Strait-Jacket Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Strait-Jacket Blu-ray Movie Review

'Strait-Jacket' is currently available from Mill Creek as part of a two-film bundle with 'Berserk!.' The film was previously released in August 2018 under the Shout! Factory label. I do not own and did not review that disc, so the technical portions of this review are independent of that release.

Strait-Jacket Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Strait-Jacket looks fairly strong in the aggregate. The black-and-white photography enjoys good contrast within that spectrum, with fine white highlights, solid black level depth, and a positive feel of tonal nuance throughout the middle range. The grain structure is intact, appearing a bit dense and snowy, spiking in some places, but holding more finessed and moderate in others. Texturing is stable and reliable, presenting good object definition around house interiors, farmyards, and of course faces and clothes. The picture is sharp, sure, and satisfying. There are some speckles and pops but such appear without intrusiveness or obvious frequency. The encode is rather strong a well, showing little in the way of serious compression artifacts. While screenshot comparisons are not foolproof, this does appear to be very similar, if not identical, to the Shout! disc.

Strait-Jacket Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The LPCM 2.0 uncompressed soundtrack is likely not radically different from Shout!'s DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 encode. The track is perfectly acceptable in all areas, delivering clear music that does not often push limits for space or aggressiveness save for the most intensive moments of axe-slaying where music crescendos, screams pierce the stage, and the swing slices through the speakers with a thudding impact on the victim's neck. The track offers a few other examples of light, and mostly inconsequential, atmosphere. Dialogue is clear and well prioritized. From the left and right speakers it images quite effectively to the front-center area.

Strait-Jacket Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unfortunately, the Mill Creek disc contains no supplements. On the other hand, the Shout! disc is feature-packed, including a commentary, several featurettes, trailers, still galleries, and more.

Strait-Jacket Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Strait-Jacket offers a compelling examination of a murderer and the various trigger points that take her back to that fateful day she slaughtered her husband and his lover. It's well performed with a few surprises in store, and the curiosity to see it through allows audiences to hold on through some sluggish stretches through the middle. Mill Creek's Blu-ray offers quality video and dependable audio. No extras are included. For those not bothered by the lack of supplements, this is the way to go over the Shout! disc. It's cheaper, ships with another movie, and the A/V presentations are likely not far off. However, those desperate for extras obviously need to go with Shout!'s release.