Shout Factory – or, rather, Scream Factory, their gore-centric wing – has made a lot of “Horror Geeks Of A Certain Age” very happy with the release of vintage 70’s thrillers on Collector’s Edition Blu-rays.
They include two certified masterpieces – Carrie (1976), The Thing (1982) – as well as more obscure cult classics that could have easily been lost to time and never given the full BD treatment, including The House That Screamed (1970), Willard (1971), and Black Christmas (1974).
There are plenty of bloody goodies in their impressive catalog – go check it out – but the above five titles are personal favorites of mine and I’m very grateful to finally have them remastered and in High Definition.
Scream Factory always offers a full roster of Special Features and obviously takes great care in presenting these old films with the love they deserve. That love is especially rare in a time of diminishing returns for collectors of physical media – and given the nitpicky nature of that fan base, often a thankless task. We film geeks need to support their good work.
That’s why it sucks I have to add to the nitpicking and offer a small caveat on two of these otherwise excellent editions…
I guess it was inevitable that the classics, Carrie and The Thing, would be much more scrutinized and our expectations impossibly high. And the films do look as crisp and detailed in HD as you could hope – adding information, particularly to the darker scenes. But, unfortunately, at the same time, the color timing feels slightly off: with Carrie skewing green, The Thing bluer than blue.
The latter may seem appropriate for a film that takes place in the frozen tundra, but the subtle effect is a slightly drained, monochromatic color palate that dilutes some of the more beautiful visuals.
Or to put it more simply: Where did all the purple go?
This has sparked a fierce debate among the fanboys online, and since Arrow has announced an October release of its own Region B edition of the film, from a 4k scan of the original negative, the debate is sure to rage on.
The visuals in Carrie are even more beautiful. It’s a dizzying feast for the eyes, DePalma at his very best. The color “changes” here actually bothered me more, even though the majority of fanboys seem to be thrilled with this release.
It’s true that previous versions leaned pink and skin tones felt flushed, but that sort of fit with the theme of the movie. If any film ever begged for a red “push” it’s this loving ode to blood. Watching the new SF edition, I appreciated the clarity – especially given the diffused 70’s cinematography – but something felt wrong. It was colder somehow, uglier, more disjointed visually. Was I imagining things? To test it, I did something I’ve never done before: I put on the older Blu-ray right after and watched the whole movie again. It confirmed what I thought. While “softer”, the older version felt more fluid and pleasing to the eye. At least up until the climax at the prom where the SF edition wins out.
Now I am old enough to remember seeing – and instantly loving – both these films upon their theatrical release in ’76 and ’82. That doesn’t make me an expert, obviously – but it may mean my eyes have a wider frame of reference than those who have only seen it on video. Whatever the case, wrong or right, I can’t ignore what they are telling me.
I still STRONGLY RECOMMEND both SF editions – they offer a wealth of cool extras, and your mileage will definitely vary.
Just do like I do and slip other discs/editions into paper sleeves and add them to the SF case so you’re covered and can make your own comparisons.
(The larger problem here may be how movie geeks in search of THE DEFINITIVE VERSION of their favorite movies need to ultimately come to terms with it being a futile search with no end )
As for the remaining three titles: The House That Screamed, Willard, and Black Christmas, Scream Factory gets an unqualified A+ all the way around. The films look fantastic and, like I say, I truly doubted I’d ever see them get proper digital treatment, so it feels like a small miracle of the movie gods.
I remember when I was one of a nerdy few who obsessed over Bob Clark’s creepy holiday classic, Black Christmas. In the last decade or so the internet has changed all that, with the film’s reputation growing exponentially every year. It is now widely (finally) recognized for what it is: a seminal benchmark in the slasher genre and superbly-crafted filmmaking. That is why it was so baffling when the quality of each new video release over the years seemed to only get worse and worse.
Scream Factory offers a disclaimer right off the top about “limited source materials”, but no need, they have done a gorgeous restoration.
This truly is the best it will ever look.
After a minor hiccup with the mono soundtrack, SF went to the great trouble of promptly replacing fans’ discs, and it’s that original soundtrack that I definitely recommend you use. Sound is a crucial aspect of this film…
As far as being influential and stylistically ahead of its time, the same could be said about The House That Screamed from four years earlier…
This Spanish film originally titled La Residencia was directed by Narciso Ibanez Serrador. Shot in voluptuous widescreen, with gothic atmosphere, swooning music and a bevy of teenage girls, it is a clear precursor to both Black Christmas and Carrie. One death scene in particular, where a girl sneaks into a greenhouse for a late night tryst and is stabbed to death, has the disturbing soft-core slo-mo lyricism that would later be Brian DePalma’s trademark. The whole film bristles with sexual repression, and the killer hides rather brilliantly in plain sight throughout. It may turn out to be exactly who you think it is…but the final reveal, when we find out what all this killing has been in service of, is a wonderful shock ending.
SF offers two different versions – the longer Spanish release and the edited US print. It’s the rare instance where the shorter one is better.
If you’re a horror buff who has somehow missed this drive-in gem, trust me, buy it blind – you can thank me later.
Finally, Willard…
On the commentary, lead Bruce Davison says he doesn’t even think it technically qualifies as a horror film – and he may be right, it’s closer to a black comedy. Just a simple parable of a young man falling in with some bad rats. Call it Southern California Gothic. Whatever it is, it stands up amazingly well after all these years, looks great for a such a low-budget film. And it still works.
A surprise sensation when it came out, it triggered a long line of “Animals Attack” movies, a popular sub-genre of the 1970’s.
Ben (1973), the weaker sequel, remembered mostly for its saccharine Michael Jackson theme song, is offered as well for completists.
Whatever the quibbles of people like me, I do hope Scream Factory continues to bring back well-made schlock from the past…
My own personal Wish List would include House On Haunted Hill (1959), The Masque Of Red Death (1964), Bluebeard (1969), Bug (1974), Rec (2006)/Rec 2 (2007) and Inside (2008).
Here’s to Screaming.
It never gets old.
–RR
UPDATE: I, of course, ended up buying the Arrow releases of The Thing and Carrie. The Arrow Thing is definitely more reliable in its color timing than the SF version, as expected, but the overall HD quality may not be quite as sharp. The fanboys are still arguing over which one they prefer. I’m just glad to own both editions and will work out which is my favorite somewhere down the line… Or never? Who knows? The Arrow Carrie, on the other hand, at least to my eyes, is clearly superior to the SF disc. The color is dead-perfect from first frame to last. I know because I stopped thinking about it and fell in love all over again with every shot. Maybe the “definitive” remaster is not a futile search after all… If you own a multi-region player, that is…