A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		0.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Warner Brothers has released the 1985 franchise film 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge' to the UHD format. New specifications include 2160p/HDR video and Dolby Atmos audio. At time of writing, this release is exclusive to a franchise UHD boxed set; there is no standalone release. See below for reviews of the new video and audio presentations and a listing of included supplemental materials.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc.

This new 2160p/HDR UHD release of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge slashes onto the 4K format with a quality presentation that plainly improves upon the previous Blu-ray effort. The resolution boost is of great benefit to the film. This looks pleasantly cinematic, retaining a light and consistent grain structure, while delivering far sharper and tighter details than the Blu-ray can provide. Whether skin and clothes, building façades, baseball fields, classrooms, bedrooms, and some of the film's more sinisterly dark locales, there's no mistaking the rather broad and significant detail gains available on this UHD. Likewise, skin close-ups reveal a wonderful newfound depth and clarity, and the same may be said of the Freddy makeup and prosthetics. With that said, there is a mild look of flatness to parts of the image, almost a slight artificiality, especially in some lower light shots. But for the most part, there's a general satisfaction for a fairly faithful presentation of the filmic roots.

The HDR color grading brings some newfound vibrance and vitality to the proceedings. School exteriors (the baseball scene early in the film, for example) and interiors (a classroom scene a few minutes later after Jesse's dream ["you've got the body, I've got the brains"]), enjoy a barrage of bursting colors, looking full and healthy and far more expressive than the Blu-ray. Colors in well-lit scenes hold similarly throughout. Darker scenes at times struggle to present tight black levels; low light, shadows, and true blacks sometimes fail to push to the edge, leaving blacks looking slightly washed out. Skin tones are slightly pasty. White balance is fine though never reaching the sort of super bright and brilliant white the format can provide.

The print appears to be free of any signs of blemish and wear. There are no obvious encode issues to report. Warner Brothers has done a fine job of bringing this sequel to UHD. It could be better, but it's certainly not at all bad.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The new Dolby Atmos soundtracks delivers a quality listen, improved from the previous Blu-ray's 5.1 effort, though not really doing a lot with the extra channels at its disposal. Listeners won't find a track that has been drastically re-worked to take advantage of the new speakers. The added channels are complimentary only, never taking charge or handling content they should not be handling. As it is, the film's score is nicely defined for clarity and placement, yielding fine front dominant placement with some healthy and balanced surround activity. Some of the more robust action elements, like the school bus ride at film's start, lacks the absolute precision of a modern track, holding to that more loud and gangly 80s sort of presentation, but it's far richer, more robust, and well spaced here compared to the Blu-ray. The track handles environmental fill quite nicely, especially din outside school or support elements in some of the more action-oriented elements and chilling locales. Dialogue is clear, centered, and well prioritized for the duration.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This UHD release A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge contains the same extras that accompanied the original 2011 Blu-ray, minus the Theatrical Trailer. Please click here for coverage of these bonus features:

• Freddy on 8th Street
• Heroes and Villains
• The Male Witch
• Psychosexual Circus

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Warner Brothers hasn't gone above and beyond the call of duty with its UHD release of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, but what it has done is delivered a solid presentation that improves a good bit over the Blu-ray for both the video and audio presentations. It's a shame the studio couldn't scrounge up, or create, a couple of new extras (a new commentary would have been delightful), but the legacy content is fine for what it is. Recommended.