Nightlife Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Nightlife Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 27, 2026

Daniel Taplitz's "Nightlife" (1989) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentary by critic Amanda Reyes, and new audio commentary by critics David Del Valle and Peter Sawyer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The runaway bride

Nightlife should have had the fearless personality and wicked sense of humor of Buried Alive. Both are made for TV projects. Both come from the late 1980s. Both got away with a lot because the people who greenlighted them had no idea exactly how they would turn out. However, Buried Alive got away with significantly more because Frank Darabont rolled the dice harder than Daniel Taplitz. This is an important clarification, because at the time, Darabont was not a decisively better director than Taplitz.

The original material that Nightlife works with is better. Somewhere on the outskirts of Mexico City, gravediggers exhume two corpses, and one of them, a perfectly preserved, beautiful young woman (Maryam d’Abo), steps out of her coffin, utterly perplexed. While exploring the city, the woman then reaches a blood bank, where she collapses before a couple of strangers and a jaded nurse. She is promptly transported to a local hospital, where Dr. David Zuckerman (Keith Szarabajka), a visiting American expert who specializes in plasma and blood disorders, begins pumping new blood into her and running various tests.

Meanwhile, far away from Mexico City, on a desert road, two vampires (Oliver Clark and Glen Shadix) are pulled over by a suspicious cop. When they are forced to open the trunk of their car, the suspicious cop is killed by Vlad (Ben Cross), a centuries-old Vampire Lord, recently awakened by staffers in one of Mexico City’s biggest museums. Several hours later, after reaching Mexico City, Vlad begins tracking down Dr. Zuckerman’s unusual new patient, whom he was supposed to marry hundreds of years ago.

Nightlife entertains quite well. However, it very quickly creates the impression that it is not too comfortable in its own skin. For example, its tone varies wildly, as if to please different people who wanted it to be different things, creating inconsistencies that could be pretty awkward. The material that works best emphasizes dark humor of the kind that adults would appreciate. However, the dark humor is almost always countered with material that aspires to sell Nightlife as a conventional horror film. Different segments have contrasting visual styles as well. The realistic urban segments are more effective because they feature an element of unpredictability that helps the main characters appear far more intriguing.

The cast is solid. However, this is where Nightlife falls behind Buried Alive. In Nightlife, the acting has an unmistakable campy quality that always looks controlled. In Buried Alive, the acting does not look controlled and is supercharged by a wicked sense of humor that creates all kinds of different surprises. (Mixed with witty adult profanity, these usually funny surprises easily would have moved Buried Alive to the same place that the Coen Brothers love to visit with their films).

Ultimately, Nightlife is practically guaranteed to please viewers who enjoy quirky genre films. However, once its final credits roll, the same viewers will quickly forget it, too. It would be because it plays it safe, even in places where it could have easily replicated some of the wicked sense of humor that transforms Buried Alive into a gem.

Nightlife Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Nightlife arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release presents an incredible new 2K restoration of Nightlife, sourced from an interpositive at Universal Pictures. I liked everything that I saw on my system. In fact, I am going to state that many of the visuals I saw were better than those produced by 4K restorations of major studio films. In a few areas, small fluctuations affecting delineation and clarity are noticeable, but they are introduced by the original cinematography. There are no traces of problematic digital corrections, such as degraining, sharpening, contrast boosting, etc. Color reproduction and balance are superb. All primaries and supporting nuances are perfectly set and appear very healthy. Unsurprisingly, the entire film boasts a gorgeous, very faithful period look. Image stability is excellent. I spotted a few tiny nicks, but there are no distracting large cuts, debris, warped or torn frames to report. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Nightlife Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Clarity, sharpness, and balance are great. However, the original soundtrack does not produce any material that is likely to impress audiophiles, which, of course, is hardly surprising. Indeed, even during the action material, dynamic movement and contrasts remain modest. The dialogue was always easy to follow, and I did not notice any encoding anomalies to report in our review.

Nightlife Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary One - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critic Amanda Reyes.

• Commentary Two - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics David Del Valle and Peter Sawyer.

Nightlife Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In a rundown Mexican bar, a boozed-up vampire asks Vlad, a centuries-old Vampire Lord, to give him a Light, and moments later is transformed into a tiny pile of ash. The visibly terrified man next to him, Dr. Zuckerman, who has recently been bitten, instantly asks Vlad to serve him a Blood Light. It is a very witty, very funny scene. Nightlife should have been loaded with such scenes, many preferably even more outrageous, some even allowing adult profanity to sneak in. While enjoyable, the current version of Nightlife is too safe, frequently producing material that would be ideal in a conventional horror film. Still, Nightlife is a fine little film to see very late at night. Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release presents a gorgeous new 2K restoration of it, prepared at Universal Pictures. RECOMMENDED.