Friday the 13th Part 2 (Blu-ray)
Steve Barton
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Reviewed by Uncle Creepy
Starring Amy Steel, John Furey, Adrienne King, Stu Charno, Steve Dash
Directed by Steve Miner
Released by Paramount Home Entertainment
Possibly the best sequel in the entire franchise, Friday the 13th Part 2 has hit Blu-ray, and the results are … well … prettier than its DVD cousin.
Despite the inclusion of a few extras, lots of fans were pretty disappointed in the deluxe edition DVDs from a few short months ago. Allow me to address those fine folks for a moment — nothing here is gonna rock your socks off either. But before we get into all of that, let’s talk about the main reason to get your hands on this package … the high definition transfer and soundtrack! Is it worth it?
To be fair, these movies never looked all that great to begin with, but the 1080p presentation (as expected) stands head and shoulders above the transfer found on the DVD. For example, lots of the details that were lost in the blacks and such are now recovered and thoroughly visible. That’s a really cool thing. Surprisingly enough, the film’s color palette looks pretty damned vibrant and rich — for the most part. However, this comes at a bit of a price. The trade-off for all this goodness is what can be at times an insane level of film grain. If that doesn’t bother you, then you are golden. Overall Part 2 has never looked better. Nice.
I’m kind of sad to report that the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround audio track doesn’t fare as well. Everything sounds pretty flat, especially Manfredini’s score, which ranges from shrill to tinny. Another issue is that a lot of the film’s dialogue seems to get swallowed up in the mix. Believe it or not, the included mono track sounds way better. As crazy as that may sound, I have to give it that nod in terms of quality. Nope, this is definitely not Dolby TrueHD’s finest hour.
That brings us to the special features, which really aren’t all that special. The only difference between what’s included here and what you will find on the previous Friday the 13th Part 2 DVD release (review here) is that most of the material included here is now presented in high definition. Except of course for the only one that’s truly entertaining, the Jason Forever featurette that was filmed at the 2004 Fangoria Weekend of Horrors. Yay. For a far more detailed overview of what the included special features are, hit up the above linkage. No need to retread ground that’s already been covered adequately enough already.
If you’re looking to complete your Jason collection in HD, then this is without question the version of this film to get. It’s a must buy if only for the picture quality. If you couldn’t care less about anything like that, hold on to your DVD. It should suffice just fine!
Special Features
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Special Features
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2 1/2 out of 5
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