The Stuff 4K UHD Review

Arrow Video

4K UHD Release: July 22, 2025

Video: 1.78:1/2160p (HDR10/Dolby Vision)/Color (theatrical cut); 1.85:1/1080p/Color (prerelease cut)

Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Mono (theatrical cut); English LPCM 1.0 Mono (prerelease cut)

Subtitles: English SDH

Run Time: 86:30 (theatrical cut), 118:49 (prerelease cut)

Director: Larry Cohen

Note: This is an update and replacement of my older review of Arrow’s original Blu-ray. All sections have been rewritten and reedited.

Young Jason seems to be the only one who doesn’t love The Stuff – in fact, he won’t go anywhere near it, after having seen the pudding crawling around the fridge one night. What’s more, everyone who eats The Stuff has started acting really weird... Now, teaming up with wise-cracking industrial saboteur ‘Mo,’ Jason must put a stop to The Stuff and the organization behind it or face a gooey, gloopy demise. (From Arrow’s official synopsis)

An unsung chronicler of New York gutter life, lover of high concepts, and unlikely cornerstone of the blaxploitation movement, Larry Cohen’s greatest contributions to cult filmdom were (arguably) his counterculture B-sci-fi and horror throwbacks. Beginning with the monster baby thriller It’s Alive (1974) and its sequels, and following through esoteric, deity-based horror comedies God Told Me To (1976) and Q: The Winged Serpent (1982), Cohen’s last great creature feature as director was 1985’s The Stuff.

Usually described as Cohen’s variation of Irvin Yeaworth’s The Blob (1958), due to the obvious similarities between the two films’ globby monsters (as well as the single-word titles), The Stuff is actually a greater B-movie catchall that draws upon multiple pop culture sources. Despite explicit ties to the politics of the Reagan era, its closest kin are actually the previous decade’s weary, post-hippie social terrors, like Jeff Lieberman’s Blue Sunshine (1977), Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake (1978), and, of course, George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978).

These films carry clear metaphors, including components Cohen himself borrowed to fit his specific concerns for the mid-1980s, such as loss of identity and obsessive consumer culture. Cohen pokes fun at the serious consequences of unchecked Capitalism, creating a consumer-driven conspiracy that mirrors the establishment cabals of the various Invasion of the Body Snatchers films. In Kaufman’s version, the protagonists must stifle their emotions to hide among the pod-people. In Cohen’s film, the protagonists have to pretend that they enjoy a popular, but sinister dessert treat.

The ‘50s B-movie components fit, because 1980s America had more in common with 1950s America than the two more transformative decades in between. Reinvigorated interest in Capitalism once again cast Communists as the default villains in Hollywood, instead of the more internalized establishment threats that spurred Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). As the United States and the USSR stockpiled munitions and rattled their sabers, Hollywood responded with steroid-soaked, ultra-jingoistic action movies. In reaction, some of the greatest horror and sci-fi films of the era – John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), Carpenter’s They Live (1988), Romero’s Day of the Dead (1985), James Cameron’s The Terminator (1984), and Chuck Russell’s Blob remake (1988) – were paranoid reactions to their warmongering blockbuster counterparts.

The Stuff follows suit and directly spoofs the new ‘mutually assured destruction’  brand of action-hero by introducing Paul Sorvino as a platitude-spouting ex-Army colonel who heads a right-wing fringe militia group. In the context of the story, these characters are ‘heroes,’ because they battle the yogurt zombies and help the protagonists transmit messages across the nation, warning people of the dangers of The Stuff, but their victory is steeped in irony, because Cohen has no qualms about portraying them as violent, xenophobic creeps. The film’s real heroes have merely exploited their fanaticism and aimed them at the problem, like a gun.

The Stuff has a lot of ideas swirling around, but not a lot of plot and Cohen gives lead Michael Moriarty even more leeway to adlib than he did with Q: The Winged Serpent. It all makes for an unfocused and meandering experience. This is, in part, the result of Cohen’s improvisational filmmaking style – something he had to employ while stealing shots on New York streets and developing stories based on the locations available. In the case of The Stuff, which features some pretty complicated special effects gags, the listlessness ends up stifling the film’s overall momentum. In addition, distributor New World Pictures reportedly demanded extensive cuts to speed up the runtime, which can be felt in the choppy, episodic structure.

The Stuff isn’t Cohen’s best film (I’d personally count it among the top five), but it stars his most impressive cast. Besides Moriarty, who collaborated with Cohen on a total of five films, and Sorvino, the ensemble includes Garrett Morris, Danny Aiello, and Alexander Scourby. Patrick O'Neal’s brief appearance is likely a nod to his performance in The Stepford Wives (1975) – another sci-fi satire with grand conspiracies and themes of lost identity – similar to Brooke Adams’ post-credit cameo, which is a reference to her starring role in Invasion of the Body Snatchers ‘78. Cohen regular Laurene Landon and Abe Vigoda also cameo during commercials for the evil dessert, though the most esoterically ‘80s-coded casting has got to be elderly actress Clara Peller, who parodies her popular “Where’s the beef!?” Wendy’s ad by shouting “Where’s The Stuff?!”

Video

The Stuff had been previously released on North American digital media at least four times. Alongside two official, anamorphic 1.85:1 discs from Anchor Bay and Image Entertainment (Midnight Madness Series), there was a grey market, 1.33:1 disc that was repackaged as part of various ‘budget’ DVD collections. Arrow released the first Blu-ray version in the UK in 2014 and reissued the same 2K remaster for the film’s US BD debut. Now, a little over ten years later, Arrow has upgraded that already pretty good release with the world UHD debut of The Stuff.

The new transfer was created using a 4K, 16-bit scan of the original 35mm camera negative (supplied by Lakeshore Entertainment), then graded in SDR, HDR10, and Dolby Vision. The 2K master was already pretty good, so this isn’t a night & day upgrade of the Blu-ray, as some recent Arrow UHDs have been. That said, it is an improvement in terms of texture, color vibrancy, and overall grading. Print damage has been cleaned up without scrubbing film grain, which is well-represented with relative consistency (darker scenes are grittier), without oversharpening the purposefully pillowed edges. The Blu-ray’s slight banding and noise issues have been corrected and the HDR boosts black levels without burying the shaded details.

Please note that the images on this page are taken from the extended cut Blu-ray, not the new theatrical 4K transfer.

Audio

The Stuff is once again presented in DTS-HD Master Audio and its original 1.0 mono sound. It’s a relatively simplistic mix and mostly dialogue-driven, so my expectations were low and real complaints are minimal. Everything is clear and balanced, outside of some of the location-shot sequences, which sometimes crash the sound floor too low in an effort to lessen ambient noise. Dialogue is consistent throughout, sometimes awkwardly so (when the production is forced to use obvious ADR), but this is all in keeping with previous DVD and Blu-ray releases of the film. The single channel treatment can be overstuffed, leading to minor distortion and leaving Anthony Guefen's musical score a bit quieter than it could be, but the more effects-heavy ‘monster’ sequences have decent bass and elemental separation.

Extras

Disc 1 (4K UHD)

• Commentary with David Flint and Adrian Smith – The critics and veteran commentators explore the wider careers of the cast & crew, production battles between Cohen and New World, Cohen’s storytelling and directing styles, and the film’s anti-consumerist themes and connections to classic sci-fi.

• Commentary with Larry Cohen – This track is taken from the 2000 Anchor Bay DVD and was missing from the previous Arrow Blu-ray. The writer/director doesn’t fill every inch of the track, but gives good info about the production throughout.

• Can’t Get Enough of The Stuff: Making Larry Cohen’s Classic Creature Feature (52:10, HD) – This Arrow-exclusive documentary features interviews with Cohen, producer Paul Kurta, actress Andrea Marcovicci, mechanical makeup effects artist/tech Steve Neill, and critic/author Kim Newman. Cohen discusses his inspirations (it seems that his discomfort with cigarette company ads were a major factor) and the filming processes, Kurta and Neill supply technical anecdotes, Marcovicci offers her personal slant on the cast, and Newman offers additional insight and context.

• Enough is Never Enough (16:44, HD) – A newly re-edited featurette featuring previously unseen interviews with Cohen and producer Paul Kurta, originally shot for Steve Mitchell’s documentary King Cohen (2017).

• 42nd Street Memories: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Notorious Street (81:50, HD) – This feature-length documentary on New York’s grindhouse district was written and directed by Calum Waddell. It’s an oral history via the filmmakers, actors, and other celebrities that experienced the phenomenon, including Cohen, William Lustig (director of Maniac [1980] and the Maniac Cop series), Frank Henenlotter (director of the Basket Case series), Buddy Giovinazzo (director of Combat Shock [1986]), Jeff Lieberman (director of Squirm [1976]) and Blue Sunshine [1972]), Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman, Joe Dante (The Howling [1981]), Matt Cimber (The Witch Who Came from the Sea [1976]), actress Lynn Lowry (I Drink Your Blood [1970]), and more. This marks the film’s US Blu-ray debut, though it previously appeared on 88 Films’ UK BD release of Joe D’Amato’s Anthropophagous (1980) and Grindhouse Releasings’ US BD release of Piquer Simón’s Pieces (1982).

• Theatrical trailer, alternate trailer, TV spot, Arrow trailer

• King Cohen trailer

• Image gallery
  

Disc 2 (Blu-ray)

• The Stuff Prerelease Cut (118:49, 1080p, LPCM 1.0 Mono) – Alongside the 4K upgrade, this newly discovered pre-New World version is this collection’s biggest selling point. The differences include several scene extensions, longer/additional Stuff ad breaks, much more set-up of Moriarty and Andrea Marcovicci’s relationship, a scene of Bobby (Scott Bloom) in juvie facing consequences for trashing the grocery store (he is threatened with a ‘padded cell’), and a more coherent cut of the climactic radio station attack.

  It turns out that, yes, The Stuff’s most concrete problems – its choppy structure and overbearing editing – are at least in part solved by simply letting the film breathe a little. I wouldn’t call it a night & day difference, because it doesn’t fundamentally change the themes or plot and isn’t different enough to convert detractors, but existing fans and those on the fence might find themselves preferring this version. Dwight Dixon’s alternate score is also, arguably, an improvement.

  
  

  The transfer can get pretty dark and grainy, as you can see from the screencaps on this page, but it’s a proper HD scan, not a cobbled mess of SD videotape sources we typically see when an assembly cut is rediscovered, for instance, the Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996) assembly cut available with Arrow’s recent Hellraiser: Quartet of Torment collection.

The images on this page are taken from Arrows’ Blu-ray version of the prerelease cut of the film – NOT the theatrical cut 4K UHD – and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by right/cmd-clicking each side of the sliders. Note that there will be some JPG compression.