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[Lord_Balkan]

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This is pretty exciting, since the current blu-ray is just an up-res-ed DVD.

Wes Craven's 1977 film THE HILLS HAVE EYES is a seminal work of the genre. The down and dirty feature is simultaneously a hardcore mutant carnage flick and an intelligent indictment of the American family by bringing a supposedly moral suburban family against a grotesque mirror image of themselves. While it's far from my favorite Craven movie, I'm tremendously glad it's being treated well by Arrow Video, who are restoring the film in 4K to bring it to a Blu-Ray and DVD special edition.

Here's the deets:

Brand new 4K restoration from original film elements, supervised by producer Peter Locke
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original mono audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
6 x postcards
Reversible fold-out poster featuring new and original artwork
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Brad Stevens and a consideration of the Hills franchise by Ewan Cant, illustrated with original archive stills
Audio commentary with Wes Craven and Peter Locke
Looking Back on The Hills Have Eyes – making-of documentary featuring interviews with Craven, Locke, actors Michael Berryman, Dee Wallace, Janus Blythe, Robert Houston, Susan Lanier and director of photography Eric Saarinen
The Desert Sessions – brand new interview with composer Don Peake
Alternate ending, in HD for the first time
Trailers and TV Spots
Image Gallery
Original Screenplay (BD/DVD-ROM Content)
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Paul Shipper

More special features will be announced in the future. Check out the set below!

In THE HILLS HAVE EYES, which stars Michael Berryman, Robert Houston, Janus Blythe, and Dee Wallace:

Big Bob and Ethel Carter, their son Bobby, daughters Lynne and Brenda, Lynne's husband Doug and their baby granddaughter are on their way to California. Big Bob wants to visit an old silver mine once owned by his family. When they stop for gas at a remote station, Fred the owner warns them about going off the beaten tack telling them it's way too dangerous. Big Bob is stubborn and pushes on but when the car breaks down, they soon realize they have to deal with cannibalistic mutants living in the nearby mountains. Few will survive.

You can preorder it here.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Just a reminder for anyone outside of Europe that this is from Arrow Video, which is a UK based company, so unless your BD player is Region B compatible, you won't be able to play this as they generally region lock their discs.

Spoiler

You could at least hope for a 4K BD release in the future, though, as the 4K discs don't have any region encoding whatsoever.

Actually, wait, Arrow does US discs now?

 

[berzeli]

Just a reminder for anyone outside of Europe that this is from Arrow Video, which is a UK based company, so unless your BD player is Region B compatible, you won't be able to play this as they generally region lock their discs.

Arrow has had a US division for over a year. And this is getting released on both sides of the pond (and as such the disc should be region free and/or A/B).

 

[Nerdkiller]

Arrow has had a US division for over a year. And this is getting released on both sides of the pond.

Yeah, I only realised that myself when I clicked the lower link. I guess it's only fair, given that Criterion does Region B releases now.

Now where's my UK Days of Heaven disc already, Critey?

 

[old manatee]

Interesting. I love that movie, but I always thought of it as being pretty ugly. I wonder if I just saw a bad transfer.

 

[Lord_Balkan]

Just a reminder of what the current hills have eyes blu-ray looks like

Interesting. I love that movie, but I always thought of it as being pretty ugly. I wonder if I just saw a bad transfer.

It was worse than a bad transfer. Apparently they lost the original 16mm tapes and the only things they had was a bad copy of the 16mm on a 35mm tape. So for the blu-ray release they just upressed the DVD transfer they did and nothing else.

 

[norm9]

Hmm. Part of the charm for me was how dirty it looked.

 

[Lord_Balkan]

Hmm. Part of the charm for me was how dirty it looked.

If the 4k restoration of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is anything to go by, the dirtiness should be retained.

 

[old manatee]

If the 4k restoration of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is anything to go by, the dirtiness should be retained.

Yoooooo that looks good.

I stopped buying movies like 10 years ago and just always kept DVD and streaming Netflix accounts open, but I'm buying movies again because so many of these new 4k transfers look incredible.

 

[strafer]

If the 4k restoration of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is anything to go by, the dirtiness should be retained.

So good.

 

[Lord_Balkan]

Here are some uncompressed 1080p pics I took of Texas Chainsaw blu-ray and the currentHills Have Eyes bluray

Texas

Hills Have Eyes

I am pretty excited for this restoration as its my second favorite Wes Craven movie. It is just so... raw.

 

[Slaythe]

I had no idea how bad it was........... ugh.........