7.8 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 5.0 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
Henry Spencer is a man living in an unnamed industrial wasteland. Upon learning that a past romance has resulted in an impending pregnancy, Henry agrees to wed mother-to-be Mary and moves her into his tiny, squalid flat. Their baby is born hideously mutated, a strange, reptilian creature whose piercing cries never cease. Mary soon flees in horror and disgust, leaving Henry to fall prey to the seduction of the girl across the hall.
Starring: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph, Jeanne Bates, Judith RobertsDrama | 100% |
Horror | 46% |
Surreal | 40% |
Mystery | 29% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
David Lynch's "Eraserhead" (1977) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include various archival interviews; new and exclusive interviews with director's assistant Catherine Coulson, actors Charlotte Stewart and Judith Anna Roberts, and cinematographer Frederick Elmes; calibration instructions by David Lynch; and six newly restored short films. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring an interview with David Lynch from filmmaker and writer Chris Rodley's 1997 book "Lynch on Lynch". In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
His girl
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, David Lynch's Eraserhead arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray release:
"Supervised by director David Lynch, this new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner from the original camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, jitter, and shrinkage were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, noise management, and flicker.
The stereo soundtrack was created by David Lynch and sound editor Alan R. Splet in 1994 from the original 1976 monaural mix stems. Additional digital restoration was performed in 2014, using Pro Tools HD, to manually remove any sounds not intended to be a part of the original soundtrack.
Transfer supervisors: David Lynch, Lee Kline.
Colorist: George Koran/FotoKem, Burbank, CA.
Film scanning: Metropolis Post, New York."
The screencaptures included with this review appear in the following order:
1. Screencaptures 1-18: Eraserhead.
2. Screencaptures 21-23: Six Men Get Sick (4 min, 1080p).
3. Screencaptures 24-27: The Alphabet (4 min, 1080p).
4. Screencaptures 28-33: The Grandmother (34 min, 1080p).
5. Screencaptures 34-35: The Amputee Version 1 (6 min, 1080p).
6. Screencaptures 36-37: The Amputee Version 2 (5 min, 1080p).
7. Screencaptures 38-39: Premonitions Following an Evil Deed (1 min, 1080p).
The high-definition transfer has little in common with the two high-definition transfers Australian distributors Umbrella Entertainment and Universal Studios UK used for their local Blu-ray releases of Eraserhead (you can see our reviews of these releases here and here). The film now looks notably darker, but both shadow definition and image depth are superior (compare screencapture #2 with screencapture #5 from our review of the Australian release). More importantly, grain is significantly better distributed and resolved (see screencaptures #4 and 17). As a result, even in areas where light is restricted the film has a better balanced and ultimately more pleasing organic appearance. There are no traces of sharpening adjustments. Overall image stability is outstanding and there are no debris, scratches, cuts, or damage marks. Finally, the encoding is superior to that of the two Region-B releases mentioned above. To sum it all up, the new 4K digital restoration of Eraserhead is guaranteed to please fans of the film in North America. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.
I was already very pleased with the lossless track from Universal's release of Eraserhead -- the Australian release has only a lossy track -- and I am equally pleased with this new LPCM 2.0 track (though from what I am hearing it appears that some additional work was done on it). The industrial sounds create and sustain a tremendous atmosphere. The screams are razor-sharp as well. The dialog is clean, stable, and very easy to follow. There are no pops, cracks, crackle, audio dropout, or digital distortions to report in this review.
It should not have taken such a long time for David Lynch, one of the truly great contemporary American directors, to enter the Criterion Collection, but this upcoming Blu-ray release of his debut feature Eraserhead is a special treat that was definitely well worth the wait. After a new 4K digital restoration, Eraserhead looks absolutely fantastic in high-definition, while the supplemental features on the Blu-ray, which include new 2K restorations of six short films by Lynch, are the best that I have seen produced for a home video release of the film in any region. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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