6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The 11-year old daughter and girlfriend of a man whose wife had been raped and killed in front of his daughter three years earlier are kidnapped by the same killer. Held captive in a bunker below Grand Central Station, the two plot their escape while the police try to track the kidnaper.
Starring: Kate Mulgrew, Rip Torn, James Naughton, Barbara Baxley, James RussoHorror | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
1679 kbps
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Friday the 13th (1980) was budgeted at $500,000 and yet it went on to take in more than $70 million worldwide. That success gave Sean Cunningham the opportunity to direct his first studio picture. Producer Sidney Beckerman purchased the screen rights to Mary Higgins Clark's third literary work, A Stranger Is Watching, when it was only a manuscript and prior to its publication by Simon and Schuster in 1977, according to Tom Buckley of the New York Times. The El Paso Times reported that the book sold more than 1.5 million copies. Beckerman offered Cunningham the job of directing it, which he did. Newsday's Bill Kaufman estimated the movie's budget at $3.5 million.
A Stranger Is Watching opens at dusk in an upper middle-class suburban home in Long Island. Nine-year-old Julie Peterson (Shawn von Schreiber) is awakened by shrieks downstairs. As she slowly descends the staircase, her mother Nina (Joanne Dorian) lies on the ground. A man is beating her with a claw hammer. Nina tells her daughter to run away but she's too petrified to move. When Nina's screams end, the intruder begins taking pictures of the body and of Julie. This is a recurring dream of Julie's and as the film flash-forwards by two years, Ronald Thompson (James Russo), the grocery deliveryman whom Julie identified as the killer, awaits execution on Death Row. Julie's father, Steve Peterson (James Naughton), is covering the story for the New York magazine, News Today, which he edits. Sharon Martin (Kate Mulgrew), Steve's girlfriend, is also covering it as a TV anchor. The couple have opposing views on capital punishment. Steve favors the death penalty while Sharon's against it. One evening when Sharon is scheduled to babysit Julie, an intruder sneaks into the house and nabs the now 11-year-old girl. Shortly thereafter, Sharon enters and she's also seized by the same man. Cunningham doesn't refrain from any secrets about the abductor's identity. He's Artie Taggart (Rip Torn), a local suburbanite who takes the two females via his van to New York's Grand Central Station. Artie carries Julie in a gunny sack and then brings Sharon by his side into the bowels of the subway rails, which lie directly beneath the Oyster Bar where Artie has a hideout. Artie is demanding $182,000 in ransom for Steve to get them back. That's precisely the same amount as heiress Julie received for her mother's estate. Artie stipulates that no cops will accompany Steve for the transaction and exchange. Is there a connection between Taggart and Thompson? Do they know each other well?
The stranger in his van watching the kids.
Scream Factory brings A Stranger Is Watching to Blu-ray for the first time worldwide on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 (disc size: 31.69 GB). The DI is sourced from a new 2K scan of the interpositive. The film appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It's important to point out that a bulk of ASIW is set in Artie's subterranean domain so the image can look extremely dark with pitch blacks, steam, and smoke beneath the Grand Central Terminal. There's only occasional white speckling, which do not pop up large in number. I thought that colors looked pretty vibrant in daytime interiors (e.g., Screenshot #3) and exteriors (#8 of Roger Perry's front lawn). Scream has encoded the feature at a mean video bitrate of 34000 kbps.
The 92-minute movie is accompanied by twelve scene selections.
Scream has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono (1679 kbps, 24-bit). The monaural mix sounds appropriately flat and authentic. It's bereft of any annoying background hiss, scratches, or dropouts. I could hear all dialogue clearly enough without switching on the optional English SDH. While Lalo Schifrin's score is heavy on strings at times, he also employs woodwinds that remind me of some of his jazzier scores. The music is by no means a copycat of Harry Manfredini's Friday the 13th. Schifrin does take a similar approach to creating a deliberate vocal effect for Artie that Manfredini did so masterfully and successively for Jason. Peter Bracke describes it as a whistle in his audio commentary while I discern it more as a whisper (perhaps an audio signifier that the kidnapper wants Julie and Sharon to remain shushed?).
I knew very little about A Stranger Is Watching before popping in this BD and it's a pleasant surprise. Repeat viewings of Friday the 13th have improved for me since initially watching it on VHS and cable. I'm optimistic that the same will hold true for ASIW. If F13 is Cunningham's slasher classic, then ASIW may represent his horror sleeper. Scream Factory's HD transfer and uncompressed mono track are each very solid presentations. I was quite glad to hear Peter Bracke sit down for a relaxed yet thoroughgoing chat about the film. Cunningham's interview covered the essential topics related to the production. I'd love to see two more Rip Torn films reach Blu-ray: Payday (1973) and Heartland (1981). DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED to all of Cunningham's fans.
2013
Limited Edition of 1,750
2017
2018
2016
2017
2015
Collector's Edition
1982
2012
1979
2012
1990
1988
1998
1978
2003
Unrated Director’s Cut
2008
Uncut
2008
מי מפחד מהזאב הרע / Mi mefakhed mehaze'ev hara
2013
2012
2-Disc Special Edition
1980