5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
A preacher whose ancestors were cursed by Druids battles Satan, who has taken the form of a huge snake.
Starring: Fritz Weaver, Norman Lloyd, Diana Douglas, Christina Applegate, Gretchen CorbettHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Note: This film is currently available as part of the double feature Empire of the Ants / Jaws of Satan.
There must be something in the air, or perhaps the water, for a number of new(ish) Blu-ray releases are featuring one of the hoariest tropes in
horror films, namely marauding beasts of one sort or another. Some of these outings actually feature giant beasts, as is the case in
another recent Scream Factory double feature which paired
The Food of the Gods (giant beasts) with Frogs
(good old normal size nasties), but in case more outsized creepy crawly villains are your particular cup o’ tea, there’s also the new VCI
Entertainment release The Giant Spider Invasion
. This Scream Factory double feature is somewhat similar to The Food of the Gods / Frogs, in that one film features mutated creatures (and is the product of the fervid
imagination of Bert I. Gordon), while the second deals with putatively more mundane (if admittedly still kind of large) slithering entities.
Jaws of Satan is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in
1.78:1. Much as with its double feature sibling Empire Of The
Ants, Jaws of Satan offers quite good detail, sharpness and clarity in brightly lit environments, whether inside or outside. While
this film doesn't have many issues with optical effects like Empire of the Ants, it is hampered by a pretty murky, ill defined quality
in several dimly lit interior scenes (including the set piece with Corbett in bed with a little "visitor"). Colors look very good, and grain structure in
intact. The increased resolution of the Blu-ray only makes some aspects of the practical effects (like safety glass separating snakes from
humans) easier to spot.
Note: While this disc loaded perfectly well on my PS3, when I tried to play it with PowerDVD on my PC drive to check the resolution of
supplements, it kept stopping at a black boot up screen with a 00:25 (second) timing. Only when I manually dragged the slider to the end of the
00:25 timecode did it then boot to the first menu allowing access to either film.
Jaws of Satan features an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 mono track which offers good support for the film's often silly dialogue and rather nice score by jazzman Roger Kellaway. Fidelity is fine, with good prioritization and no issues of any kind.
Had Jaws of Satan decided to focus on only one of the two routes it ping pongs between, things might have felt more focused, and scarier as a result. As it stands, the kind of occult religious aspect just seems downright absurd, while the marauding beast angle never works up much bite. Performances are very good (including turns by the wonderful Norman Lloyd and a very young Christina Applegate), but my hunch is a lot of horror fans may feel like they've been duped by a serpent in good old Adam and Eve fashion once they get to the end of this largely silly enterprise. While this doesn't have much in the way of supplements, technical merits are generally very good for those considering a purchase.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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