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Unreleased for nearly twenty years, The Birthday has achieved near-mythic status among cult film enthusiasts. Shot on a single, meticulously designed location, Eugenio Mira’s deliriously offbeat dark comedy offers a career-best turn from Corey Feldman (The Lost Boys), playing wildly against type.

Painfully awkward Norman Forrester (Feldman) chooses the opulent birthday party of his girlfriend Alison’s (Erica Prior) wealthy father (Jack Taylor, Conan the Barbarian) as the perfect moment to propose. But between bizarre encounters with guests and unnervingly polite hotel staff, Norman stumbles into a nightmarish occult conspiracy that threatens not just his relationship but the fate of the world itself.

Rediscovered at last, The Birthday blends screwball comedy, cosmic horror and feverish style into an unforgettable cinematic experience. Restored from the original negative, Arrow Video is proud to present this one-of-a-kind descent into madness in the release it’s always deserved.

Product Features

4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
4K restoration from the original negative
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary by actor Corey Feldman and co-writer/director Eugenio Mira
The Shape of a Miracle, a brand new interview with Mira, shot exclusively for this release
Pathology, an in-depth breakdown of a scene from the film by Mira, featuring archival behind-the-scenes footage, storyboards and rushes
2024 Q&A with Feldman and Mira from the film’s 20th anniversary screening at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas
Original trailer
20th anniversary trailer
Image gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options
Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by Bryan Reesman

Finch wrote: Thu Dec 18, 2025 2:25 pm Unreleased for nearly twenty years, The Birthday has achieved near-mythic status among cult film enthusiasts.

There is just a whole other world out there

Has anyone here seen this and want to weigh in with their thoughts? I'd also heard that Jordan Peele considers this film a masterpiece (or at least told Feldman that... who knows what an encounter with that guy up close is like, but maybe I'd tell him some stuff to keep him from flipping out at me too). But it seems like on Letterboxd, once people actually see it they kind of politely praise it so nobody gets mad but don't often agree about it being particularly good.

I saw it a few years back at the screening Jordan Peele organized at Lincoln Center. Corey Feldman was there (with an entire entourage of people - a younger girlfriend, security guards, the works) in gold lamé pants and gave a very weird Q and A that was only surpassed in its strangeness by the eternal mistake of opening the floor up to the audience, who mostly wanted to talk about Angelic 2 The Core, which Feldman did NOT want to discuss.

As for the movie itself, I enjoyed it well enough without thinking it was amazing. It has the tone, interests, and intellectual level of a early-mid-period Edgar Wright film, but without as much of the filmmaking verve. Feldman is doing an odd Jerry Lewis impression throughout the film that I took as amusing, but not especially meaningful. Now that I've seen several Jerry Lewis films and understand the character, I think the point of the film was to place someone with that mannered, dated, anxious pattern of behavior in a more modern crisis situation and see how he clashes, like if Herbert Heebert was the protagonist of a modern action movie, or else the Dougie Jones segments of Twin Peaks: The Return (except not nearly as good as all that). In other words, it's the product of someone who has clearly watched a lot of American cinema, some old, some genre, mashing together their strangest obsessions and tics. I didn't really think the film earned (or even set up particularly well) the larger places it went to at the very end, but I've seen much worse wacky endings from high-concept 2000s movies so it's kind of whatever on that part. I would not call this a lost masterpiece or anything. More a window into a strange alternate universe where Feldman had the arc of one of the many older character actors that a Tarantino-type mainstream filmmaker rescued from ignominy. I assume the people who hate cryptic-Lynch-lite weirdness would hate this.

That they are ONLY putting this out on a 4K disc is hilarious, by the way. Are there even 1000 people on the planet who have a 4K setup that even know about this movie, let alone will pay MSRP to own it? Someone on Letterboxd said that it would have blown their minds if they had seen it when they were 18, and I think that's a perfect assessment: an ideal movie to be watched as a college freshman on late-night TV or as a weird pirated file ("The.Birthday.1080p.Eugenio.Mira.2004.RePACK.ReShade.RECORE.HANDJOB" etc.)

Never Cursed wrote: Fri Dec 19, 2025 5:47 pm That they are ONLY putting this out on a 4K disc is hilarious, by the way. Are there even 1000 people on the planet who have a 4K setup that even know about this movie, let alone pay MSRP to own it? Someone on Letterboxd said that it would have blown their minds if they had seen it when they were 18, and I think that's a perfect assessment: an ideal movie to be watched as a college freshman on late-night TV or as a weird pirated file ("The.Birthday.1080p.Eugenio.Mira.2004.RePACK.ReShade.RECORE.HANDJOB" etc.)

Looking at the schlock coming from labels like VS, Terror Vision, and Severin on 4K, can't really say that I am shocked by this release. LOL at the HANDJOB reference however.

yoloswegmaster wrote: Fri Dec 19, 2025 6:18 pm

Never Cursed wrote: Fri Dec 19, 2025 5:47 pm That they are ONLY putting this out on a 4K disc is hilarious, by the way. Are there even 1000 people on the planet who have a 4K setup that even know about this movie, let alone pay MSRP to own it? Someone on Letterboxd said that it would have blown their minds if they had seen it when they were 18, and I think that's a perfect assessment: an ideal movie to be watched as a college freshman on late-night TV or as a weird pirated file ("The.Birthday.1080p.Eugenio.Mira.2004.RePACK.ReShade.RECORE.HANDJOB" etc.)

Looking at the schlock coming from labels like VS, Terror Vision, and Severin on 4K, can't really say that I am shocked by this release. LOL at the HANDJOB reference however.

Thing is, this is not Terror Vision bait that was shot for $10,000 with local yokels willing to get naked or whatever. I hate that garbage, but it actually makes more financial sense for them to release Z-grade chillers than this film. This movie is 4 reels of well-made social-awkwardness-exploiting buildup constructed around a parody of a long-past-their-glory-days studio Hollywood star's screen persona followed by a third act of weird but not shlock-violence-filled catharsis (and having seen it on a print, I could literally count it by reel!). It's honestly a shame that they're selling the movie based essentially upon its twist, as it actually does a reasonable job of making you wonder what's going on before it becomes clear what's happening. Judging by the trailer and that it was at Fantastic Fest, though, they're definitely trying to sell it to that crowd...and they will be disappointed in the same vein as when the Bi Gan movie was sold as a date night or when the Del Toro Nightmare Alley's marketing sorta implied supernatural goings-on. Guessing there will be a lot of 1-2.5 star "boring, didn't understand why Corey Feldman was acting like that, last 30 minutes were SO CRAZY" reviews on Letterboxd once this actually releases.

This sounds like something I want nothing to do with, but at least now I know it IS something I want nothing to do with! Thanks guys.

mfunk9786 wrote: Fri Dec 19, 2025 8:49 pm This sounds like something I want nothing to do with, but at least now I know it IS something I want nothing to do with! Thanks guys.

Ehh, you like Shaun of the Dead and The World's End, right? You could do worse than this as a weirdo imitation with strange tangents. I'm happy I saw the movie, even if it doesn't merit its cult status. Don't pay whatever the fuck price Arrow is asking for, though