6.2 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.1 |
With 42,000 sightings in 68 countries, the elusive woodland creature known as Sasquatch, Yeti, and Bigfoot is one of the most enduring natural mysteries ever known to man. Hunted by humans for hundreds of years, the formerly reclusive man-like beast strikes out against his would-be captors in a mountain-based tale of survival and horror.
Starring: Matt McCoy, Haley Joel, Karin Anna Cheung, Lance Henriksen, Dee WallaceHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
BDInfo
None
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Lifeboat is regularly cited as one of Alfred Hitchcock’s more towering technical accomplishments, since virtually the entire film takes place within the confines of the titular “vehicle”. But there’s another Hitch outing with a fairly constrained physical space, 1954’s Rear Window, the now legendary film that features James Stewart as a wheelchair bound guy getting a few vicarious kicks out of spying on his neighbors via his, well, rear window. There’s an intentionally claustrophobic ambience to Rear Window, despite a few (studio mandated?) efforts to “open up” the proceedings, and a lot of the tension of the film’s almost unbearably angst ridden climax is seeing the apartment of the hero “invaded” by the villain of the piece. In a way, you have to hand it to director and co-writer Ryan Schifrin for having had the brainstorm of combining the substratum of plot mechanics of Rear Window with a “traditional” monster movie, but one of the odder decisions that Schifrin made was to place his characters in wide open spaces (at least some of the time), something that perhaps undermines the very claustrophobic aspect that gave Rear Window so much of its impact. Schifrin opens his film with a few (quick) disturbing images that indicate some livestock has met with a grisly end, which then segues to farmer Billy Hoss (Rex Linn) and his wife Ethel (Dee Wallace) being roused from sleep by something going bump in the night. Like any good horror movie character, instead of staying within the assumedly safe confines of their home, they venture outside with their dog, spying some kind of monster in the distance, a monster which unfortunately incites their dog to a little “assisted suicide” (if I may be a bit cheeky about it all). The pair realizes (perhaps a bit too late, at least for the dog) that it may indeed be safer back inside, but whatever they spied out in the woods comes calling anyway, though this being the “setup” portion of the film, the body count doesn’t accrue, and instead an important clue is left when huge, mutant size footprints are spied around the farmhouse.
Abominable is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Rewind with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. MVD Rewind is touting a "brand new 2K high definition transfer from the original camera negative", and this instantly jumps to the head of the pack in terms of video quality of the MVD Rewind releases I've reviewed thus far. Detail levels are routinely excellent in the more brightly lit moments, and fine detail even manages to make it through somewhat intact in the many dark nighttime sequences. A tendency to grade some of the nighttime scenes pretty heavily toward blue tones does tend to minimize detail levels at times, and there are a few deficits in shadow definition along the way, too. The IMDb lists this as having been shot with Arriflex 35 IIIs, and the one element that may concern videophiles is a fairly unobservable grain field (I in fact thought that perhaps this had been digitally captured considering its relatively recent genesis). That said, there's really no waxy, smeary appearance here that would suggest over aggressive noise corrections.
Abominable's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track offers some good rumbly energy with regard to the titular beast, but most of the surround activity here comes from ambient environmental noises, especially when various characters are outside. There's also some fun directionality in terms of more "mundane" sound effects within the confines of the cabin. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and is always smartly prioritized. There are no issues with damage or distortion.
Abominable has a winning concept and at least one fun kill, but it never really works up much "fear factor", and in fact comes across as patently silly some of the time. (Somewhat tangentially, but perhaps of interest to some, it looks like DreamWorks has an animated film about Bigfoot called Abominable that's due in late 2019.) Fans of the film should be generally pleased with the technical merits of this release, and the supplementary package is quite enjoyable.
2013
1982
2019
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1976
Collector's Edition
1988
Slugs, muerte viscosa
1988
Standard Edition
1981
2019
2018
1981
1977
2014
2019
2016
Slipcover In Original Pressing
1974
Slipcover in Original Pressing
1985
2016
2016
2016