Looks like the "new anamorphic 16:9 enhanced digital transfer with restored image" and high bitrate alone do not guarantee quality. In comparison with Bonton's release, the picture is far too soft, even blurry, and it lacks detail. However, the essay in the booklet is excellent, and the introduction is a nice touch, so the choice is yours...

This was released in 2009; like Second Run's edition (2006), it's anamorphic, but the PQ is still lacking compared to that of the 2005 non-anamorphic (!) Czech release. Beats me how these people do it - apparently, Dark Sky Films' version is based on the old Czech master, just "re-formatted" (and slightly cropped), but I can do better than they did using an "ancient" (2003) freeware video editor (the CČV/Bonton capture has been re-formatted from 4:3 PAL; the DSF one is at its native 16:9 NTSC resolution):

Well, whatever the quality, I'd like to thank my friend Reed T. for "donating" ;-) the disc for the greater good of mankind, i.e. this comparison! (c:

Oookay, here we have the 5th [there's also a French DVD, not reviewed here] reincarnation of ye' twisted tale of terror that be "Spalovač mrtvol" - the question is: Does it finally beat [in terms of PQ] the ancient Czech DVD? The answer is... I know it's usually written the other way around, but: No and Yes. No, because it's based on exactly the same master, and Yes, because all the little blemishes, scratches and whatnot were cleaned up*** [see e.g. here and here]. To be perfectly fair, the picture - reformatted for 16:9 - is a teeny fraction softer than the "original" [the encode is much better though - higher bitrate = less compression artefacts], but it's still miles ahead of the kind of blurry mess delivered by Second Run / DSF.
     Anyway, where this release truly shines are the extras [if you understand German, that is ;-)] - feel free to correct me, but this is the first time ever a Czechoslovak [New Wave] director gives a commentary about their film! Admittedly, there are a few silent places, but overall, I found the track very informative. And the two featurettes - I liked the "crematorium sightseeing tour" ;-) the best; shot by a wide-angle hand-held camera, it evokes scenes from the film shot on those very locations over 40 years ago... Nice!

Oh, there is one "problem" I almost forgot to mention - the disc freezes momentarily in the middle of a scene at the layer break @ 1:01:44 [also reported by some other people here].

*difference between channels is -83.75 dB (0.01 %)
**subtitled in German
***interestingly enough, I spotted one instance [probably the only one ;-)] where print damage was cleaned up on the Czech release but not here:

This DVD is a part of Bohemia Motion Pictures' "Klenoty českého filmu" ("The Jewels of Czech Cinema") collection - conceived to take advantage of the availability of new high-definition masters created primarily for HDTV broadcast.
     Broadcast-shmroadcast, THE question everyone & their dog are dying to know the answer to is: "Does the remastered version finally blow the 2005 non-anamorphic Bonton DVD, which - however strange it may sound - is still the reference point here, out of the water?" And I can't really say it does, but at least it doesn't look worse AND is anamorphic, meaning that if your player's image processing circuitry is not too sophisticated, the native 16:9 picture will most probably look better on your [wide]screen than a zoomed-in letterboxed one...

Update: I realize the different frame sizes in our gallery make comparison difficult, so here's one more example - the BMP capture is at its native resolution of 1024×576 (sans black bars); the Bonton one has been re-formatted to match (the AR was not kept):

This is a recording from ČT2 HD's digital satellite broadcast. Its purpose here is to provide a kind of reference for the Blu-ray release reviewed below.

Note: This is an older HD master - the one Bohemia Motion Pictures used for their 2016 DVD release (just compare the 2 versions in the gallery). I'm guessing here [in an educated way ;-)], but Second Run's 2017 Blu-ray most probably came from the same source (possibly with some additional cleanup).

Special thanks to LeoH, a regular @ the Zóna discussion board, for making this comparison possible! (c:

As expected, Second Run's Blu-ray uses the same *unrestored* master the Czech TV aired a while ago, just with a gazillion times better encode.

A mixed bag, this... The new 4K resto that premiered at this year's [2019] Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is great, but - unlike Bohemia Motion Pictures' past Blu-rays of "Nick Carter in Prague" or "Three Wishes for Cinderella" - there's not a single bit, let alone a byte, of supplemental material here, which "The Cremator" would've deserved much more than either of the aforementioned titles.