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

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (June 2020): 88 Films have transferred Fabrizio Laurenti's Witchcraft to Blu-ray. It appears to be from the same master as the 2015 Shout! Factory Blu-ray. It has almost the exact same technical stats (file size, bitrate etc.) and the graphs looks very similar. The image is not great - very soft and waxy but it seems it may have been the limited budget stock they utilized. It's hard to know - but it doesn't look very good in my opinion - more like 2nd gen video in many instances - but maybe this 1080P is a fair representation of the original. 

NOTE: We have added 20 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

Both Blu-rays use DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel (24-bit) tracks in the English language. These two are too similar to find significant differences. The composer for the film's soundtrack is Carlo Maria Cordio (Absurd, Body Puzzle, Aenigma, Pieces, Amok Train) and is suitable to the genre sounding very dramatic and intense at times. 88 Films also add optional English subtitles but their disc is a Region 'B'-locked Blu-ray.

The only real differentiation between the Blu-rays are the supplements. The Shout! Factory shares its disc with Umberto Lenzi's (as Humphrey Humbert) 1988 "Ghosthouse" or "La Casa 3" and has some trailers. The 88 Films stack their Blu-ray with supplements consisting mostly of interviews (over 2-hours worth) with the crew including cinematographer Gianlorenzo Battaglia, composer Carlo Maria Cordio, director Fabrizio Laurenti, sound technician Piero Parisi and a 1/4 hour with acclaimed film director Luigi Cozzi (Contamination, Starcrash), there is also a short piece on the locations 'then and now' filmed by Fabrizio Laurenti and a 40-minute short film from him "The Immigrant" from 1986 with Mary Sellers. There is an original trailer - the package has a reversible sleeve and reversible cover art with a limited edition "Soft-Touch" O-Card and limited edition collector's booklet featuring behind the scene stills and an essay by Andrew Graves.

Fabrizio Laurenti's Witchcraft is in the Italian-produced La Casa series of possessed home flics (or "Ghosthouse") - part of the endless procession of 80's horrors - many trying to draw some of the box-office success of The Exorcist from a decade earlier. Shoving Linda Blair in was another attempt at a drawing card to that specific genre. Witchcraft, or one of its many alternate titles, has mostly a nostalgic appeal - it's weak horror cinema but, that too, can be attractive to some. The 88 Films Blu-ray lacks only a commentary but the substantial other supplements make it the one to own, if you are 'hell-bent' (nyuk nyuk) on seeing it.

Gary Tooze