixes.  It's a bit of overkill, but as you'll soon see, that's the name of the game with that set.  They also have four versions of the German track, plus optional English and German subs.  And finally, Second Sight has the original mono in LPCM, a Dolby Atmos mix and English subtitles.

The extras for this film just keep getting to the point of being overwhelming, but happily, not too redundant. The original DVDs basically bring us the extras package from the Elite laserdisc: a great audio commentary by Hooper, Gunnar Hansen and cinematographer Daniel Pearl, a brief featurette on the sets and props, deleted/ alternate scenes, a brief gag reel, and a bunch of trailers, TV spots and stills galleries.  Then Dark Sky kept all of that but added a bunch more including a second audio commentary by stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Allen Danziger and infamous production designer Robert A. Burns, which is more of a light-hearted chatty affair.  They also include a brief featurette where Hansen revisits the house they filmed in and two feature length documentaries.  The first, The Shocking Truth, made by Blue Underground, is still the definitive, over-all TCM doc.  Then the second, Flesh Wounds, made by Red Shirt's Michael Felsher, seems deliberately designed to compliment the other pre-existing special features, and present only new, additional info about TCM rather than retelling all the stories and anecdotes from the other docs and commentaries.  That helps a lot.  Dark Sky's DVD set also includes additional outtakes from The Shocking Truth, some additional bonus trailers, and came in a cool steelbook.

For their 40th Anniversary blu-ray, Dark Sky kept everything and also cooked up a few more nice treats.  There're two additional audio commentaries, including a new Hooper one, where the director of Shocking Truth quizzes him for for the few remaining niggling answers he's been left wondering over the years, and an interesting crew commentary by Pearl, editor J. Larry Carroll and sound recordist Ted Nicolaou.  During their new 4k scan, they uncovered some more deleted scenes and outtakes, different from the ones already released on the DVDs, though most are without sound.  And they conducted new, on-camera interviews with actress Teri McMinn, who up 'till now had never participated in TCM interviews and such, "grandpa" actor John Dugan, J. Carroll and production manager Ron Bozman.  Felsher did these as well, and they again seemed specifically designed to fill in the gaps of the existing Chain Saw coverage, which I really appreciate.  Plus they add some vintage radio spots.  Also, if you bought the limited edition "Black Maria" version, the one in truck packaging, you got an additional bonus disc that consists of an hour long discussion between Hooper and William Friedkin.

Teri McMinn happily rejoins the family.

And Turbine?  Happily, they also retain all the legacy extras we've covered so far, except for that exclusive Hooper/ Friedkin talk.  And they add some more, too.  There's an isolated music and effects track, in DTS-HD 7.1, and a brief featurette that compares key scenes from the original film to the 2003 remake, which is more valuable if you don't already own the remake.  Even better, they include the Horror's Hallowed Grounds TCM episode, which blows the old house tour featurette away (although that's still on here, too).  And best of all, they include the original TCM documentary: 1988's Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait, which specifically interviews all the cast members who played members of the killer family.  And is most valuable because that includes Jim Siedow, who passed away before he could be included in most of the other TCM special features.

Now, I read on DVDCompare that on the Turbine release, "'A Family Portrait' is in a mix of German and English audio, with German subtitles for the English portions," which is correct, so I hung onto my 2000 MTI Home Video DVD.  But, while that quote did turn out to be true, it's misleading by omission since Turbine also includes a second audio track of the complete, original English audio.  That German/ English mix thing is just a second, alternate language option for German audiences we English natives don't need to bother with.  Oh and yes, both are the extended "Revisited" version.  I don't think there's any way to get the original version, which was originally actually ten minutes longer and included an interview with Chief Gorehound #1 Chas Balun, outside of the original VHS release.  So yeah, there's no reason to hang onto the separate DVD, unless... the picture quality's any better on the blu?

1) 2000 MTI DVD; 2) 2019 Turbine BD.

Nope, it's just the same.  The film was shot on video tape, so there's no real room to grow.  MTI released this as a standalone on blu (or BD-R, strictly speaking) in 2016 and caught a lot of flack for the PQ, but it's not like there was a negative to go back to or anything.  Anyway, the discs aren't 100% identical.  They're both fullscreen, of course, but the DVD is 1.32:1 while the blu is slightly wider at 1.36:1.  That's partially because Turbine cropped the bar of random video noise along the bottom edge, and but it's also a teensy bit squished, which the blu corrects.  Both versions are interlaced and soft to the point of downright blurriness, which again I'm sure goes right back to the original tapes, but the colors are slightly, like 1%, more robust and attractive.  So not only is the quality of the stand-alone not any preferable, it's actually a smidgen better on Turbine's release.  And there are no extras apart from a couple trailers; so go ahead and chuck those DVDs, kids.

When you look at the massive list of extras that've piled up over the decades, it can look overwhelming and you'll probably be tempted to skim through a lot, if not skip things completely.  But it's all surprisingly watchable as a massive whole.  Sure, you'll hear a few of the most famous anecdotes two or three times.  But in general, it all works well together.  The only little one I'd recommend maybe jumping over is the house tour, since the Hallowed Grounds and two documentaries also revisit the same house.  Some talk to different people - Flesh Wounds talks to the head of the TCM fan club and Hallowed Grounds talks to one of the owners who's embraced the fanbase coming to visit the home - so they all feel fresh and original.  But one of the docs even uses footage from the Gunnar house tour featurette, so that's really the one you can save yourself a few minutes by passing over.

And Second Sight's new set?  It's equally stacked.  Almost everything that's on the Turbine is carried over, but not absolutely everything.  Lost, unfortunately, is Family Portrait, the newer set of silent deleted scenes, the brief blooper/ outtake reel and that little comparison video between this and the remake.  And no, this doesn't have that Friedkin/ Henkel interview either - that seems to be a tightly held Dark Sky exclusive.  But Second Sight has come up with a bunch of new stuff, actually making this release flusher than ever.

First of all, there's a new audio commentary by experts Amanda Reyes and Bill Ackerman, who do a pretty good job of finding eclectic information to add that hasn't already been covered by the slew of pre-existing extras.  They're pretty high energy and fun to listen to, too.  Then there's an all new, feature-length documentary called The Legacy Of the Texas Chain Saw Massacre.  This one focuses on critics and other filmmakers rather than participants of the original film, again I believe it's because they were conscious of not just repeating what the other extras already cover... and they do an okay job.  A lot of this is just sharing uninteresting "I was _ years old when I saw Chain Saw"-style memories and obvious opinions, but they got some interesting people, including the co-directors of the 2013 remake.  It's borderline: an easy one to skip if you've already watched a ton of TCM features, but perfectly watchable if you've still got the patience.

There's also a new video essay by critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, which is honestly kind of weak.  Apparently she's written a book about masks in horror films, so she's hear to talk about masks in TCM; but it's just a few minutes long, so it feels like she's just briefly outlining the basic fundamentals before it's already over.  They should've given her more time to really dig into some of the more interesting ideas that are presumably found in her book or just skipped it.  More rewarding are two vintage on-camera interviews with Hooper and Henkel, which are extended pieces from their interviews in Shocking Truth.  More Henkel is always a boon.

If you sprung for their limited edition, you also got a hefty 190-page hardcover book, six art cards and a slipcase, plus blu-ray copies of the film and extras.  Or you can just get the single UHD edition, which includes all of the on-disc extras, but none of the swag.

So, does this crazy, old 16mm film need a 4k Ultra HD edition with HDR?  Well, there's no doubt Second Sight's latest transfer is the best yet.  But even coupled with the new special features, fans might question if it's reason enough to re-buy this film once again.  I mean, definitely if you still have the old Pioneer DVD or something.  But otherwise, it depends if you're just one of those people who needs to have the absolute best version of this film in heir collection.  It turns out I was.  Of course, it helps that it's a masterpiece.