I’m a sucker for a physical release, especially when they come in beautiful packaging and have a stack of special features. Second Sight have been producing the most incredible big box releases with new artwork, art cards, essay books and brand new extras. I’ve only managed to snag a few of the limited edition editions, as they sell out pretty quick, so if you’re a Cronenberg fan grab these! They’re out today, Monday 31st March, from the Second Sight website. Both movies are also available as standard edition bluray and 4K UHD disks – they don’t come with the book or art cards, but still have all the brilliant special features.

Of the Cronenberg movies I’ve seen, these aren’t my favourites. But, as with any good physical release, I appreciate so much more about them after watching through all of the special features. I always love well-curated extras and Second Sight may be the best distributor putting out releases at the moment. I’ll often upgrade my blurays to get new, or extra special features, because I just want to know as much as I can about what went into making each and every movie. Because special features make my heart sing, I thought I’d review the extras on these discs in case you love them as much as I do.

A huge thanks to Second Sight and Aim Publicity for sending me some review discs!

The Brood (1979)

Limited Edition 4K UHD & Blu-ray / Blu-ray / 4K UHD

A worried father attempts to uncover a controversial psychologist’s unconventional therapy techniques on his institutionalised wife, amidst a series of horrific murders that seem to be targeting those closest to him.

Special Features 

• A new 4K restoration approved by Director David Cronenberg
• (UHD discs only) Dual format edition including both UHD and Blu-ray with main feature and bonus features on both discs
• (UHD discs only) UHD presented in HDR with Dolby Vision

Limited edition features

• Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Krishna Shenoi
• 120-page book with new essays by Jenn Adams, William Beard, Craig Ian Mann, Carolyn Mauricette, Shelagh Rowan-Legg, Amber T, Alexandra West and Scott Wilson 
• 6 collectors’ art cards 

New audio commentary by Martyn Conterio and Kat Ellinger and audio commentary by William Beard – I picked the audio commentary with Martyn and Kat, as it’s new for this release. I love conversational commentary tracks like this, as it’s like listening to a really cool podcast. Kat and Martyn had some really insightful conversations, discussing the psychology of the movie. I love hearing smart people talk about films!

Meet the Carveths: an interview with Actors Art Hindle & Cindy Hinds by Fangoria Editor Chris Alexander – This was such a lovely segment, Cindy and Art still have such a great rapport. The first part of the interview took place in a cinema screen, where they had bags of popcorn. Cindy sat politely, just holding the bag, whereas Art munched on popcorn and rustled throughout. I love him!

A lot of the features talked about working with Oliver Reed (which is to be expected!), who was infamous for drinking while working. I enjoyed hearing his exploits and they shared a story of how Reed was arrested and needed to be bailed out, during production. He also took a bottle of cognac that was gifted to Cindy’s mum and drank it on set. He was a talented actor, but he sounded like a nightmare to work with! Cindy and Art also visited some of the filming locations and talked about working with the children and Broodlings and how they all ate the fake blood, because it was so tasty.

Producing the Brood: an interview with Executive Producer Pierre David – “The biggest craziness of The Brood was around Oliver Reed – I had no idea what I was getting into”. Pierre shared his experience of the story Art shared, about Reed getting arrested. The night after being bailed out, he threw all of his pillows and blankets out the hotel window. Despite all the stories I’ve heard about Oliver Reed, Pierre said he was never hungover, was always on time and very funny and nice. It was interesting to hear a different side of working with Reed.

The Look of Rage: an interview with Cinematographer Mark Irwin (13 minutes) –  I enjoyed hearing Mark talk about filming the birth scene. He said they had t-shirts made that said more “blood, more blood” because that was what Cronenberg would say. (I want a shirt like that, too!) The fake blood solidified on Samantha Eggar and she became a “candy apple”. It took an hour of trying to dissolve the fake blood with warm water, to free her. Irwin also shared his memories of working with Reed and said he would come back from lunch drunk. The child actors would be scared of him and he always smelled of scotch. How he ever gave such strong, memorable performances is beyond me!

Scoring the Brood: an interview with Composer Howard Shore (8 minutes) – Howard Shore shared lots of interesting stories between this feature and its counterpart on the Scanners release. Shore is one of the composers I forget how prolific they are. I love when directors and creatives work together over many decades, so it was great to hear how Shore and Cronenberg met. They’d grown up in the same neighbourhood and Cronenberg was the cool kid on a motorbike. Before they worked together, Shore would go to see his 16mm and 18mm films at underground film festivals in Toronto.

Character for Cronenberg: an interview with Actor Robert A Silverman (10 minutes) – Robert A Silverman isn’t a name or face I recognise but had a prolific acting career and appeared in many of David Cronenberg’s movies. Silverman was hit by a car at 31 – he was left unable to walk or talk and was severely brain damaged. After 3 years of exercises and sheer determination, he had a vision of what he wanted to do with his life and went to California. To then go on and earn 23 acting credits, is amazing!

Cronenberg – The Early Years: an archival interview with David Cronenberg (13 minutes) – I loved hearing Cronenberg talk about his experience with film making. I didn’t know he had met some soft porn directors who asked could he make a movie for them. He filmed a few auditions, before sharing the Shivers screenplay with them. He talked about his experience making Shivers, which I’ve given myself a nudge to watch as I still haven’t seen it!

Anger Management: Cronenberg’s Brood and the Shapes of Cinematic Rage – a video essay by Leigh Singer (22 minutes) – Another lovely example of listening to clever people talk about film. I really love video essays like these, as they always include lots of things I’ve never considered. Leigh Singer said that Cronenberg’s movies discuss the evolution of the flesh vs annihilation of the flesh. I definitely need to watch more of his films, with this in mind. I really didn’t expect so much discussion of The Hulk in this essay, but it tracks as the big, green guy would probably be the first character people would think of as a depiction of rage on screen. De Palma’s Carrie was another movie discussed, which I think is one of the best “good for her” films. I always want to see female rage on the big screen!

Scanners (1981)

Limited Edition 4K UHD & Blu-ray / Blu-ray / 4K UHD

A scientist recruits a drifter with extraordinary telepathic ability to hunt down an equally powerful ’scanner’ who, together with others of their kind, is hellbent on taking over the world.

Special features

• New 4K restoration approved by Director David Cronenberg
• (UHD discs only) Dual format edition including both UHD and Blu-ray with main feature and bonus features on both discs
• (UHD discs only) UHD presented in HDR with Dolby Vision

Limited edition features

• Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Krishna Shenoi
• 120-page book with new essays by Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes, Eugenio Ercolani and Gian Giacomo Petrone, Kurt Halfyard, Craig Ian Mann, Francesco Massaccesi, Jessica Scott, Emma Westwood and Heather Wixson
• 6 collectors’ art cards 

New audio commentary by Caelum Vatnsdal and audio commentary by William Beard – I chose the commentary by Caelum, as the newer of the two tracks. I usually prefer a more production-focused commentary, to find out how everything was done, but again it was fascinating to hear about the wider impact of the film. Caelum is an author and clearly very knowledgeable about film. I enjoyed hearing about Cronenberg and the cast’s careers and thought it was a nice touch to highlight lots of their successes outside of Scanners. I didn’t know that Chris Walas had also worked on Gremlins – some of the art in the gallery was very Gremlins-esque!

My Art Keeps Me Sane: an interview with Actor Stephen Lack (24 minutes) – Lack seems like an interesting, charismatic chap but I did get a little put off when he used the phrase “as tired as a hooker in the back of a Chevy with a football team”. Eesh. But it was interesting to hear about his experiences with anxiety and channelling it into his art. 

Method in his Madness: an interview with Actor Michael Ironside (30 minutes) – Ironside was great to listen to, especially his story about how he burned and scarred his eyes during the fire scenes because of the sclera lenses. Nightmare fuel. As well as the white sclera lenses, Ironside wore hand-painted lenses that Dustin Hoffman had worn in Little Big Man. For such an impactful performance, I was surprised to hear Ironside earned a fraction of the rest of the cast.

Bad Guy Dane: an interview with actor Lawrence Dane (5 minutes) – Lawrence says being the bad guy “isn’t rocket science”, that it’s always simple as everything is there on the page. He seems like a lovely man, even though it’s only a short feature. It’s nice to hear an actor say they do actually enjoy watching themselves back, as he said there’s always something that can be learned from your performance.

The Eye of Scanners: an interview with Cinematographer Mark Irwin (15 minutes) – It was funny to hear Irwin started in porn too – I wonder if that’s where him and Cronenberg met (he may have said, but I missed it if so!) Irwin talked about his early career, including making Funeral Home which I saw for the first time recently. He shared a story how one of the actresses complained she was given “raccoon eyes” and how he later gave her a plush raccoon as a gift. Excellent!

Mind Fragments: an interview with Composer Howard Shore (18 minutes) – This feature contained some of the same conversation from the feature on The Brood. Only this version was much longer and delved more into his history. Shore was was part of a programme in schools, where he took a computer-based test to find musical children. He scored high, so was asked if he wanted to play an instrument. I’ve never heard of programmes like that before. It’s incredible that The Brood was only the second film he had scored and the first time he had ever live recorded. It was great to hear his history and realise just how many of his scores I know and love – his score for The Silence of the Lambs is one of my favourites!

The Chaos of Scanners: an interview with Executive Producer Pierre David – I enjoyed hearing Pierre talk about the success of the film and his work on the Scanners sequels. I didn’t even know there were sequels! Pierre was very complimentary of Cronenberg and said it was a good collaborative environment, with no egos – “David has a huge ego, but knows how to manoeuvre in a way that doesn’t seem that way

Exploding Brains & Popping Veins: an interview with Makeup Effects Artist Stephan Dupuis – I was very excited to watch this feature – make-up and SFX extras are always my favourite. It was amazing to hear how they made the exploding head on such a small budget – even including leftover McDonald’s from lunch, in between layers of fake blood and gelatine.

Monster Kid: an interview with Makeup Effects Artist Chris Walas (22 minutes) – Sentences like “Dick Smith called me because Rick Baker had recommended me” blow my mind (pun not intended). It was fun to hear the about all the sfx tests and the panics the crew had. Initially THE scene was supposed to be just a close up of the head for the explosion, but then the sfx team needed to make a torso and hands for a wider shot. Walas cast his own hands for the model and had to make gold rings out of mortician’s wax.

Cronenberg’s Tech Babies: a video essay by Tim Coleman (14 minutes) – I enjoyed this essay and found myself connecting more with the movie and the Scanners, than I had done previously. Coleman discusses the Scanners’ place in society as “human trash” and compared their need to find community and support with the LGBT+ community. For me, this reminded me of the feeling of being neurodivergent and often feeling so othered to society at large. This had an emotional impact on me and I’ll definitely look more into the themes of being on the outside of society, as it was really interesting.

Visit Second Sight for The Brood and Scanners and more gorgeous limited edition releases.