Rabid 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.5

Rabid 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Previous coverage of David Cronenberg's second major feature Rabid (1977) was provided by myself and my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov. Svet wrote about Arrow Video UK's 2015 Blu-ray + DVD combo while I critiqued Scream Factory's BD-50 from a decade ago. To read our views of the film and impressions of those discs, please refer to the linked reviews.

I've awoken from a coma!

Rabid 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Scream Factory's latest "Collector's Edition" of Rabid comes with a slipcover (like the first CE) but this time featuring vintage theatrical poster art. The two-disc set comprises a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and regular Blu-ray that fit on a BD-66 and BD-50, respectively. The UHD is encoded with Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) and incorporates a Full Enhancement Layer (FEL). Each transfer is sourced from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative. The picture appears in 1.66:1. Arrow's 1.78:1 transfer is slightly opened up and shows more image information along the sides as you can see from my comparison of the three releases. According to Arrow's booklet, the UK Blu-ray is struck from a HD restoration undertaken by Lionsgate utilizing materials provided by the Toronto International Film Festival Group. Technicolor performed the restoration work in Toronto. The color grade was completed on a Lustre platform with image clean-up done using PF Clean and manual correction tools. I am somewhat skeptical of Arrow's claim that "the original look of the film's theatrical release" is fully maintained. While I haven't seen a theatrical print of Rabid, Arrow's transfer occasionally boosts a tinge of turquoise that doesn't look natural and which I doubt Cronenberg intended. Moreover, the brightness on Arrow's transfer is upped by a couple shades compared to the two Scream editions. I also noticed slight TV traveling lines in some shots on the Arrow.

Additionally, there's some bad black crush on the UK release as you can see in Screenshot #s 11, 13, and 15. I made downsampled 1080p captures of identical shots on the 4K that look very dark in my review here. These are not representative of the way they actually look when projected at 2160p in D.V. or HDR10, however. I could see details in the darker areas of the picture on the UHD that were smothered or obfuscated on Arrow's image. Furthermore, Scream has made good color corrections to the way the sky appears.

On all the transfers, there is debris that must have got on the camera lens for shots taken during the main titles. The UHD and new Blu-ray have organic grain and a thick texture not present on the other transfers. On the 1080p disc, I could see grain well in the scene where Dr. Dan Keloid (Howard Ryshpan) is preparing to perform a neutral-skin-grafts operation. In looking at Scream's 2016 transfer again, it appears to have underwent some noise management. There are a few damage marks I noticed on the new 4K scan I didn't see on older ones. For instance, there's a light source-related scratch on the left side of the van driver's neck in frame grab #s 27 and 28. I didn't spot this scratch in motion on the Arrow or '16 Scream transfer. (Scream's older 2K scan was also taken from the negative.) The 4K and '25 Blu-ray sport some white vertical tramlines but they aren't distracting.

The UHD carries a mean video bitrate of 90.8 Mbps for the feature and a total bitrate of a whopping 103 Mbps for the whole disc. Scream's standard Blu-ray is an MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 that delivers an average video bitrate of 32000 kbps.

Screenshot #s 1-10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, & 40 = Scream Factory 2025 4K Ultra HD BD-66 (1.66:1) (downscaled to 1080p)
Screenshot #s 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 25, 29, 33, & 37 = Arrow Video UK 2015 BD-50 (1.78:1)
Screenshot #s 22, 26, 30, 34, & 38 = Scream Factory 2016 BD-50 (from a 2K restoration) (1.66:1)
Screenshot #s 23, 27, 31, 35, & 39 = Scream Factory 2025 BD-50 (from a 4K restoration) (1.66:1)

Seven chapter breaks accompany the new discs but they can only be made via remote activation since Scream's menu doesn't provide a scene selection option.

Rabid 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono mix (1565 kbps, 16-bit). This must have been a remaster of Scream's 2016 mono track because it sounds cleaner. It features some punchy bass. I compared it to Arrow's LPCM 1.0 Mono (1152 kbps, 24-bit) mix. The treble is pushed too high on that track at times. The Arrow also has crackle in one place. The new Scream mono doesn't sound muffled or have overt traces of hiss. It is consistently crisp with intelligible dialogue.

Rabid doesn't feature an original score. Music supervisor Ivan Reitman said in a 2014 interview recycled on Disc Two that he went to a New York radio archive and listened to many library music cues, which he inserted into the sound track. "Summer's Coming" by Keith Mansfield is associated with Rose (Marilyn Chambers) and can be considered the film's main theme. It has a flute, light guitar, and other strings that sound soothing. These relaxing chords fit Rose's character (the angelic innocence of her real self). This piece may have been inserted in Cinépix's soft-core skin flicks. Reitman also incorporates incidentals of preexisting pieces performed by the European Sound Stage Orchestra. Reitman did compose a piece on his own: "Observatoire", which lasts less than a minute. The compiled score is often dissonant and other times, accented with crescendos. All in all, it goes with the film very well.

Scream's optional English SDH are fairly large, bold, and clear enough to read.

Rabid 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Scream has recorded two recent interviews with film scholars and ported over the supplements from its CE ten years ago. For details on the legacy extras, please consult Svet's review.

DISC ONE: 4K UHD

• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director David Cronenberg - this feature-length track was recorded for the 2004 Somerville House "Special Edition" R1 Canadian DVD of Rabid. The commentary contains a few gaps. In English, not subtitled.

• Audio Commentary with William Beard, Author of The Artist as Monster: The Cinema of David Cronenberg

• Audio Commentary with Jill C. Nelson, Author of Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema and Marilyn Chambers's Personal Appearances Manager Ken Leicht - this commentary was recorded in 2019 for 101 Films' two-disc BD set in the UK. This is not a feature-length track. Leicht and Nelson only speak for the first fifty-eight minutes and three seconds of the film. But they make the most of it. Nelson conducted an extended interview with Chambers for her book and shares several anecdotes the late adult film star divulged to her. It was fascinating to hear Nelson talk about how she was inspired to write Golden Goddesses. She became interested in the adult film industry of '70s after viewing the Val Kilmer movie Wonderland (2003) and later watched a documentary about John C. Holmes. Leicht knew Chambers the last years of her life and shares what her personality was like. Leicht and Nelson also discuss Linda Lovelace. Both speak in English, not subtitled.

• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director David Cronenberg - this feature-length track was recorded for the 2004 Somerville House "Special Edition" R1 Canadian DVD of Rabid. The commentary contains a few gaps. In English, not subtitled.

• Audio Commentary with William Beard, Author of The Artist as Monster: The Cinema of David Cronenberg

• Audio Commentary with Jill C. Nelson, Author of Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema and Marilyn Chambers's Personal Appearances Manager Ken Leicht - this commentary was recorded in 2019 for 101 Films' two-disc BD set in the UK. This is not a feature-length track. Leicht and Nelson only speak for the first fifty-eight minutes and three seconds of the film. But they make the most of it. Nelson conducted an extended interview with Chambers for her book and shares several anecdotes the late adult film star divulged to her. It was fascinating to hear Nelson talk about how she was inspired to write Golden Goddesses. She became interested in the adult film industry of '70s after viewing the Val Kilmer movie Wonderland (2003) and later watched a documentary about John C. Holmes. Leicht knew Chambers the last years of her life and shares what her personality was like. Leicht and Nelson also discuss Linda Lovelace. Both speak in English, not subtitled.

• NEW Becoming Cronenberg – An Interview with Canadian Film Historian and Author Paul Corupe (19:34, 1080p) - Corupe gives a nice snapshot into Canadian horror cinema during the '70s. He also explains how Cronenberg and Ivan Reitman's approaches to filmmaking differ on industrial levels. Corupe unpacks the types of films Cinépix produced and what influenced Cronenberg in his formative years when he began directing features. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Inside RABID – An Interview with Violet Lucca, Author of David Cronenberg: Clinical Trials (12:18, 1080p) - Lucca describes how the late film scholar Robin Wood interpreted Cronenberg's early features and why she believes his views of them are off base. Lucca also delivers a mini-commentary on Rabid. She analyzes several scenes from the picture and discusses their meanings as well as their thematic implications. In English, not subtitled.

• Young and Rabid – An Interview with Actor Susan Roman (33:05, 1080p) - in this archival interview, Roman discusses her theater background in Montreal, casting for Rabid, her audition for the role of Mindy Kent, her reaction to reading Cronenberg's script, and acting opposite Marilyn Chambers. She spends the last part of the interview on the other film as well as animation projects she's worked on. In English, not subtitled.

• Archival Interview with Director David Cronenberg (20:36, upscaled to 1080i)

• Independent Spirit – An Interview with Executive Producer Ivan Reitman (12:28, 1080p)

• Northern Exposure – An Interview with Co-Producer Don Carmody (15:37, 1080p)

• From Stereo to Video – A Video Essay by Caelum Vatnsdal, Author of They Came from Within: A History of Canadian Horror Cinema (26:23, 1080p)

• Original Theatrical Trailer (2:09, 1080p)

• TV Spot (0:32, upscaled to 1080p)

• 3 Radio Spots (1:38)

• Image Gallery (5:49, 1080p) - this is the same gallery that appeared on Scream's 2016 disc. It is a different still gallery than the one on Arrow's release.

• Raw, Rough and Rabid: The Lacerating Legacy of Cinepix (15:04, 1080p)

• Make-up Memories: Joe Blasco Remembers RABID (3:11, 1080p)

• The Directors: The Films of David Cronenberg (1999) (59:04, upscaled to 1080i)

• Isolated Music and Effects Track

• Illustrated Collector's Booklet - a 44-page booklet including an essay titled "Plastic Surgery Disaster: Rabid, the October Crisis, and the Pathological Body Politic" by Kier-La Janisse. There's also an interview Calum Waddell conducted with Marilyn Chambers (one of the last that the actress did). Arrow has additionally reprinted excerpts from the volume, Cronenberg on Cronenberg.

Rabid 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Rabid (1977) displays terrific camera work to go with a literate script. The film has improved with age. I feel I underrated it in my first review. Cronenberg's script does contain a knowledge gap when it flash-forwards to a month later following the first section. For example, it doesn't seem clear that Rose's good friend Mindy Kent (Susan Roman) is aware of the motorcycle accident. Wouldn't Rose's boyfriend Hart Read (Frank Moore) have informed her about it? Still, the screenplay is very good. It anticipates the ways Jeffrey Boam scripts story events and structures the narrative in The Dead Zone (1983). Rabid is a "body horror" classic. The transfers on Scream Factory's 4K UHD and Blu-ray are a dramatic improvement over Arrow UK's 2015 Blu-ray. (They also surpass Scream's disc from a decade ago.) I can't underscore how much better the film looks compared to Arrow's 2K restoration. Owners of that release will want to hold on to it for some unique extras, though. Scream's lossless mono mix sounds better, too. The two recent interviews deliver some excellent context to the film and Canadian horror in the '70s. STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!