NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Arrow's new Blu-ray is advertised as being from a "4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative". The hour-20-minute film is on a dual-layered Blu-ray with a max'ed out bitrate. There may be a slight teal-encroachment but the image looks fine with consistent textured grain, fine detail, bright colors and occasional depth, I didn't see many speckles or any damage marks. It looks super in-motion.

Arrow provide a linear PCM 1.0 channel mono track (24-bit) track in the original English language. The film has few aggressive effects but this is where the film shows more of its modest roots where the audio is imperfect but dialogue is audible. There is a kind of, suitably, goofy score by David Gibson (his only composition film credit). Arrow add optional English (SDH) subtitles and is available in North American and the Europe (UK) - it is a Region 'A' / 'B' Blu-ray.

Arrow's disc offers an optional audio commentary (from 2011?) by writer/director John Landis and makeup artist Rick Baker that has some fun moments as Landis states "Do you know much this movie's cost me over the years?". It's light and friendly. There is a new, 18-minute, video interview with author and critic Kim Newman who finds some interesting, typically lesser-known, data to export about the production. 'Birth of a Schlock' is a 2017 video interview with John Landis that runs over 40-minutes. He talks about wanting to be a director from a very young age and shares some anecdotes before eventually getting to discussing Schlock. There is also an archival video interview with cinematographer Bob Collins (1978's Superman, Octopussy) running over 7-minutes. We lost him in 2008. There are US trailers from 1972, 1979 and 1982 and some radio spots. The package has a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys and the first pressing gets an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Joe Bob Briggs.

Schlock is amusing in its own, obvious, way. It makes some loose, satirical, allegories that aren't particularly witty but it holds together with the slapstick situations and the awareness that we're all 'in' on the bad jokes. It is available in regions 'A' and 'B' for those who might be keen and the Arrow  Blu-ray is another of their impressive packages.  

Gary Tooze