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The Hot Spot



Harry, a drifter (Don Johnson, Miami Vice) rolls into town and talks his way into a job at a car dealership where he becomes caught between two beautiful women, the boss's conniving wife Dolly (Virginia Madsen, Candyman) and Gloria (Jennifer Connelly, Requiem for a Dream) a naive young accountant whose life is complicated by blackmail. When Harry plans to rob the local bank, he becomes enmeshed in a lethal web of lust, greed and extortion, whose only escape is murder. Adapted from Hell Hath No Fury by Charles Williams, The Hot Spot is a dusty, sweaty modern noir that updates the pulp formula of twists and turns with an intensity to match director Dennis Hopper's earlier film roles. Directed by Hopper (Easy Rider, Out of the Blue) with verve, the stellar cast are supported by William Sadler (The Shawshank Redemption), Charles Martin Smith (The Untouchables) and Jack Nance (Eraserhead) accompanied by a brilliant soundtrack featuring Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker, Taj Mahal and original music by Jack Nitzsche.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

• 2K restoration by Kino Lorber, overseen and approved by cinematographer Ueli Steiger
Uncompressed mono PCM audio
• Archival interview with Dennis Hopper who discusses The Hot Spot and features footage of John Lee Hooker and images from the set (1991)
• Interviews with stars Virginia Madsen (2021, 7 mins) and William Sadler (2021, 7 mins)
• Nick Dawson on Dennis Hopper and The Hot Spot, an interview with the editor of Dennis Hopper: Interviews (2023)
• Duane Swierczynski on Charles Williams' source novel, the crime writer and expert looks at the adaptation and provides a background of the author (2023)
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and new artwork by Time Tomorrow
• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by critics Elena Lazic on the film; Leslie Byron Pitt on the erotic thriller genre and the film's place within it; and an archival piece on the film featuring an interview with Hopper by RJ Smith
• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Sweaty, leery noir pastiche that everyone but Don Johnson is playing as camp (he’s great, in fact). There are a Carry-On-esque number of double entendres (even the dog is called Spunky). BUT the John Lee Hooker / Miles Davis /Taj Mahal soundtrack is fabulous, and Dennis Hopper brings his photographer’s eye to the compositions. Hopper aside, the presence of Jack Nance gives this a note of David Lynch, and Sharon Stone must have watched Virginia Madsen’s performance with notepad in hand and referred to those notes when prepping for Basic Instinct.

Kino Insider confirmed that they lost the rights to The Hot Spot and another label will “probably” release it in 4K. Maybe this is a hint of an upcoming Radiance upgrade.

nicolas wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 7:04 pm Kino Insider confirmed that they lost the rights to The Hot Spot and another label will “probably” release it in 4K. Maybe this is a hint of an upcoming Radiance upgrade.

Radiance has previously stated that they will not be doing format upgrades.

More like a Cinématographe material to me.

DeprongMori wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 10:41 pm

nicolas wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 7:04 pm Kino Insider confirmed that they lost the rights to The Hot Spot and another label will “probably” release it in 4K. Maybe this is a hint of an upcoming Radiance upgrade.

Radiance has previously stated that they will not be doing format upgrades.

Radiance’s most recent newsletter states there will be “Upgrades of Radiance titles on UHD”.

feels more like Cinematographie taking US rights than Radiance getting dual territory ones

I’m happy that Radiance are now upgrading some of their BDs and certainly hope that this is one of them. They’ve also got US rights to Illustrious Corpses after Kino, so here’s looking forward to more like that.

Since this already has has two Blu-ray releases in the US, I'd prefer someone that will upgrade it to UHD release it.

4K upgrade in August

Recycle the old Blu-ray or produce a new disc with the 4k transfer? Looks like it's the latter from the specs.

the blu ray disc is exactly the same as the previous one, according to what's been posted on the discord

I'd be very surprised if they spent money re-encoding the BD with the new master. I figured they'd 'do a Criterion' and just put the new transfer on the 4K disc.

In fact it'd be great if they just offered the 4K disc on its own inside a 2-disc Scanavo case for those of us who already bought this on launch, but I don't expect them to bother with all that.

Someone asked Radiance, and they confirmed the BD will be the older one.

tenia wrote: Thu May 07, 2026 9:01 pm Someone asked Radiance, and they confirmed the BD will be the older one.

But! After fan feedback, we will now be encoding our 4K restoration on both the UHD and new BD.

In your face, Criterion, in your face!

Stephen C. Horne wrote:

tenia wrote: Thu May 07, 2026 9:01 pm Someone asked Radiance, and they confirmed the BD will be the older one.

But! After fan feedback, we will now be encoding our 4K restoration on both the UHD and new BD.

Ooh, neat ! Thanks for the update !