Basic Instinct: Steelbook (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Stephen Bjork
Review Date: Apr 14, 2025
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

Paul Verhoeven

Release Date(s)

1992 (April 15, 2025)

Studio(s)

Carolco Pictures/Le Studio Canal+/TriStar Pictures (Lionsgate Limited)

Film/Program Grade: A-
Video Grade: A
Audio Grade: B+
Extras Grade: A+

https://lionsgatelimited.com/

Review

Basic Instinct was Paul Verhoeven’s third American feature, one that moved him out of the realm of satirical science fiction and back into exploring the kinds of eroticism that had marked many of his previous Dutch films. Yet in some respects, it was also responsible for mainstreaming the world of direct-to-video erotic thrillers in 1992, transporting them from the unrated sections on the top shelves of American home video stores to the big screen, with suitably controversial results. Basic Instinct managed to parlay that controversy into an impressive box office performance—it ended up being the year’s fourth-highest grossing film despite the fact that it carried a very hard R rating. It was a huge success for everyone involved—although in the long run, it ended up both helping and hindering Sharon Stone’s career.

The story is the stuff of pure DTV melodrama: when rock star Johnny Boz is brutally murdered with an ice pick, Detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) is assigned the task of investigating Boz’s girlfriend Catherine Trammell (Sharon Stone). The more that the clues point to her, the more that Nick finds himself drawn into her web, and the two end up playing a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with each other. Yet one of them is playing that game at a much higher level—as was Basic Instinct itself, with all of the A-list talent behind it. In addition to the likes of Verhoeven, Douglas, Stone, cinematographer Jan de Bont, composer Jerry Goldsmith, and makeup effects expert Rob Bottin, the rest of the cast includes memorable faces like George Dzundza, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Denis Arndt, Bruce A. Young, Chelcie Ross, Wayne Knight, Daniel Von Bargen, Stephen Tobolowsky, James Rebhorn, and Mitch Pileggi. Yet some of the controversy that swirled around the film was the inevitable result of the presence of another bit of above-the-line talent: screenwriter Joe Eszterhas.

Eszterhas’ script for Basic Instinct had sparked a bidding war before finally selling to Carolco for a record-breaking $3 million, which virtually guaranteed that the press in general and critics in particular were going to be skeptical of the results. (As usual, nothing pisses off Hollywood more than a writer being paid for his work.) Of course, in this case that skepticism wasn’t entirely unfounded, since Eszterhas had tossed off the script in a mere 13 days, and he didn’t even bother to address basic facts like the presence of DNA evidence (and good Lord, is there ever a lot of DNA left behind at the crime scenes in Basic Instinct). When portions of his script leaked during production, it started a backlash from some members of the LGBTQIA+ community due to the way it depicted the lesbian and bisexual characters. Protesters tried to disrupt the filming, but as is usually the case, there’s little doubt that the negative publicity ended up actually helping the film at the box office.

It’s important to note that Basic Instinct is neither a police procedural nor a whodunit, so any technical errors that Eszterhas made are largely irrelevant to the story that he was telling. Similarly, while Hollywood has had an unfortunate history with negative portrayals of LGBTQIA+ characters, that undeniable fact still misses the point that Catherine Trammell is one of the most strikingly potent female characters in the history of cinema, regardless of whatever her sexual preference(s) may have been. While she’s hardly a feminist icon (although Camille Paglia may disagree with that sentiment), Trammell is a genuine force of nature, and she’s way out of the league of every other character in Basic Instinct—especially the male ones. That’s why the notorious interrogation scene is so crucial to the success of the film as a whole, despite the controversial way that Verhoeven shot it; it shows the ease with which Catherine can completely overwhelm any and all men. Stone later accused Verhoeven of tricking her in order to capture the most infamous moment, and if that’s true, then he’s a despicable human being for doing so. Yet right or wrong, the moment still works on multiple levels. It isn’t just the male characters in the film who end up under Trammell’s sway, but male viewers of the film who end up under the sway of Stone as well. In Basic Instinct, the male gaze becomes completely subservient to the chthonic force of female sexuality, both metaphorically and literally.

In one sense, Trammell’s actual guilt or innocence is irrelevant. She’s a far stronger character than Nick regardless of whether or not she committed one or more of the murders. It certainly isn’t uncommon in film noir for male characters to be led astray by femme fatales, but rarely are they manipulated as easily as Nick is. He repeatedly and consistently proves just how much of an amateur that he is compared to her—this is no mere amour fou, but rather a bull being led by his nose to the slaughter. That’s why the identity of the killer at the conclusion isn’t as important as is the fact that Nick has belatedly grasped the reality of his situation. When various pieces of evidence are being trotted past him, he sits quietly and meekly for the first time in the entire film, no longer questioning anything or anyone. He finally accepts his own powerlessness, as well as whatever fate that his weaknesses may bring to him. Nick’s play is the tragedy, “Man,” and its hero, the Conqueror Woman.

Basic Instinct is far from a perfect film, but it’s still a significant one for many reasons. Catherine Trammell may not be a positive role model, but characters don’t need to be positive in order to be compelling. Regardless of her guilt or innocence, she exhibits a complete dominance over the opposite sex that would make even James Bond jealous. The Hollywood of 1992 still deserved criticism for the way that it was representing female and LGBTQIA+ characters, but Basic Instinct is far too complex of a text to dismiss so easily. Arguably, it displays just as much misandry as it does misogyny, since there’s not a single sympathetic male character in the entire film—even Nick’s otherwise likable partner Gus is far too much of a boor. It only takes one supremely self-confident woman to bring all of these men to their knees. There were few mainstream Hollywood films prior to Basic Instinct that were so thoroughly dominated by a single female character, and positive portrayal or not, that’s still a noteworthy achievement.

Cinematographer Jan de Bont shot Basic Instinct on 35mm film using Panavision Panaflex Platinum cameras with Panavision Primo anamorphic lenses, framed at 2.39:1 for its theatrical release. De Bont told American Cinematographer that he used bright lighting with fast stocks like Eastman EXR 500T 5296 in order to create a dense, high-contrast negative. That was to help offset the image degradation that resulted from various stages of the printing process, which could mute the colors and cause the contrast range to turn murky: “In general, when you have dense negatives you have the best chance to get a very high-quality release print because [normally] you have to go through so many stages to get there – you have to make your interpositive, internegative, etc. By doing all those different steps, you lose not only quality but blacks as well... With a denser negative you can get release prints that are very close to your original.” That’s a good wake-up call for anyone who still thinks that home video masters should just reproduce whatever is on the negative as accurately as possible. Filmmakers often accounted for what was going to happen during the printing process with the choices that they made on set, so that needs to be taken into account when mastering and grading anything for video.

For this 4K remaster, Hiventy Laboratory in Joinville-le-Pont scanned the original camera negative at 4K resolution, but since that had been cut to conform to the R-rated version released in the United States, the missing footage had to be scanned from an internegative instead. (Note that at Verhoeven’s request, only his director’s cut was fully remastered, so if for some reason you prefer the theatrical cut, you’ll have to look elsewhere.) Stains, dust, scratches, and instabilities were removed with Diamant film software, though some light filtering was also applied. The digital cleanup and color grading for both SDR and HDR were approved by Verhoeven—and like the previous StudioCanal 4K release of Basic Instinct, this version includes both Dolby Vision and a basic HDR10 layer. Yet while it is the same basic 4K master, it’s a different encode running at a significantly higher bitrate, and that has resulted in a clearer image than what was on the StudioCanal version.

Overall, the level of fine detail in 4K is significantly improved when compared to Blu-ray—for a good example, check out the scene where Nick and Gus first visit Catherine Trammell’s seaside property. There’s far more detail to the landscaping around her house, and the minute fibers at the edges of her sweater are more cleanly delineated. Yet when comparing this 4K version to StudioCanal’s, there are even more improvements visible. A few shots do still show signs of the application of noise reduction, but for the most part it was used judiciously. (Something else to keep in mind: filmmakers never intended viewers to see grain as sharp and etched out as it can appear in raw 4K scans from the camera negative). Yet the grain is still clearer and sharper in this version than it was on the StudioCanal disc, making it appear that the issue with that one wasn’t necessarily noise reduction per se but rather the subpar encoding by Hiventy (which is an issue that has plagued other StudioCanal discs).

The HDR grade generally improves the contrast range and black levels, but there are still a few shots which look a bit flat, such as one of the interior car scenes when Nick and Gus are driving at night. (There’s very limited lighting on them, so the reduced contrast was probably unavoidable and a rare exception to de Bont’s insistence on a dense negative.) The color balance may be a bit warmer than it was on previous releases, although the Blu-ray was a little inconsistent in that regard, so this more balanced grade probably looks warmer by default. And that’s definitely true to de Bont’s intentions, as he explained to American Cinematographer: “Thrillers always tend to be on the cold side. People tend to film in a cool way anything that has to do with the darker side of society. I don’t like that. Even in scenes that have a very dark undertone, it’s nice to bring out the warmth of people, too.”

That’s not to say that this timing is perfectly consistent, however, and there’s at least one major color shift in the background in the middle of the shot where Trammell meets Nick at his apartment, starting at approximately 62:50. It was also present on the StudioCanal version, so it’s baked into the master. The flesh tones can appear quite bronzed at times, though once again that aligns with de Bont’s stated intentions for the film, and it’s also similar to the color balance in other films that he photographed during that period. Yet even if this isn’t 100% accurate to the timing on theatrical prints from 1992, it’s still a fitting look for Basic Instinct.

Audio is offered in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 2.0 LPCM, with optional English, English SDH, and Spanish subtitles. Basic Instinct was released theatrically in Dolby Stereo (SR encoded), and the 2.0 track here is listed as being the original theatrical audio. It’s definitely not just a fold-down of the 5.1 remix since it has encoded surround channels, and interestingly enough, they’re far more prominent in 2.0 than they are in 5.1. For instance, when Nick and Gus try to call on Catherine for the first time at 7:21, the surrounds are filled with the sounds of the city, harbor, and wildlife, while they’re pretty much silent in 5.1, or else they’ve been redirected to the front channels. Similarly, when the duo finally tracks Catherine down at her seaside property, the surrounds are active with the sounds of the surf, but they’re nearly inaudible in 5.1. There are other minor differences as well. A few of Beth’s cries like her “Stop!” when Nick forces himself on her from behind were dialed out of the 5.1 remix, but they’re back where they belong in 2.0.

The remastered 5.1 mix does arguably sound a bit smoother and more dynamic than the theatrical 2.0, which can sound a little harsher and more compressed, but the increased presence of the surround channels alone gives the 2.0 the edge (just don’t forget to turn on your decoder). The only disappointment in both is the lack of deep bass during the club scenes, but given the fact that the 2.0 really is the unadulterated theatrical mix, that’s just the nature of the beast. Regardless, Jerry Goldsmith’s lush score is still one of the biggest selling points for both box mixes, with him openly channeling Bernard Hermann—appropriately so, given the Hitchcockian nature of the film.

The Lionsgate Limited 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release of Basic Instinct is a three-disc set that includes a Blu-ray with a 1080p copy of the film, plus a second Blu-ray with additional extras. They’re arranged differently on Blu-ray, which can be a little confusing, but most of the extras that are on the UHD are available on one or the other of the Blu-rays (although the reverse isn’t true—many of them are missing on the UHD). It also includes a Digital Code on a paper insert tucked inside. The Steelbook itself features new artwork with Sharon Stone in a familiar pose, and there’s also a transparent plastic slipcover that covers parts of the underlying image while letting others show through. Complaining about cover art is an automatic knee-jerk reaction these days, but it’s hard to imagine anyone complaining about this one. In any event, the following extras are included:

DISC ONE: FEATURE FILM (UHD)

Audio Commentary by Paul Verhoeven and Jan de Bont
Audio Commentary by Camille Paglia
1993 Commentary by Paul Verhoeven
Introduction by Sharon Stone (Upscaled SD – :14)
1993 Introduction by Paul Verhoeven (Upscaled SD – :39)
Basic Instinct: Sex, Death, & Stone (HD – 53:11)
An Unending Story – Scoring Basic Instinct (HD – 16:16)
A Conversation with Sharon Stone (Upscaled SD – 12:47)
Blonde Poison: The Making of Basic Instinct (Upscaled SD – 30:05)
Cleaning Up Basic Instinct (Upscaled SD – 5:07)
Storyboard Comparisons:
- Love Scene (Upscaled SD – 6:29)
- Car Chase (Upscaled SD – 1:18)
- Elevator Murder (Upscaled SD – 2:47)
Original Screen Tests:
- Sharon Stone (Upscaled SD – 5:52)
- Jeanne Tripplehorn (Upscaled SD – 3:02)
2021 Trailer (UHD – 1:29)
Theatrical Trailer (HD – 2:10)
Director’s Cut Trailer (Upscaled SD – 2:15)
TV Spot (Upscaled SD – :32)

DISC TWO: FEATURE FILM (BD)

Audio Commentary by Paul Verhoeven and Jan de Bont
Audio Commentary by Camille Paglia
1993 Commentary by Paul Verhoeven
Basic Instinct: Sex, Death, & Stone (HD – 53:11)
An Unending Story – Scoring Basic Instinct (HD – 16:16)
2021 Trailer (HD – 1:29)

DISC THREE: ADDITIONAL EXTRAS (BD)

The Making of Basic Instinct EPK (Upscaled SD – 6:30)
Inside Basic Instinct VHS Featurette (Upscaled SD – 16:28)
The Secrets of Basic Instinct LaserDisc Featurette (Upscaled SD – 61:38)
A Conversation with Sharon Stone (Upscaled SD – 12:47)
Blonde Poison: The Making of Basic Instinct (Upscaled SD – 30:05)
Cleaning Up Basic Instinct (Upscaled SD – 5:07)
Video Scrapbook (Upscaled SD – 4:32)
Storyboard Comparisons:
- Love Scene (Upscaled SD – 3:21)
- Car Chase (Upscaled SD – 1:18)
- Elevator Murder (Upscaled SD – 2:47)
Original Screen Tests:
- Sharon Stone (Upscaled SD – 5:52)
- Jeanne Tripplehorn (Upscaled SD – 3:02)
Theatrical Trailer (HD – 2:10)
Director’s Cut Trailer (Upscaled SD – 2:15)
TV Spot (Upscaled SD – :32)

The first two commentaries were originally recorded for the Special Limited Edition DVD in 2001. The track with Sexual Personae author Paglia isn’t just a vintage commentary; it’s vintage Paglia. She talks energetically throughout the first third of the track, but then she does seem to lose steam and increasingly lapses into silence. She spends some of her time describing what’s happening on screen, but she does so as more of a color commentator than as a play caller—not simply describing the action, but also interpreting and amplifying it. While the lengthy gaps are disappointing, especially coming from someone who rarely seems at a loss for words, it’s an essential track for anyone wanting to examine the complex sexual politics of the film in greater depth.

The second commentary with Verhoeven and de Bont focuses more on technical details such as the camerawork, which they admit was inspired by Hitchcock. They talk about the stylized nature of the lighting—de Bont placed his lights in unusual positions such as the floor of the interrogation room, and he also used gels to alter the color. They do cover some of the thematic elements as well, though they also occasionally lapse into silence. (I no longer have the LaserDisc for comparison purposes, so I can’t verify whether or not any of these gaps are due to sections having been edited out by nervous executives and/or lawyers.)

Speaking of LaserDisc, new to this edition (at least as far as digital discs are concerned) is Verhoeven’s original solo commentary from the Pioneer Special Edition LaserDisc release of his director’s cut. Once again, he tends to focus on technical details while dropping a few thoughts about the story—although without the presence of de Bont, he covers a wider variety of material regarding the making of Basic Instinct than just the camerawork and lighting. He also goes into detail regarding the differences between the theatrical cut and the director’s cut, as well as his own interpretation of the ending.

The two newest extras were created for StudioCanal’s 2021 UHD release of Basic Instinct, the first one produced in-house and the second by Daniel Griffith via his Ballyhoo Motion Pictures. Basic Instinct: Sex, Death, & Stone is a making-of documentary featuring newer and archival interviews with Stone, Douglas, Verhoeven, Eszterhas, de Bont, and editor Frank J. Urioste. It covers how the script was created, why the project interested Verhoeven, casting Catherine Trammell, how Stone cracked the character, shooting the sex scenes, the controversy over the interrogation scene, the battles with the MPAA, the protests during shooting, and the reception that the film received. Stone also talks about the long-term impact that playing the character has had on her personally. An Unending Story – Scoring Basic Instinct is a new look at Jerry Goldsmith’s process of composing the score, featuring historians Daniel Schweiger, Robert Townsend, Lukas Kendall, and Jeff Bond. They discuss the connections with Hitchcock and Bernard Hermann, Goldsmith’s relationship with Verhoeven, the struggle to find the perfect main theme, and the way that the score combines orchestral and electronic elements.

The rest of the extras are cobbled together from the Blu-ray, DVD, LaserDisc, and yes, even VHS releases of Basic Instinct. Blonde Poison: The Making of Basic Instinct is a documentary featuring interviews with Urioste, Verhoeven, producer Alan Marshall, script consultant Gary Goldman, de Bont, Goldsmith, and Queer Nation activists Jonathan Katz & Annette Gaudino. It covers the development process, the sale of the script, casting Catherine Trammell, the Hitchcock influence, the stylized nature of the lighting, and Goldsmith’s score. Surprisingly, many of them disagree about whether or not Trammell is guilty. Katz and Gaudino talk about why they chose Basic Instinct as a target for protests—it wasn’t necessarily the film itself, but rather the way that it exemplified their issues with Hollywood’s treatment of LGBTQIA+ characters in general. (Note that this version is approximately five minutes longer than the one included on the StudioCanal UHD, but I didn’t compare them side-by-side in order to verify the differences between the two.)

The Making of Basic Instinct is a vintage EPK promotional featurette, and it’s pretty typical fluff that’s included here for archival purposes only. Inside Basic Instinct was appended to the VHS release of the director’s cut of Basic Instinct, and it features interviews with Verhoeven, Stone, and Douglas (although it’s mostly Verhoeven’s show). It’s essentially an expanded EPK item, but it offers a little more depth in how it analyzes the story and themes of the film. Verhoeven closes it by saying that he would like to stay and make more American movies, and fortunately he did just that (even if he eventually moved on). The Secrets of Basic Instinct is a more in-depth dive into the making of the film, originally produced for the Pioneer Special Edition LaserDisc, featuring interviews with Verhoeven, Stone, Douglas, and Tripplehorn. It includes some information not available elsewhere, like why Verhoeven turned down the script for Black Rain in favor of making Total Recall instead, and why the script for Basic Instinct felt more natural to him. It also offers a side-by-side comparison of Johnny Boz murder from the theatrical cut and the director’s cut.

Yet in the immortal words of Roman Strauss, this is all, far from over. The rest of the extras consist of various bits and bobs from other releases, including video introductions by Verhoeven and Stone, as well as a solo interview with Stone. The Storyboard Comparisons are split screen juxtapositions of the original storyboards with the final scenes from the film, while the Screen Tests contain footage from various tests for both Stone and Tripplehorn. There’s also a Video Scrapbook, which was the still-frame gallery from the LaserDisc (it plays continuously here). Of course, for any film fan above a certain age, the most entertaining extra of all will be Cleaning Up Basic Instinct, which juxtaposes several dialogue scenes from the film with the edited for television versions. It’s easy to forget just how casually that studios sometimes tossed off these television cuts back then—not only didn’t the original actors participate in redubbing their own dialogue, but the studio didn’t even bother trying to find anyone who sounded like them.

As far as I can determine, that’s every single previously available extra for Basic Instinct from any release in any format, aside perhaps from a Dutch-language interview with Verhoeven that was on the 2002 Region 2 DVD from Universal Pictures in Scandinavia, and the alternate score for the closing scene that was available on the LaserDisc. That’s about it. Combined with the improvements in picture quality and the original theatrical 2.0 Dolby Stereo mix, that makes Lionsgate’s 4K Ultra HD version of Basic Instinct as definitive a release as we’re ever going to get—seriously, you can even let go of your old LaserDisc and VHS copies if you’ve been holding onto them for the extras alone. And aside from tchotchkes like the booklet, lobby cards, and poster that were included with the StudioCanal release, you can also get rid of that one—the video and audio quality here is markedly superior. This is the one Basic Instinct to rule them all.

2025 has already witnessed the ultimate archive of everything to do with William Friedkin’s Cruising courtesy the fine folks at Arrow, and now we have the ultimate Basic Instinct archive from Lionsgate. If I have one minor quibble, it’s that I wish the extras were organized a little differently—I would have preferred to have them all sorted out by previous format (UHD, Blu-ray, DVD, Laserdisc, and then VHS, in reverse chronological order). But that’s splitting hairs based on personal preference, so this release remains highly, highly recommended. It’s a real winner from Lionsgate.

-Stephen Bjork

(You can follow Stephen on social media at these links: Twitter, Facebook, BlueSky, and Letterboxd).