Shout! Factory / Scream Factory

[hearthesilence]

November titles have leaked:

Used Cars 4K UHD

I'm curious to see this because I saw the DCP at the Zemeckis retrospective at MoMA in 2015. They did a great job but be warned there are a few shots that will look really terrible because they're blatant frame blow-ups done to create close-ups or medium shots from footage that was originally positioned much further away. Just the way the film originally looked. I can see Shout asking for them to be scrubbed clean of their rough, granular look.

[Finch]

Evil Dead 2013 UHD will have both the theatrical and the unrated in 4k as per Scream's official specs released today, and in Dolby Vision.

[dwk]

Shout is releasing Coraline and ParaNorman on UHD on December 13th.

[dwk]

Oh, two more limited editions (1500) are now available to order from their site
The Hot Box
The Warrior And The Sorceress

And the Gravity Falls: The Complete Series set is going OOP.

[agnamaracs]

I'm still dreaming that they will bring Death Race 2000 back. I can't fathom how it's been OOP for so long. Who owns the rights?

[Finch]

When titles like In The Company of Wolves and Coraline are announced for 4k, it's all the more infuriating that we won't know whether Shout's encoding is up to scratch or not until after the discs are out. Here's hoping those come out well.

[dwk]

I'm still dreaming that they will bring Death Race 2000 back. I can't fathom how it's been OOP for so long. Who owns the rights?

Shout outright owns the rights to the Corman catalog.

[knives]

Oh, two more limited editions (1500) are now available to order from their site
The Hot Box
The Warrior And The Sorceress

And the Gravity Falls: The Complete Series set is going OOP.

Great show. The Corman’s are both pretty mediocre. Here’s my take on both.
The Warrior and the Sorceress
For Corman’s next Argentine adventure he trades the lush forests for another desert though it makes sense for this Yojimbo remake which just comes across as an exhausted western in fantasy clothing. Carradine looks a million years older than the last time we’ve seen him which adds to his performance though hurts the action scenes. They’re so bad they nearly sink the whole ship. Fortunately the film is just fun enough to make it easier to forgive some of its creakiness.

[Finch]

Carrie UHD Dec 13:

DISC ONE (UHD):

NEW 2022 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative
In Dolby Vision (HDR 10 Compatible)
Audio: 5.1, Original Mono Track

DISC TWO (BLU-RAY):

NEW 2022 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative
Audio: 5.1, Original Mono Track
Theatrical Trailer
Carrie Franchise Trailer Gallery

DISC THREE (BLU-RAY):

Writing CARRIE – An Interview With Screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen
Shooting CARRIE – An Interview With Director Of Photography Mario Tosi
Cutting CARRIE – An Interview With Editor Paul Hirsch
Casting CARRIE – An Interview With Casting Director Harriet B. Helberg
Acting CARRIE – Interviews With Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, Betty Buckley, Nancy Allen, Jack Fisk, William Katt, Piper Laurie, Priscilla Pointer, PJ Soles, And Brian DePalma
More Acting CARRIE – Interviews With William Katt, Nancy Allen, Betty Buckley, Piper Laurie, Edie McClurg, And P.J. Soles
Visualizing Carrie – Interviews With Brian De Palma, Jack Fisk, Lawrence D. Cohen, And Paul Hirsch
Bucket Of Blood – An Interview With The Maestro Pino Donaggio
Horror’s Hallowed Grounds – Revisiting The Film’s Original Locations
A Look At Carrie, The Musical
TV Spots
Radio Spots
Still Galleries – Rare Behind-The-Scenes Photos, Posters, And Lobby Cards
Stephen King And The Evolution Of Carrie Text Gallery



Black Christmas UHD tat edition Dec 5


Bonus Features

DISC ONE (4K UHD):

NEW 2022 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative
NEW 2022 Restoration Of The Original Mono Track
NEW 2022 Restoration Of The 5.1 Audio, Restoring Missing Dialogue, Music And Sound Effects
In Dolby Vision (HDR 10 Compatible)

DISC TWO (BLU-RAY):

NEW 2022 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative
NEW 2022 Restoration Of The Original Mono Track
NEW 2022 Restoration Of The 5.1 Audio, Restoring Missing Dialogue, Music And Sound Effects
Audio Commentary With Director Bob Clark
Audio Commentary With Actors John Saxon And Keir Dullea
Audio Commentary With Billy (Actor Nick Mancuso)
Audio Interview With Director Bob Clark

DISC THREE (BLU-RAY):

2006 Critical Mass HD Master (1.78:1) – DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Film And Furs – Remembering Black Christmas With Art Hindle
Victims And Virgins – Remembering Black Christmas With Lynne Griffin
Black Christmas Legacy
40th Anniversary Panel At FanExpo 2014 Featuring John Saxon, Art Hindle, Lynne Griffin & Nick Mancuso
On Screen!: Black Christmas Featurette
12 Days Of Black Christmas Featurette
Black Christmas Revisited Featurette
Archival Interviews With Olivia Hussey, Art Hindle, Margot Kidder, Bob Clark, & John Saxon
Midnight Screening Q&A With Bob Clark, John Saxon And Carl Zittrer
Two Scenes With A New Vocal Soundtrack
Original Theatrical Trailers (English And French)
Original TV And Radio Spots
Alternative Title Sequences
Still Gallery

[Finch]

Forgot to add this earlier:

Wargames 4k Dec 20

Bonus Features

NEW 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative
In Dolby Vision
Feature-Length Audio Commentary By Director John Badham And Writers Lawrence Lasker And Walter F. Parkes
"Loading WarGames"
"Inside NORAD: Cold War Fortress"
"Attack Of The Hackers"
"Tic Tac Toe: A True Story"
Theatrical Trailer

[Finch]

Brett C on fixing and restoring the audio on Black Christmas:

When I was asked if I would restore the audio for this film I was just as excited as I was intimidated. Black Christmas is one of my favorite films and of course I would do it, but I was familiar with it's history on video and the state of the audio.

So first things first, there is no mag elements for this film, at least that could be located so yes, the mono was restored using the 35mm optical track. The DVD tracks were too heavily compressed, I wanted a true lossless starting point.
So before anyone starts with the woulda, shoulda routine, I had to move quickly to be able to pull this off and get it done in the time I had and the work is done, let's move on.

The optical track was in bad shape, age related wear and tear and sibilance baked in so hot that no de-esser currently available would put a dent in it.
I cleaned up and repaired all the damage and manually went in one word at a time and erased and repaired the dialogue waveforms. Since optical mono is rolled off in the high frequencies, I figured out a way to essentially rebuild the lost range via, equalization against the other best available source, the 5.1. I am not going into specifics of what I did, that remains with me, but my approach was to bring it back to what it should actually sound like. The end result will stand up against a mag transfer, that I am sure about. It was not easy, I have restored many tracks, but this was taking a different approach to restoring optical based audio.

While I was working on the mono, the idea just popped into my head that, maybe I should try to re-do the 5.1. Big problem there, all I have is a 5.1 track that is wildly out of synch and a beat up optical track of the final mix, no separate stems.

The 5.1 track is pretty infamous for the reason that it replaced almost every single sound effect in the film and the ones it did not replace were heavily altered, some were even missing entirely. Dialogue was missing and changed as was the music score. The timing of music/effects/dialogue was altered to make way for longer or shorter newly recorded effects. How much it was changed, I discovered very quickly when I launched into this track.

Some are probably thinking why bother when you have the original audio?
The answer is simple, working off the knowledge that this is it for the audio and 4K could really be the last call for this film on physical media, I wanted a stereo remix more in line with the mono mix and I was curious if all the latest software was up to the task and including myself.

First things first, I needed a clean source for the original audio, I restored the mono track. Secondly, I had to fix and re-align the 5.1 audio that was out of synch. It went off the rails in the last half, but to my mind, it was off throughout the entire film from scene to scene.
I literally re-aligned the track 5 seconds at a time, matching to the mono track. This had to be done so that all the changes that were about to take place lined up, otherwise you are in all sorts of trouble and no real way of fixing it after the fact.

Most 5.1 remixes from mono track films including this one are the final mix with a pseudo-stereo style spread and pan out to the other channels. Meaning it's the entire mix being spread to all 6 channels and in this case with new stereo sound effects overlaid straight over the top to give stereo separation. This practice is even done with remixes from separate DME tracks and I am not a fan of it. If you want the mono just spread out to all channels, just listen to the original track.

Now the next part is where it was challenging, I had to break apart the 5.1 into separate layers, remove everything that did not belong and re-instate all the original audio back seamlessly into the 5.1 channels and I don't mean just piecing. Since all the audio information was carried in all channels in this mix, every change had to be repeated 6 times. I had to isolate and separate the mono into basically new stems for dialogue, music and effects so the audio could be edited into the 5.1. I went this way so I could get true stereo separation and channel mapping with the original audio. As good as the tools are in 2022, they are still not quite up to this task when it comes to isolation. I was able to get so far and then it was all about problem solving and finding workarounds in isolating the mono mix and blending those elements into the 5.1 audio seamlessly.

There were sections of music that needed replacing and they may have been two seconds in length. I had to isolate those from the mono, remix those sections into stereo and they had to match the 5.1 either side, so a lot of editing and EQ matching was required to blend all this together. Some of these bits were so difficult to do, they may be 30 second sequences in the film and they took 2-3 days to finally figure out how they could be achieved.
My idea was for it to be a true stereo remix from original audio and I wanted the sonic character to actually sound like a film from 1974, not something from the 2000s.

I could right a book about how difficult this was to do and it would be like a phonebook. So much involved, I stopped counting changes after I reached the 400 point! all done over six channels each time with no stems and an optical track to work with.

I spent 18 hour days over a period of two and a half months fighting the battle on these tracks. Some of the work done for the 5.1 remix is pretty innovative and it could quite possibly be one of the biggest audio overhauls ever done for a video release. I am proud I was able to finally get there, but it was not fun working on this at the time. I thank Cliff Macmillin over at Shout with trusting me to pull this off and dealing with my crazy audio ideas.

I hope everyone likes the final result.

[Finch]

Finalised specs for In The Company of Wolves UHD

DISC ONE (4K UHD):

NEW 2022 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative
In Dolby Vision (HDR 10 Compatible)
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
NEW Audio Commentary With Producer Chris Brown And Actors Micha Bergese And Kathryn Pogson
Audio Commentary With Director Neil Jordan

DISC TWO (BLU-RAY):

NEW 2022 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
NEW Audio Commentary With Producer Chris Brown And Actors Micha Bergese And Kathryn Pogson
Audio Commentary With Director Neil Jordan
NEW Where The Fairy Tales End: Scoring The Company Of Wolves – An Interview With Composer George Fenton
NEW Alice In Dreamland – An interview With Actress Georgia Slowe
Theatrical Trailer
TV spot
Still Gallery

[beamish14]

Finalised specs for In The Company of Wolves UHD

DISC ONE (4K UHD):

NEW 2022 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative
In Dolby Vision (HDR 10 Compatible)
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
NEW Audio Commentary With Producer Chris Brown And Actors Micha Bergese And Kathryn Pogson
Audio Commentary With Director Neil Jordan

DISC TWO (BLU-RAY):

NEW 2022 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
NEW Audio Commentary With Producer Chris Brown And Actors Micha Bergese And Kathryn Pogson
Audio Commentary With Director Neil Jordan
NEW Where The Fairy Tales End: Scoring The Company Of Wolves – An Interview With Composer George Fenton
NEW Alice In Dreamland – An interview With Actress Georgia Slowe
Theatrical Trailer
TV spot
Still Gallery

A solid set of new features, but I really would have enjoyed more on the late Angela Carter.

[ianthemovie]

A solid set of new features, but I really would have enjoyed more on the late Angela Carter.

Whole-heartedly agree--the BBC did a nice documentary on her in 2018 and it would have been great to see that included here.

I also regret that Shout wasn't able to get an interview with Sarah Patterson, or with Angela Lansbury for that matter, though I believe Patterson is somewhat reclusive and I imagine it's probably difficult to sit down with Lansbury these days due to her advanced age. In spite of that I will be picking this up right away as it's long been one of my favorite films.

[beamish14]

A solid set of new features, but I really would have enjoyed more on the late Angela Carter.

Whole-heartedly agree--the BBC did a nice documentary on her in 2018 and it would have been great to see that included here.

I also regret that Shout wasn't able to get an interview with Sarah Patterson, or with Angela Lansbury for that matter, though I believe Patterson is somewhat reclusive and I imagine it's probably difficult to sit down with Lansbury these days due to her advanced age. In spite of that I will be picking this up right away as it's long been one of my favorite films.

I’d love to have The Holy Family Album, a short film that Carter wrote for Channel 4

[yoloswegmaster]

Titles have leaked:

Dawn of the Dead (2004) 4K UHD Collector's Edition
Ouija 4K UHD
Freaky (2020) 4K UHD
The Live 4K UHD Steelbook
Jackie Chan Collection, Vol. 1 (1976 - 1982) Blu-ray

[therewillbeblus]

I hope they don't screw up the DotD 4K - I'll easily double dip for it. Glad to see Freaky getting one too- they're really doing the good Blumhouse movies justice

[swo17]

Are you conflating the Romero and Snyder versions of DotD?

[therewillbeblus]

Nope, I already have the Second Sight 4K Romero set and the 2004 version's Shout blu, but I've been vocal on this board about preferring the Snyder! Last time I watched it, I loved it even more and think it may be the best zombie anything ever

[black&huge]

I loved it even more and think it may be the best zombie anything ever

we have James Gunn's script to thank for that.

[jazzo]

It’s Snyder’s only good film.

[therewillbeblus]

It’s Snyder’s only good film.

It's handedly his best, but Sucker Punch is an admirably intrepid exercise in style, and I found Zack Snyder’s Justice League to be an interesting therapeutic exercise, processing his own grief through an aesthetically-affected worldview

I loved it even more and think it may be the best zombie anything ever

we have James Gunn's script to thank for that.

The script definitely helps flesh out the characters well, and runs through exciting set pieces with great care to meditate on their acute survivalist mechanics, but I think there are two more significant factors that elevate this from appreciable remake into a Great Work that justifies its existence as separate from Romero's lead: 1.) Snyder's strong instincts, including his visual wit and general enthusiasm birthing an almost-alien consciousness to peripheral opportunities in narrative and mise en scene, and the consequential infusion of overwhelmingly layered creativity into the film; and 2.) the actors' equally enthusiastic collaboration and sense of character, who treat the narrative, their roles, and ever-evolving relationship dynamics (with one another and with their constantly changing environments and threats therein) with surprising dedication and sincerity. Gunn's material could've easily fallen flat with someone else at the helm or other performers who weren't nearly as interested in adding depth to their parts, but the vibrant energy they bring feels revolutionary for a remake/reimagining of this caliber

[Finch]

I'm a fan of Freaky too. As much as I appreciate Walter Chaw's writing, I think he was too harsh on Freaky (while being way too generous to David Gordon Green's tedious Halloween films). Surprised at the first Ouija in 4k. The Mike Flanagan sequel would have been a better choice (or did Uni release that in 4k themselves? I don't remember but don't think so). Anyhow, here's hoping Shout encode Freaky correctly. They seem to be putting more care into their horror titles (for the most part) than the non-horror ones where they either accept poor sources like Platoon or don't encode them well (The Last Detail is allegedly barely better than Indicator's BD).

[dwk]

About the Jackie Chan set, Cliff MacMillan said this post is very close to what is included:

It's a 7 disc set, so presumably at least 7 films, and if they covered each year, then these would be my guesses

The Killer Meteors (1976)
To Kill With Intrigue (1977)
Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin (1978)
Dragon Fist (1979)
The Young Master (1980)
The Cannonball Run (1981)
Dragon Lord (1982)

1976 and 1978 were busy years for him so it could be a couple other titles

The Young Master is with Criterion, so that, presumably, is out.

These Jackie Chan titles were previously released by Shout:
New Fist of Fury
The Killer Meteors
Shaolin Wooden Men
To Kill with Intrigue
Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin
Magnificent Bodyguards
Dragon Fist
Battle Creek Brawl

[bad future]

The Live 4K UHD Steelbook

I wonder if there's any chance they fix the color space issue for this.