The sequel to George A Romero's hugely successful 1982 CREEPSHOW (the series spinoff is still playing on Shudder) is getting a 4K UHD release from Arrow Films.
The first film boasted five Stephen King stories, and there were supposed to be five in this one but two (Pinfall and Cat From Hell) were removed due to budgetary constraints. The three that remain kick off with Old Chief Woodenhead, in which store proprietor George Kennedy and his wife Dorothy Lamour are threatened by three thugs who rob the place. But the giant wooden statue of a native Amercian that stands outside their shop comes to life and gets revenge for them. It's a slight story that takes up over 30 minutes of running time. The animation of the wooden statue is rendered nicely, but the kills are skimmed over and opportunities for suspense during the robbery neglected, with way too much time wasted on small talk at the beginning.
Second is The Raft from King's Skeleton Crew collection. Four teenagers who go swimming in a remote lake are threatened by a bin liner-like something in the water that's hungry for human flesh. Some of the acting is a little ropey but the effects are decent and there's a good argument to be made for this being the highlight of the film.
The third story has Lois Chiles hitting and killing a hitch hiker in her rush to get home. Unfortunately for her the man won't stay dead. Almost all of this takes place on the road and builds to a satisfying denouement at Chiles' character's house. The stories are linked by some animated sequences that always looked cheap, especially on the big screen, and the lacklustre score by Les Reed and Rick Wakeman (plus one suspects some library tracks) doesn't help either.
Extras are all archival, including a commentary track with director Michael Gornick. Most are from the previous 2016 Blu-ray release and include interviews with screenwriter (in this case) George A Romero (11 minutes), Tom Savini (8 minutes), and actors Daniel Beer from The Raft (15 minutes) and the hitch hiker himself, Tom Wright (14 minutes). There's a 32 minute interview from 2004 with effects artists Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero, Berger's memories of Rick Baker and six minutes of Behind the Scenes with Tom Savini, plus the usual trailers and image galleries.
Arrow's limited edition set also includes a comic book with the omitted story 'Pinfall', plus a booklet featuring new writing on the film.
CREEPSHOW 2 is out on 4K UHD from Arrow on Monday 29th September 2025
Oh yes, George A Romero's seminal nihilistic social commentary (that just happens to use flesh-hungry zombies as a major component inits conveyance of allegory) gets a reissue from Criterion in a three disc set - one 4K UHD disc and two Blu-rays.
With seemingly every 'cult' movie over thirty years old getting either the 2K or 4K scan treatment these days, it's perhaps not surprising that arguably the cultiest of cult horror movies would end up getting a splendid double disc edition eventually. Still, to those of us old enough to still be marvelling at the existence of DVD let alone Blu-ray, the presence of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD in such a beautiful transfer and with so many extras really is a cause for celebration.
Is there anyone out there who doesn't know the plot? The recently deceased come back to life and start attacking and eating the living. There's mention of radiation from a returning Venus probe being the cause, but we all know that what sets the dead off doesn't actually matter. What does matter is that George A Romero was (and remains) one of that elite and treasured group of film-makers whose movies were strong on social conscience while still delivering the necessary thrills such that his horror projects, while filled with important and relevant subtext, were never overly preachy.
Trapped in a farmhouse, a socially disparate group of people fight for survival, but, as is so often the case with Romero's projects, it's the humans who are each other's worst enemies, far more than the shambling threat lurking outside.
Reams and books (and reams of books, if there is such a thing) have been written about NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, so instead I'll just tell you all about Criterion's new package, which consists of one UHD disc and two Blu-rays. The first presents the film in a sparkling 4K transfer with uncompressed monoaural soundtrack. There are two audio commentaries as extras, both recorded in 1994. The first features Romero, co-writer John Russo and actor Karl Hardman, while the second had co-producer Russell Streiner and members of the cast. Also on disc one is the work print edit of the film with the title NIGHT OF ANUBIS accompanied by a six minute introduction from Russell Streiner.
Disc two is the same as disc one but on Blu-ray. Disc three has essentially the same extras as Criterion's 2018 release, which include: Light in the Darkness, a 23 minute piece made in 2017 and features Guillermo del Toro, Frank Darabont and Robert Rodriguez discussing the movie's cinematic importance. There's a never-before-seen 16mm reel of dailies featuring alternate takes not used in the film. Learning from Scratch is a 2017 12 minute talking head piece with John Russo remembers the Latent Image, the company that made the movie. Walking Like the Dead features cast and crew talking about what it was like to be zombies in the film. Tones of Terror is a fascinating piece on the library music that was used in the film. Limitations into Virtues is a new video essay on the style of the film.
There are also a number of archive interviews with Romero and actors Duane Jones and Judith Ridley, trailers, TV and radio spots. These include 20 minutes of edited highlight's from NBC's Tomorrow show, and a 2012 TIFF interview with Romero Also included in the package is a poster of an iconic image from the film, and on the reverse an essay entitled Mere Anarchy is Loosed by critic Stuart Klawans. Like so many of Criterion's releases, this is an essential package for any movie enthusiast's collection.
George A Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is out in a three-disc UHD and Blu-ray set from Criterion on
That's a matter for endless debate, obviously, but MARTIN, George A Romero's take on the vampire genre, was the favourite of the director's movies and in terms of quality is certainly up there with the original 'Dead' trilogy that will be what the late film-maker will be remembered for by most. Second Sight are releasing MARTIN on 4K/UHD and Blu-ray as well as a deluxe limited edition box set with plenty of extra goodies.
Is Martin (John Amplas in what should have been a career-making role) the young man he appears to be or the 84 year old vampire he claims to be? Travelling by train from Indianapolis to come and live with his elderly cousin Cuda (Lincoln Maazel) in Pennsylvania he certainly has a taste for blood, even if his only 'fang' is the hypodermic needle he uses to sedate his female victim.
If Martin is under a delusion Cuda certainly does nothing to help it, calling Martin 'Nosferatu' and waving crucifixes at him at every opportunity. Martin is also warned to stay away from housemate Christina (Christine Forrest) and not to 'take' anyone in the town. Martin gets a job in Cuda's shop, and part of his duties include delivery boy, which is the way he (and we) get to meet some of the community, one of whom causes events to end in tragedy.
I've watched MARTIN many times since its original release and always take something new away from every viewing. This time the bleak locations, well-drawn characters, and sense of cynicism about both vampirism and the religion that is meant to combat it made me feel this is how Pete Walker might have tackled the subject if he had made a British vampire movie. It would also have provided an appropriate satire on the 'Confessions' films that were popular at the time. Indeed, from another angle MARTIN is the flipside of that common porn trope of the period - the delivery boy who encounters a string of unhappy older women and ends up in situations over his head.
Second Sight's 4K transfer is, as one would expect, fabulous, presenting the film in 4:3 aspect ratio. Extras include a whopping four commentaries, two of which are new (by Travis Crawford and Kat Ellinger respectively) and two archival (Romero, Amplas and Tom Savini on one, Romero, Savini, both Rubinsteins and Michael Gornick on the other). Taste the Blood of Martin is a new 69 minute making of 'hosted' by John Amplas, DP Michael Gornick and assistant cameraman Tom Dubensky as they walk around the locations for the film. It also includes interviews with Christine Forrest, Tony Buba and Tom Savini.
Scoring the Shadows is 17 minutes with composer Donald P Rubinstein who discusses his life and career, scoring the film, and how Romero came up with creative ways to sort things out when the music written didn't always match the final footage. Making Martin: A Recounting is 10 minutes of cast and crew ported over from the old Arrow release, and there are nearly five minutes of trailers and TV spots. The limited edition comes with a 108 page book with new essays on the film, a soundtrack CD of the film's score, and five art cards. Finally, the only thing this set does not have that was in previous versions is the Italian WAMPIR version with Goblin score, so you may want to hang onto your Arrow DVD even if you get this.
George A Romero's MARTIN is out from Second Sight on 4KUHD, Blu-ray and Special Limited Edition on
"An Amazing Achievement. The Ultimate DAWN OF THE DEAD set"
Oh yes, Second Sight have outdone themselves with this, an immense, affectionate and one could say almost obsessive tribute to one of the most famous horror films ever made, being released on Blu-ray and 4K UHD no less. George A Romero changed the landscape of horror with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD in 1969, but it was 1978's DAWN OF THE DEAD that popularised the frequently colourful, often splatter-filled, usually nihilistic, over the top, doom laden subgenre that to this day is what fans everywhere think of when the term 'zombie movie' is mentioned.
So where to start? The plot: the zombie apocalypse has just begun, and we're only just slightly further on in timeline terms from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Four individuals - Fran (Gaylen Ross), her boyfriend Stephen (David Emge), and two state troopers Roger (Scott H Reiniger) and Peter (Ken Foree) escape the city and end up in an enormous shopping mall which they convert into somewhere they can live. But the dead are massing outside and there are threats in the form of other human beings, too.
George Romero was one of a group of innovative directors who created work that was a dream for horror fans. While never skimping on the splatter (and employing makeup maestros like Tom Savini to ensure the effects looked as real as possible) Romero's work was intelligent, informed, satirical and political - the perfect answer to the absurd claims still prevalent at the time that the horror genre was a waste of time. How many of us pointed those critics to DAWN OF THE DEAD back in the day? They wouldn't have watched it but it didn't matter. George was our hero and he still is.
And he didn't make DAWN OF THE DEAD alone. Another key genre figure and genius movie director, Dario Argento, provided a major contribution and rock band Goblin to provide the music score, with Argento retaining rights to cutting the film for European distribution while Romero did the edit for the US. Which begins to explain why there are so many discs in this set. Let's take a look at what we get (along with the extras, shall we?)
Disc 1
This is George Romero's theatrical cut, (127 minutes) meaning it's the version US audiences will have seen under the title DAWN OF THE DEAD when the film was released in US cinemas unrated (you can do that sort of thing in the US, or at least you could) back in 1978. UK audiences didn't see this version because it had to be cut for an 'X' and it went out under the title ZOMBIES, and was also the version Alpha Video put out on UK VHS in the 1980s. The film uses its Goblin score only sparsely, with much greater use made of library music tracks. The sound mix on this disc is something special, with Mono, Stereo and 5.1 options. Second Sight have given us a 4K scan and restoration of the negative supervised and approved by DP Michael Gornick. Extras include a Romero, Savini, and Christine Forrest commentary track ported over from the old DVD release, plus a new commentary from Travis Crawford.
Disc 2
Romero's cut still had stuff he took out that he would have preferred left in, though, and so we get what is known as the 'Cannes' cut which is ten minutes longer (137 minutes). Second Sight's disc is a 4K scan in HDR10+ with mono soundtrack. This one has a ported over commentary from producer Richard P Rubinstein.
Disc 3
The Argento cut! And the one the UK censor wasn't happy to pass because all the violence 'lacked justification'. So everywhere else in Europe got to see this one except the UK, which got a cut version of what's on Disc 1. Anyway, the Argento cut is a bit shorter (by seven minutes) but feels a lot tighter and more action-packed, thanks in part to a lot more use of the Goblin score. Somedays it's actually my preferred version and if you're always ignored it on previous DAWN sets give it a go as it really does feel like a different film to the Romero version. Sound options are mono, stereo and 5.1 surround so let 'The Goblins' pulse through those speakers. The commentary track on here is from the four leads.
Disc 4
The extras! Fans will have seen Roy Frumkes' extensive and detailed DOCUMENT OF THE DEAD before, and there's also the The Dead Will Walk documentary from 2014.
But there's loads of new stuff including an hour with Zombies and Bikers (including Savini and a host of familiar Romero names and faces), a half hour tour of the Monroeville Mall, 13 minutes with Tom Savini on the effects, a new interview with actor Richard France (Dummies! Dummies!), a new piece on the logistics of the production, a previously unreleased 20 minute archival Romero interview and 13 minutes of Super 8 footage of the mall shot by one of the zombie extras at the time. You also get trailers, TV and radio spots.
But you also get...
Three CDS! The first is the Goblin soundtrack, bumped up to 17 tracks (the previous Varese CD only had 10) with extra and alternate cuts. The other two are library tracks from the DeWolfe music library. Trunk Records previously released a single CD of library music in the UK but obviously these expand on that.
And..
The novelisation for those who haven't kept their Sphere paperback (UK) from 1978!
A new 160 page hardback book with 17 new essays and a whole bunch of marketing materials and behind the scenes stills!
A great big box to keep it all in!
So - three different versions of the film all in 4K with different sound options. Three soundtrack CDs, a disc packed with extras and books and goodies as well. Second Sight have set the standard by which all future box sets dedicated to a single film will be measured. It's an amazing piece of work and fans are going to be absolutely delighted. If you're still not convinced here's the trailer for the set:
George A Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD is out from Second Sight in 4K UHD and Blu-ray in the most amazing sets ever dedicated to a single film from Monday 16th November 2020
The sparrows are flying again as, hot on the heels of bringing UK audiences Lewis Teague's CUJO on Blu-ray, Eureka follow it with George A Romero's adaptation of Stephen King's THE DARK HALF in a dual format DVD & Blu-ray edition.
University lecturer Thad Beaumont (Timothy Hutton) is trying hard to gain mainstream acceptance with the literary novels he has written under his own name. Seedy Fred Clawson (Robert Joy) visits Thad in one of his lectures threatening to blackmail him and reveal that Thad is the real author behind a series of sleazy crime thrillers attributed to the pseudonym George Stark.
Rather than pay the money, Thad decides to use the situation to his advantage and 'kills off' his alter ego in a magazine photo-spread. Unfortunately, conspiring forces have led to 'George Stark' becoming rather more real than Thad wants, and Stark has no intention of staying dead.
Having spent many years trying to get an adaptation of THE STAND off the ground, and having worked with Stephen King on CREEPSHOW, George A Romero eventually ended up making THE DARK HALF, which stands amongst the best of the plethora of movies based on King's work that popped up with relentless regularity through the 1980s and 1990s.
It's a stylish film, with good performances and a nicely understated, haunting score from Christopher Young. The only thing anyone might criticise now is the CGI which does look a little dated but it's a very minor quibble.
Eureka's Blu-ray transfer looks pretty much the same as the Region A Shout Factory disc, and all of that release's extras have been ported over (George A Romero commentary, Making of, deleted scenes, behind the scenes footage, storyboards, TV spot and trailer). New to Eureka's disc is the 40-minute episode of Jonathan Ross' Son of The Incredibly Strange Film Show covering Romero and Tom Savini. There's also an 'O' card slipcase and booklet with new writing on the film.
George A Romero's adaptation of Stephen Kings' THE DARK HALF is out on dual format DVD & Blu-ray on Monday 14th October 2019
While there have been a number of anthology horror movies that have tried to capture the look and feel of the old-fashioned horror comics of the 1950s and 1960s, none have managed to do it with quite the degree of panache or success as 1982’s CREEPSHOW. The result of three creative horror practitioners working at the top of their game (screenwriter Stephen King, director George Romero and make-up effects artist Tom Savini), it’s hard for those of us who saw this on its initial release to accept that the film is now over thirty years old. But you can’t keep a good horror movie down, and CREEPSHOW is about to be given a new lease of life thanks to a stunning new Blu-ray transfer, available soon from Second Sight films.
Little Billy (Stephen King’s son Joe, now of course a writer himself) gets caught by mirthless father Tom Atkins reading his Creepshow horror comic. Into the bin it goes, but that’s only the beginning of the story. The creepy host of the comic appears at Billy’s window, and a freak wind blows the lid off the bin to unfurl the comic’s pages, revealing to us the five short stories that take up the majority of the movie’s two-hour running time.
First up is Father’s Day, in which dead, rotting Nathan Grantham comes back from the grave to strangle his murderer, Aunt Bedelia (a superbly mad Viveca Lindfors, an age away from Joseph Losey’s THESE ARE THE DAMNED). In search of his Father's Day cake he bumps off as many of her immediate relatives as he can as well. It’s a great opener, featuring a splendid zombie resurrection sequence, some gorgeous use of colour filters that are all the more vivid in this transfer, and a jolly ending - I got my cake indeed!
Part of the joy of anthology films is their potential to vary in tone, and The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verill is by far the lightest segment on offer here. Farmboy Jordy (Stephen King himself, no actor but giving it all he’s got) gets into trouble when he touches a meteorite that crash lands in his field. Soon grass is growing everywhere, including everywhere on Jordy. Based on an aborted King novel that was to be entitled ‘Weeds’, the story is almost a solo piece and while King tries hard, he isn’t quite up to carrying it.
Something to Tide You Over is next, and is actually my favourite segment. Rich, possessive cuckolded husband Leslie Nielson buries his wife (Gaylen Ross) and lover (Ted Danson) on the beach, allowing the incoming sea to slowly drown them. Of course, to quote a King story title ‘Sometimes They Come Back’ and in a George Romero film they’re definitely going to - as zombies.
The longest story is The Crate and features Fluffy the Arctic Monster on the rampage at a small town university, once he’s freed from the box where he’s been sleeping for nearly a hundred and fifty years. Hal Holbrook sees it as the ideal opportunity to dispose of his awful wife (Adrienne Barbeau in top comedy form) but then he has to get rid of the monster, too.
There were all kinds of problems with the filming of the last tale, They’re Creeping Up On You, mainly because it involves half a million cockroaches that invade the sterile apartment of rich, villainous Upson Pratt (E G Marshall). King’s story The Hitch Hiker (that can be seen in CREEPSHOW 2) was almost substituted instead, but fortunately everything eventually went to plan, which means you get to see the story that was intended to end the movie on a decidedly over the top and horrific note. It’s then time for a brief coda featuring Tom Savini as a dustman, and Billy getting his revenge on his dad and, that’s it - possibly the most fun you can have watching a two hour tribute to the comics of yesteryear.
Second Sight’s Blu-ray is a definite step up in quality from the previous 2007 Region 2 double disc release from Universal. Detailing is clear and sharp (it’s now possible to see just how good Savini’s Creep puppet and other creations are) and, as mentioned above, the lighting in the first story (and in The Crate) is comparable with Bava. There is some dirt visible on the frame at times and during The Crate there's some noticeable speckling on the far right of the screen. The disc offers both Stereo 2.0 and DTS 5.1 sound options, and all the extras from the previous release have been ported over. These include a commentary track with Romero and Savini, a feature length making-of entitled Just Desserts, Behind the Screams with Tom Savini - a lengthy featurette looking at how the effects were achieved, fifteen minutes of deleted scenes, a trailer, a TV spot and a slide gallery. New to this 2013 release is an extra commentary track that’s been put together by Red Shirt Productions’ Michael Felsher, who was also responsible for the extras on the 2007 disc. Felsher has done a grand job of tracking down the people who weren’t profiled in depth on the Just Desserts documentary and interviewing them. It’s these interviews with cinematographer Michael Gornick, actor John Amplas, property master Alan Green and make up effects assistant Darryl Ferrucci (he’s the chap inside Fluffy as well) that make up this second commentary track, and a very welcome addition it is too.
The movie’s gorgeous transfer, coupled with every extra fans could possibly want, easily makes Second Sight’s CREEPSHOW Blu-ray the ultimate collector’s version of this classic horror movie. Highly recommended.
Second Sight are releasing George A Romero's CREEPSHOW on Region B Blu-ray on 28th October 2013 - just in time for Hallowe'en!
