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Santa Sangre (1989)
Santa Sangre (1989) poster

Santa Sangre (1989)

Thriller, Drama, Horror • 2h 2m

Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky

Best video release

Severin 4K Blu-ray has bad encode

Updated 2 months ago


Upcoming

Umbrella 4K Blu-ray, part of Alejandro Jodorowsky Collector’s Edition, scheduled for November 2026 release

UHD tiers

Disappointing
Severin:

bad encode


About the film

A former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his mother – the leader of a strange religious cult – and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name.

Alternative Titles
Holy Blood

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Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky

Best English-Friendly:

Arrow/US remastered abkco Blu-ray or Germany Bildstörung Blu-ray depending on preference

Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Umbrella 4K Blu-ray, part of Alejandro Jodorowsky Collector’s Edition, scheduled for November 2026 release

Best Video:

Even though Arrow/US remastered abkco Blu-ray are the newer restoration, the Germany Bildstörung Blu-ray seeming look better in many of the scenes see caps  ut the grading might also be over-exposed see caps
Ultimately it's up to personal preference.

More from Umbrella

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Directors: Banjong Pisanthanakun & Parkpoom Wongpoom

Best English-Friendly:

Australia Umbrella 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Australia Umbrella 4K Blu-ray encoded by FiM

Director: Mamoru Oshii

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

US GKIDS 4K Blu-ray authored by FiM

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

US GKIDS/Australia Umbrella 4K Blu-ray authored by FiM

Video Notes:

US GKIDS/Australia Umbrella 4K Blu-ray authored by FiM with identical encodes

UHD vs BD comparisons

Best Audio:

4K restoration includes a high-fidelity Dolby Atmos remix sourced from new transfers of original magnetic elements, with inconsequential content differences from the original mono mix. Umbrella 4K Blu-ray only includes a 5.1 mixdown of the remix, other discs have it in Dolby Atmos.

Umbrella/GKIDS 4K Blu-ray's 2.0 track is a stereo downmix. Older BDs and LDs have the original mono mix in varying quality, but are all inferior in fidelity to the new Dolby Atmos remix. The digital track on the Bandai/Emotion Japan LaserDisc BELL-942 is the best of the bunch.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23714400&postcount=159

Only the GKIDS 4K Blu-ray has the English dub.

Director: Hal Needham

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

2026 Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray, 2025 Umbrella 4K Blu-ray

Directors: Alan Mak Siu-Fai & Andrew Lau Wai-Keung

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion US Blu-ray or Umbrella Australia 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Maybe Umbrella Australia 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode), Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray, or Pony Canyon Japan 4K Blu-ray. All other existing 4K Blu-rays have terrible compression: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=21423337&postcount=173

The master is heavily DNR'd.

Best Audio:

Original 5.1 from Jokers France 4K Blu-ray or Criterion US Blu-ray or older Blu-rays

Director: Richard Stanley

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Umbrella AU 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Umbrella AU 4K Blu-ray, encoded by Fidelity in Motion

Best Audio:

Original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix: 2018 Ronin Flix US Blu-ray / 2009 Optimum UK Blu-ray
5.1 surround remix: Umbrella AU 4K Blu-ray / Umbrella Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

The 2.0 on the 4K Blu-ray is a downmix.

Director: Christopher Nolan

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Spain Selecta Vision 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · linkedin.com (opens in a new tab) · dvdcompare.net (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Collector's edition of a new restoration from Umbrella

Video Notes:

> other releases and old 2006 release - impressions of Selecta Vision release

Director: Ted Kotcheff

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Umbrella/Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Umbrella/Arrow 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode but the mastering shows signs of DNR albeit only momentarily); all other BDs pretty bad.

Audio Notes:

But whether in the correct speed/pitch is TBC.

Director: Rolf de Heer

Best English-Friendly:

Umbrella Blu-ray

Best Video:

Australia Umbrella Blu-ray or French Intersections Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Australia Umbrella Blu-ray or French Intersections Blu-ray no comparison available

Director: George A. Romero

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

Mono: 35mm scan, old Shout! Factory and Australia Umbrella Blu-ray sounds better than the rest of the discs, but has noise reduction

Stereo: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray has a transfer of the 1986 Japan LaserDisc Stereo

Director: Richard Stanley

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Umbrella 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Best Video & Audio:

AU Umbrella 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

> US Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray 

The US/Theatrical Cut on the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray is AI upscaled and has DNR, along with Kino Lorber's usual poor compression.

Director's Cut uses a proper transfer but suffers from terrible compression, even by Kino standards.

The Umbrella with its FiM encode looks blurrier due to a slight low-pass filter, but is still far better than Kino.

Audio Notes:

AU Umbrella 4K Blu-ray and US Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray are the same.

The 5.1 track is a direct port of the lossy NTSC DVD track.

More Thriller on Blu-ray

Director: John Boorman

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

2027 Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1984 WB LaserDisc

Director: Bong Joon Ho

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

UK Artificial Eye 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray releasing January 2027

Best Video:

France The Jokers 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

France The Jokers 4K Blu-ray has the least DNR (UK Artificial Eye might be similar? Both better than Universal 4K Blu-ray)

Criterion even though doesn’t have 4K, it has the B&W version and a lot of extras.

Director: David Fincher

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

20th Century Studios Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Digipack release includes an Amazing Amy book the standard edition doesn’t have.

Director: Brian De Palma

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

1993 Universal LaserDisc

Additional Info:

Carlito’s Way was released theatrically in both Dolby Stereo and DTS. The 2.0 on the Arrow UHD is the original stereo mix, unknown if the 5.1 mix on the  Arrow disc is the original DTS mix.

Director: Toshiharu Ikeda

Best English-Friendly:

UK Third Window Blu-ray and US Error 4444 Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

FRA Carlotta Blu-ray

Video Notes:

caps; UK and US Blu-rays share the encode

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the WB release without the filtering, 1.85 ratio restored for US Cut; both US and International Cuts are 4K.

Best Audio:

US Cut: 1999 WB DVD/Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

No Blu-ray or DVD release until the Criterion 4K Blu-ray has presented the US in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The International Cut has never been presented in it's OAR of 1.66:1 in any home video releases.

The packaging on the back of the WB 4K Blu-ray incorrectly states it as 1.85:1 when the movie is actually 1.78:1 as is the original Blu-ray. 

Director: Doug Liman

4K · Worse Than BD
Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Cut: Universal HD-DVD

International Cut: International Universal Blu-ray but slightly filtered and DNR'd

Video Notes:

The Universal Blu-ray is slightly filtered and DNR'd compared to the HD-DVD, and the Universal 4K Blu-ray, on top of being upscaled, adds additional DNR and is softer than both previous HD releases.

Best Audio:

Universal Blu-ray DTS-HD 5.1

Additional Info:

Versions:
- The International version contains a short additional scene (part of the "Farmhouse" extended scene from the special features). See additional detail below.
- The US version does not contain this scene during the film. Director Doug Liman confirms in his audio commentary that the scene was cut from the original US theatrical release "for time".
- "The Explosive Extended Edition" found on some DVD releases is not an alternate cut of the film, simply an access mode that plays "The Bookend Scenes" features via non-seamless branching.

Deck the Halls scene:
The U.S. release is 118:17 while the European/Australian/Japanese releases are 118:36. There is no difference between the two running times from the start, but at 81:21, the U.S. version cuts from a kitchen scene of Marie and Eamon washing dishes, to a scene of Eamon bringing blankets to Jason and Marie. On the European/Australian releases, at the same point, there is a scene of Jason, Marie, Eamon and his children eating dinner while "Deck the Halls" plays in the background. There is no dialogue, the characters just each exchange uncomfortable glances. The scene goes to 81:40, then picks up the same scene of Eamon bringing blankets. This scene is included as an extra ("Farmhouse" extended scene) albeit sans the holiday themed music. Many thanks to Rewind user Mark Bowen for comparing these releases and letting us know the difference.

Director: Tony Scott

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Director: Michael Mann

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · thedigitalbits.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray is encoded by FiM and is better than Criterion, see caps https://slow.pics/c/Z2RRQAAT

Criterion 4K Blu-ray vs Blu-ray: caps colors are more different and nuanced than anticipated even in the SDR-converted caps and the usual gain in highlight detail is also apparent. Encode looks excellent except for the brightest areas as usual.

Best Audio:

5.1/5.0 mix (essentially a 4-track mix in 5.1 and 5.0 containers respectively)-Arrow/Criterion 4K Blu-ray. Only imperceptible differences in bit-depth: 20 vs 24. 

2.0 mix- Arrow 4K Blu-ray (original stereo)

Additional Info:

Arrow and Criterion 4K Blu-rays have differing extras 

Criterion has FEL Dolby Vision, Arrow has MEL

Arrow Limited Edition includes the Theatrical Cut Blu-ray from an older HD master, most likely from a 2K scan of an interpositive.

Director: Lewis Teague

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray 

Video Notes:

> disappointing US Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray / R1 Lionsgate DVD sounds best and has the original mono and the R1 Lionsgate DVD has a Dolby Stereo remix

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Researched and maintained by

vanshadyAdamA

· last reviewed 2 months ago

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