The Abyss has turned up on UK streaming again for the first time in years

by Simon Brew |
The Abyss
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James Cameron’s The Abyss is legally available to watch again in the UK on a streaming service – and it appears to be the new remaster.

UPDATE:

Now this is interesting. The ITVX website lists the running time of the film on its service as 2 hours and 20 minutes, as you can see here…

The Abyss on ITVX, listed with a 2 hour 20 minute running time.

BUT! Press play, and look at the running time now…

The Abyss when you press play runs for 2 hours and 43 minutes. Tested with an ITVX subscription, and so no adverts.

Is this something akin to the Channel 4 incident all over again? Where in the 1990s, Channel Four accidentally showed the wrong version?

Our original story from earlier today is here…

Ah-ha. This is interesting. It’s been a year or two since Disney withdrew its plans to re-release James Cameron’s The Abyss in the UK, following the BBFC’s refusal to give the film a certificate with an infamous scene – the drowning rat – in place. Long story short (and the longer version is in the video at the bottom of this piece), Disney checked with James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment whether it’d sign off a version of the film with the scene removed. The answer was no.

If you want to therefore get the new-ish 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of The Abyss, you need to import it. Not tricky, but still.

With thanks to eagle-eyed reader Clem Fandango, though, we now learn that, with no fanfare, The Abyss is now available again on a UK streaming service. It’s been available before, but not for many years. It’s suddenly popped up on ITVX, where it’s available to stream for free.

It does on the surface appear to be the remastered version, with the 4K remastering team mentioned in the end credits. The cut runs to two hours and 43 minutes as well, which suggests we’re getting the PAL version of the special edition, albeit with the rat scene removed.

This poses questions. Presumably, Disney+ would have had first dibs on the film had the BBFC originally waved the uncut version through, but it’s not available on that particular service. How, then, has this version made its way to ITVX? It’s terrific that it’s available again, but did Lightstorm Entertainment relent, or has it gone through different channels?  

Who knows. For the minute, The Abyss is available to stream again in the UK and, in fact, legally available to watch again in the UK. Given there’s not been a physical media release of the film in this country for over two decades, that’s progress at least…

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