1080p Blu-ray Disc from
To my eyes, the 16:9 1.85:1 transfer on the standard Blu-ray (from Anchor Bay) included with Lionsgate's UHD 4K disc looks superior for this low-budget splatter-fest. To begin with, I realize "original intentions" was to have this film shown at a full screen-esque ratio around 1.33:1 (actually, Raimi envisioned it at 1.66), and that's why Lionsgate presents it on 4K in that ratio, but it just didn't do it for me -- something about the image looked too squeezed-in, too claustrophobic (which some fans say works for this material, but I disagree) and, in an overall sense, too "small" to enjoy. The side pillarbox areas made the film -- and I said this about
Zack Snyder's Justice League, as well -- feel more like an old TV show than a horror classic.
What's more, I didn't care for the overall aesthetic/look of the UHD transfer -- this disc has been getting rave reviews from online critics and the rudimentary YouTube crowd, but I just can't agree. Horribly grainy (to the point many sequences look like an out-of-focus softened mess), HDR that doesn't really pop or do anything for the visuals and an overall ugly appearance. I just didn't care for the experience in Ultra High Def.
Now, when I popped in the 16:9-friendly Blu-ray copy last night to compare, I enjoyed the presentation significantly more -- gone was the pillarboxing, instead replaced by a screen-filling 1.85:1 picture that seemed to just look cleaner, overall, compared to the UHD disc (probably because the resolution was lower, albeit upscaled by my Panasonic UHD BD player to 4K). The blacks were richer and darker on the Blu-ray, IMO, coupled with those same black levels that were more devoid of noise in the shadows compared to the 4K transfer.
So, this one is going to be like
John Carpenter's Christine for me -- that is, I am going to reach for the 1080p Blu-ray when I want to watch it, not the 4K variant. And that's okay in my book, because the 1080p transfers on these discs look plenty fine...
