The Deadly Spawn - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

My first encounter with 1983’s The Deadly Spawn was on the big screen at the annual 12-hour horror movie marathon at The Coolidge Corner Theatre in October 2018. The talented programmer had the right idea by playing this one towards the end, as the sleepy audience truly was not prepared for how jarring and shocking this creature feature is, especially given its extremely low budget. But there was everyone, sitting with their jaws agape at the sheer creativity being thrown off the film. When we talk about these lo-fi movies being hobbled by lack of production value, The Deadly Spawn is dutifully conscious of that and continually finds ways around those issues. Vincent Canby of The New York Times thrashed the movie upon its initial release, but the passing years have proven the staying power of fanged worm aliens and the unsuspecting humans they chomp on.

The Deadly Spawn starts off as a lot of great horror movies do: When a meteor strikes Earth and unleashes an alien threat, a group of campers is quickly gobbled up, and the alien grows bigger after eating them. The alien scurries off and takes up refuge in the leaky basement of a nearby house. Sam (James Brewster) and Barb (Elissa Neil) wake up early and find that the basement is flooded by heavy rain, but when they go to clean the water up, The Deadly Spawn are waiting. Monster fanatic Charlie (Charles George Hildebrandt), his older brother Pete (Tom DeFranco) and their group of friends start to realize that something’s amiss. It’s just that when they finally uncover the horror lurking in the basement, the virus has already spread to the neighboring houses and wreaking havoc. 

The Deadly Spawn was also known as Return of the Alien’s Deadly Spawn and was produced during the heyday of gore-soaked creature features of the 1980s. The difference with this film is that the clear inspirations from films like The Evil Dead and Phantasm are firmly supplanted by terrific visual gags and sharp screenwriting that predicts and engages with how the audience’s interest flags whenever there isn’t bloodletting or creature action. That’s why the film is chock full of zany, quick-paced set pieces that push the envelope as much as the budget can allow. Listen, all I’m trying to say is the sheer absurdity of watching a bunch of elderly women get torn apart by fleshy worm puppets is more than worth the price of admission.

The Evil Dead is often the movie people point to when talking about low-budget horror movies making it big; however, it was films like The Deadly Spawn that were produced in bundles following the success of Sam Raimi’s horror classic. It’s just that when you’re at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video picking up cheap creature features, you often just get schlock and not much else to chew on. The Deadly Spawn is the full meal of grotesquerie and Reagan-era suburban degradation that it’s always been, just waiting for an unsuspecting audience to unleash its terror on. 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-rays 

Watch out! The Deadly Spawn comes home in 4K Ultra HD and is ready to let the gore fly. This two-disc (4K and Blu-ray) package comes in a rigid slipcase with gorgeous new art from Wes Benscoter and a 56-page booklet that we’ll get into later. The case that the discs are housed in is a thick, clear Scanavo case with reversible art and six double-sided collector’s cards inside. A double-sided poster is included as well that showcases original Japanese art from the film. The Scanavo case has a thick slipcover that goes over it before sliding into the slipcase. The 4K disc is a UHD100, and the Blu-ray is a BD50. Both discs offer the film and special features.  

From the included booklet, regarding the restoration: “The Deadly Spawn is presented in two separate aspect ratios of 1.37:1 and 1.66:1. The original 16mm camera negative was scanned and restored in 4K by Prasad Corporation in Burbank, California. Color grading in both Rec. 709 and BT.2020 color space was performed by A+D Images of Burbank, California. The 2160p Ultra High-Definition 4K disc is HDR10/Dolby Vision compatible.”

And now…the moment you’ve all been waiting for! The Deadly Spawn in 4K Ultra HD rips all previous disc releases of the film to shreds with absolutely stunning clarity, nicely layered 16mm film grain and a rock-solid encode from industry favorite David Mackenzie of Fidelity in Motion. Having seen this film on a 35mm print, I can safely state that this new restoration is remarkably true to the source material. The opening sequence suffers a bit from thin black levels because of 16mm and the lack of lighting, however the encode makes easy work of making that material look best as possible. Once we move to the house that most of the film takes place in, it’s smooth sailing from there. The Dolby Vision HDR color grade accentuates the flat primaries of the early 80s very well without blowing out any of the highlights. There’s even some terrific high-frequency detail that’s gained in the basement scenes, and the bitrate mostly hovers between 75-90 mbps without any anomalies to detect. Synapse Films has spoken at length about how long this restoration has taken to complete, and I’m happy to report that it was more than worth the wait.

From the included booklet, regarding the audio: “The English language tracks represent two entirely different sound mixes: the original mix as completed by the film’s producers before its theatrical release, and the final theatrical release mix prepared by 21st Century Film Corporation. Due to the age and condition of the original sound mixes, certain imperfections do exist in the tracks and Synapse Films and the audio engineers at Pardon My French LLC worked very hard to make the film sound the best it could be at the time of this release.”

Both the original and theatrical audio tracks are presented via the DTS-HD MA codec and served up as dual-mono. Comparing the new audio restoration to what previous discs, even the previous Synapse Blu-ray, will reveal that this is a huge step up in fidelity, clarity and mixing. Dialogue was often a bit muddy on other releases and its crystal clear here while still paying respect to the source. The big difference between the two tracks is how the creatures are presented. You can tell the original audio track from the producers is truer to what’s on the screen, while the mix produced by 21st Century Film Corporation has more gimmicks in it. Whichever track you choose, you’ll be treated to the best the film has ever sounded at home.

As expected with the terrific video and audio presentations, The Deadly Spawn comes with a superlative supplements package that provides hours of insight from cast and crew. Synapse did their due diligence by carrying over the features from their previous Blu-ray release while fleshing everything out with new interviews and recently uncovered archival material unique to this release. In particular, the location tour with Ted Bohus and Charles George Hildebrandt reveals a ton of details about the production and how they overcame the small budget. The behind-the-scenes footage sourced for this release is great as well, showcasing how those puppets worked in real life and in tandem with the film. In addition, the 56-page booklet comes with vintage Fangoria articles about the making of the film, excerpts from Ted A. Bohus’ book about the production and a new essay by author/film critic Michael Gingold that goes into the details of the in-name-only sequel (also a Ted A. Bohus production).

Disc 1: 4K UHD Feature & Supplements

• Audio commentary with writer/producer Ted A. Bohus
• Audio commentary with writer/producer Ted A. Bohus and editor Marc Harwood
• Audio commentary with writer/director Doug McKeown, actor Charles Hildebrandt, special effects director John Dods, executive producer Tim Hildebrandt and production assistant Tim Sullivan
• Face Off: Interview with actress Elizabeth Marner-Brooks (HD 14:43)
• Return to the Swamping Ground: Modern-day location tour with commentary by Ted Bohus and Charles George Hildebrandt (HD 22:12)
• A Visit with John Dods and The Deadly Spawn (SD 8:39)
• The Deadly Spawn – Prequel comic sampler 
• TV news clips (SD 43:05)
• Take One: Interview with editor Marc Harwood (SD 25:00)
• Original audition tapes (SD 35:59)
• Alternate opening sequence (SD 4:23)
• Behind-the-scenes footage (HD 4:56)
• TV spot and theatrical trailer (SD 2:24)
• Still gallery

Disc 2: Blu-ray Feature & Supplements

• Audio commentary with writer/producer Ted A. Bohus
• Audio commentary with writer/producer Ted A. Bohus and editor Marc Harwood
• Audio commentary with writer/director Doug McKeown, actor Charles Hildebrandt, special effects director John Dods, executive producer Tim Hildebrandt and production assistant Tim Sullivan
• Face Off: Interview with actress Elizabeth Marner-Brooks (HD 14:43)
• Return to the Swamping Ground: Modern-day location tour with commentary by Ted Bohus and Charles George Hildebrandt (HD 22:12)
• A Visit with John Dods and The Deadly Spawn (SD 8:39)
• The Deadly Spawn – Prequel comic sampler 
• TV news clips (SD 43:05)
• Take One: Interview with editor Marc Harwood (SD 25:00)
• Original audition tapes (SD 35:59)
• Alternate opening sequence (SD 4:23)
• Behind-the-scenes footage (HD 4:56)
• TV spot and theatrical trailer (SD 2:24)
• Still gallery

If you thought lampreys were full of teeth, just wait until you get your hands on The Deadly Spawn from Synapse Films. This stellar 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray package offers a gorgeous new 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative, multiple audio tracks restored for this release and a gory grab bag of supplements to satisfy the gorehound in all of us. This Must-Own release is ready to take your genre horror collection to the next level, just watch out for alien creatures in your basement…