Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker 4K Blu-ray Review

An absolute banger of a title that makes as much sense for William Asher’s gleefully demented film as our deranged aunt does as the lead in this darkly twisted and more than a little perverse family chiller.

Taking its blood and thunder to the notions of wholesome Americana from the outset, a superbly grim opening sees a young boy left in the care of his aunt as his parents embark on a road trip. Only they don't come back, their brakes failing and the resultant interactions with all manner of sharp implements and heavy vehicles leaving them both with a hefty dose of the death. Flash forward several years and Billy (Jimmy McNichol, one time cherubic actor from Little House on the Prairie, stunt casting that shows how deft Asher’s delicious sense of humour was) is now a strapping seventeen year old, getting ready to leave home and head off to college on a basketball scholarship, pretty and perky little blonde girlfriend in tow...only his aunt (Fat City and Cry Baby’s Susan Tyrrell), who has looked after him all on her own for all these years, decides she doesn't want to be left alone. Oh no, she definitely doesn't want to be left alone...

Taking the form of a bizarrely malformed soap opera, it's really a tale of two of the LARGEST performances you'll ever see - Tyrrell is wantonly and recklessly unhinged as Aunt Cheryl, one minute throwing herself at the very gay TV repair man in an act of lonely desperation, the next she's stabbing him repeatedly because he had the nerve to rebuff her advances; while Inglorious Basterds’ Bo Svenson as one of the nastiest, most bigoted and downright brilliantly awful small-town Detectives ever to grace our screen matches her cackling beat for obnoxiously lunatic beat. Both are deliciously overblown, often ploughing headlong at top speed into glorious histrionics and chewing up anyone and anything that happens to be near them at the time.

The narrative has some decent meat to it as the initial murder enquiry into the TV repair man’s bloody demise uncovers the hidden sexuality of both the victim and the local high school basketball coach, who has taken a special interest in Billy’s future courtside potential, and the plot plays out from here like Douglas Sirk meets John Waters meets Virginia Andrews, powered literally by Aunt Cheryl with the volume knob stuck at 11, as she has to not just protect Billy from Svenson’s bullying and malicious murder investigation, but also from the horny intrusions of his girlfriend and those incredibly nosey neighbours who always happen to pop round with a baked good at the most inopportune moment.

Svenson and Tyrrell are monstrously brilliant and worth the price of admission alone. There's not a lot of grue or deaths for the hardcore horror heads, but the uproariously twisted nature of Aunt Cheryl and her love for poor Billy make this a delightfully transgressive and slightly naughty watch for genre fans. That and a great early cameo from one William Paxton (as credited) channelling a high school version of his soon-to-be wonderous Chet from Weird Science.

When the dust settles on Asher’s (himself no stranger to the more saccharine side of wholesome Americana, with a career made of episodes of I Love Lucy and Bewitched) ribald and utterly barmy slice of family drama, rest assured you’ve had 93 minutes of the very best in good, not-so clean, incest-drenched fun.

Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker is being released by Severin Video in a two-disc, fully region-free 4K and blu-ray set.

The film and its audio commentaries are housed on the UHD, while the 1080p blu-ray also houses the film (which uses the same restoration as the 4K disc) and all of the extras. The UK and US versions appear to be identical releases and there’s also a webstore exclusive slipcover available if ordered direct from Severin.

Note: all images in this review are NOT taken from the 4K disc.

Severin have newly scanned the original 35mm camera negative to deliver a native 4K presentation in 3840 x 2160p resolution in the film’s original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It utilises a 10-bit video depth, WCG and a High Dynamic Range colour grade pass (HDR10 only) and is encoded using the HEVC (H.265) codec.

And the results are unusually fine.

Immediately apparent is the fine, but well-defined grain structure – obvious and at times a little sharp, it moves organically and authentically and no signs of any digital issues (clumping, frozen or hanging lumps, etc) were spotted. Nestling underneath it is a lovely level of fine detail – the woozy, soft filtered opening scene lulls you into thinking its going to be an overall soft presentation, but it soon gives way to clear, sharp lines and complex textures (especially the weaves of the various shirts and sports jackets on display) that pick out some incredibly fine image attributes.

The HDR10/WCG colour grading fluctuates a little – bright scenes set outside at the high school for example have a slightly flatter contrast ratio, losing some of the depth in the darker areas and causing colours to appear a touch muted. However, for the most part, contrast is incredibly healthy, with some deep blacks and searing highlights (Aunty Cheryl does like her lamps), nudging 400 nits maximum frame average light levels (MaxFALL), with some natural skin tones and some at times, almost too healthy primaries (the various reds sometimes blaze a little too richly).

Finally, there’s a touch of judder noted across the run time – mostly in the first act, never too obvious, but it is present – and while its nicely free from dirt and debris in the most part, there are the odd shots where low-level dust damage can be seen dancing within the image. Encoding is really well done, with bit-rates averaging in the high 80s and low 90s mbps throughout, delivered by some rock solid compression and fitting the film onto the disc with absolute precision.

It's strange seeing such icky, grotty films like those 39 films that made their way to infamy as part of the DPP video nasty list scrub up so well…but scrub up well it does. Its not a perfect restoration – not all low-level damage has managed to be removed and some of the colour fluctuations are still present – but it is a very good one and rest assured, despite only having ever seen the film on a mushy old Amazon Prime stream, I think I can safely say that this is the best this film will ever look.

We reviewed this region free UK Ultra HD Blu-ray release of Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker on a JVC-DLA N5 Ultra HD 4K projector and a Panasonic DP-UB820 4K UHD player.

The following soundtrack option is available on the 4K disc:

• English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono

Subtitles are English SDH only.

For the most part, the English audio track does an okay job with its aggressive mix and the confines of a single (or in this case dual) channel. It’s a bright listen that occasionally gets a little muddy in the upper register of the mid-range when things get complex – the final act is a litany of audio stings, screams, and blaring music and once in a while, the mix creaks, a touch of harshness creeping into the odd punches of sound effect that dominate at those times.

But dialogue is very nicely set in the overall mix, free from any hiss and with the exception of one or two instances, was always clear and nicely articulated. Bruce Langhorne’s blaring score has some power and despite not having too much of a low end, still feels energetic and it adds a really solid foundation to the overall mix.

Its never going to be demo material, but the soundtrack on this UHD – likely to be the same one as found on previous disc releases from the likes of Code Red in the US – does a decent job overall.

We reviewed the region free UK Ultra HD Blu-ray release of Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker on a Denon AVR4300 and a 7.2.4 array of Kef speakers (including the Q range and ci in-walls/in-ceilings).

The following extras are included on the UHD:

• Audio Commentary #1 - with Star Jimmy McNichol (legacy)
• Audio Commentary #2 - with Co-Writer/Producer Steve Breimer and Co-Writer Alan Jay Glueckman, moderated By Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson (legacy)
• Audio Commentary #3 - with Co-Producer and Unit Production Manager Eugene Mazzola (NEW)
• Trailer

The following extras are included on the 1080p blu-ray:

• All three audio commentaries above
• Extreme Prejudice – interview with actor Bo Svenson (10 mins, NEW)
• Point And Shoot – interview with Director of Photography Robbie Greenberg (15 mins, NEW)
• Family Dynamics – interview with Editor Ted Nicolaou (17 mins, NEW)
• Cast and crew Interviews with actors Jimmy McNichol, Susan Tyrrell and Steve Eastin, Make-Up Artist Allan A. Apone and Producer Steve Breimer (46 mins, legacy)
• Trailer and TV spot

The commentaries work well because of the moderation and cover acting challenges for its young star, detailed behind the scenes titbits and the broader notions of low budget genre film making. The new interviews with Svenson, Greenberg and Nicolau are career look backs as well as focussing on the film, but still hold plenty of fascinating insights. However, the legacy interviews are slightly less interesting, mainly due to McNichol not getting over how long it’s been since the film was made and a clearly deranged Tyrrell pretending she doesn’t remember the film and was coerced into doing it all those years ago…

Plenty of stuff here for fans to tuck into, it’s a solid roster that balances legacy and new supplementals for the hardcore.

Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker 4K Blu-ray Review

One of the strangest, unhinged and borderline deviant films to come out of the 80s horror boom, anchored on a duo of powerhouse performances that combine soap opera melodrama, gleeful histrionics and over-the-top theatrics to uproariously entertaining effect.

Severin present a great new 4K restoration alongside a plethora of supplemental features to add even more value and if you have yet to entertain the pleasures of William Asher’s gonzo little film, this is the perfect opportunity to dive right in.

Severin Films delivers a brand-new Special Edition Dual 4K UHD and Blu-ray release of Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker set for UK release on 13 May 2024.

You may also like:

Movies & TV Shows Review

6

Nightmares in a Damaged Brain 4K Blu-Ray Review

by Mark Costello · Feb 20, 2024

Romano Scavolini’s grindhouse slasher with delusions of grandeur drags itself out of video nasty infamy and bizarrely onto 4K from genre boutique extraordinaire Severin for their first UHD blu-ray release in the UK. And it looks exactly as it should…grotty.  

8

Movies & TV Shows Review

33

The Evil Dead 4K Blu-ray Review

by Simon Crust · Nov 25, 2020

The Evil Dead, on 4K, who would have thought the king of the 'video nasties' would be elevated to such heights?  

9