The Brotherhood of Satan Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

The Brotherhood of Satan Blu-ray Movie Review

Mill Creek has re-released 'The Brotherhood of Satan' to Blu-ray. Its first release was as part of a double feature, originally released in 2013, with 'Mr. Sardonicus.' It is now also available as part of the 'Psycho Circus' triple feature alongside 'Torture Garden' and 'The Creeping Flesh.' Rather than directly port the old release, however, Mill Creek presents the film with new audio and video specs, now offering an MPEG-2 encode rather than the previous release's MPEG-4. The studio has also "downgraded" the audio from DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 to Dolby Digital 2.0, though neither presentation is any great shakes. The previous release's English and Spanish subtitle options have been removed. Even chapter markings are different. The only thing that remains the same is the lack of special features. The new A/V presentations are reviewed below.

The Brotherhood of Satan Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Even with the transfer now encoded at MPEG-2, The Brotherhood of Satan's Blu-ray presentation doesn't see any serious changes from its previous release. It appears sourced from the exact same master with the same color timing. The bitrate is significantly lower on the new release, and it's also sharing the same disc with two additional films rather than one. Nevertheless, colors are identical and detailing appears more-or-less identical, too. In comparative analysis one could argue that the older release is perhaps a tick sharper, though watching normally rather than peering at it through the proverbial magnifying glass won't result in any noticeable differences. Check out the review of the old release here; other than the tech specs it holds true for this one.

The Brotherhood of Satan Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Brotherhood of Satan's new Dolby Digital 2.0 track isn't worlds different from its lossless two-channel predecessor. If anything, it might be a bit more fundamentally aggressive at reference volume. The opening scene in which a tank crushes a car seems a little snappier and crunchier this go-round, but at the same time a bit more shrill and harsh-edged. Much the same can be said of every element in the track. It still struggles with range, though this one is perhaps a little more capable of stretching beyond the absolute front-center imaging of the previous release. Dialogue is adequately clear and detailed here. The track is fully unremarkable no matter the version and neither offers any major advantages or serious differences over the other.

The Brotherhood of Satan Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Brotherhood of Satan contains no supplemental content.

The Brotherhood of Satan Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Brotherhood of Satan is a lousy movie and easily the worst of the films Mill Creek has bundled with it across two releases. Here's hoping the studio doesn't triple-dip on this one down the line. The Blu-ray presentation itself is different from its predecessor in terms of video and audio codec, bit rate, subtitle removal, and chapter markers, but overall it's largely a parallel move, particularly on the video side of the ledger.