Legend (1985/Universal/Arrow*)/Night Of The Animated Dead (2021/Warner Blu-ray)/Nightmares (1980*)/Patrick Double Feature (1978/2013/both Umbrella Region Free Import Blu-rays)/The Ringmaster: Entertainment Knows No Boundaries (2018/Jinga/*both MVD Blu-rays)/Unbreakable 4K (2000/Touchstone/Disney 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)

4K Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: B+ Sound: B+ Extras: B+/C/B/B/D/B Films: B+/C/B/B & C+/C-/B+

PLEASE NOTE: The Nightmares and Patrick Import Blu-rays now only available from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment in Australia, can play on all Blu-ray and 4K players and can be ordered from the link below.

And now for all form of movie thrillers, just in time for the latest Halloween holiday...

The infamous fantasy film from master director Ridley Scott, Legend (1985), starring Tom Cruise and Tim Curry gets the Arrow video ultimate Blu-ray limited edition treatment. I like to think of this film as a distant relative to Jim Henson's Labyrinth (reviewed elsewhere in a newly remastered 4K edition elsewhere on this site) in that they are both pretty ahead of their time and made around the same time too. Director Ridley Scott hasn't really made a fantasy film since this, but boy is this a gorgeous film. The makeup by Rob Bottin (The Thing) still remains timeless and the film still maintains a magical feel with its use of all practical effects as CGI was years away from becoming a thing. I am sure Peter Jackson was influenced by this film in some way for Lord of the Rings and I'm sure more filmmakers in the future will be inspired by this cinematic creation as well. This edition features both the theatrical cut (with a score by Tangerine Dream) and the director's cut (with a score by the late great Jerry Goldsmith).

Darkness (Curry), who appears to be the splitting image of the Devil himself, seeks to create eternal night by destroying the last of the sacred unicorns, with there being only two unicorns left in existence. But when Jack (Cruise) falls in love with Princess Lili (Mia Sara), he ends up showing her the sacred unicorns and she touches one of them. Simultaneously, Darkness has sent out many evil dwarfs to kill the Unicorns as well. After one Unicorn is slain, the balance of this fantasy world starts to unravel, and Jack ends up having to save the Princess from the hands of Darkness, who makes an attempt to seduce her to his evil ways.

The film also stars David Bennent, Alice Playten, Annabelle Lanyon, and Billy Barty.

Legend is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc and is a 4K scan from the original 35mm camera negative (which reportedly has some issues that delayed its Blu-ray release and will delay any 4K edition for now; you can be sure they'll get to it at some point), with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and audio mixes in English, lossless DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit). The presentations here are of a high standard for Blu-ray. This is a sure fire upgrade over the previous editions of the film that's been released over the years (and it has been released MANY times.)

Special Features:

New commentary by Paul M. Sammon author of Ridley Scott: The Making of His Movies

2002 Reconstructed isolated score by Tangerine Dream

Isolated music and effects track

A Fairytale in Pinewood, new featurette interviewing grip David Cadwalladr, costume designer Charles Knode, co-star Annabelle Lanyon, camera operator Peter MacDonald, set decorator Ann Mollo and draftsman John Ralph

Incarnations of a Legend, comparison featurette written and narrated by critic Travis Crawford

The Directors: Ridley Scott, 2003 documentary where the director discusses his career, including Legend

"Is Your Love Strong Enough?" music video by Bryan Ferry

DISC TWO: DIRECTOR'S CUT

Commentary by Ridley Scott

Creating A Myth: Memories of Legend, a 2002 documentary with interviews with Ridley Scott, William Hjortsberg, Mia Sara, Tim Curry, Rob Bottin and others

Original promotional featurette

Alternate 'Four Goblins' opening and 'The Fairie Dance' deleted scene

Storyboard galleries for three deleted scenes

Two drafts of William Hjortsberg's screenplay

Alternate footage from the overseas release plus textless footage

Trailers and TV spots

and Still galleries

ADDITIONAL SPECS:

Illustrated perfect-bound book with new writing by Nicholas Clement and Kat Ellinger and archive materials including production notes and a 2002 interview with Charles de Lauzirika about the restoration of the Director's Cut

Large double-sided poster with newly commissioned artwork by Neil Davies and original theatrical artwork by John Alvin

Glossy full-color portraits of the cast photographed by Annie Leibovitz

Six double-sided postcard-sized lobby card reproductions

and reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Neil Davies and original theatrical artwork by John Alvin.

This is the most epic and comprehensive release of Legend on Blu-ray disc now and maintains Arrow's high standards for presentation, packaging, and supplemental material.

The late, great George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968, see about the Criterion restoration elsewhere on this site) gets reimagined again... this time in lackluster animated form in Night of the Animated Dead (2021). The film is a (mostly) shot for shot and line for line remake of the original classic film. (They did add in one additional scene.) But rather than employing the original's iconic use of black and white they decided to do this one in color... with goofy looking one dimensionally designed humans that look like they belong in an Adult Swim show, and to top it all off they changed the way a lot of the classic zombies looked in the original movie. Beyond the question of simply, ''why????'' - this animated film doesn't really offer up anything new to enhance the story that the original film doesn't. It just leaves the viewer pondering reasons for its existence, other than to be at the top of the list of pointless remakes of classic horror films.

Horror SFX genius Tom Savini remade Romero's Night of the Living Dead in 1990 (reviewed elsewhere on this site) in one of the better horror remakes that even had Romero in the writer's chair and many of the original crew members back on board. I suggest watching that if you want to see a different spin on the horror classic aside from simply watching the original.

Night of the Animated Dead features the voice talents of Josh Duhamel (Jupiter's Legacy, Transformers) as Harry Cooper, Dule Hill (The West Wing, Psych) as Ben, Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps) as Barbara, James Roday Rodriguez (A Million Little Things, Psych) as Tom, Katee Sackhoff (The Mandalorian, Battlestar Galactica) as Judy, Will Sasso (MadTV) as Sheriff McClelland, Jimmi Simpson (Westworld) as Johnny and Nancy Travis (Last Man Standing) as Helen Cooper.

The story of Night of the Animated Dead centers on a young woman named Judy who ends up narrowly escaping a zombie attack and finds solace in an isolated farm house in the Pennsylvania countryside. Soon, she is joined by a man named Ben, who helps her fend off the zombie horde that is slowly approaching their safe space. They soon realize they aren’t alone however, with other people finding solace in the house as well as the zombie apocalypse begins and the house soon under attack.

Night of the Animated Dead is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio, and a lossless DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit) audio mix. Among the many questions one could ask is why they decided to do the film in color when it may have been way cooler in black and white. Still, the sound mix and new music score is one of the only highlights that kind of works here.

Special Features (per the press release): Making of the Animated Dead - Join director Jason Axinn & Producer Michael Luisi as they regale fans with the careful process of honoring the iconic classic with their vision for an animated remake, including scene breakdowns and booth recordings with the cast.

Night of the Animated Dead, at the end of the day, is a pointless remake that doesn't really add anything to the original film. The human characters look flat and a bit generic with the high points being a new score and some interesting sound design in moments. They should have gone with a computer animation style akin to the Final Fantasy, Animatrix, or Resident Evil animated films where the human characters look more three dimensional and realistic. This animation just comes across as kind of lackluster and something you would see on late night Adult Swim.

Talk about a horror classic, John D. Lamond's Nightmares (1980), is one that you don't want to miss if you're a horror fan. Similar in tone to the slasher/arthouse films of Dario Argento, the film centers on a girl who is haunted by dreams of her mother's death, as she is stalked by a mysterious serial killer who offs his victims with slivers of glass.

The film stars Gary Sweet, Jenny Neumann, Max Phipps, and Nina Landis.

Nightmares is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with a 2.39:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossless 2.0 DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) Mono audio mix, both of which are of a high standard for the Blu-ray format. This transfer is a step up from the previous versions with this 4K restoration that looks and sounds great.

Special Features include:

NEW NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD extended interviews with director John D. Lamond and actress Nina Landis

Audio commentary with director John D. Lamond and filmmaker Mark Hartley

Deleted scenes

Confessions of an R-Rated Filmmaker featurette

John D. Lamond trailer reel

Stills and poster gallery

and an Original Theatrical Trailer

Umbrella's Ozploitation Classics label continues with three new cult film titles that deserve getting the ultimate edition treatment. First up is the original Patrick (1978), which has been released many times over the years on disc, but this seems to be the most comprehensive Blu-ray release yet with a ton of extras and the 2013 remake if you are in the mood for comparing the two.

Directed by Richard Franklin, the story of Patrick centers on a telekinetic comatose man named Patrick who is bedridden in a hospital. When his nurse Kathy begins to take care of him, she soon realizes that he has a crush on her that soon becomes deadly as Patrick destroys everyone around her.

The original film stars Susan Penhaligon, Robert Helpman, and Julia Blake. Whilst the remake stars Charles Dance (Alien 3), Rachel Griffiths, and Shami Wilson with direction by Mark Hartley (director of the hit Aussie film documentary Not Quite Hollywood).

Both Patrick discs are presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc is presented with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.40:1 and audio mixes in 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital mixes. Both films look and sound pretty good here and look comparable to some of the previous releases of the films that I've seen on discs over the years. Severin Films put out the original Patrick on disc years ago and I feel like this one is comparable to that release, if not slightly improved here. I'm sure a 4K UHD version of the film will come out in time. The remake looks and sounds fine with no complaints.

Special features include:

PATRICK 1978

Audio commentary with director Richard Franklin

NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD interviews with cast and crew

A Coffee Break with Antony I. Ginnane

Archival on set interview with Richard Franklin

1981 interview with Richard Franklin

"Where was it Filmed?" featurette

Excerpt from dubbed US version

US trailer / TV spots

PATRICK VIVE ANCORA trailer

Original Theatrical Trailer

Antony I. Ginnane trailer reel

and a Stills and poster gallery

PATRICK 2013

Audio commentary with Mark Hartley, Garry Richards, Justin King and Jackson Gallagher

The Spit, The Stunts, The Sex, The Gore featurette

Cast and crew on-set interviews

Mark and Garry's production diary

VFX before and after showcase

Radio interview with director Mark Hartley

Phase 4 viral video

Original theatrical trailer

and a stills and poster gallery

Similar to films like The Purge, The Ringmaster: Entertainment Knows No Boundaries (2018) is a horror/ torture picture where two gas station attendants become unwilling contestants on a terrifying show streamed live on the dark web. They are held captive by a sadistic ringmaster dressed as a clown and their survival instincts are stretched to the limit as an unseen audience decide their fate.

The film stars Anne Bergfeld, Karin Michelsen, Damon Younger, Kristoffer Fabricius, and Mads Koudal.

The Ringmaster is presented in 1080p high definition with an MPEG-4 AVC codec and a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and lossless, English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and 2.0 surround mixes. The film doesn't look too bad besides being on made on a modest budget.

No extras.

The Ringmaster is typical torture fair and nothing really special and doesn't bring anything new to the genre.

Finally. Arguably M. Night Shymalan's strongest film, Unbreakable 4K (2000), is the director's second Hollywood feature and was made hot off the success of The Sixth Sense (which still has yet to get a 4K UHD release.) Now Unbreakable is the first entry in a trilogy of films by Shymalan which includes Split (2016) and Glass (2019). This trilogy is now known as Eastrail 177 Trilogy.

Bruce Willis stars in the film as David Dunn - a man who miraculously survives a savage train wreck and exits the wreckage with not a scratch on him. This incident shakes up Dunn's troubled marriage, his relationship with his son, and makes him question his purpose in life. His son, and a local art dealer Mr. Glass (Jackson) both start to believe that Dunn is a real life superhero. In comparison, Jackson's Mr. Glass, is a man whose bones break very easily and who constantly finds himself in and out of the hospital with injuries. These two very different men end up clashing in a shocking twist that's sure to surprise you upon first viewing.

The film also stars Robin Wright, Spencer Treat Clark, and Charlayne Woodard.

Unbreakable was back in the day, a groundbreaking DVD release and was many discs in a collectible packaging. After a lackluster release on Blu-ray, this 4K collector's edition is a fine release that presents the film in native 4K in 2160p with an HEVC / H.265, HDR (high dynamic range), a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.40:1, and an original audio mix in lossless DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit). Also in the set is an updated 1080p blu-ray transfer with the same audio specs.

Special Features:

Behind the Scenes Featurette

Comic Books and Superheroes

Night's First Fight Sequence

Deleted Scenes

and The Train Station Sequence: Storyboards and Final Scene

This is the best presentation of Unbreakable that has been released on home video yet, and now having seen the other two films, it does make this original film a bit stronger. I am very happy this film is finally on 4K and hope to add other earlier Shymalan titles to disc soon such as The Sixth Sense and Signs.

To order either of the Umbrella import Blu-rays, Nightmares and/or Patrick, go to this link for them and other hard-to-find releases at:

http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/

- James Lockhart

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/