Scream Trilogy (Blu-ray)
Steve Barton
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Starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Liev Schreiber
Directed by Wes Craven
Distributed by Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Chances are pretty good that if you love horror movies, you’re more than familiar with Wes Craven’s Scream franchise. Chances are also pretty good that if you’re the type of Blu-ray psycho that we are, then you plan on buying all three films regardless of the film’s quality. Being that these flicks are so beloved and well known, we’ve opted to combine the Blu-ray reviews for each here in one nifty accessible area. There’s good and bad associated with each, but before we begin …
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past twenty years, the Scream saga tells the story of Sidney (Neve Campbell) and her (soon to be dropping like flies) friends. You see, Sid is the target of a maniacal revenge-starved group of people who for one reason or another have opted to don spooky Ghostface outfits and get very, very stab happy. Twists and turns abound. Body counts rise. The formula is tried, true, and for the most part executed perfectly well by director Wes Craven.
Like any franchise, the series has had its ups and downs (the worst of which was probably Courteney Cox’s haircut in 3). The original Scream served to revitalize the slasher genre with its clever in-jokes, rules, and spookhouse scares. Scream 2 carried on the fun from the original while nearly matching its greatness, and Scream 3 … yeah, it pretty much sucked and sent the series out with more of a yawn than a scream. Hopefully the forthcoming sequel can fix that and wash away the ever-so-sour taste that’s remained in our mouths.
So what can you expect from this high definition triple threat? First the good …
The three Scream movies look light years better than their standard definition DVD cousins. There’s really no comparison between the packages. One look and you’ll immediately see the difference. All three films are offered with AVC encodes in 1080p and are presented in 2.35:1. The original Scream image sports some really amazing saturated color that gives the movie a living, breathing feel though it’s a bit on the soft side in terms of sharpness and detail. Scream 2 sports a much sharper image than the first film, and the black levels are spot on, but it is deficient in its color department in comparison to the original. Scream 3 is kind of a mixture of the two. The nighttime scenes seem soft to the point of becoming murky; yet, the daytime shots are vibrant and razor sharp. All three films suffer from the occasional digital noise, a bit of artifacting, and there’s a good deal of grain throughout each. Despite these shortcomings these Blu-rays easily kick the asses of the non-anamorphic imagery that we’ve been saddled with up until now.
In terms of audio, all three packages sport truly stellar lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes. Every channel of your home theater system will be working overtime producing the type of fidelity that tech geeks will get all gushy over. Hell, they’re nearly worth the price tag alone.
Now for the bad news …
All of the supplemental materiald present and accounted for here have been brought over from Dimension’s Collector’s Edition series from 2001. There’s absolutely nothing to be found that is in any way new, and even worse — what did make the jump is presented in truly awful looking standard definition. Granted, it’s not like we’ll watch these much, but still.
In the end, even with a few shortcomings here and there, all three packages are must-haves (yes, even the crappy third one) for Blu-ray and horror enthusiasts. While not perfect releases by any stretch of the imagination, the Scream films have never looked or sounded better.
Special Features Scream
Special Features Scream 2
Special Features Scream 3
4 out of 5
Special Features Combined:
3 1/2 out of 5
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