The Latester and Greatester Night Of the Creeps

Night Of the Creeps came out right on the cusp of me getting a blu-ray player. So it's one of those last titles I bought the DVD of instead, and then quietly regretted it for years. I'd keep looking up online blu-ray prices online every so often, hoping it would suddenly go on sale for some bargain basement price... Who wants to double-dip on a DVD they just bought new for a simultaneous release with no new features or anything? But it was also annoying being stuck with the standard def version of a favorite horror film I'd grown up on since I was a kid. Well, finally, Umbrella Entertainment has come along with a brand new blu-ray edition, which isn't all that far beyond the Sony's 2009 blu-ray. But it is an improvement, the best edition yet, and that was enough for me to shake loose the old DVD.

Update 5/1/16 - 8/19/19: Another new edition??  Yes, Scream Factory has picked up Night Of the Creeps so they could release it this summer with a giant action figure or whatever.  Or you can also just buy their new 2-disc set by itself... but would you want to?  It's Update Week, so there's literally no better time to find out!

Update 4/2/25: Scream Factory circles back around to bring us Creeps in 4k.  It's a proper UHD release, with a couple new extras to boot, but they dropped something significant.

Night Of the Creeps is pure crazy, 80's fun. Slugs from outer space turn a bunch of college students into homicidal zombies. It's full of fun set pieces and shifting tones, but it never loses sight of its characters, or stepping too far into the comedy that it stops being effective as a horror film. Tom Atkins steals the show as a Mike Hammer-esque detective who's finally gone off the deep end, but the three young leads, including European Vacation's Jason Lively, are all charming and well-rounded enough to carry the heart of the picture. Round that off with a great supporting cast, including Dick Miller and David Paymer, a catchy soundtrack, clever script and the special effects work of KNB, and you've got yourself a genuinely great movie.

It's a delicate balancing act that takes some serious talent to pull off, but first time director Fred Dekker rises to the challenge. He went on to create another masterful blend of humor, heart and horror with Monster Squad, but that one's a little too kiddie for me. It's like a well made Disney film; I can appreciate how well made it is on all these different levels, and even laugh at some of the jokes; but give me something a little edgier and more adult. And in fact he already had given it in Night Of the Creeps. Unfortunately his third film, Robocop 3, was a colossal misfire and he hasn't directed since.  It's such a shame, because the world could've used a string of similar, smart and atmospheric cult films over the past two decades.

And he has started making a bit of a comeback working with Shane Black, co-writing a TV movie called Edge and the latest Predator sequel/ reboot, The Predator.  Okay, that one didn't turn out quite as many of us had hoped, but most recently he's done a short film called Dent that's fun and weird in the best way.  Somebody give this man another shot at a feature!

Night Of the Creeps took forever to come out on DVD; especially for such a beloved cult title. This was one of those titles where the laserdisc kept going for good money, because it was still the best release there was, well into the 2000s. I remember being really excited to find a bootleg of a high quality TV rip that also included the original ending, which was different than the one that had played on cable and VHS for all these years. So when the special edition DVD/ blu-ray was finally announced for 2009, with a heap of extras and the original ending restored, I was through the moon. And even more so when it turned out to be the official debut of Dekker's Director's Cut, with the original ending (and that's the only difference, by the way, between it and the regular theatrical cut). So I've got that DVD for us today. Then even better, I've got Umbrella's 2016 region B blu-ray special edition (which is also of the Director's Cut), with a little something extra over the US Sony blu.  Still not enough?  Okay, how about Scream Factory's latest 2019 2-disc BD set?  It's two discs because they include the director's cut and the theatrical cut, which includes the other ending most of us grew up on.  And finally, we've got Scream Factory's (mostly) upgraded 4k restoration on UHD.  One thing, though, Scream's done what they've been making a habit of lately, and dropping the additional cut that they'd originally included on their 4k upgrade.  So now we get the director's cut, but that's it.  No more theatrical.

Well, at least this time they picked the right cut.

1) 2009 Sony DVD; 2) 2009 Sony BD; 3) 2016 Umbrella BD;
4) 2019 Scream Factory theatrical BD; 5) 2019 Scream Factory director's BD;
6) 2025 Scream Factory BD; 7) 2025 Scream Factory UHD.

So we see that these subsequent Umbrella and Scream Factory blu-rays, at least until 2025, are essentially the same as the Sony.  Same framing (slightly matted to 1.85:1), same colors... same original master. And that's alright, because Sony made a pretty high quality release the first go around, so we weren't exactly gasping for an improvement.  Of course, they both trump the DVD, as there's naturally a compression difference. Detail is much clearer and more accurate here, with visible film grain as opposed to the digital mushiness on the DVD.  There's a bit more of a shift on Scream Factory than there was between Sony and Umbrella, but it's hard to declare one objectively better or worse than the others, and it's the kind of distinction you'll only see in zoomed-in screenshots anyway.

But in 2025, Scream Factory went back to the OCN for an all new 4k scan, and... even then it's not hugely different.  While still 1.85:1, you can see that the framing has shifted slightly in some shots.  Above, for instance, you'll notice the tops of the Ts are now visible in that "BETAS ARE BETTER" sign in the second set of shots.  And the colors have been adjusted.  In the first set of shots, you can watch that middle guy's sweatshirt turn more orange, and in general a purplish hue has been pulled to give more natural whites and greys.  That's a subtle improvement.  And the resolution is smarter.  Even just comparing the two BDs, edges are cleaner and grain goes from mushy to sharp.  And on the UHD, every speck of grain is fully accounted for, something you couldn't say for the earlier transfer, as impressive as it was for its time.  The upgrade may not be enough to make casual fans feel the spring for a new edition, but it is unquestionably an upgrade, so purists should be pleased.

There's an important distinction in the audio department, as well.  Sony's DVD, Sony's BD and Umbrellas BD, all feature a remixed 5.1 track, with the latter two in lossless DTS-HD.  Scream Factory (on their 2019 and 2025 editions) has the same track, too, but they're also the first to restore the original stereo track, in DTS-HD as well.  So that's pretty sweet.  All five sets also have optional English subtitles.

And now it's time to talk extras! Sony's release (both their DVD and blu have all the same bonus content) is pretty packed. There are two audio commentaries, one by Fred Dekker and one by the four lead actors, the latter of which is fun but pretty light on content. Every time Steve Marshall starts to an anecdote or bit of information, the rest of the cast interrupts him to keep laughing and kidding around. Then there's a great hour-long documentary, which is broken up into five sections and winds up interviewing pretty much everybody involved including Dekker, producer Charles Gordon, stars Jason Lively, Jill Whitlow, Tom Atkins & Steve Marshall, editor Michael Knue, effects artists Howard Berger, Robert Kurtzman & David Miller, and composer Barry De Vorzon. Then there's a featurette just dedicated to talking with Tom Atkins about his entire filmography, film by film. Then there are several deleted scenes used in the extended television version, plus the alternate ending most of us were familiar with before the director's cut. Plus there's a subtitle trivia track and the original theatrical trailer.

A shot from Dekker's incomplete film, Baton.

All of that, right down to the trivia track, has been carried over to the Umbrella release. All it's missing are a couple of autoplay bonus trailers and an annoying commercial for blu-rays. But it has one really nice new addition. It's a 32 minute HD featurette called Creator Of the Creeps, and it's primarily a sit-down interview with Dekker. This was made more recently than the other extras, but yes, he does cover a lot of the same ground he does on his commentary and in the documentary. But he has some new stuff, too, including his script for House. And one of the best parts is that, in both his previous commentary and interview on the doc, he talks about how a lot of the ideas and a couple of the lead characters for Night came from an independent science fiction film he started shooting but never finished called Baton. He only shot about five minutes of it, he says, but we get to see some of it for the first time here in this feature. So it's a little redundant, but still a pretty great new feature, and it's exclusive to this release. Umbrella's blu also has reversible cover art, with the original art shown above and this crazy original piece [right] on the reverse. Both of Sony's covers suck, so Umbrella gets an extra point there, too.

Horror's Hallowed Ground rocks!

But then a new contender came to town.  Scream Factory has everything from the Sony release, except technically for bonus trailers and the alternate ending, because of course, they have the entire second disc with that ending attached to their theatrical cut.  Then, they've also come up with a whole bunch of new stuff.  Mostly what they've added is a series of upbeat HD on-camera interviews, with Jason Lively, Alan Kayser who played The Bradster, Ken Heron who played the 50's kid who becomes the first zombie, Vic Polizos who played the coroner, Killer Klowns' star Suzanne Snyder, who played a bit part as a sorority sister, and editor Michael Knue.  They're all tightly edited and include many people left out of the documentary, so these are very rewarding additions.  Then there's a brand new episode of Horror's Hallowed Grounds, where they revisit almost all of the film locations, with Dekker and Lively showing up to add some additional backstory.  This version also includes reversible artwork and a slipcover that finally uses the classic cover art.  Kudos to Scream for not sticking us with more cheap comic book art.  If you look at all the covers up top of this page, you can watch the artwork slowly evolve from terrible to excellent.

Oh, and of course, you could've sprung for the deluxe limited edition version with the 8" action figure, plus a (rolled, not folded) poster and second slip cover.  About the only thing it doesn't have is Umbrella's still-exclusive Creator Of the Creeps.

And in 2025, yes, Scream carries over everything from before and adds even more, though honestly, it feels like they're stretching now.  First up is an audio commentary, which is almost more of a fan commentary than an expert one, by two younger filmmakers.  They engage in a lot of casual small talk and delve into some cliche commentary sand-traps like debating physical special effects versus CGI.  A lot of the info they provide is taken directly from the preexisting special features, and they get some things wrong in the transition.  But on the plus side, they have Suzanne Snyder along with them.  As you can imagine, she can't carry a whole commentary by herself, seeing as how she only has roughly 20 seconds of screentime in this.  But she has some good memories and a good attitude, so the three of them provide an easy listening experience, even if we're not learning anything new at this point.

And while they still don't have Umbrella's Creator Of the Creeps, they've conducted their own exclusive interview with Dekker called A New Breed of Terror, which runs just about as long.  And while they've ditched the theatrical cut, they did throw in that ending as a deleted scene.  This new release comes in a slipcover, too, which is better than those old ugly covers, but as good as the classic artwork from their last slip.  You could get a second, alternate slipcover (but it's worse) if you ordered it direct from Shout, which also would've netted you two posters and yes, another 8" Detective Cameron action figure, this time decked out in his white formal-wear dance attire from the famous dream sequence.

So yeah, we can no longer complain that Night Of the Creeps isn't well represented on home video.  I didn't recommend replacing your Sony blu for the Umbrella just for their one featurette, but now in 2025, there's no question which is the definitive version, and I think we've progressed enough now that it's worth upgrading to the UHD.  Getting both cuts in 4k would've been ideal, but this is the next best thing, with the preferable cut in 4k, the alternate ending as an extra, the most features and both audio tracks.

Some Quality Renovations On The Carpenter

The Carpenter is a wild, direct-to-video supernatural slasher from 1987.  A young couple moves into a new home, and as they're having the house renovated, we start to learn things aren't as idyllic as they seem.  The husband's a sleazy cheat, the wife has a history of serious mental illness, and even the contractors are slackers and crooks.  All but one of them, anyway, as one carpenter is always working late and doing the work of a whole crew on his own.  Soon he's not just doing all the repairs, he's solving all the wife's troubles, including murdering whoever needs murdering.

Update 10/3/20 - 3/28/25: For a while there, I thought this one might never receive a proper special edition, but in retrospect I shouldn't have worried.  It's an 80s slasher; somebody was going to bring it back.  Turns out it was Vinegar Syndrome, so expectations are high.

But something's too good, or too evil, to be true about this carpenter.  Is he a madman obsessed with the young couple, a ghost determined to finish the house he could never complete in life, or all a part of the wife's mind?  It's very rough around the edges, but the script at its core is clever enough to keep even jaded horror vets on the hook.  It's tongue-in-cheek at times, with all the cheerfully over-the-top handyman-themed kills you'd expect, but the humor is never at the expense of the characters or the story.  This isn't a horror comedy so much as a legit dramatic horror with some wit, striking a tone very similar to The Stepfather, and almost as successfully.  And character actor Wings Hauser is at his best as the titular laborer out of his time and his mind.  Admittedly, this film puts a lot of weight on his shoulders, but he carries it well, delivering demented speeches over his coworkers' wriggling bodies.

When this finally came out on DVD in 2011, I was amped.  The only bummer was that Scorpion only came up with an essentially barebones DVD-only release.  Apparently elements didn't exist for a blu, and the bets they could do was a composite cut.  See, when this was released on VHS, there were two versions: R and Unrated.  Whatever elements Scorpion had for their transfer was the R rated cut, so they had to cut in the unrated footage, i.e. all the best bits, from a tape.  So yes, it was the full unrated version, but SD is all we got.  ...Until 2025, that is.  Vinegar Syndrome apparently felt the materials warranted an upgrade, and so we get an all new 2k scan on BD from "the best existing film elements," a 35mm release print.  And yes, this one's a composite cut, too.  So don't expect immaculate PQ, but if anyone can make this movie look prettier in HD, it's Vinegar Syndrome.

1) 2011 US Scorpion DVD; 2) 2025 US Vinegar Syndrome BD.

As you can see, the film is presented as it was originally shot, in widescreen (1.78:1 on the DVD, 1.85:1 on the BD), as opposed to the old 1:33 VHS tapes.  It's obvious this was shot on film, not tape, so it looks markedly better than it ever has before.  That said, Scorpion's disc retains some evident print damage, from little specks to vertical lines running through the shot and even green chemical burns.  Most of it's pretty clean, but the when it's there, the damage is hard to miss.  Happiily, however, VS has cleaned all of that up.  The image is definitely sharper and clearer now in HD, with very natural looking grain captured in 2k, and the colors look decidedly more natural.  Even in the SD composite footage. 

Looking above here, the second shot is the main footage, while the first is from the unrated inserts.  There's a bunch, and you can clearly see it's from a weaker, noisier source, but it's far from unwatchable.  If you got through Scream Factory's Silent Night, Deadly Night or Arrow's Hellraiser 3 without falling on the floor, you'll be fine here.  There is a noticeable shift in quality even in motion, but VS's additional color correction (and grain filter added to the SD stuff?) blend it together quite satisfactorily.  We lose some fine detail, but they've done a first class job with it, and fans should be more than satisfied.

In terms of audio, we just get the original mono track, but that's all I'd ask for anyway.  Even on the DVD, it's a pretty clear track, with any weaknesses seeming to stem from how it was originally filmed.  You can hear the shift in quality when the scene shifts from the R to unrated footage; it sounds more echo-y and thin.  But it's still pretty clean and hiss-free.  VS bumps it up to DTS-HD, and there's an appreciable improvement on the insert stuff.  They must've done some intense remastering, because you no longer have that distinct shift between the cleaner and composite audio.  They've also included optional English subtitles, which the Scorpion lacked.

There are no extras on the DVD, really, apart from the Katarina's Nightmare Theater wrap-arounds.  She doesn't have much to say even by Katarina's usual standards... her credits sequences last longer than the segments themselves, which are mostly just an excuse for her to pose holding a power drill.  The only other things on this disc are bonus trailers, not even a trailer for The Carpenter... although it's possible none were ever created, apart from those thirty-second "coming soon to home video" ads.  Anyway, this release does at least come with reversible artwork.  It's the same imagery on both sides, but allows you to hide the garish Katrina banners.

The BD, on the other hand, is well stocked.  There are two audio commentaries, including a top notch one by the director and the screenwriter, and then a more casual, but enthusiastic, by two flippant podcast guys.  Then there's a great half hour+ retrospective with the stars and main cast members.  A few moments repeat what we'd already heard in the commentary, but it's still a must-watch for any fan.  There's an additional Hauser interview, too, which is essentially bonus footage from the doc, because he was in that, too, in the same hat and the same chair.  But you can never have too much Wings Hauser on a Carpenter release.  This new release comes in reversible cover art (though, honestly, I'm not a fan of either... I wish they'd stuck to the old photo image), and if you got the limited edition direct from VS's website, a slipcover.  We do lose the Katrina wrap-arounds, though.

This was a real must-have DVD for me, and just as crucial a double-dip to blu.  As I wrote in 2020, "[s]core an interview with Hauser and the director, and I think you'd have a high demand title."  Yeah, this film's low budget and won't bowl you over with production values, but it's a neat little film that still manages to amuse after all these years.  For 80s slasher fans, this is a staple.  And even if you're not particularly hung-up on the subgenre, this has a broader appeal as well.

R.I.P. Wings.

M.I.A. Tomorrow Man

It's the anti-Warlock!  Rather than a powerful being from the past visiting present day Los Angeles to destroy humanity, Julian Sands is a powerful being from the future visiting present day Los Angeles to save humanity.  He teams up with a local scientist, played by none other than Giancarlo Esposito, to stop a deadly rocket launch.  That's the story from the nearly forgotten TV movie Tomorrow Man, written by the creator of Sledgehammer! and directed by Chris D'Elia's dad.  ...And we don't need to hold him accountable for his son's behavior after he became an adult, right?  Yeah, let's just try to forget about that dude and keep it moving.

Not to be confused with Corbin Bernsen's 2003 The Tomorrow Man, or Johnathan Lithgow's 2019 The Tomorrow Man, this 1995 Tomorrow Man has a weird tone.  It's got terrible CGI graphics straight out of a 3DO CD-Rom, and generally plays the story straight - a sci-fi thriller about a man on the run from menacing government agent Craig Wasson (Body Double, A Nightmare On Elm St 3) with dramatic score and photography - except characters will occasionally drop wacky, sitcom-style one liners.  Someone falls screaming to their death from a helicopter, then the next lines of dialogue are "you're not gonna leave me like this?" "Well, what'd ya expect, dinner and a movie?"  The plot consists of some seriously cliche material you've seen hundreds of times before (think The Hidden meets Amanda and the Alien), but I gotta say: I had a good time.  I'd buy a special edition of this.

I guess this was a pilot that never got picked up for series, which is maybe a shame or maybe just as well.  I enjoyed this as a one-off, but I don't think we'd need to see weekly episodes of this pair snarking around various small towns and government agencies.  This works as an endearing, low budget film, not a series.  Sands manages to pull a lot of humor and charm out of a pretty thin character, but it already starts to drag in the second half.  It never got to the point where I was bored, but I can only imagine how twenty-one more variations of the same story would be serious overkill.

But being a pilot, unfortunately, means this has never been released on DVD and is generally fairly M.I.A.  Fox did release it on VHS in other parts of the world, however (sometimes under the alternate title Future), and it's easily found online.  It's framed at 4:3, which is surely its OAR TV ratio, but was probably shot on film.  If so, it would surely benefit greatly from an HD restoration.  And even if it was shot on video, it could certainly still look a lot better than it currently does on Youtube[bottom shot above].  That plus a commentary from D'Elia or Alan Spencer would make for a nice little treat from a label like MVD, Kino or even Vinegar Syndrome.  Let's make it happen!

Harlequin a.k.a. Dark Forces

Harlequin's a pretty puzzling little film, though you'll feel on more familiar footing if you're versed in the history of Rasputin.  David Hemmings (Deep Red) plays a rising political star who seems to have it all: wealth, influence, a beautiful and devoted family.  But all that fortune is overshadowed by the fact that his young and only son is dying of leukemia, and no doctor can save him.  Enter Robert Powell (Mahler, Tommy), a mysterious man who claims to be a magician able to cure the boy.  He's swiftly welcomed into their home, but it could be a dangerous problem if this powerful figure's motivations prove to be less than purely altruistic.

Update 10/5/18 - 3/19/25: 88 won the blu-ray duel, but Indicator has swooped in to snatch its victory by taking Harlequin to the next level: 4k.   Let's see what their fancy new edition has done for this distinctively quirky piece.

I'd hesitate to even file it under horror, though it's certainly horror adjacent, at least at times.  Harlequin's as much a drama or even a bizarre political thriller as it is anything else.  There's some tension at the end, but I wouldn't say this film is ever trying to scare you.  It's probably easiest to just call it Ozploitation.  It's another 80s import penned by screenwriter Everett De Roche, the man behind of the biggest and best Ozploitation titles like Patrick, Long Weekend, Razorback one of my favorites: Fortress, but it's not almost not even fair to the "exploitation" half of the "Ozploitation" label.  I mean, it has its moments of brief nudity and a more than satisfying amount of unnatural spectacle.  It's certainly fun and weird, but its meter leans more towards Classy than Trashy.  It's smartly assembled and very well acted; you could almost pass it off as a classic Dennis Potter teleplay for the BBC except maybe for what happens to the maid.  If you can imagine a combination of The Visitor and Brimstone and Treacle, you've pretty much arrived at this movie.

In the special features they talk about how they originally wanted David Bowie for the lead role, which makes perfect sense... but they might've actually been better off with Powell.  Well at least in terms of artistic product, maybe not box office.  And speaking of performances, he might've had these types of roles on speed dial by now, but Oscar winner Broderick Crawford (All the King's Men, The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover) is still pretty unforgettable as the political heavy who'd grown used to pulling everyone's strings.  Even the kid is pretty good.  I just saw A Simple Favor yesterday, and boy, was that a rough reminder of how child performances can be a serious sand trap even for the major Hollywood players.  This isn't one for the gore hounds, but if you get this movie and don't dig it, try showing it to your parents.

This film's seen a couple of interesting releases, all sorts of half special editions.  Image first put it out on DVD here in the US, with a nice widescreen transfer and audio commentary in 2004.  And naturally Umbrella/ Shock put it out in Australia shortly after.  Then Synapse re-released it as a special edition in 2008, albeit with no new features or anything.  Scorpion Releasing finally gave it its HD debut in 2013 with their limited edition blu-ray, which still basically just had the commentary and little else to demarcate it a special edition.  But then 88 Films jumped into the fray with their limited and more genuinely special edition blu.  And now Indicator/ Powerhouse has entered the picture, restoring the film in 4k with even more features on their limited BD (4000 units) and UHD (6000 units) editions.

1) 2013 US Scorpion BD; 2) 2018 UK 88 Films BD; 3) 2025 UK Indicator UHD.

Well, 88 may've made a fancier edition than Scorpion, but they didn't come up with a new transfer.  Not that I was too disappointed since I wasn't exactly counting on one - if they'd paid for a new scan, they'd've been spelling it out in the marketing.  No, I was expecting something pretty close, and this is nothing if not close to the Scorpion blu.  I was able to match very slow-moving frame grabs by spotting identical flecks; they're virtually identical.  And the original transfer wasn't exactly showroom floor material in the first place.  But I'm not sure that's so much anything the labels are doing wrong so much as just the source material being a little dodgy.  Like, look at how smeary the letters are on the title card, with the whites of the small print bleed into each other.  Sure, it's better on the UHD, but it's not exactly crisp.

1) 2013 US Scorpion BD; 2) 2018 UK 88 Films BD; 3) 2025 UK Indicator UHD.

Which is probably why, in their booklet, Indicator promises, "[n]o grain management, edge enhancement or sharpening tools were employed to artificially alter the image in any way" (appreciated!  Thank you, Indicator).  There's a softness to the photography throughout, which is clearly intrinsic to the film, and I reckon that's just the way the filmmakers made that optical title card.  Scorpion's packaging describes the transfer as "Brand New 16 x 9 (2.35:1) Widescreen Master in HD from Original Vault Elements," which leaves things a bit vague. 88 got a bit bolder, touting "Restored HD master from the Original Negatives."  And now Indicator clarifies theirs as a "[b[rand new 4k restoration from the original negative."  Anyway, it looks like old 35mm film.  Grain is evident, and light damage is persistent (less so on the new Indicator) but never to the point of distraction.  Colors look a little faded.  And that brings us to the only real distinction between the two blus.  88's is a shade darker, which I prefer, because again, the film looks faded.  It's a minor distinction you'd never notice outside of a direct comparison like this, and certainly not a reason to double-dip, but the slim edge went to 88.

"Went" because the new UHD, of course, trounces them both.  The most distinct improvement is the boldness of the colors.  The new HDR looks fantastic, but I'm sure even their 1080p blu-ray puts the older discs weathered look to shame.  A blue sky and blue sea instead of all white behind those credits?  Imagine!  It's bolder, far more vivid and pulls in more detail from the highlights and shadows that were blasted out in the previous editions.  Look how much more you can see in Hemmings' lamp in that second set of shots, for example.  The resolution isn't as much of a boon, because, as I already mentioned, the film has an inherently soft look; but the contrast and broader gamut make the image considerably more life-like and less aged.  And the composition has been tweaked, too.   While the aspect ratio is still 2.35:1, the framing has been adjusted, so we see a little more to the left of Godzilla in the first set of shots, and the top edge isn't clipping Hemmings' hair in the second.

Audio-wise, all three discs seem to have the same mix, the original mono track, in DTS-HD on Scorpion, LPCM on 88 and back to DTS-HD for Indicator.  But here's where 88 took a bigger step forward: they included English subtitles where Image, Synapse and Scorpion had none.  Thankfully, Indicator has them now, too.

For many, the bigger competition may be taking place in the special features department, anyway.  So let's start with Scorpion.  Their main feature is the same audio commentary that's been around since the Image days with director Simon Wincer and producer Anthony I. Ginnane.  It's quite good, though.  They're very involved and have a lot to say.  The other bits are mainly hold-overs from the DVDs, too.  There's an isolated musical score track, and the original theatrical trailer under the alternate title, Dark Forces.  Scorpion adds one thing, though, a Katrina featurette where she gives her usual overview on the film details, and even dresses up in a harlequin costume for some, uh, interpretive dance?  There's also a couple bonus trailers and some cool interior artwork showcasing Harlequin's many colorful posters.

Now, I wasn't expecting 88 to mess with the Katrina skit, but I'm a little surprised they dropped the isolated music track, since that's also been a staple of all the past DVD releases.  They got the important thing, though: the commentary.  And even more importantly, they got a bunch more that no previous release has ever had.  They have a new, on-camera interview with everyone's favorite critic Kim Newman, who mostly gives a general overview of Ozploitation in general, but does touch on Harlequin specifically as well.  And there's a brief, vintage television interview with Hemmings and Powell, which is rather silly.  The host keeps talking about how she's so taken with the two of them and doesn't ask them much about the film except how it must be hard to shoot a film out of sequence.  But I'm glad 88 uncovered it; it's fun.

Most significantly, however, is a roughly hour long collection of on-camera interviews with Wincer, Ginnane, De Roche and actor Gus Mercurio.  Now, the interviews start with a bit of disclaimer that, "[t]he following interviews were conducted by director Mark Hartley for his documentary NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD (2008)."  It's been a long time since I've watched that film, but to be clear, while these interviews were surely for that doc as described, I'm fairly certain these are not just clips lifted from that film (or its many DVD special features).  These are in-depth interviews all about Harlequin, not just Australian horror in general, and really just what a Harlequin special edition calls for.  They're very forthcoming about everything from the commercial aspects of making this film for an international market to working around some of the cast members' alcoholism.  Also, instead of the Dark Forces trailer, they have a Harlequin-titled trailer.  88's blu comes with reversible artwork, the other side matching Scorpion's.  And limited initial pressings also include an 8-page full color booklet with notes by Calum Waddell and some cool poster art, plus an attractive slipcover.

And now Indicator?  They carry over everything from the 88 disc, and happily, the isolated score is back.  Better still, they've come up with even more new extras.  There's a short on-camera interview with the screenwriter from 2007 taken from a local Australian television station.  And there are audio-only interviews with the director, associate producer and production designer.  These suckers are long (the director's is feature length!), so buckle in, but the latter two have never been interviewed for this film on disc before, so they're very welcome additions.  And there's a new expert interview (in addition to Newman's) by Australian film historian Stephen Morgan.  We also get three trailers, three galleries, and at least for these initial limited runs, an impressive 80-page booklet.  It's all housed in a tough side-loading box, and yes, the little J-card passes Grindhouse Mike's "does it fit in the box," albeit not ideally (it sticks out past the book and disc case ever so slightly).

Just back from The Phantom Zone, apparently.

As a genuine fan of this film, I've been only to o happy to triple-dip for the 4k upgrade and new special features.  The jump from Scorpion to 88 was a real "for enthusiasts only" move, but I can recommend the jump from either of those to the Indicator more broadly.  And yeah, if you're purchasing this film for the first time, this is the easily definitive and obvious choice.  I'm a little surprised this film got such high-end treatment, but it seems like the Australian film market takes good care of its cult titles.