Update Megaweek, Day 3: The Brood Leading The Brood

Like I was recently saying, I'm interested in these semi-simultaneous blu-ray releases of cult titles in the US and the UK. Here's a fairly recent pairing: The Brood, first released overseas by Second Sight in 2013, and just a couple months ago here in the states by Criterion. Curiously, they share some extras in common, but each also have unique features; and the transfers themselves are different. It raises the question again, which is better?

Update 3/18/16 - 4/24/26: Today it's time the latest Second Sight's 4k upgrade of The Brood!  Also, I've added the original 1999 DVD of A Nightmare On Elm St, so that page now features all four official transfers.

If you're not familiar with The Brood, you ought to be, as it's one of David Cronenberg's most compelling films. It may even be his greatest, but his catalog is so rich and diverse, it's tempting to call several of his films the best, simply depending on which you've last watched. It's a wild mix of intelligent science fiction and riveting psycho-drama. Art Hindle is a father who suspects his wife, Samantha Eggar, has begun abusing their daughter after joining a cult-like psychotherapy group run by Oliver Reed. These people are into a cutting edge technique called "psychoplasmics," where patients somehow work out their emotional problems biologically. The most unforgettable scene for me isn't a suspenseful scare or complicated special effects sequence, but simply when Hindle finds ex-patient Robert Silverman, who wears a towel around his neck and and gives a brilliant monologue about his routine for exercising his lymphatic system and his class-action lawsuit against Reed's organization. Of course, there's plenty of truly memorable horror scenes as well, including two monstrous little kids conducting a hit in a kindergarten class room and Eggar's gruesome birthing scene.

It's just so successful on so many levels at once: intellectual, visceral, the performances... The only complaint I can see potential viewers have is that it's too talky for fans looking for a fast-moving horror show. And even then, you can't say that this film doesn't present the goods in terms of special effects, shocking imagery and violent deaths, if that's what you're after. It's Cronenberg really successfully bridging the gap between horror/exploitation genre fare and serious, adult films. Even most of his own work tends to pick a site, but I love it when he masters them both at once.

So, like I said, I've got Second Sight's 2013 blu-ray from the UK and Criterion's new 2015 blu-ray. I've also got the 2000 French/ Canadian DVD from DVDY Films, under the title Chromosome 3, which was always the best pre-HD release of the film (though MGM put out a respectable but slim, no frills DVD in 2003, which I used to own for a while). I'll put that one into the comparison mix, too, because it shows us something interesting about the transfers and it includes a little something that makes it still collectible to this day. And of course, now I've got the latest and greatest: Second Sight's 2025 UHD.  The limited edition was a two-disc set with a BD and UHD, and the standard edition just has the UHD.  I don't see much point in adding redundant, lower quality copies of the film to my collection, so I went with the latter.

1) DVDY DVD; 2) Second Sight BD; 3) Criterion BD; 4) Second Sight UHD.

Now, if you're very astute, you'll notice that the blu-rays leave the film open at 1.78:1, whereas only the DVD matted it down to 1.85:1, at least until the UHD, which brought the 1.85 back. And the framing is slightly shifted on all four transfers, revealing slivers of information on all different sides of each disc. But you don't have to be astute at all to notice the big, glaring difference between them... who turned out the lights on the Criterion disc? It's so much darker and blu/ gray, compared to Second Sight's. But if you really scrutinize it, maybe it's a little too bright. When the brights are super high, like in snow or flared out sunlight, there's a teensy bit of white crush, though you can only even be sure by comparing it to the other discs. Look at the highlights in Reed's hair, and you can see detail eaten away in the SS blu that's present in the DVD and Criterion blu.

1) DVDY DVD; 2) Second Sight BD; 3) Criterion BD; 4) Second Sight UHD.

So it's very telling now that Second Sight have moved strongly towards Criterion with their new restoration. It's even gets a little darker. In the extras, they talk about having shot a lot of night-for-day (or at least dusk-for-day), so I'm thinking we've arrived at the more accurate representation of what's on the film.  And it does look better now in the Dolby Vision HDR, with richer more distinct colors and deeper blacks (indeed, higher contrast in general) than Criterion had.  And film grain, which frankly was pretty weak on both blus, now finally looks like real film.  And that does pay off in actual, visual detail.  You can read even more of the small text in those posters in that first set of shots than ever.  For instance, did you know that "Traffic in both directions must STOP when a stopped school bus flashes red lights front an rear - regardless of speed limit?"  You could always read that bright red "STOP," but this is the first time I could make out that whole message.

Both blus and the UHD offer uncompressed LPCM mono tracks and optional English subtitles. The DVD has French and English Dolby tracks with semi-forced English subtitles (there's a trick to remove them on most players, but it doesn't work on my Pioneer). They're not burnt in or anything, though. But the DVD is also cut.  It's the R-rated version, trimmed of about 30-40 seconds, really, the only reason to be considering that one is for the extras.

Yes, the extras. The DVD actually has some exclusive stuff, which is why it's worth hanging onto even if you've got one or both of the blu-rays. Some of it's not English-friendly (boo! Though if you speak French, it's a nice bonus), including an introduction by Serge Grunberg (who wrote a book on Cronenberg), and a featurette called Cronenberg On Horror. But there's also a lengthy Q&A with Cronenberg and composer Howard Shore, where they speak in English. No other release has that. I wouldn't double-dip for it, but if you already own it, I wouldn't sell it off either.

Now, to the blus. Second Sight created some great, new special features for their release. Five to be exact. There's a great twenty-minute interview with Art Hindle and Cindy Hinds, and an informative talk with cinematographer Mark Irwin. Then they've got a good one with producer Pierre David who gives us the film's history, and a very welcome talk with Cronenberg regular Robert A. Silverman. Finally, there's an interview with David Cronenberg himself, where he talks about his beginnings as a filmmaker, from how he got started to Rabid. Curiously though, they stop right before getting to The Brood.

Disappointingly, Criterion ports over some of those extras, but not all. Specifically, they use Second Sight's interview with Hindle and Hinds, and the Cronenberg one about his history. But then they also scared up some new stuff of their own, most notably Birth Pains, a thirty minute retrospective on the film that talks to Eggar (who's quite enthusiastic about the film), Mark Irwin, Pierre David, assistant director John Board, and effects artists Rick Baker and Joe Blasco. It's quite good and the inclusion of Irwin and David eases the pain of their missing Second Sight interviews; but it's a bummer they didn't carry over Silverman's. If they could license some of the titles, why not all? Oh well, there's probably a very good and dry reason.

Criterion also includes Crimes of the Future, an early Cronenberg short film that's been included on heaps of Cronenberg DVDs and blu-rays by every company under the sun, but hey, why not have it here, too? They also have an episode of The Merv Griffin Show with Oliver Reed, but he never talks about The Brood on it. It's mostly just celebrity banter between the two of them, plus other guests Orson Welles and Charo: lightly amusing but hardly essential. Criterion also comes with a booklet featuring notes by Carrie Rickey, and they have a radio spot. Curiously, none of these releases feature the theatrical trailer, though the MGM DVD had it.

Now, the new Second Sight has all of their old extras, but none of Criterion's, and still not the DVDY stuff.  And they still don't have the trailer.  They do scare up a 2016 interview with Howard Shore and an expert commentary by William Beard, both of which were made for a German blu-ray.  And they made some new stuff: another expert commentary by Martyn Conterio & Kat Ellinger, and a video essay by Leigh Singer.  Honestly, I'm not sure most of that stuff was worth the time it took to sit through, but it was nice to get the Shore interview.  And you could get this in as a standard edition or limited edition version in a slipcase with a 120-page book and six art cards.

So what once was a tough decision has been made very easy.  You might want to hang onto some of the previous editions for additional extras, but you definitely want to double-dip for the UHD regardless.

The Florida Project, Looking Even More Beautiful On UHD

Well, 2017 Academy Award nominee The Florida Project just touched down this past week on blu-ray, except for a few lucky pre-orderers on Amazon, who wound up getting their discs a month early due to a little screw up.  But hey, I'm not bitter... At least not like I was two weeks ago.  haha  But it's funny how all release data drama washes right under the bridge once we finally get our hands on what we want.  And now I do: Sean Baker's latest and greatest film on blu, by way of Lions Gate.

Update 2/25/18 - 7/12/18: I've added the DVD edition for comparison.

Update 10/25/25: I never thought we'd get another upgrade on this title, but then Anora went ahead and swept the Academy Awards, so here we are with a fancy special edition UHD from Second Sight!

Well, I call this Baker's greatest film, but to be fair, I haven't seen all of his earliest work.  I've seen most of it, though, even that IFC show about the stuffed bunny.  And I just recently revisited his last and probably mots popular feature, Tangerine, which is particularly interesting having now watched The Florida Project.  You can really see how the look and feel of this picture, from the style of the performances and editing, right down to specific shots, are directly carried over from there.  Like, the precious framing of the locked establishing shot of businesses like the Orange World or Wizard Gift Shop feel like they're taken from the same movie as the Donut Time shot in Tangerine.  Even if you had no idea the same filmmaker made both movies, you'd instantly recognize that somebody behind the camera of the one film had clearly worked on the other.

But where The Florida Project excels is in its maturity.  Tangerine had a touching, poignant ending that really elevated the preceding 90 minutes or so.  But until then, it felt like a pretty superfluous, entertaining piece of fluff.  Transgender characters constantly cracking about having penises felt like a young straight writer playing out of his element.  But what everybody's latching onto here is how authentic the characters in this film come across, especially the children.  We're really drawn into this world of dirt poor Floridians living in the shadow of Disney World.  We find Halley (newcomer Bria Vinaite, who really should be among this year's nominees) and her children having lunch on a pink park bench giving the middle finger to one of the low flying helicopter tours that are constantly buzzing past them day in and day out.  It's really more of a character study than plot-driven narrative as we explore the world of a handful of impoverished families living month to month in a cheap hotel called The Magic Castle, not to be confused with The Magic Kingdom.  Willem Dafoe is the manager who also lives there, trying to maintain order but who can't help but empathize as the lives of people around them fall apart.

1) 2018 US Lions Gate DVD; 2) 2018 US Lions GateBD;
3) 2025 UK Second Sight UHD.

Lions Gate's discs were contemporary new releases when I first posted this, so I think it's safe to assume we're getting the final DCP straight out of the filmmakers' editing software slapped onto a disc, so there's not a lot of potential issues to police.  This was shot on both 35mm and digital, and they do a fine job blending them together.  Grain looks natural, and the colors are bold and appealing without being overly saturated.  The film is presented in 2.39:1 (on all three discs) with a lot of high focus, wide angle imagery, so you're really going to want to see this eye candy in HD.

Or even Ultra-HD, although don't set your expectations too high.  There's not much by way of new detail being unveiled on Second Sight's higher resolution disc.  The text on that STOP sign in the background of that second set of shots, for example, is no easier to read than it was on the blu.  Film grain just looks soft, which is presumably intentional on behalf of the director (perhaps to help blend the film and digital footage), who did produce this new restoration.  The colors are a little stronger now, but honestly, they were always fine on the Lions Gates.

The audio is a strong, if a little low on dialogue (I found myself cranking the volume higher than I do on most discs) 5.1 mix, in DTS-HD on the blu and UHD.  LG included optional English and Spanish subtitles, which Second Sight has pared down to just the English.

Now just reading the back of the case, LG's release may've looked disappointingly light: a 'making of' featurette, a gag reel and cast and crew interviews.  That's it.  But actually, some of this is a lot better than they make it sound.  That 'making of' featurette is not the generic, promotional featurette we see on just about every disc.  It's an original, 22 minute documentary that uses no clips from the film, but instead gives us a very candid look behind the scenes, from the early production meetings to the director yelling at a truck for spoiling his shot.  The gag reel is what you'd expect, a very short but amusing string of outtakes, mostly involving the precocious kids.  And the cast and crew interviews?  They actually run for almost a full hour, and while the cast interviews are a little softball and repeat the same anecdotes you've probably already heard (i.e., they cast the lead off of Instagram), but the interviews with the director and co-writer are particularly interesting.  Lions Gate also loads this disc with bonus trailers (but not the film's official trailer!) that will play for like half an hour on start-up if you don't do something about it, and it does come in a slipcover.

And here's where Second Sight really shines.  They keep all of that, but they've also produced a whole ton more, starting with an audio commentary by Baker, co-writer Chris Bergoch and DoP Alexis Zabé.  If you've heard previous Baker commentaries, you know he does upbeat and informative ones, and this is no exception.  Then there's a second, expert commentary by Kat Ellinger and Martyn Conterio.  And we get all new, on-camera interviews with Baker, Willem Dafoe, Vinaite, Brooklynn Kimberly Prince, Valeria Cotto, Christopher Rivera, another group chat with Prince, Cotto & Rivera (they played the kids), Chris Bergoch, producer Andrew Duncan, co-producers Kevin Chinoy & Francesca Silvestri, associate producer Samantha Quan, Rev. Mary Downey from the Community Hope Center, and casting agent Patti Wiley.  Still not enough?  There's another featurette where the three kids revisit the hotel they filmed in and a visual essay by Rohan Spong.  Still no trailer, though.  It does exist; I looked it up on Youtube.  But apparently nobody wants to stick it on disc.

Anyway, that's just the standard edition.  If you spring for the limited edition, you also get 2 BD discs (the film and extras... the UHD has everything all on one disc), a 160-page hardcover book with a series of essays and photographs, eight art cards and a slipcase.

So Lions Gate's blu already proved to be more rewarding than I was expecting.  But if you're a fan, Second Sight has created a new, definitive edition.  And if you're an uber-fan, there's the fancy limited edition.  Of course, a lot of people will be fine with just the DVD, and the curious will just stream it.  Choose according to how you identify!  Me, I'm a standard edition UHD kinda guy.

The Total Creepshow Experience Just Got Totaller

Creepshow has always been released barebones in the USA. But in the UK, it had a sweet 2-disc DVD special edition. When it was time for blu-ray, Creepshow stayed barebones in the US, but the UK blu got even more extras! But finally, the director of the Creepshow documentary Just Desserts from the UK releases, Redshirt's Michael Felsher, put together an indiegogo campaign to release just his doc in the USA, even if it had to be by itself, as opposed to paired with Warner Bros' Creepshow discs. Well, that happened, and Synapse picked it up, including a bunch more special features. Just what's carried over from one special edition to another - and what isn't - can be a little confusing, so let's break it all down.

Update 10/14/18: And suddenly there's a lot more to the Creepshow story!  Scream Factory has restored the film in 4k from the original camera negative, and they've issued it in a fancy new special edition, with even more all new special features.

Update 7/1/23: And now that we're solidly in the 4k Ultra HD age, it only make sense that Scream Factory circle back around and release Creepshow on a proper UHD, which they've now done, in a brand new 2-disc BD/ UHD combo-pack.

First of all, Creepshow is a blast. It's one of those movies I loved as a kid and still get just as much out of today. You know, usually movies fall on one side of that line or the other, but this is one of those treats that fills both spaces. It's an anthology film directed by George Romero, written by (and co-starring) Stephen King, based on the old E.C. horror comics of the 1950s. That's already some top of the line talent, bolstered by the fact that they have a respectable (for a horror movie) budget and a big studio behind them. But then add to that the effects-work of Tom Savini and a terrific all-star cast, all delightfully shot and dramatically framed over-the-top, capturing the style of the original comic books perhaps better than any other, with the possible exceptions of much later entries like Sin City or Ang Lee's The Hulk. But unlike The Hulk, this doesn't suck, so it's really the best of both worlds.  ;)

Every story is great. You have a wrap-around segment where a young boy is forbidden to read his trashy comic books by his father, Tom Atkins. But he reads anyway, and each story is is one of our anthology's segments, starting with Father's Day, starring Ed Harris. He marries into a wealthy family who owe all their spoils to their deceased patriarch, but their lack of respect has him not just rolling in his grave, but crawling up out of it. Next, King himself stars as an over-the-top hillbilly hick who thinks his luck has turned when a meteorite lands in his backyard, but we all know things can't go as well as he hopes. Next, Leslie Neilsen exacts some morbidly fatal revenge on his wife and the man she cheats on him with (Ted Danson), but it winds up backfiring on him. And speaking of murderous solutions to marital problems, Hal Holbrook thinks he may have figured out a way to finally rid himself of his delightfully shrewish wife, Adrienne Barbeau, when he finds a mysterious crate in the basement of his university. And finally E.G. Marshall is a rich man who takes germophobia to new extremes in his futuristically designed penthouse apartment, but unfortunately for him, nature always finds a way.

Creepshow was originally released on DVD in 1999. I unfortunately sold it off long ago, so I don't have it for today's comparison, but it at least an anamorphic widescreen presentation. I got rid of it, though, because in 2007 Second Sight put out their loaded 2007 special edition 2-disc DVD set, which I do still have and am including here. Back in the USA, Warner Bros gave this film its HD debut with their 2009 blu-ray, but it was barebones.  Eventually in 2013, Second Sight gave us the best of both worlds: a special edition blu-ray. At the time, it was the champ.  But then in 2018, Scream Factory raised the stakes with a fresh 4k restoration from the original camera negative on BD.  And although that release had remained unchallenged to this day, SF are raising the stakes again, with an all new 4k scan of the OCN in Dolby Vision HDR, now released on a proper 2160p UHD disc (and a 1080p BD, too).

1) 2007 SS DVD; 2) 2009 WB BD; 3) 2013 SS BD; 4) 2018 SF BD.

So, by and large, it's the same root transfer on the DVD bumped up to HD on the original blus. It's got the same occasional flecks and dirt (look at the white speck at the top left of all three Halbrook shots), roughly the same colors etc. I say roughly, because the DVD's a teensy bit darker, but only so's you'd notice in a direct comparison like this. One more notable difference, however, is the framing. Second Sight matted it to 1.85:1 on the DVD, but Warner Bros left it open to 1.78:1 on the blu-ray, and so did they. Apart from that, though, they're pretty similar. What was a great looking DVD becomes an okay looking blu. It is a bit cleaner and more clear without the DVD compression, but it's still soft and generally feels like the older master that it is. A mild upgrade from the already pretty strong DVD.

But now the new blu!  First, to start off, the proper 1.85:1 aspect ratio is back.  And that white speck in the Halbrook shot is gone, along with plenty of others like it (though I did still catch a few specks).  The film's a bit darker, with more naturalistic colors, except in key shots where the impressionistic, comic book-influenced coloring comes in, and it actually goes a bit further in that direction.  Detail is improved and grain is definitely more distinct and natural by a wide margin.  The older blus didn't have any problems per se, crying out for correction; they're just older.  And Scream's edition brings Creepshow to the higher standards of quality on par with today's tech.

5) 2023 SF BD; 6) 2023 SF UHD.

And yes, in 2023, it's another new 4k scan, not just the 2018 transfer on a higher res disc.  Just comparing the two BDs, you'll notice the colors are a little subtler.  The encodes and grain distribution are clearly different, though it's hard to say one's really better than the other in that regard.  I was happy to notice, though, that the already very minor film damage, like a few tiny white spots behind Leslie in the sky there, have been cleaned up between the 2018 and 2023 releases.  And the UHD is, as you'd hope, an even bigger improvement, with much more consistent and thorough grain representation and more natural coloring and resolution of fine detail, notable, for instance, on his necklace.

The DVD gave us a choice between a 5.1 remix or the original Dolby 2.0 stereo track, plus English subtitles. The Second Sight blu gives us the same audio options, but bumps them up to DTS-HD and LPCM respectively. However, unfortunately, this time around they neglected the subs.  On the other hand, Warner Bros remembered the subtitles (and French ones as well), but left off the 5.1 option, leaving us with just the TrueHD stereo 2.0.  And Scream?  Well, its 2018 release claims "DTS-HD Master Audio Mono" on the back of the case, but that's a little incorrect.  In fact, both the 2018 and 2023 releases offer us the choice of a 5.1 Surround mix or the 2.0 Stereo track, both in DTS-HD.  And yes, they have English subtitles.  The UHD also adds a new Dolby Atmos track, not mentioned on the back cover.

Now, like I said, the US Warner Bros release is barebones except for the trailer and a lame ad for Warner Bros releases in general.  So just forget about that and let's start with the DVD, which provides all the key staples. First, there's a very cool audio commentary by Romero and Savini, who provide a lot of great backstory to this film. But topping that is the feature length documentary Just Desserts, making its debut here. This is a great, very upbeat retrospective which talks to all the key players. It's very well made, in Red Shirt's usual, top notch fashion. And besides those two key features, there's also fifteen minutes of deleted scenes, a featurette compiling almost half an hour of Tom Savini's behind-the-scenes footage, the trailer and a stills gallery. The DVD also came in a cool slip-sleeve box.

Again, the US blu-ray didn't pick up any of that and remained barebones. Well, except for the trailer. But Second Sight's blu-ray carried over everything from their excellent DVD set, right down to the stills gallery, even bumping Just Desserts up to HD. Then, they added an all new audio commentary. This one, isn't really a proper audio commentary, though. It's more a collection of audio interviews that are laid over the film, but not commenting directly on it. They talk to director of photography Michael Gornick, actor John Amplas (the father in Father's Day), property master Bruce Alan Miller, make-up effects assistant Darryl Ferrucci and Bernie Wrightson, the artist who did the poster and the awesome oversized Creepshow comic book that my best friend and I used to borrow from the library like every other week for years.  Plus, they added an additional vintage TV spot.

And then we come to Synapse's 2016 blu-ray release of just Just Desserts.

1) 2007 SS DVD; 2) 2013 SS BD; 3) 2016 Synapse BD.

So, not much has changed apart from what you'd expect. The DVD looks a little more compressed, naturally, being in standard def. All three are framed at 1.78:1, but the 2013 blu-ray looks a little bit lighter than the other two, and the DVD is a little heavier saturated. I think I like Synapse's middle-of-the-road look the best. But oh no, wait - there is a big difference here: the whole lower third label is missing from the DVD shot! Well, watching the doc through, that label is on the DVD version, too; it just fades out a little earlier. So I guess Felsher did a little tinkering with the edit for the blu-ray reissue? I didn't notice any substantial changes between the two versions, though, but there might be more subtle alterations and flourishes for the particularly curious to discover.

So anyway, you might think getting Just Desserts is great for the Region A locked who've been stuck with entirely featureless Creepshow releases, and it is. But Synapse has packed their release with additional features which might just tempt owners of the Second Sight special editions. First, though, let me cover the other stuff they included from the Second Sight blu, because they did do some of that. You remember that collection of Savini's behind-the-scenes footage I mentioned before? That's been ported over to here, as has the not-quite-an-audio commentary with Gornick, Amplas, Miller, Ferrucci and Wrightson, which now plays as a commentary over the documentary (again, they're not commenting on anything in particular, so it's the same difference). They also carried over the stills gallery.

Scream Greats: Volume One

But Syanpse's blu also has a bunch of new stuff. There's an audio commentary (for the documentary, not Creepshow) by Felsher, an on-camera interview with Michael Gornick (which is actually the same interview heard on that second audio commentary, except slightly re-edited and now we get to see him), extended interview clips from the doc with Romero, Savini and Wrightson (the last of which, like the Gornick interview, is the same as on the audio commentary). There's also a Creepshow episode of Horror's Hallowed Grounds (these are always a blast), and a vintage segment of the Pittsburgh public access show Evening Magazine that interviews Romero and shows some behind-the-scenes footage of the filming of the movie. Finally, but perhaps most excitingly, is Fangoria's old Scream Greats: Volume One documentary that they released on VHS way back in the day, interviewing Tom Savini in his studio. It's presented here, along with its own audio commentary track by Savini. I imagine some fans will find this release worth the purchase price for this alone.

Also, if you supported the indiegogo campaign, you got an exclusive booklet and poster.  Good on ya.

The original cell animations.

And what about Scream Factory's new blu?  They have an interesting mix of new features and older stuff they carried over.  So let's start with the old.  The two commentaries, deleted scenes, trailers, galleries and half hour of Savini footage from the UK blu-ray are here.  In other words, everything except the Just Desserts doc.  And the Horror's Hallowed Grounds from the Synapse Just Desserts disc is here.

So the new stuff?  It's mostly also by Red Shirt Pictures, and basically feels like a collection of every other little thing they missed with their Synapse disc.  There are great new interviews with the costume designer Barbara Anderson and animator Rick Catizone.  There's a round-table discussion with Felsher, Amplas, Atkins, Savini and Marty Schiff which manages to cough up a few anecdotes which I don't think were in the previous extras.  And there's a couple interviews where it really begins to feel like they're stretching it, including one with a guy who collects Creepshow props, and another with two guys who commission new posters for older films, including Creepshow, though none of them compared to the classic original posters.  There's also two new audio commentaries.  One by Michael Gornick, which was good but repeated stuff from some of his other interviews, and another with composer/ assistant director John Harrison and construction coordinator Ed Fountain, which was fairly low energy and frankly boring.  More interesting for me, though possibly not for more casual viewers just interested in the film rather than the technical stuff, were new interviews with Gornick and sound designer Chris Jenkins, who talked about the finer points of the new 4k restoration.  However, fair warning: purists may wince at some of the changes Gornick made that border on the revisionist.

Scream Factory's 2018 blu comes in a thick hardbox, with reversible artwork for the inner case, and a glossy, 40 page book by Michael Gingold.  Also, if you pre-ordered early enough, you got a limited edition poster and lithograph.  And their 2023 set makes no changes, additions or subtractions, to their extras package, but comes in a standard amary case with reversible artwork and a slipcover.  It also came with a poster if you pre-ordered directly from Shout.  And if you really went all-in, you could their flush set with two slipcovers, two posters, five lobby cards, five enamel pins and a prism sticker.

So, together, Scream's UHD set and Synapse's Just Desserts disc nets you everything.  If you have those, there's nothing left exclusive on the Second Sight blu, or any of the other past releases.  If you don't have Just Desserts, though, Scream's disc feels a little bit off in terms of extras.  Like you've got a lot of odds and ends, but they never talk to the major cast members or anything.  I feel like Felsher specifically designed this set of extras to work as a companion piece, in conjunction with the Synapse blu, rather than something meant to stand alone.  And that's fine if you're happy to get both, but could be a little annoying to fans who think just shelling out for Scream's Collector's Edition should be pretty definitive on its own (especially if you laid down the $140 for the full swag set!), and feel stuck watching a couple of hipsters showing off their drawings instead of Adrienne Barbeau and Ed Harris.  In the end, it's certainly worth it, though, with a smashing new transfer of the film and - again, if you get both releases - an incredibly comprehensive and enjoyable set of features documenting what's still one of the most fun horror movies going.