6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.1 |
A group of people stop by a mansion during a storm and discover two magical toy makers, and their haunted collection of dolls.
Starring: Ian Patrick Williams, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Carrie Lorraine, Guy Rolfe, Hilary MasonHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Years ago I was driving back from the Oregon coast in a barely legal older used station wagon I had purchased for the princely sum of $100, perhaps having been somewhat overcharged considering the lamentable condition of the car. Somewhere out in the wilds of the Oregon Coast Range, the car blew a tire and I pulled off the road onto the shoulder. I knew I had a spare, but I discovered on that dark and stormy night (sorry) that I had no tire jack. Across an abandoned field, I saw the dim lights of a farmhouse and decided to traipse over there to see if maybe they had a jack I could borrow. As I did so, a litany of horror movie memories came flooding back to me where some innocent bystander (or by-driver) encounters some kind of trouble, finds ostensible help at an isolated country home, and then discovers that his or her troubles have only just begun. Luckily the nice elderly couple I encountered were not nefarious serial killers, and indeed had not only a jack but even a cup of hot chocolate for me, and I was soon on my way no worse for wear. There’s no such luck in store for the hapless folks who wander into an isolated farmhouse in Dolls, a departure of sorts for horror auteur Stuart Gordon, a man who tends to traffic in more traditional horror fare based on H.P. Lovecraft (Re- Animator) and Edgar Allan Poe (The Pit and the Pendulum), but who in Dolls shows a (relatively) kinder, gentler side that would also inform his similarly anachronistic story for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
Dolls is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory (an imprint of Shout! Factory) with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. While there's some expected age related wear and tear visible in the elements used for this transfer, including occasional minus density and flecks, overall things are in surprisingly good condition. Colors are very nicely saturated and accurate looking, with all important reds popping especially well. In brighter lit scenes (which aren't that plentiful, frankly), detail, clarity and sharpness are all very good to excellent. Solid and consistent black levels help to make the many darker sequences look good as well, though detail is sometimes mitigated by the overwhelming shadows. There are a lot of opticals in this film and as a result grain can sometimes ebb and flow with any given shot, but the good news is there is a very visible and overall natural looking grain field, with no signs of either over aggressive noise reduction or digital sharpening. There are no obvious compression artifacts that I noticed in the frequently quite dark presentation.
Dolls features DTS-HD Master Audio mixes in both 2.0 and 5.1. There's an obvious uptick in low end on the 5.1 track, but perhaps surprisingly lower registers are quite fulsome in the 2.0 iteration as well. The surround track does offer a lot of well done immersive effects, especially once the nattering, chattering dolls kick into action, though on occasion the split effects have a quasi-phased quality, which seems to afflict some repurposed 5.1 mixes some of the time. The film is frankly not helped very much by its synth-laden score by Fuzzbee Morse and Victor Spiegel, a score that tends to browbeat the listener rather than subtly supporting the tension. Still, the score is very nicely splayed through the surrounds in the 5.1 mix. Fidelity is excellent, dynamic range is very wide, and there are no problems of any kind to report.
Child's Play may be the eighties' film about a malevolent killer doll that everyone remembers, but Dolls (which actually predated little Chucky by a year more or less) is perhaps overall the more enjoyable entry in this subgenre, at least for those who don't mind some patently goofy humor attending the more traditional horror movie slash and dash antics. With fun if perhaps not Oscar worthy performances and a brisk directorial style, Dolls gets to its (sharp and deadly) point quickly and manages to wrap things up with a bit of fairy tale justice and happily ever after (for those who deserve it, of course). Technical merits are generally very strong, and once again Scream has assembled a very enjoyable supplementary package. Recommended.
1988
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