The Addiction (1995)
Drama, Horror • 1h 22m
Director: Abel Ferrara
Cast: Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco, Paul Calderon, Fredro Starr, Kathryn Erbe, Michael Imperioli, Jamal Simmons, Robert W. Castle, Michael A. Fella, Louis Katz, Leroy Johnson, Avron Coleman, Lisa Casillo, Frank Aquilino, Nicholas De Cegli, Jay Julien, Chuck Jeffreys, Edward Conna, Nancy Ellen Anzalone, Susan Mitchell, John Vincent McEvily, Bianca Pratt, Christina Campanella, Anthony Giangrande, Kevin Scullin, Heather Bracken
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 year ago
UHD tiers
Overview
A vampiric doctoral student tries to follow the philosophy of a nocturnal comrade and control her thirst for blood.
Director: Abel Ferrara
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray in July
Director: Abel Ferrara
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Director: Abel Ferrara
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
French ESC Editions Blu-Ray
Director: Abel Ferrara
Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)
Kino Lorber and 101 Films are bit idential. For extras, 101 Films Adds a new extra (~25 min) with Abel Ferrara
1993 Live Home Video LaserDisc
1993 Live Home Video LaserDisc is not only better, but also has the correct music see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUmm8J7EDNM
Director: Abel Ferrara
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Identical. Arrow 4K Blu-ray is lossy transcode.
Director: Federico Fellini
Director: John Woo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
review: Disk Kino
better encoding, some shots are better on Shout! Factory, others on Arrow
Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono
Director: Lewis Teague
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray disappointing
R1 DVD
R1 DVD sounds best and has the original mono and a Dolby Stereo remix
Director: Ron Shelton
Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray disappointing, nice new master, but poor encode, grain completely crippled in some scenes, artifacts abound, etc, makes Kino Lorber look like FiM.
Director: William Friedkin
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Plaion have also released a BD sourced from Arrow's recent 4K remaster, holds up strongly in comparison https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=19341&d2=19005&c=5415
Director: Preston Sturges
Director: John Carpenter
Sources: blog.sporv.com (opens in a new tab)
1997? Signature Collection LD
Good: 2017 Arrow and 2016 Shout! Factory Blu-ray have the original audio options.
the only track on Universal 4K, which is in DTS:X, has a mixing error of around 6dB too low on side channels, otherwise very similar to other 5.1 mixes.
Director: Rob Reiner
Arrow 4K Blu-ray releasing December 14 2026
More Drama on Blu-ray
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
BD LPCM 5.1
The DTS-HD on the UHD has been dynamically compressed, has had its center channel boosted, and surrounds lowered (typical modern nearfield mix for soundbars). Very different from the BD and DVD tracks. The BD LPCM is basically just a lossless version of the DTS and AC3 from the original DVD (the AC3 actually being the superior mix on that particular release).
Directors: Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell
Imprint 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · filmalert101.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
FiM encode and none of the low-pass filtering present on the Criterion 4K, resulting in more detail and better handling of highlights on Imprint
Review, comparisons
All HD and 4K sources use the same 2009 restoration. Criterion's master (also used by Imprint) is a bit more rolled off, though the difference is minor.
Director: Tony Scott
The 70mm 6-track mix has a higher bitrate on the Paramount 1998 DVD, but is more limited than on the THX LaserDisc The Paramount 1998 DVD also has open matte versions in fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 instead of the theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1, but the 2.00:1 widescreen presentation is non-anamorphic. The THX LaserDisc is available in both fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 variants.
Director: Lloyd Bacon
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Preston Sturges
No information on French Elephant Films Blu-ray
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Director: Martin Scorsese
Other releases have horrendous DNR
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