4K UHD, Blu-ray Release: Desperate Living

By
Laurence
– May 12, 2026Find Others: Blu-ray, Movie, New Release, NewsGet More: , , ,

4K UHD, Blu-ray Release Date: June 23, 2026
Price: 4K UHD/Blu-ray $39.24, Blu-ray $32.98
Studio: Criterion Collection

Following the unrepentant outrageousness of Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, director John Waters brought his notorious trash trilogy to a fittingly twisted close with the 1977 antifascist cult fairy tale Desperate Living.

After hysterical housewife Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) murders her husband with the help of her fed-up housekeeper (Jean Hill), the newfound “sisters in crime” escape to the bizarro shantytown of Mortville, a depraved penal colony presided over by a despotic queen (Edith Massey) whose tyranny pushes her subjects to shocking revolt.

Deviant cops, death by dog food, DIY surgery, shocking acts of contemporary lesbianism—Waters unleashes all this and more in an at once relentlessly warped and oddly moral vision of queer rebellion.

The Waters-approved features include the following:

  • New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director John Waters, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • Audio commentary featuring Waters and actor Liz Renay
  • Optional Italian dub track
  • New conversation between Waters and film programmer Cristina Cacioppo
  • Back to Mortville, a tour of the film’s main Baltimore location, led by Waters,
  • New interview with actors Susan Lowe, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Mink Stole
  • Interview with production designer Vincent Peranio
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • An essay by critic Grace Byron
Buy or Rent Desperate Living

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.