The Extras - Announcing The Ultimate Horror Of Dracula 4K Release

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

Send us Fan MailGeorge Feltenstein announces a partnership with Hammer Horror to release the same deluxe limited edition Horror of Dracula collector’s set available in the US that Hammer is releasing in the UK, with multiple versions of the film and a mountain of extras. We also dig into how missing “Japanese” footage was found in the archive and why this 4K HDR restoration is a major moment for Hammer Horror fans. Moviezyng Pre-order links:HORROR OF DRACULA (1958) 4K LIMITED COLLECTOR’S EDITION HORROR OF DRACULA (1958) 2-disc 4KHORROR OF DRACULA (1958) 2-disc Blu-rayPre-orders will be available at Amazon and other retailers soon. Moviezyng Affiliate LinkThe Extras Facebook pageThe Extras TV YouTube ChannelThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog GroupJoin our new public Facebook Group for Warner Archive Animation Fans and get the latest update on all the releases.As an Amazon and Moviezyng Affiliate, The Extras may receive a commission for purchases through our purchase links.  There is no additional cost to you, and every little bit helps us in the production of the podcast.  Thanks in advance.Otaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers.  Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals.  [e-mail]

Hi, I'm Tom Weaver, author of Universal Horrors, a monster movie audio commentator, and member of the Tim Millard fan club. You're listening to The Extras. Hello and welcome to The Extras. I'm Tim Malar, your host. And joining me is George Feldstein of the Warner Archive for a very special announcement. And George, why don't we dive right in with this big news today? Well, last year, we did something very special that was very rewarding. for both Warner Brothers and our friends and partners

at Hammer Films in the UK. There was a wonderful restoration of the Chris Frankenstein that came out as a 4K set from the Warner Archive and came out from Hammer in the UK where they hold the rights in the UK and Ireland. We have the rest of the world. We collaborated on that restoration, But they also went the extra mile and created a limited edition collector set that just blew people's minds.

And we're not set up to do that kind of thing because Warner Archive is a very small operation. But I'm happy to announce that for horror of Dracula, aka Dracula, depending where you live, we too will be issuing the same limited collector's edition that Hammer will be releasing in the UK. We had wonderful partnership discussions at the outset for this, and I'm terribly excited and very proud and very grateful to the folks at Hammer because their passion for their library and their heritage and legacy is peerless. And it's the kind of thing that I admire greatly. And I wanted U.S. consumers to be able to have the opportunity to buy that from us.

And that has happened thanks to the cooperation and kindness of the folks at Hammer. And I should also call out our wonderful 17. year relationship business partners here in the U.S. Alibon Entertainment. With all of us working together, October 27th will be a day after the UK because street date is Tuesday in the U.S. and Monday in the UK. But we will be offering the exact same deluxe collector's limited edition of Horror of Dracula, as we call it in the U.S., that Hammer will be releasing the day before in the UK. And there will also be a traditional release with the discs and no fancy booklets and posters

and all the other things that are coming with the Deluxe Edition will be offering consumers a choice on October 27th. That's really the big news. Well, the limited edition box set is loaded. Maybe you can take us through some of the details of what's on each do. disc. Well, I think first and foremost, I should talk about the way that the disks are configured. Right. So you have a unique situation here. You have a UK version that is now uncut as director Terence Fisher completed it. And that's at a one-six-six-to-one aspect ratio as seen in the UK.

and then you have the version of the film that has been in distribution, general distribution for the last, let me do my math here, 68 years, and that follows also in a 1-66 to 1 aspect ratio. So that's disc number one. And on disc number one, you also get a 2026 introduction. There's a piece about Christopher Lee proving them wrong. There's a censor card.

There's clapper boards. There's textless titles. There's a UK trailer, a textless UK trailer. And even one of those eight millimeter cutdowns, just like they had on the curse of Frankenstein. So I think that's really like everything a consumer could possibly want. Also with the director's, cut. You get a commentary featuring Lucy Bolton and a commentary with Jonathan Rigby and Marcus

Huron from 2012 that was on the hammer disc. And then with the UK theatrical version, meaning the cut version, there's a new commentary by Elizabeth Miles and Paul Cornell. So there's just a lot of material on disc one. But then you get to disc two and it suddenly goes from Dracula to horror of Dracula. It's the U.S. version. Gotcha. So the U.S. version in a 1.85 to one aspect ratio, directors cut.

And then you have the traditionally seen for the 68 years, 185 U.S. version without the extra footage. So both of those are on that disc. And then there is a documentary about director Terence Fisher, which is quite wonderful. It's a piece called Goth. for Christians. There's the U.S. trailer, a textless U.S. trailer. And for those of you who don't know what a textless trailer is, a texless trailer is what it sounds like. It has absolutely no text. It's the images.

And a Texas trailer is usually used to be the source for trailers from different languages all over the world. So it's industry speak, but I thought I should clarify that for those who don't know, We also have a German trailer and a textless German trailer, and there's an 8mm black and white cut down. So those are disks one and two on the 4K, and then in the Blu-ray version, that's discs one and two of that. in the limited collector's edition, those become discs one, two, three, and four, and the remaining three discs are Blu-ray discs stuffed with special features. So there are, I believe, some legacy special features, as well as new special features. there are all sorts of other rarities mixed in.

Hammer found a workprint of Dracula, which was a work-in-progress version of the film that was assembled while they were in post-production. And I believe what was going back and forth between the British Board of Film sensors. There's gorgeous packaging. You can see the packaging online, but when you see it in person, it'll blow your mind.

It comes with a double-sided poster, eight art cards, which are reproductions of lobby cards. There's a 200-page book, just featuring new articles on the film, the cast, the crew. There's a 60-page comic reprint of the comic strip from the 1970s in the legendary House of Horror.

And for those who don't speak English, but want to own this, there are English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and Japanese subtitles on each version of the film. So if you don't speak the language, you can understand what they're saying. And that's pretty amazing. And the new pieces that have been created cover everything that you can think of, going back to, you know, even the whole issue of Graham Stoker's original novel and how people approach that. I think that really what Hammer has done here and we're so grateful to be a part of it is they thought of every possible thing you would want to do.

And there are, I think, five new commentaries on this from all sorts of different people. And one of those commentaries is from two people that you and I both know well. Constantine Nazar and Dr. Steve Haberman, who were there for me six years ago when we issued our Christopher Frankenstein Blu-ray and have participated on a lot of Warner Archive editions where we were able to create new commentaries, and I'm so grateful that they're a part of this disc.

I don't think there's anything involving and related to this motion picture that isn't covered in the material that's been brought here. This is a collector's dream. So we have basically three different Dracula choices for the holiday, which is great for Halloween. So whatever fits your desires or your budget. Yeah.

And just to be really clear, if you want both the 4K and the Blu-ray, that is the limited collector's edition. That's the one you're going to want to get. Right. And it's got the whole shebang. With three additional Blu-ray discs filled with features. Yeah, with everything.

And then there will just be the 4K and then it will be a Blu-ray. There will not be a combo of those. That would just be a huge amount here, a good chunk of the way, already to the limited edition. So I think that makes a lot of sense here. It is also exactly what Hammer is offering in the UK. and we wanted to be aligned with them. And this works out well for everyone.

So there's a choice for whatever road you want to go on. And we'll have more details as this develops and it's released with all of the extras that will be on those individual releases as well. So today we're just announcing everything and people can check out the Warner Classics Facebook page and the extras, Facebook, and other social media to get more of those specifics and, of course, the Hammer site as well. So that will all be. Andmovie zing.com. And movie zing.

And I'm sure all the other retailers as well will have all of that. Yeah, I think people will be anxious to want to put this up for pre-order as soon as possible. They won't be dragging. I'll be excited. Exactly. Exactly. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

Hi, this is Tim Millard, host of the extras podcast. and I wanted to let you know that we have a new private Facebook group for fans of the Warner Archive and Warner Brothers Catalog Physical Media releases. So if that interests you, you can find the link on our Facebook page or look for the link in the podcast show notes. And just to clarify for listeners, the limited collector's edition MSRP here is 9998, and that's in US dollars. And the 4K two-disc set is $39.99 US. That leaves the two-disc Blu-ray at just $3499 and again U.S. dollars. And everybody should just check with the retailer before they purchase.

But that's the suggested retail price and retailers may have something different. But I thought those were all very, very good values. And I know that you're wanting to also have it for the same price as the hammer releases. I think that as wonderful as the curse of Frankenstein, is and how it put Hammer on the map for building a new generation of iconic horror on the screen, I think from those golden years at Hammer that Dracula, aka Horror of Dracula, is really the great film. It is a, it's everybody working to their best, not to diminish the importance of Kursa Frankenstein,

but it was almost like it prepared them to go even further. And I consider it a masterpiece of horror cinema. Now, the title of the film and why it's different in the UK and the U.S. is very interesting. The filmmakers wanted to make Dracula. And around that time, late 1957, early 1958, the Universal Horror Films made in the 30s, specifically, Bealogosius, Dracula, Boris Karloff, Frankenstein, etc.

They had just hit domestic television syndication, and they were huge. And Hammer made a distribution arrangement with Warner Brothers for the Chris Frankenstein. They made a distribution arrangement with Universal Internet. for horror of Dracula. And it was the people at Universal that decided the titles for the U.S. should be horror of Dracula because they didn't want people to be confused by Beale-Legosius Dracula, which was creating a sensation, basically, to a whole new generation of people.

They wanted to really clarify that this was something new, something different, hence the differentiation in the titles. Now you say, well, if Universal International released this, how did it end up back at Warner Brothers? So a little bit of trivia here is that the people that were running seven arts associated or seven arts productions, Elliot Hyman and Kenneth Hyman, they were very involved with Hammer's activities. And, before or kind of at the same time that Seven Arts was buying out Jack Warner's stock and would eventually own Warner Brothers for about two years, and it was called Warner Brothers Seven Arts. The Seven Arts people obtained those rights and ownership of the first three films

which includes The Mummy, which followed in 1959. Those are owned by Hammer, in the UK and Ireland, we own the rest of the world. So we had the negative. We had all the supplementary film and audio elements. So the collaboration on the Christopher Einstein was magnificent. We supplied Hammer with what they needed. And Mark Stanborough at Hammer oversaw restoration at Silver Salt in the UK. And I think people love that release.

I certainly did. It was even better than what we were able to achieve with our 2020 Blu-ray, which I'm still very proud of. Now we have Dracula slash R of Dracula in a way that most people have never seen it. Because aside from the quality of the restoration, the 4K HDR restoration, is mind-blowing. And the color correction is spot on and beautiful. I've heard mention of a Japanese cut. What's the story behind that? So when Terrence Fisher, the director of this film, completed it and delivered it to Hammer,

and Hammer brought it to the British Board of Film Sensors, they found certain sequences were not acceptable. Even though they were giving it their famous X rating, It was just too over the top for 1958. So cuts were made in the film. And yet people would often remark that it had extra gore and extra this and extra that little tiny bits in Japan. So about 15 years ago, maybe it was 14 years ago, 12 years ago, I don't know the chronology exactly. I don't remember.

But Hammer in the UK, which was owned by different people at the time, proceeded on a restoration of horror of Dracula, or as they call it in the UK Dracula, that would reinstate some of these sequences that had been seen in Japan from a beat-up 16-millimeter print that was mercifully discovered. and everyone was so excited about that, particularly Dracula's deterioration scene, Christopher Lee, of course. Yeah.

We had released a Blu-ray a couple of years ago, working from what Hammer had supplied us, which was very kind of them, and we tried to improve the color correction, but it left something to be desired. Now, I had not personally been, involved with this film prior to what we did with it, I think of 2017 or 2018. I would say in the early days of DVD, I was peripherally like around.

I wasn't overseeing, but there were DVDs released of these classic Hammer Horror films with no supplementary material, which was. very infuriating to the fans because context is so important. And your former colleagues were desperate to get the approval for the funding to do new pieces and the funding was denied. So we had always been at a little bit of a disadvantage. Interestingly, there was a collaboration between Warner Brothers and the BFI on Dracula around 2008, people who no longer work here were involved in that. And this is still when people really weren't comfortable working from the original negative

and seeking out the best elements, bringing in everything, what you need to do for restoration. That didn't happen. So, fast forward to two years ago, Hammer reached out to me and said that they wanted to collaborate, on the Chris Frankenstein. We know that happened. The collaboration was so wonderful on all ends that we wanted to immediately, you know, ratchet in moving on to Dracula. And the question was, put to me, are you sure you guys don't have that missing footage? And I said, well, I'll, I'll check. because it was up to other people, not me, it was up to other people to dig into the inventory

and find the best elements. But I happened to spend a great deal of time, I don't want to say playing, but exploring our inventory, because we're always finding something new. Yeah. And when I was going through the inventory for what we call horror of Dracula,

I found in the color safety set, separations, and I should say they're actually what we call RGB, red, green, blue. They're black and white, kind of polar opposites of yellow, cyan, magenta, technicolor. But these were made as protections to restore color, if something should happen to the negative. Well, there were three inserts, separations. Separations are silent film elements. and they were marked Japanese. And I said, how can safety separations be equated with a language?

They don't have subtitles, and I just didn't understand it. And the weirdest thing about it is the date in our inventory that these were created, what I really think that meant was when they were entered into. at the inventory. It was 2014. So this kind of after Warner Brothers and the BFI had worked together, I just found it very puzzling. And I thought, I think these are the missing sequences from Dracula.

So I collaborated with our amazing, wonderful preservation team. And knowing that we were going to collaborate with Hammer on this new restaurant, the icing on the cake would be as if those inserts really were what I thought they might be. And they were evaluated and confirmed to be the missing sequences. They were the inserts. Wow, wow, wow. So when I let Mark Stanborough and the fine people at Hammer know that we had the magic beans, they were pretty happy.

Well, let's get into the details of the restoration, George. Did you partner with the Hammer team? How the partnership has worked. Basically, we scan everything here at Warner Brothers Water Tower Color, as it is now known, because I want to clarify that Warner Brothers' motion picture imaging has changed its name. So I'll be talking about Water Tower Color in the future as well as today. But our people had the elements inspected and everything was scanned and we sent everything to the fine folks in the UK and the restoration began. And they were, I would say, beyond elated that this material had finally been located.

And the net result is, unless you saw it in Japan, you know, almost 70 years ago, you have not seen this. there is more footage than was found in that beat-up 16-millimeter print. And the folks at Silver Salt did just a magnificent job under Mark's direction. So the film looks amazing. It sounds amazing. Hammer has created both 5-1 audio for the film, as well as the original monotheatrical, both of which have gone through careful restoration.

So the film itself will, I think it's going to blow people's minds. I think that many people have seen the trailers that Hammer has done a wonderful job in making available and teasing this big event. So people know it's going to be gorgeous. Well, it's going to look gorgeous, it's going to sound gorgeous. just, and I think people kind of assume that we would do Horror of Dracula along with Hammer,

but they assumed, and for a while, so did I, that we would only be able to do a scale-down edition. And I wanted our consumers to be able to order it here, and so Warner Archive will be releasing the same two editions that Hammer is releasing in the UK. It's very much been a joint effort and it's a wonderful partnership for such a beloved film. This film is kind of the gold standard of Hammer Horror Films and certainly horror films from that period and very, very talented people involved, not to mention the amazing casting of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, who set the bar very high. A bar, I don't know if it's ever been achieved

by anybody else since then. They were so unique. I'd like to think that the original creators of this film would be very proud of what has been done here, particularly the dedication of the team at Hammer and our team here to work together because we also had Warner Brothers Archival Mastering,

which is our sound department that works on the library, simultaneously and in step and in tandem, to give fans a very nice Halloween present. Yeah. And I think it's a first. That's why we're talking about it, because it's not only such an important film, but this partnership, which you and I,

we talked with the gentleman from Hammer last year, about the curse of Frankenstein. You could see already that relationship and the new ownership, what they're wanting to do with that library and what they're wanting to do in partnership with Warner Brothers and Warner Archive. It's just a wonderful partnership that has existed for basically close to 70 years. And I personally just revere anyone who works within a group

group of films that are owned by their company that dedicates such passion and a demand for excellence for the end result of what can be restored and brought to the consumer. There are very few people who have that kind of dedication. The people at Hammer most certainly do. And that's why it's such a pleasure to partner with them. Yeah. And just to reiterate this part here, if you're a consumer in the U.S., you can order from the U.S. retailers, won't have to pay any import tariff taxes, things like that. It's just a normal Warner Archive order, but now you have the chance to get that same exact limited edition box set. That hammer is, uh, releasing in the UK.

So this is a big, big announcement of a first-time deal like that. And it's big news. And of course, you always could get the regular two-disc release that you guys were going to be releasing anyway. But now you have the two options. So that's the big news here on top of just the actual release. Well, yes, and there are multiple discs because of the two 4Ks and the two Blu-rays of the features. and the supplementary material.

Yeah, yeah. But to have, you know, these beautiful books and booklets and the reproductions, everything has been done with such care. Yeah, yeah. It's something to be very proud of. The heavy lifting of perfection clearly lies with our friends at Hammer, because if you look at everything that they've done, not just in the horror genre,

but with everything that they've been putting out, it's just astounding. The uniform excellence, they've been kind enough to send me several of their recent releases from the last year, and I've just been astounded because I think, well, gee, I would love to have a 100-page book

all about films, you know, not going to mention any names, but you know what I'm not. I mean. So we're very proud to be part of the partnership and to be able to have people on both sides of the pond have access to something so very, very special in the history of horror films and in the history of cinema itself. This is a landmark important film and it looks and sounds amazing. They've done such wonderful work. I think, I think, George, you want to archive. Evan Hammer just basically took the headlines for this Halloween season, this October, with this release and making it available worldwide like this. I can't imagine anybody is going to top this for horror fans.

And they're going to be theatrical screenings, both here in the U.S. and, of course, in the UK. Right. And probably other parts of the globe as well. But the ability to see this new 4K restoration. in a theater with a lot of people screaming. That was the original intent. And so that will be happening too. Right. And I'm just thinking that this is going to be a very joyous Halloween.

And we need some joy right now because these are difficult, tough times. For everybody in the world, there's a lot of negativity and a lot of sadness, a lot of bad things going on. and when you have something wonderful that means something to so many people, the loyal fans of these films, there are countless fans, and it's passed on from generation to generation, whether you saw these films when you were a kid in the theater, and now you've got grandchildren that you want to expose to them. If they're of a certain age,

You obviously don't want to show it to a four-year-old. But my point is that for decades, these particular films, Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, Horror of Dracula, and The Mummy, those three were really like ten poles. I remember, like, when I was a kid, that people would go to see these in revival theaters. And it was very, very exciting. and then exciting when they came out on home video and you could own them. Right. And now you're going to be able to own them with the best possible quality and that footage

that the British Board of Film Sensors took out. Yeah. Amazing. Well, this has been a fun one. We don't always dedicate just a podcast episode just to one title, but this is not just one title. This is a seven-disc limited edition plus the normal two-disc release for one. of the iconic horror films ever made.

So this has been a lot of fun. And I think the other thing we want to let people know is that you can pre-order today. Pre-orders are available. So get your pre-order in whichever version of these you want. Whether you're obviously in the UK, you can order directly from Hammer or if you're in the U.S. or the rest of the world, you can now order this set. So we'll have links to all that in the description. And hopefully people will step up.

and get this and take this opportunity, George. I think they will. Well, especially because this is a limited edition. Right. And it's not going to be around that long. You want to pick yours up right away and know it's on your shelf and no one can take it away from you. Exactly. Exactly. Well, I'm over the moon about this. This is a very exciting announcement. I do have purchase links in the show notes here, and we do have other information and details located here, also on our social media sites. So you can look for that. Sometimes it's hard to cover everything in a podcast and all the details.

So very exciting stuff. Great to have George on to talk about it. We will, of course, do a full review later in October when it comes out. Well, until next time, you've been listening to Tim Malar. Thanks for listening and stay slightly obsessed about Hammer Horror. You know,