John Carpenter's Vampires - Limited Edition 4K UHD (AU Import)

Do I have anything to add about one film that I reviewed on three previous occasions? No. Not really. I just enjoy the hell out of John Carpenter’s Vampires. A Horror/Neo-Western in the tradition of Howard Hawks, Carpenter took the framework of John Steakley’s novel Vampire$ and made it his own. As I mentioned in past reviews, as an adaptation of a novel, it might not be so great. But, as a John Carpenter project with a great performance from James Woods, the flick is a wildly entertaining ride! 

At a time when Carpenter’s patience with the industry was wearing thin, Vampires sounded like a relatively smooth production. Judging from his commentary, Carpenter sounded like he had a lot of fun making this film. I think that’s part of why I enjoy it so much. Very often, when you’re watching a Carpenter Film, you can feel his dissatisfaction with the process. Over the last three decades, I have no clue how many times I’ve seen Vampires in theaters and on home video. But, if there’s another big release on disc or if it shows up for a late-night screening at my local specialty theater, I’ll be there.

Now you can check out what I wrote three times before

1. John Carpenter’s Vampires - Twilight Time Blu-ray Review
2. John Carpenter’s Vampires - Scream Factory Blu-ray Review
3. John Carpenter’s Vampires - Scream Factory 4K UHD Review 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
Rising from its grave in the land way down under, John Carpenter’s Vampires drains the blood of collectors with a new two-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray release from Imprint/ViaVision. Limited to a run of 2000 units, the 4K is pressed on a BD100 disc with the 1080p and the bulk of the extras reserved on a Region Free BD50 disc. The discs are housed in a two-disc black case with separate trays. A packet of eight art cards and a recreation press booklet round out the swag items. The whole package is held together in a hardstock slipcase with lenticular cover artwork.

Flipping between the releases, ViaVision appears to have used the same Dolby Vision transfer supplied by Sony as the Scream Factory disc here domestically. Which is not a problem at all, considering it’s a damn good-looking disc. The only difference is on the technical side, as there are some slight variations in bitrates due to different authoring techniques. But even if the bitrate might be lower or higher depending on any given scene, I didn’t notice anything in this watchthrough that looked off or different from the Scream Factory presentation. So with that, I’ll reprint what I said before: 

Reportedly sourced from a new 4K Restoration of the original camera negative and given a healthy blood transfusion of Dolby Vision HDR, John Carpenter’s Vampires makes a bloody good transition to 2160p. Thanks to Gary Kibbe’s photography, Vampires has always had a distinct look to it that I really enjoyed. Eschewing the Western vibe of the story, most scenes are bathed in crimsony red, yellows, and bold rusty orange tones. I’ve often thought it somewhat funny that in a film about vampire hunters, it always looks like these guys are getting to work right when the sun is about to set rather than high noon. But visually, it’s a beautiful little playground for Carpenter’s characters and goons to lurk. When we get into the creepy interiors where our vampires rest, the blacks are impenetrably dark (thankfully without crush issues), and the shadows are ominous and creepy. Throughout these visual extremes, details never falter. Skin textures, hairstyles, and costumes of our living and undead characters are all on display. Film grain is maintained and is appropriately cinematic without looking smoothed or too intrusive. Around the optical effects and dissolve transitions, the appropriate frames can get a little softer, losing some of that visual clarity, and grain can thicken a tad, but that’s par for the course. The HDR grade in Dolby Vision and HDR10 is nice and strong, letting the bold color choices see their worthy enhancements without any kind of revisionism push too hot or too cold. I was pleased with the old Twilight Time and Scream’s first stab at this title on Blu-ray, but this 4K is the clear winner.

On the audio side, we again have the same excellent DTS-HD MA 5.1 track, which I still think is a beast. Sure, Atmos might provide an upgrade, but when you’ve already achieved excellence, it’s hard to make meaningful improvements. Dialog is clean and clear, surround channels experience plenty of activity, and Carpenter’s score is still a great, moody atmospheric material. 

The difference maker for this release is an LPCM 2.0 track instead of a DTS-HD MA 2.0 track. Playing both tracks, the two sound similar in terms of element placement and so forth, but what I noticed more was that I didn’t need my volume as high with the LPCM 2.0 option. It’s just a little bit stronger in the levels side of the equation. That said, I still prefer the 5.1 mix over all other options. It’s just a more robust and exciting experience. But, if you're only rigged to handle the 2.0, you've got a great track to rock out to. 

For this edition, we get a little of the old mixed with some new. The John Carpenter commentary and the original 24-minute making-of return. None of the interviews from the Scream Factory disc were licensed for this edition, but ViaVision offers up their own selection of brand-new extras. On the upfront, we get a new Audio Commentary track from author Troy Howarth. If you’ve heard any of his tracks, he’s a fountain of knowledge and can sling interesting factoids and trivia with gusto. Next, we have a great video essay from film critic Andy Marshall-Roberts and a very cool look at the film’s score with historian Daniel Schweiger. It’d be nice to get all of the extras all in one place, but I dig the new commentary and the other extras offered. 

4K UHD

• Audio Commentary featuring John Carpenter
• NEW Audio Commentary featuring Troy Howarth
• Theatrical Trailer

Blu-ray

• Audio Commentary featuring John Carpenter
• NEW Audio Commentary featuring Troy Howarth
• NEW Potshots and Padres: The Western Theology of John Carpenter’s Vampires (HD 20:20)
• NEW Stake & Burn: Scoring John Carpenter’s Vampires (HD 9:53)
• Archival Featurettes (SD 23:41)
• Booklet

Well, I didn’t have to do another review of John Carpenter’s Vampires on 4K for my 2026 bingo card, but here I am, and I had fun. Not that I needed another edition of this film to motivate me to watch it again. As I like to look at this as Carpenter’s last good film, where you can tell he was genuinely enjoying himself, it’s a fun rollercoaster ride of bloody horror and action. If there’s one unfortunate side to this, it’s that Carpenter and Woods probably should have made more films together; amazingly enough, these two very acerbic personalities played well together. Toss in a cool story and some great gore effects, and you’ve got a damnd fun Horror-infused Neo-Western. Australia’s Imprint Films delivers John Carpenter’s Vampires to collectors' shelves with a new two-disc 4K UHD Limited Edition set. Offering the same excellent Dolby Vision transfer and the same excellent DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix we had Stateside, the difference-maker is the slick packaging and some different bonus features. I loved the new commentary, and the video essay and score featurette are worthwhile. I just wish some of the older interviews and featurettes of other discs had been carried over to make this edition more definitive. As I’m sure there will be another release when this film turns 30 in a couple of years, I’ll sign off on this set as Highly Recommended - specifically if you haven’t already picked up the U.S. domestic 4K release.  

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