This Week on Blu-ray: October 26-November 1

For the week of October 26th, the Criterion Collection brings their loaded two-disc edition of Bong Joon-ho's Parasite to Blu-ray. The South Korean film has won hundreds of awards, including the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, and made Oscar history earlier this year when it became the first South Korean film to be recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Ultimately, it won Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and both Best International Feature Film (formerly Best Foreign Language Film) and Best Picture, becoming the first non-English language film to win Oscar's biggest prize. Already issued by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on Blu-ray and then 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Criterion's edition has some serious competition, but where it vaults ahead is with copious extras, including a black and white version of the film on a second Blu-ray Disc, some 4 hours of interviews and featurettes, various trailers and even an audio commentary with Bong Joon-ho and critic Tony Rayns. The Criterion is also the only English-friendly edition of the film thus far to include the film's Dolby Atmos audio on a 1080p Blu-ray, and as if that wasn't enough, it comes in a lovely digipack with art that will take on new meaning once you have seen the film.

But 4K UHD fans need not fret, either, because from Blue Underground comes Harry Kümel's Daughters of Darkness. This stylish and erotic Belgian vampire film from contains a scintillating performance from the great Delphine Seyrig as the ageless Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who with her young companion, attempts to seduce a young newlywed couple stranded at a luxurious hotel in Ostend when their train breaks down. The film has been granted a brand new 4K master struck from the original camera negative and supervised and approved by director Harry Kümel. In addition to HDR, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos audio (along with DTS-HD MA Mono tracks in English and French) are also included. In his review of the 4K disc, Svet Atanasov writes that "[t]here are major improvements in all areas that we address in our reviews and they are instantly recognizable. For example, the new 4K master immediately reveals a dramatically better grain structure that alters the entire look of the film. On the previous release of Daughters of Darkness, which I have in my library, there are surface anomalies that produce a very uneven dated appearance. On the new master the surface anomalies are effectively eliminated and as a result there is actually a much better range of fine nuances that appear throughout the entire film. Furthermore, the film has a lot of darker footage that now boasts superior shadow definition, in some areas with drastically improved depth... In native 4K, with HDR enabled, the color scheme boasts expanded nuances and in darker areas there instances where you will see ranges of finer nuances that are missing in 1080p."

Another big release this week is Arrow Video's new Blu-ray of Nick Castle's The Last Starfighter. The 1984 sci-fi classic starring Lance Guest, Dan O'Herlihy, Robert Preston and Catherine Mary Stewart has been newly remastered from a 4K scan of the original negative and features the home video premiere of a 4.1 mix originally created for the film's 70mm release. Additionally, there is a new audio commentary with Mike White of The Last Projection Booth podcast in addition to the existing audio commentary and extras ported over from previous releases. The packaging also includes a reversible cover with original and newly commissioned artwork and a limited edition slipcover and booklet.

Last but certainly not least, we have a pretty big slate from both Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and the Warner Archive Collection. First up is a holy grail release for fans of Hanna-Barbera animation, The Flintstones: The Complete Series. The ten-disc set features all six seasons and 166 episodes of the modern stone-age family's animated sitcom, as well as extras and even the feature film The Man Called Flintstone (albeit only in standard definition). In his review of the series, Jeffrey Kauffman writes that "[t]he video presentation is probably by far the best thing about this release...[t]he palette is regularly beautifully suffused throughout all of the seasons...and line detail is consistently strong. There's an organic look to the presentation which offers a natural grain field. There are some baked in issues in terms of things like optical dissolves, and there is also occasional flicker and even momentary frame instability at times. Overall, though, this is a wonderfully vibrant and enjoyable viewing experience".

Not to be left out, however, is the studio's superlative Warner Archive Collection, which is releasing two brand new remastered Blu-rays. First is Mervyn LeRoy's Waterloo Bridge, starring Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the best available elements, this classic romantic melodrama from 1940 features a theatrical trailer in HD and an audio-only supplement, a Screen Director's Playhouse radio program with Norma Shearer and Mervyn LeRoy. Next is David Miller's The Opposite Sex (1956), a musical remake of The Women (1939) starring June Allyson and Joan Collins, which is accompanied by its trailer in HD. WAC are also releasing both Black Lightning: The Complete Second Season and Black Lightning: The Complete Third Season on Tuesday, taking over after WBHE handled the release of the first season back in 2018. Each season set will be three discs and contain DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio and English SDH subtitles.