Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula makes its second appearance on UHD Blu-ray, using the same transfer but adding Dolby Vision HDR.
The Production: 2.5/5
Bram Stoker’s Dracula, as directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a screenplay by James V. Hart (Contact), tries to be a “faithful” adaptation of the source novel with an all-star cast. While the production design by Thomas Sanders (Braveheart, Crimson Peak) is definitely turn of the century gothic with plenty of sex and gore, the film moves extremely slow, making the 127 minute runtime feel more like three hours. Much of the acting is over the top, especially Gary Oldman as Dracula, Tom Waits as Renfield, and Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing. Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, Richard E. Grant, Cary Elwes, Billy Campbell, and Monica Bellucci round out the cast.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
This new release appears to be the same transfer used in the 2017 UHD release, but in addition to HDR10 Sony has added Dolby Vision high dynamic range to provide slightly better luminance levels for those with DV-capable displays and included the original burned-in subtitles. This is a gorgeous transfer, with organic film grain and exceptional fine details such as fabric textures, even visible seams in the backdrops. Contrast is also excellent, with deep blacks and strong shadow detail.
Audio: 5/5
The default Dolby Atmos track is very immersive and wide. LFE is strong, surrounds are very active, and dialogue is clear and understandable throughout.
Special Features: 4.5/5
Sony has included two previously unreleased bonus features on the UHD disc, with all of the other special features on the included 2015 Blu-ray release.
UHD Disc
Love Song for a Vampire Music Video (upscaled 1080p; 4:24): Annie Lennox performs the song featured in the end credits.
Blood Lines: Dracula – The Man, the Myth, the Movies (upscaled 1080p; 28:22): A half-hour TV special (?) that takes a look behind the scenes and the mythology of Dracula himself.
Blu-ray Disc
Audio Commentary with Director Francis Ford Coppola, Visual Effects Supervisor Roman Coppola and Makeup Supervisor Greg Cannom
Audio Commentary with Director Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola Introduction (1080p; 3:55)
Reflections in Blood: Francis Ford Coppola and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1080p; 29:11)
Practical Magicians: A Collaboration Between Father and Son (1080p; 20:07)
The Blood is the Life: The Making of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1080p; 27:48)
The Costumes are the Sets: The Design of Eiko Ishioka (1080p; 14:02)
In Camera: Naïve Visual Effects (1080p; 18:46)
Method and Madness: Visualizing Dracula (1080p; 12:06)
Deleted and Extended Scenes (1080i; 28:14)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula “Beware” Trailer (1080p; 1:31)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:36)
Digital Copy: An insert contains a code to redeem a digital copy in UHD on Movies Anywhere.
Overall: 4/5
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of Francis Ford Coppola’s more divisive films, and this reviewer is still not a big fan of it 30 years later. The presentation, however, is exceptional. Should owners of the previous UHD release upgrade to this one? Not likely, unless they must have the movie in Dolby Vision, with original subtitles, the two previously unreleased special features, or a steelbook case (or any combination of the above).
Now retrieving an image set.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (30th Anniversary Steelbook) [4K UHD]
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Malcolm R
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I recently got this release and look forward to spinning it up for the Scary Movie challenge, though I don't yet have a 4K display so all the HDR stuff is lost on me for now.
Lord Dalek
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Bram Stoker's Dracula was originally issued in Dolby Digital. In fact it was Sony's ONLY film in that format for the next three years as they would launch SDDS in the summer of 1993.
Bryan Tuck
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And the included 5.1 track appears to be that original Dolby Digital mix, which they left off last time.
Also, the English 2.0 is presumably the original theatrical stereo track, but for some reason, it has a completely different music cue at the very end of the movie (right before the credits start). I know there were some differences between the Dolby Digital and the Dolby Stereo track, but I thought it was just some additional sound effects in the DD.
Lord Dalek
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IIRC the old Criterion laserdisc was actually a re-mixdown from the same 6-track the Dolby Digital was mastered from instead of the original 2.0 SR track.
Bryan Tuck
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It was, but the audio for the standard Columbia Tristar laserdisc was supposedly taken from the SR. It's missing those SFX, but has the same music cue at the end as every other track. (I own too many copies of this movie.
)
Noel Aguirre
I have corrected my review, but I could have sworn that I saw the SDDS trailer prior to the film (the longer one where you can hear a man walking and speaking out of each speaker).
Bryan Tuck
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Maybe you're thinking of MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN a couple of years later?
The first film released in SDDS was LAST ACTION HERO in 1993.
James Luckard
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Yep, I remember pretty clearly when DTS premiered with Jurassic Park that summer and SDDS premiered a week later with Last Action Hero. There were lots of articles about the two competing formats.
uncledougie
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Chuck Mayer
I do love the film.
Malcolm R
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"This new release appears to be the same transfer used in the 2017 UHD release, but in addition to HDR10 Sony has added Dolby Vision high dynamic range to provide slightly better luminance levels for those with DV-capable displays and included the original burned-in subtitles."
If you don't care about DV and are OK with the font replacement for the subtitles, you're probably OK.
Bryan Tuck
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The new release also contains the original 5.1 sound mix in addition to the Atmos remix. There's also a 2.0 stereo track, which is presumably the original Dolby Stereo mix, though as I indicated above, I think there's an error in it.
Carlo_M
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Was going back and forth with the BD (switching inputs) and while the application of DV on an older film is sometimes a hit-or-miss proposition, I do think it was fairly well done in this release. Nothing that caught my eye's attention in a negative way, which is about as good as one could hope with a film containing as moody a color and contrast palette as this one.
What I'm about to write is a YMMV, but I cannot get over how much of a difference having subtitle fonts that match the tone/look of the film adds to the experience. Just watching the opening scene where Vlad renounces God and contrasting the player generated subs of the BD (yes they didn't put the matching subtitle font in the BD, only the UHD disc of the set) with the subs on the 4K disc make a significant difference to my viewing experience.
It reminds me of a release of This is Spinal Tap, I think on DVD or maybe an early BD release, where they decided to get fancy and use the player generated subs. Not only were they blocky in comparison to the smoother burned in subs, but the timing of when the subs popped up...which was part of the joke...was ruined by different timing on the player gen subs. An example: the timing of when "Bobby Flekman" pops up onscreen only pops up after the band is asking who she is and she says her name. The player gen subs appeared too early, ruining the timing of it. They eventually corrected this in a later release on BD which restored the burned in subs.
I understand the cost-cutting measure of going with player gen subs (it makes international releases easier as they can be easily adapted to foreign languages) but in certain films, the original burned in subs (or a very close approximation, I can't tell if these in Dracula are the originals from the theatrical prints or if they're using more advanced font and color capabilities of 4K players) are the way to go. The only reason I don't know if these are the original is that they look a bit brighter and "newer" than the other burned in wording like "LONDON, 1897" which has roughly similar (but I don't think identical) font as the subs and have a more aged look than the ones for Vlad's dialogue. Whether identical or not, they're much closer and add to the mood vs. the white sans serif player gen fonts on the BD.
That happened on the first Blu-ray release of Annie Hall. Sadly, the company releasing it again later (I'm thinking Arrow?) said they understood the issue and could correct that timing...and the rights holder said: No.
Carlo_M
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Apologies for the progress bar, it won't go away when on pause, and also the inaccurate picture quality, it was taken with my phone which was struggling to match what's onscreen, so if anyone checks this out, it won't look exactly like the screencap since the phone's aggressive color and tone correction did some work on it. But it's illustrative enough to get the point across, it's not the standard white colored sans serif (Helvetica?) font that is present on the majority of discs.
Wayne Klein
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Vincent_P
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Actually, the entire prologue on the 25th Anniversary release seems to have been scanned from a lower-generation source (maybe a textless IP?), and as a result looks appreciably less detailed than what we have on this new 30th Anniversary release, so it's not just the subtitles themselves. That entire opening scene looks A LOT better on this new release compared to the 25th Anniversary UHD. A couple comparisons from that opening prologue between the two releases: https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0&d1=17697&d2=17696&s1=199118&s2=199119&i=1&l=1 https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=17697&d2=17696&s1=199112&s2=199083&x=0&y=0&i=2&a=0&go=1&l=1
Vincent
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