Coming to Blu-ray in  Double Feature with Curse of The Crimson Altar in May 2022:

Image Entertainment

Region 0 - NTSC

1.62:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 5.82 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

1.62:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 6.72 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Image Entertainment (Euroshock Collection)

Severin Films (DVD edition)

Severin Films (Blu-ray)

Arow (Blu-ray)

DVD: English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono; Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 mono

LPCM Audio English 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit
Commentary:

Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen letterboxed - 1.62:1

Edition Details:
• Isolated Music and Effects Track
• Filmographies for Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing
• Fold-out Liner Notes by Marc Walkow

DVD Release Date: 21 March 2000
Snapper Case

Chapters 18

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.62:1

Edition Details:
• Introduction by Fangoria editor Chris Alexander (4:3; 6:50)
• Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express: Interview with director Eugenio Martin (16:9; 13:59 in 1080P on Blu-ray)
• Notes from the Blacklist: Producer Bernard Gordon discusses the McCarthy Era (16:9; 30:28)
• 1973 Audio Interview with Peter Cushing
• Telly and Me: Interview with composer John Cacavas (16:9; 8:04 in 1080i on Blu-ray)
• Theatrical Trailer (16:9; 2:53 n 1080P on Blu-ray)
• Trailers for PSYCHOMANIA, THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD, and NIGHTMARE CASTLE
• Easter Egg: visit to the train station location (16:9; 0:59)
 

Chapters 17

Edition Details:
• Brand new audio commentary with Stephen Jones and Kim Newman
• Introduction to the film by film journalist and Horror Express super-fan Chris Alexander (6:50)
• Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express an interview with director Eugenio Martin (14:03)
• Ticket to Die - Steven Haberman (8:31)
• Ted Newsome (15:08)
• Notes from the Blacklist Horror Express producer Bernard Gordon on working in Hollywood during the McCarthy Era (30:30)
• Telly and Me an interview with composer John Cacavas (8:09)
• Original Theatrical Trailer (2:57)
• Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Fully-illustrated collector s booklet with new writing by Adam Scovell)
 

Chapters 12

ADDITION: Arrow - Region FREE - Blu-ray (February 19'): Thankfully, Arrow bring this rich genre mix of mystery, science-fiction, spy, pulp and horror, entitled Horror Express, to their diverse catalogue of Blu-rays. It is on a dual-layered disc and doubles the bitrate of the 2011 Severin Blu-ray. The superiority of the Arrow is evident in the colors - oranges-to-rich-reds and skin tones lose the yellow-orange hue returning to a more realistic balance. The Arrow is darker and shows more information in the frame and, side by side, it seems to indicate a ratio issue with the Severin. Overall, the Arrow is the, vastly, more film-like representation.

Arrow use a linear PCM mono (24-bit) track in the original English language. There are some effects with depth as well as the impacting score by John Cacavas (The Satanic Rites of Dracula,, Hangar 18) that offers some intensity. It obviously advances upon the loss Severin audio transfer.  There are optional English subtitles (SDH) on the Region FREE Blu-ray.

Fans will appreciate the new audio commentary with Stephen Jones and Kim Newman who share their enthusiasm for Horror Express. They bounce off each other with informative details including its resemblance to a Hammer effort. It's great. Arrow include the same 7-minute introduction to the film by film journalist and Horror Express super-fan Chris Alexander as found on previous digital releases as well as the 1/4 hour Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express interview with director Eugenio Martin. Also repeated is Notes from the Blacklist Horror Express producer Bernard Gordon on working in Hollywood during the McCarthy Era and the Telly and Me interview with composer John Cacavas. New are Ticket to Die with Steven Haberman discussing the film for almost 9-minutes and 15-minutes with Ted Newsome talking about his friend producer/writer Bernard Gordon. There is an original theatrical trailer and the Blu-ray package has a reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys and a fully-illustrated collector's booklet with new writing by Adam Scovell.

I like Horror Express more and more each time I see it. I'm thrilled that this has been given the Arrow-treatment (the film deserves it!) with a spanking new and advanced Blu-ray transfer, wonderful commentary and more extras. You can watch this film anytime but I prefer late Saturday nights. Strongly recommended!

ADDITION: Severin - Region FREE - Blu-ray (November 11'): This is a dual-format package with the film, Horror Express, offered in both DVD (reviewed by Eric below) and Blu-ray transfers. The 1080P rendition is fairly modest being shy of 3X the bitrate of the included SD. It has less noise and things tighten up very marginally - it is also in the same approx 1.66:1 aspect ratio. Frankly it's a puny Blu-ray that exports a modicum of depth but still gave me a decent, if lackluster, presentation. As opposed to the two discs - I'd have preferred a more robust, lone Blu-ray.

I really loved this - Lee and Cushing are perfect and it's a very cool build. It's one of the better of the genre that I have seen this year. The Blu-ray is not top-shelf but fans of Horror Express will appreciate it anyway. Lastly, its a great price and for a solid nostalgic film experience - we recommend! 

Gary Tooze

ON THE DVDs: Released officially on VHS in the United States by both Media Home Entertainment and Prism Entertainment (in a clamshell case with beautiful artwork), HORROR EXPRESS made its widescreen digital debut as part of Image's Euroshock Collection. The non-anamorphic letterboxed transfer - which is a couple seconds longer due to the TV Matters logo at the start - was given an interlaced encoding and offered only a Spanish dub track and an isolated music and effects track as extras. The transfer was a great upgrade to the many PD VHS and DVD releases, but the colors were somewhat faded and the image was featured occasional rainbow moire patterning on the check patterns of some of the period clothing. The snapper case artwork did feature a fold-out section containing liner notes by Marc Walkow.

Severin's HD-mastered, progressive, anamorphic encoding has similar framing to the older transfer (Image's transfer features a negligible sliver more picture information on all four sides), and is a considerable upgrade. While the greater definition does reveal the seams of some prosthetics (the blank and glowing eye effects) and some of the miniatures suffer (although nowhere near as much as the digital transfer of AMOK TRAIN / BEYOND THE DOOR 3, another supernatural runaway train pic), the muted browns and grays of the sets and wardrobe rendered nicely while some eye-popping blues and glowing reds stand out without any distortion. Derived from a Spanish print source, the opening shot of the train rushing past the camera is restored (this bit happens over black in most English prints) and the end cast scroll has been restored (most English versions let the music continue on black after the FIN card). Whereas the English language prints credit only Lee and Cushing above the title, the Spanish version also gives Alberto De Mendoza (who plays the monk Pujardov) billing before the Spanish title card PÁNICO EN EL TRANSIBERIANO. Severin's release is their first DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack, which is a nice gesture to those who have not upgraded equipment. The Blu-Ray version features a 1080P AVC-encode, but only Dolby Digital 2.0 192 kpbs tracks (while the DVD menu identifies the Spanish track as mono, the Blu-Ray menu says that it is stereo [both state the English track is mono]).

Severin have unfortunately dropped the isolated music and effects track (although a stereo CD of John Cacavas' score was released by Citadel), but have included a 1973 audio interview with Peter Cushing as a third audio option with which to view the film. The humorous interview is about eighty minutes and is career-wide, starting with his early influences (he liked the Tom Mix films and first wanted to be a cowboy, rather than an actor) and work while trying to break into films. He starts discussing his Hammer and Amicus work at about 35 minutes into the film and takes questions from the audience (he makes some interesting comments about the increasing amount of gore in his horror movies as well, and mentions the "Eastern" versions of some of the early Hammer films), and his collaborations with Christopher Lee. It is also a valuable track because it discusses some of his television work that is likely now lost.

Fangoria editor Chris Alexander provides an infectious introduction to the film (which also sites John Campbell's "Who Goes There?" - the story that inspired THE THING - as an influence on the film and traces the body counte element of the film to Agatha Christie's TEN LITTLE INDIANS). Director Eugenio Martin cites the inspiration for the film as the producers' desire to take advantage of the train sets they had already created for PANCHO VILLA. He points out the differences in the consistent acting styles of Lee and Cushing and Savalas' more improvisational methods (and the differences in the comic touches that each brought to their performances). He also discusses the film's special effects (including himself, Lee, and Cushing playing with the electronically-countrolled miniature train model) and the difficulties of the actors when they had to wear the blank contact lenses.

The interview with producer Bernard Gordon - who lead the protest against the honorary Oscar for Elia Kazan who named names before the House Un-American Activities Committee - was conducted back in 2005, and was recorded for an ultimately shelved release of Samuel Bronston's films - and focuses on his working relationship with Bronston and producer Philip Yordan during his years as a blacklisted writer (including some frank and amusing anecdotes about Yordan ["He didn't write a word, but he had good ideas for exploitation"] and some of the egos of the stars with whom they worked). Although Gordon does not speak about HORROR EXPRESS (a card does mention Gordon's producing credits for HORROR EXPRESS, PANCHO VILLA, and PSYCHOMANIA), the featurette does use snippets of John Cacavas' score (which may have been added by Severin's editors). Cacavas talks about his scoring work in the context of his friendship with Savalas (with whom he penned the theme song for PANCHO VILLA), but he also mentions his scores for BLADE, SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA, REDNECK, and eventually the Savalas TV series KOJAK. An Easter Egg features a minute-long visit to the train station location from the beginning of the film.

 - Eric Cotenas

3) Severin - Region FREE - Blu-ray THIRD

4) Arrow Films Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM