Brotherhood of the Wolf 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Brotherhood of the Wolf 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson June 1, 2023

Prior Blu-ray and 4K UHD editions of Christophe Gans's second feature Le pacte des loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf, 2001) have been covered on our site by my colleagues Dr. Svet Atanasov and Brian Orndorf. Svet reviewed StudioCanal's VC-1-encoded BD-50 from France in 2008 and SC's UK four-disc set last week. Brian examined Shout! Factory's two-disc "Collector's Edition" about two years ago. For Svet and Brian's evaluations of the movie and the discs, please refer to the linked reviews.

Trying to trap the beast.

Brotherhood of the Wolf 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: my screen captures are taken directly from the Ultra HD disc. They have been downsampled to 1080p. They do not sufficiently reflect the overall quality of the 4K transfer.

Shout! Factory's new three-disc "Collector's Edition" comes with a BD-100 for the 150-minute "Director's Cut" (aka the "International Cut"), a BD-50 for the same version, and a BD-25 comprised of the same bonus materials that appeared on the 2021 CE. This combo pack comes with a slipcover that features the same artwork as StudioCanal's release, which I also own. At the start of the feature, there's a prefatory restoration note in French that displays three logos: Metropolitan FilmExport, StudioCanal, and Hiventy. The latter is a French audiovisual company that provides post-production services. The text on the screen translates as follows:

We are proud to present the 4K restoration of this iconic film of 2001. After 20 years, we undertook a colossal 4K project. The original negatives were scanned and we reconstructed the original work in its best version. Special effects were reworked for this new post-production. The original mix was reworked in Dolby Atmos. The work took place at HIVENTY, supervised by film editor Sébastien Prangère, re-recording mixer Cyril Holtz and the film's director, Mr. Christophe Gans.

An article published last October in the monthly magazine TVBEurope (cited by a community member in a forum thread on our website) delivers the most detailed account in English about this movie's restoration process. Brotherhood of the Wolf appears in its original theatrical exhibition ratio of 2.35:1. Like the 4K editions in France and the UK, the Ultra HD disc comes with Dolby Vision (HDR10-compatible). Svet observed in his review last week that some of the color values on this restoration differ from his theatrical experience (ca. 2001–02) and StudioCanal's 2008 Blu-ray, which is culled from a DVD-era master. Svet points out and illustrates that the older disc sports shades of cool blue and gray, while the new restoration displays a strong cyan. He also cites a brighter red on the coat of Émilie Dequenne's Marianne, which has a more muted tone on the new transfer. I didn't see Gans's picture in the cinema, nor have I watched the older DVDs and BDs, so I can't comment on the original digital grading that appeared on the answer prints that were sent to exhibitors and screened in cinemas. I've watched SC's UHD and can see where Svet is coming from concerning some of these discrepancies. I still find this 4K transfer smooth, clean, and aesthetically pleasing. I echo Svet's comment about an "even grainfield" as Shout's transfer also displays grain that's nicely distributed across the frame. There a few print-related artifacts in some shots. For example, notice a very small black speck in the middle of Screenshot #24. The Blu-ray retains the same level of clarity as the UHD. I noticed this is in close-up shots, such as the one of Mani (Mark Dacascos) in frame grab #3. The Blu-ray doesn't reproduce the same degree of detail in close shots that the 4K disc does, though. My video score for the UHD transfer is 4.25/5.00. The Blu-ray receives a score of 4.0/5.0.

Of the two UHDs, the Shout! has superior authoring and compression. The disc size for the feature is 87.6 GB. It sports an average bitrate of 60.0 Mbps, with an overall bitrate of 83.1 Mbps. StudioCanal devotes 70.5 GB of space for the feature. The UK disc displays a mean video bitrate of 53.4 Mbps, with an overall bitrate of 66.8 Mbps.

Both the Shout! and SC discs break up the 2.5-hour film into twelve chapters.

Brotherhood of the Wolf 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout! has supplied several audio options, which are the same on the UHD and Blu-ray discs. (Note: the average bitrates are taken from the 4K disc. ) There is a recently mixed Dolby Atmos track (4543 kbps, 24-bit) in French, a French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (4024 kbps, 24-bit), and a French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo downmix (2048 kbps, 24-bit). Additionally, there are two dubbed tracks: an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (3922 kbps, 24-bit) and an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo (2032 kbps, 24-bit). The StudioCanal boasts a French Dolby Atmos mix (4534 kbps, 24-bit), an English PCM Stereo downmix (2304 kbps, 24-bit), and a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (4054 kbps, 24-bit) dubbed in German.

I listened to the Atmos mix and the other two French audio mixes. Not surprisingly, the Atmos delivers the widest sound field of the three. Sound f/x is discrete on the surround speakers and separate from Joseph LoDuca's score, which can sometimes be heard on the elevation channels and overhead speakers. It seemed that the DTS HD-MA 5.1 was louder when played at the same level on my receiver as the Atmos. I sensed that there was more activity on the front channels on the 5.1 compared to the Atmos. Both do an outstanding job of accenting the clanking of swords and wood sticks, bodies falling to the ground (with a loud thud), and boards falling out of walls and floors. The breathing of the beast is deep. For a scene replaying various characters' voices, displaced diegetic sound (from earlier scenes) fills the surround speakers.

Shout! provides optional English SDH and regular English subtitles. The SDH display brackets around descriptions for the f/x. Shout!'s subtitle tracks translate the dialogue in a more formal way than StudioCanal's, which looks more natural in the translations. I'm not fluent in French so I can't vouch for how accurate one is over the other. It just seemed that the dialogue flowed better on SC's. Samuel Le Bihan's character Grégoire de Fronsac is often called "Knight" on the Shout! subtitle tracks.

Brotherhood of the Wolf 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Shout! didn't produce any new extras for this CE. You can read about the contents of these rehashed supplements in Brian's review.

DISC ONE (DIRECTOR'S CUT): 4K UHD

DISC TWO (DIRECTOR'S CUT): BLU-RAY

DISC THREE (SPECIAL FEATURES): BLU-RAY

• BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF: Guts of the Beast (78:11, 480i)

• The Making of BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF (77:54, 480i)

• Legend – A Featurette with Author Michel Louis (17:23, 480i)

• Deleted Scenes (40:08, 480i)

• Two Theatrical Trailers (3:38 combined, 480i)

Brotherhood of the Wolf 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Brotherhood of the Wolf is a terrific French period adventure/horror hybrid that delivers lush visuals and some awesome kung-fu action scenes. I admired how Christophe Gans and his editorial team used some remarkable audio-visual devices to transition scenes in this longer international version. The acting by the excellent ensemble cast is first rate. If you're seeking the most supplements, the StudioCanal four-disc package is the clear winner. It has two exclusive audio commentaries, some additional interviews, and short featurettes. Please note that there's also an alternate cut of the film on the SC set, but it's not one of the theatrical cuts. It removes a handful of scenes from the Director's Cut. The latter is the only version to be restored in 4K. Although the pale blues and grays are missing on the new restoration, I still think that the image looks really good. The Shout! Factory UHD has better encoding and higher bitrates than the UK SC 4K. The movie is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.