One Thousand Blackouts

Surprisingly, Larry Fessenden's latest horror masterpiece, Blackout, is only available via a Dark Sky webstore exclusive blu-ray, limited to just 1,000 copies.  And this after a long, elusive theatrical run where you could only catch it as part of a roadshow or something.  They've really made us wait.  And now I don't know, hopefully this "limited edition" business is just referring to this as a first run, to be followed by a standard edition, sans the booklet and slipcover, ideally with a wider release.  But who knows?  Dark Sky isn't saying.  It would be a shame if this is the whole story, although - and I'm probably playing into some stupid FOMO marketing ploy here - it's a very satisfying release if you're one of the lucky thousand.

Following his (second) Frankenstein film, Blackout is Fessenden's werewolf entry into his budding monsterverse.  I was surprised to learn in the extras that this was inspired by Marvel Comics' Werewolf By Night, and that Blackout comes at the heels of him trying unsuccessfully to pitch a WBN film at Marvel.  I think you can say I'm a genuine Fessenden fan at this point, so I hate to root against him, but I'm actually kinda glad he didn't get it and things shook out as they did.  I can't imagine the MCU releasing anything this dark or grown up, and marvel wound up making their own, weird little Werewolf By Night TV special thing.

Now, I have read a bunch of people on letterboxd knocking the acting, and I get it.  Fessenden recruits some non-professionals for the bit parts, which can sometimes net an authenticity an actor could never capture, but sometimes just fills your production with awkward Nail Gun Massacre moments.  This film gets a little of both, but it's your loss if you let it trip you up, especially since the main cast is actually quite excellent.  Nepo-baby Alex Hurt goes beyond proving himself as performer to watch for, fleshing out a layered and captivating leading role.  And we've got some great supporting players, including a nearly unrecognizable James Le Gros (Safe, Phantasm 2, Lovely & Amazing and of course The Last Winter), Kevin Corrigan, Addison Timlin from Depraved, Joe Swanberg and Barbara Crampton.  I can't blame anyone who finds they can't get into it, but this is a a goddamn actor's movie.

Not that it's just that.  There's plenty of long dialogue scenes and character set pieces, but Blackout also looks great, has another fantastic score including a killer theme, the werewolf makeup is perfect, has a lot to say about class, and as always Fessenden throws in some distinct creative flourishes.  This time, it's justified by the fact that our protagonist is a painter, so we've got some wild animation sequences done in acrylics.  But at its heart, it's just a classic werewolf story, perfectly told.

2024 Dark Sky BD.

There is some fake grain added to this digital photography, but Larry fesses up in the special features that this is a choice he made in the filmmaking process, not any futzing around done on the home video back end.  Indeed, Dark Sky presents the film in its OAR of 1.85:1 on a healthily encoded dual-layered pressed disc (I specify the latter, because there was some initial speculation that this might be a BDR since it was a slightly mysterious Dark Sky webstore exclusive).  This film was photographed with some rich, layered shadows and fine detail, all of which is nicely captured here.  As is the fake grain.  We're given our choice of a lossless 5.1 (DTS-HD) or stereo (PCM) mix with optional English subtitles.  Outside of them going full UHD, you couldn't ask for a better film presentation.

And that absolutely goes for the special features, too.  If you know Fessenden, you know he can be relied on for excellent commentary tracks and personally crafted feature length 'making of' docs.  Again, I was a little worried initially that this might be some quickie barebones BDR webstore thing, but no, they haven't let us down; the goods are all here.  The doc is terrific as always, with tons of on-set footage and interviews with the cast and crew, covering everything from pre-production to its festival premiere.  Before making the film, Fessenden produced this story as an audio drama, and that's on here as well.  It's just under half an hour.  And there are a couple more minor features: a photo gallery of the make-up process, the trailer, a teaser, "Larry Fessenden's Monsterverse," which is sort of an extended mash-up trailer for Addiction, Depraved and Blackout.

This limited collector's edition comes in a slipcover and includes a 12-page booklet, which consists of mostly glossy color photos, with an intro by Fangoria's Phil Nobile Jr.  I don't know what happens after that 1,000 are out the door (VinSyn sold 12,000 copies of The Keep in two days; I'm surprised this single 1,000 is lasting this long), but I wasn't about to find out the hard way.

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.

Who Can Kill a Child? Huzzah!

Oh yes, I have been waiting for this one!  Today we have Mondo Macabro's new blu-ray release of Who Can Kill a Child?, pretty much the greatest killer children film of all time.  And this blu marks the film's near debut in HD (more on that later) and the first proper special edition of this 1976 Spanish horror classic.  The Dark Sky DVD did have a couple decent extras, too, which we'll also look at.  But really, this is a long awaited blu-ray that fills a big deficit.  I'm excited.  😁

I have a pet theory about this movie, that Stephen King basically lifted it for his much more famous Children Of the Corn.  Now, please don't make too much of this - I don't claim to have any great inside angle or deep-seated conviction - but it feels right to me.  This movie came out in 1976, and was, you know, about as popular as a small foreign horror flick is going to get in the USA, meaning still pretty obscure.  But I did read where King spoke positively about this film back then.  And then, at least according to Wikipedia, he published his short story in Penthouse in 1977.  And certainly, there are completely original elements to King's story, i.e. the whole thing about a monsterish creature in the cornrows that the kids worship as a god.  And you know, neither story invented the killer kids subgenre... obviously there are some major precedents like The Bad Seed, Village Of the Damned and sort of The Omen (it also came out in '76).  But everything about the young, idealistic couple on a trip wandering around a small, seemingly abandoned village only to find out that the children are lurking, and ultimately murderous... as well as key elements like the pregnancy, stumbling on the kids in the church and the ultimate resolution (no spoilers, I'll leave it at that) all feel like the same story being told twice.  And we know King likes to import awesome foreign horror ideas into the US, like his Kingdom Hospital of Lars von Trier's original masterpiece.  So... that's my pet theory.

This movie's better than Children Of the Corn, though.  That movie's fun, though it gives Who a strong advantage by softening up King's original story, with the couple adopting two of the kids from the corn, and there's still the issue of that film's missing footage.  But any way you cut it, this is a better made, more dramatic film.  The performances are better - including a neat appearance by the Demon Witch Child herself! - the moral questions raised are more thoughtful and compelling, and the horror is more genuinely disturbing.  We're not let off the hook by a big plot point where a dude just has to drive a tractor into a monster to save the day.  Here, there are no pat explanations or plot devices; we don't even learn why the kids have gone homicidal apart from some brief philosophical suggestions of why they might be in some ways justified.  Apparently the book (yes, Who was also based on a book) actually did go into some pseudo-scientific clarifications, but the film wisely steers clear.

And wasn't this film remade?  Yes, in fact the special features on Mondo's new release even talk about it a bit.  From 2012, it's called Come Out and Play, and it isn't just a remake; it's practically shot-for-shot. It's such a faithful copy that there's really no reason for it. It doesn't add or alter anything. Well, it does one thing. It cuts about 30 minutes out of it, mostly from the beginning. And it doesn't duplicate every single camera angle, like Gus Van Sant's Psycho remake. However, like that remake, it just feels like a completely pointless exercise because, really, every moment plays out the same. And, frankly, the scenes were played a little better in the original (for instance, when the guy tries to open the kid's tackle box and gets a surprising response - it's more effective in the original). On the other hand, because it's such a faithful remake, they manage to not screw things up completely like so many remakes do. There's no arbitrary changes that unwittingly detract from the drama, ruin characters carefully constructed motives or make plot points illogical. It's just... the same things over again. And most of the performances are fairly comparable - only the wife stands out as having been much better acted in the original. Everybody else at least comes close enough. As such, if you just jump into this movie blind (i.e. having not read the book or seen the original), you'll probably think it's a fine, surprisingly derided horror movie with a compelling storyline. And it is out there on DVD and blu, too.  But you're doing yourself a real favor if you watch the original instead. And once you have seen the original, all the value of Come Out and Play is lost.

So, Who's history on disc is a little complicated.  Here in the US, Dark Sky gave us a nice little DVD in 2007, and in the subsequent couple years, different companies put it out across the various countries in Europe with a new transfer and sometimes an additional featurette.  But naturally Spain got to this film first, putting out a basic edition way back in 2001.  That version was non-anamorphic, though, and completely barebones.  And I called Mondo's release nearly Who's debut in HD, because there was a Spanish blu-ray put out first in 2016.  But that edition was disappointingly barebones, reportedly DNR'd and more critically, not English friendly.  So yeah, unless you're fluent in Spanish, this is your first real HD option.

2007 US Dark Sky DVD on top; 2018 US Mondo Macabro blu-ray bottom.

Mondo's new blu boasts a "Brand new 4k transfer from the film negative" and looks terrific.  And Dark Sky's DVD only serves to make it look better by comparison.  The DVD is ostensibly 1.85:1, but as you can see, there's a bit of dead air in the overscans, particularly on the left, so it's really closer to 1.83:1.  Still, getting an anamorphic widescreen transfer of this film with the correct language options (more on that in a minute) was pretty exciting in 2007.  But after seeing Mondo's transfer, you can just throw your old discs out.  Framed at 1.85:1, it doesn't really reveal any more picture - it might even lose a sliver, shifting slightly from shot to shot - but it is so much cleaner in HD.  I mean, where to even start?  Going 4k rather than 2k really helps sure that the grain is very naturally captured, and detail is definitely stronger here.  It doesn't help the DVD's case that it has a waxy look, like they tried to to wipe away grain compression.  Obviously, a DVD is never going to be able to resolve grain like a blu, but they over-compensated on the Dark Sky.  Also, the DVD colors have a heavy green push to them, like there's a tint laid over the whole film.  Look at the black and white comparisons a little further down the page.  Mondo has fully color corrected the film, making it look very attractive and authentic, also restoring some information in the shadows that the DVD had crushed into solid black.

2007 US Dark Sky DVD on top; 2018 US Mondo Macabro blu-ray bottom.

I mentioned correct language options with this film, and that's important.  This is a multi-lingual film, with tourist characters speaking to each other in different languages.  So ideally, the way to view this film is with the mixed audio track and subtitles for all the non-English parts.  Fortunately, both Dark Sky and Mondo included those audio tracks: the original mono, in 2.0, upgraded to lossless DTS-HD on the blu.  They also included fully Spanish tracks, which dub over all the other languages to Spanish, and the blu adds a third track, dubbing everything into English.  But the mixed track is the most authentic one, demonstrating the language barrier between characters.

Mondo's disc also boasts "newly created English subtitles," where they've fine-tuned the translations.  So, for example, in the scene shown above, the news report starts out by saying, "[i]n spite of their suicidal sacrifice, the demonstrators' protests have been futile" on the DVD.  But the blu-ray now writes, "[t]he sacrifice of the priests as a protest against the war... have been in vain," which I assume is more accurate.  Mondo also gives you more subtitle options, so you can have it translate all the dialogue, or just the parts that aren't already spoken in English.

2007 US Dark Sky DVD on top; 2018 US Mondo Macabro blu-ray bottom.

And speaking of Mondo laying on the options, the blu-ray also makes the extended, documentary-style intro optional.  If you're not familiar, the film starts with an eight-minute documentary prologue, setting the tone for the film that's about to take place.  This intro is often cut from various international cuts of the film, which is honestly understandable.  It only connects to the story in a subtextual/ thematic way, and features some very graphic, 100% real imagery from the holocaust and other tragedies.  So you can imagine marketers trying to sell you a little light, scary entertainment would be keen to just lop it off.  Now, the DVD did include the intro, as does this new Mondo blu-ray (I'd be pretty bummed if they didn't).  But Mondo's blu makes it optional, so you can watch the film with or without it.  They call it the Island of Death version, because it also features that alternate title card and alternate opening credits that play over the first scene of the movie.

Finally delving into special features, the DVD featured two key interviews: a nine one with director Narciso Ibanez Serrador and a sixteen minute one with the DP, Jose Luis Alcaine.  Both feature forced English subtitles and are pretty good, but could've definitely stood to go a little further in depth.  But apart from a stills gallery, that was all the DVD gave us.

Happily, the blu-ray goes further.  And to start with, yes it includes those two interviews from the DVD.  We hear a lot more from them now, however, with the inclusion of a roughly 45-minute Spanish television documentary on the film, that pairs the two of them up with a genre expert and their host to reminisce on the film.  One really cool aspect is that, we know the director spent a lot of his time doing Spanish television, but this actually explores that work, showing clips, etc.  Then there's a fun interview with British critic Kim Newman, who talks about the film and even its place in the killer kids subgenre.  He also compares it to Children Of the Corn, but if he shares my pet theory, he doesn't mention it.  😉

But that ain't all.  There's also a brand new audio commentary by Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan, who do a podcast called Daughters of Darkness.  I've never listened to it, but I'm going to check it out now, because they do a great, informative job here, filling us in on differences between the book and film, etc.  There's also a fun trailer for a double bill with Lucifer's Curse, where they mix the footage up so it looks like some of the film from that movie was in Who Can Kill a Child.  Then there's some radio spots and a montage of clips from other Mondo Macabro releases. 

And the edition I'm reviewing is the limited edition that was only available direct from Mondo's site.  It's limited to 1,000 numbered copies (mine's #771), and is essentially out of print, though I think I read somewhere that Mondo held onto a few copies for an upcoming holiday sale.  So if you really want it, you should still have a shot.  But a regular, non-limited edition should be coming out sometime in July.  That version comes in a blue case instead of a red one, has different artwork, and is missing the following exclusives, pictured above: eight cardstock lobby cards, reversible Island Of the Damned artwork and a twelve-page booklet with notes by Lee Gambin.  My understanding is that the actual on-disc content, including all the special features, will be identical.

So this is a pretty terrific release of the film, whichever edition you get.  And it's a really under-appreciated horror flick.  I'll put this at the very top of the killer kids list, but even as just one of the all-time great horror films of the 70s, period.  I'm honestly giddy.