Evil Dead II (1987)
Horror, Comedy, Fantasy • 1h 24m
Overview
Ash Williams and his girlfriend Linda find a log cabin in the woods with a voice recording from an archeologist who had recorded himself reciting ancient chants from "The Book of the Dead." As they play the recording an evil power is unleashed taking over Linda's body.
Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie DePaiva, Ted Raimi, Denise Bixler, Richard Domeier, John Peakes, Lou Hancock, Snowy Winters, Sol Abrams, Josh Becker, Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel, Thomas Kidd, Mitch Cantor, Jenny Griffith, William Preston Robertson, Tony Elwood, David Goodman, Gary Jones, Greg Nicotero, Tom Sullivan, Robert Tapert, John W. Walter
Director: Sam Raimi
Sony 4K Blu-ray steelbook
Unaltered version: 2007 Ultimate Edition DVD? Or 35mm scan
Sony 4K Blu-ray steelbook, correct audio pitch and more bonus features
Confirmed to be a port of Sony's international 4K, encode different to Lionsgate's. Audio in the correct pitch and a cross-selection of archive extras where the Lionsgate had only one audio commentary. High Def reviewer thought the 2.0 was a mixdown of the 5.1 track.
Unaltered version: 2007 Ultimate Edition DVD? Or 35mm scan
LaserDisc has the original Mono
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray audio is in the wrong pitch while the Sony release is in the right pitch
All releases after 2010 have digital alterations to some scenes. https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=999332
Director: Sam Raimi
Sony 4K Blu-ray steelbook
Unaltered version: 2007 Ultimate Edition DVD? Or 35mm scan
Sony 4K Blu-ray steelbook, correct audio pitch and more bonus features
Confirmed to be a port of Sony's international 4K, encode different to Lionsgate's. Audio in the correct pitch and a cross-selection of archive extras where the Lionsgate had only one audio commentary. High Def reviewer thought the 2.0 was a mixdown of the 5.1 track.
Unaltered version: 2007 Ultimate Edition DVD? Or 35mm scan
LaserDisc has the original Mono
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray audio is in the wrong pitch while the Sony release is in the right pitch
All releases after 2010 have digital alterations to some scenes. https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=999332
Director: Sam Raimi
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray (only the US Theatrical is in 4K)
US Theatrical: 1993 MCA/Universal Home Video LaserDisc [41603]
Director: Sam Raimi
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray (only the US Theatrical is in 4K)
US Theatrical: 1993 MCA/Universal Home Video LaserDisc [41603]
Director: Fede Álvarez
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Director: Fede Álvarez
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Director: Lee Cronin
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > French Metropolitan 4K Blu-Ray > WB 4K Blu-Ray
Britain StudioCanal/French Metropolitan 4K Blu-Ray has a exclusive director's solo commentary.
Director: Lee Cronin
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > French Metropolitan 4K Blu-Ray > WB 4K Blu-Ray
Britain StudioCanal/French Metropolitan 4K Blu-Ray has a exclusive director's solo commentary.
Director: Sam Raimi
Theatrical: Sony 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical: Sony 4K Blu-ray
2.1 Cut received a 4K remaster for a cinema release. No announced home video release yet.
Director: Sam Raimi
Theatrical: Sony 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical: Sony 4K Blu-ray
2.1 Cut received a 4K remaster for a cinema release. No announced home video release yet.
Director: Sam Raimi
Director: Sam Raimi
3D version: Disney 3D Blu-ray
3D version: Disney 3D Blu-ray
3D version: Disney 3D Blu-ray
3D version: Disney 3D Blu-ray
Director: Sam Raimi
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Director: Sam Raimi
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Director: Sam Raimi
Theatrical: Sony 4K Blu-ray
Editor's Cut: Sony Blu-Ray
Theatrical: Sony 4K Blu-ray
Editor's Cut: Sony Blu-Ray
Director: Sam Raimi
Theatrical: Sony 4K Blu-ray
Editor's Cut: Sony Blu-Ray
Theatrical: Sony 4K Blu-ray
Editor's Cut: Sony Blu-Ray
Director: Sam Raimi
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray: the old master looks problematic and the new scan from the interpositive looks marvelous, just like Existenz from Vinegar Syndrome. Encoding by Engine House is excellent.
Director: Sam Raimi
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray: the old master looks problematic and the new scan from the interpositive looks marvelous, just like Existenz from Vinegar Syndrome. Encoding by Engine House is excellent.
Director: Sam Raimi
US Cut: Sony 2025 Steelbook 4K Blu-ray
International Cut: France 4K Blu-ray
US Cut: Sony 2025 Steelbook 4K Blu-ray (2025 Steelbook has Dolby Vision)
International Cut: France 4K Blu-ray
Director: Sam Raimi
US Cut: Sony 2025 Steelbook 4K Blu-ray
International Cut: France 4K Blu-ray
US Cut: Sony 2025 Steelbook 4K Blu-ray (2025 Steelbook has Dolby Vision)
International Cut: France 4K Blu-ray
Director: Sam Raimi
Director: Sam Raimi
Director: Sam Raimi
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Director: Sam Raimi
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
UK ICON 4K Blu-ray (caps)
UK 4K Blu-ray has a slightly better encode than US Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray and Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
5.1 mix is flawed on Shout! Factory/ICON, a phasey upmix instead of the proper discrete surround. The UHD 2.0 tracks are downmixes of that track.
2008 Fox Blu-ray sounds great, very close to the original 70mm mix, only with split surround.
2001 DVD has the original mix as 4.1 and matrixed 2.0.
Imprint 4K has a 4.0 track. The StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has a different 5.1, unclear if it's the same as Fox BD.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
UK ICON 4K Blu-ray (caps)
UK 4K Blu-ray has a slightly better encode than US Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray and Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
5.1 mix is flawed on Shout! Factory/ICON, a phasey upmix instead of the proper discrete surround. The UHD 2.0 tracks are downmixes of that track.
2008 Fox Blu-ray sounds great, very close to the original 70mm mix, only with split surround.
2001 DVD has the original mix as 4.1 and matrixed 2.0.
Imprint 4K has a 4.0 track. The StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has a different 5.1, unclear if it's the same as Fox BD.
Director: Michael Mann
Theatrical/Director's Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray
Hybrid Theatrical Cut: Anchor Bay "Theatrical" DVD
Final Cut: upcoming UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical/Director's Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray
Hybrid Theatrical Cut: Anchor Bay "Theatrical" DVD
Final Cut: upcoming UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
Director: Michael Mann
Theatrical/Director's Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray
Hybrid Theatrical Cut: Anchor Bay "Theatrical" DVD
Final Cut: upcoming UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical/Director's Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray
Hybrid Theatrical Cut: Anchor Bay "Theatrical" DVD
Final Cut: upcoming UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
Director: Mario Caiano
Director: Mario Caiano
2017 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray and subsequent 4K Blu-rays are notorius for being heavily denoised and smoothened. Alternatively, 35mm scans for the theatrical cut is also available.
For the Ultimate Edition with the T-1000 searching John's room and the happy future ending, the 2009 Skynet Blu-ray, which is the older pre-2017 transfer, but has DNR.
2017 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray and subsequent 4K Blu-rays are notorius for being heavily denoised and smoothened. Alternatively, 35mm scans for the theatrical cut is also available.
For the Ultimate Edition with the T-1000 searching John's room and the happy future ending, the 2009 Skynet Blu-ray, which is the older pre-2017 transfer, but has DNR.
251 min cut (Extended): Fox Blu-ray. Eagle Pictures has forced Italian subs in some parts
Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray, caps
The 4K includes both theatrical and extended cuts. It's overall a solid upgrade over previous discs, but some will strongly dislike the color grading.
There are some issues with encoding and grain management.
Nic's review:
Some definitely messed with it as there’s grain management going on that resulted in magnetic, squishy grain movement. Both cuts (4K discs) are affected and it doesn’t look like an encoding issue to me as the bitrates don’t drop down to single digits á la Paramount or StudioCanal. During opticals, the lowest I’ve noted on the Extended 4K was around 30 MB/s vs. ~5 MB/s more for the theatrical cut.
Darker scenes are mostly (but not always) better but when it gets brighter, particularly in exteriors or scenes like the Jennifer Connelly dance scene at minute 38, I can’t unsee the digital tinkering as it does some damage texturally.
I compared it with the Eagle Pictures and Warner Bros Fox Blu-ray of the extended cut and they all look fine without grain management like that. Eagle Pictures’s Blu-ray is an older one if anyone’s curious and credited to another authoring house than 64Biz, which did the 4K.
Other than that, except for some encoding-related chroma noise that peeks through in the DV layer, Eagle Pictures did everything right. They corrected the framing to 1.85, kept the original English titles, the English restoration note, subtitles, HDR/DV is gentle and respectful of the source black levels are better than on the Warner Bros/Fox Blu-ray. Without that grain management, this would’ve been the all-timer release we all longed for.
251 min cut: Fox Blu-ray (24-bit, Eagle Pictures is 16-bit, not audible)
229 min cut: Warner Bros LaserDisc (missing 2 minutes, but original mono mix was never released on DVD/Blu-ray)
Extended edition adds scenes cut from the theatrical, but from a much lower quality source. It's intended to approximate the original cut, but to what extent that is true is debatable.
US theatrical cut is infamously bad, was panned at release and never re-released on home video.
251 min cut (Extended): Fox Blu-ray. Eagle Pictures has forced Italian subs in some parts
Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray, caps
The 4K includes both theatrical and extended cuts. It's overall a solid upgrade over previous discs, but some will strongly dislike the color grading.
There are some issues with encoding and grain management.
Nic's review:
Some definitely messed with it as there’s grain management going on that resulted in magnetic, squishy grain movement. Both cuts (4K discs) are affected and it doesn’t look like an encoding issue to me as the bitrates don’t drop down to single digits á la Paramount or StudioCanal. During opticals, the lowest I’ve noted on the Extended 4K was around 30 MB/s vs. ~5 MB/s more for the theatrical cut.
Darker scenes are mostly (but not always) better but when it gets brighter, particularly in exteriors or scenes like the Jennifer Connelly dance scene at minute 38, I can’t unsee the digital tinkering as it does some damage texturally.
I compared it with the Eagle Pictures and Warner Bros Fox Blu-ray of the extended cut and they all look fine without grain management like that. Eagle Pictures’s Blu-ray is an older one if anyone’s curious and credited to another authoring house than 64Biz, which did the 4K.
Other than that, except for some encoding-related chroma noise that peeks through in the DV layer, Eagle Pictures did everything right. They corrected the framing to 1.85, kept the original English titles, the English restoration note, subtitles, HDR/DV is gentle and respectful of the source black levels are better than on the Warner Bros/Fox Blu-ray. Without that grain management, this would’ve been the all-timer release we all longed for.
251 min cut: Fox Blu-ray (24-bit, Eagle Pictures is 16-bit, not audible)
229 min cut: Warner Bros LaserDisc (missing 2 minutes, but original mono mix was never released on DVD/Blu-ray)
Extended edition adds scenes cut from the theatrical, but from a much lower quality source. It's intended to approximate the original cut, but to what extent that is true is debatable.
US theatrical cut is infamously bad, was panned at release and never re-released on home video.
Director: David Lynch
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is SDR
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray is HDR
The DV/HDR grade is tasteful and not overdone. SC has better compression, though not flawless; encoded by FiM, but Criterion also holds up quite well. Both releases claim to be approved by Lynch.
SC has a missing fade that Criterion reinstated.
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix: 2001 R1 Paramount US NTSC DVD/2008 R2 Optimum UK PAL or 1999 Pioneer JP LaserDisc
Restored stereo mix: Criterion / StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
The film was originally mixed in Dolby Stereo (matrixed LCRS). For the 4K restoration, this mix has been transferred from the original magnetic elements and remastered with Lynch's supervision. Unfortunately, the fidelity suffered in the process, with many sections ending up significantly less detailed due to a noise reduction pass. This track has been altered compared to the original, with reverb added to some dialogue, different ambient sound effects, changed panning, and extended bass.
For the unrestored mix, there are two major options, each with its own merits and flaws. The 2001 Paramount DVD, which I would say is the best well-rounded mastering, and the 1999 Japanese LaserDisc, which has noticeably better clarity and high-end detail, as well as better dynamics, but suffers from occasional distortion and has less bass than the DVD.
The LD also has some ambiance buried too low in the mix, and some dialogue panned more to the centre than the DVD. There are no content changes I was able to find. Unfortunately, I don't know what accounts for those differences.
The other available tracks all have more significant flaws. The Italian and Japanese BDs use the same base mastering as the DVD, but with some patching in a few shots. HD-DVD is sourced from an inferior transfer, the same as the Momentum DVD.
The 5.1 remix, originally introduced on the 2002 DVD, and carried over without changes to the 2009 BD is a light and mostly faithful remix, with fairly minimal LFE and surround use, but still potentially worthwhile as the only discrete track.
Director: David Lynch
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is SDR
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray is HDR
The DV/HDR grade is tasteful and not overdone. SC has better compression, though not flawless; encoded by FiM, but Criterion also holds up quite well. Both releases claim to be approved by Lynch.
SC has a missing fade that Criterion reinstated.
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix: 2001 R1 Paramount US NTSC DVD/2008 R2 Optimum UK PAL or 1999 Pioneer JP LaserDisc
Restored stereo mix: Criterion / StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
The film was originally mixed in Dolby Stereo (matrixed LCRS). For the 4K restoration, this mix has been transferred from the original magnetic elements and remastered with Lynch's supervision. Unfortunately, the fidelity suffered in the process, with many sections ending up significantly less detailed due to a noise reduction pass. This track has been altered compared to the original, with reverb added to some dialogue, different ambient sound effects, changed panning, and extended bass.
For the unrestored mix, there are two major options, each with its own merits and flaws. The 2001 Paramount DVD, which I would say is the best well-rounded mastering, and the 1999 Japanese LaserDisc, which has noticeably better clarity and high-end detail, as well as better dynamics, but suffers from occasional distortion and has less bass than the DVD.
The LD also has some ambiance buried too low in the mix, and some dialogue panned more to the centre than the DVD. There are no content changes I was able to find. Unfortunately, I don't know what accounts for those differences.
The other available tracks all have more significant flaws. The Italian and Japanese BDs use the same base mastering as the DVD, but with some patching in a few shots. HD-DVD is sourced from an inferior transfer, the same as the Momentum DVD.
The 5.1 remix, originally introduced on the 2002 DVD, and carried over without changes to the 2009 BD is a light and mostly faithful remix, with fairly minimal LFE and surround use, but still potentially worthwhile as the only discrete track.
Director: Neil Marshall
UK StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or FR Pathé 4K Blu-ray share the same disc (caps)
The StudioCanal UHD has a much better encode than the Lionsgate UHD with the same grade. The Vuelta UHD has a decent encode but it is in an incorrect color space and has German overlays.
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or FR Pathé 4K Blu-ray
UK disc includes only 5.1.
The 7.1 mix included on the Lionsgate UHD appears to be identical to the 2006 USA BD's LPCM 7.1 track and to be a straight transfer of the theatrical Dolby Digital Surround EX mix (originally matrixed 6.1, with the rear surrounds in the discrete 7.1 presentation being dual mono). The old GER BD has a 6.1 mix but it is a poor remix and the GER UHD has an Auro-3D remix of the 7.1 mix (mostly adjusted surround levels). All other discs offer a 5.1 mix, including the Studio Canal UHD
Director: Neil Marshall
UK StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or FR Pathé 4K Blu-ray share the same disc (caps)
The StudioCanal UHD has a much better encode than the Lionsgate UHD with the same grade. The Vuelta UHD has a decent encode but it is in an incorrect color space and has German overlays.
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or FR Pathé 4K Blu-ray
UK disc includes only 5.1.
The 7.1 mix included on the Lionsgate UHD appears to be identical to the 2006 USA BD's LPCM 7.1 track and to be a straight transfer of the theatrical Dolby Digital Surround EX mix (originally matrixed 6.1, with the rear surrounds in the discrete 7.1 presentation being dual mono). The old GER BD has a 6.1 mix but it is a poor remix and the GER UHD has an Auro-3D remix of the 7.1 mix (mostly adjusted surround levels). All other discs offer a 5.1 mix, including the Studio Canal UHD
Director: John Irvin
(not the 4K Blu-ray, previous LaserDisc could be better)
Director: John Irvin
(not the 4K Blu-ray, previous LaserDisc could be better)
BFI 4K Blu-ray is significantly better than older Blu-ray however the HDR grade is questionable as it introduces black crushes, see nic's review and caps
For Blu-rays, Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray > MoC Blu-ray see caps
BFI 4K Blu-ray
All disc sourced from the 4K restoration use the same solid audio track. Older DVD releases are from a higher generation source with less detail and more hiss.
BFI 4K Blu-ray is significantly better than older Blu-ray however the HDR grade is questionable as it introduces black crushes, see nic's review and caps
For Blu-rays, Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray > MoC Blu-ray see caps
BFI 4K Blu-ray
All disc sourced from the 4K restoration use the same solid audio track. Older DVD releases are from a higher generation source with less detail and more hiss.
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