Halloween: Resurrection appears in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Like H2O, Resurrection ran 2.35:1 theatrically.
Also like H2O, the Blu-ray cropped it to 1.78:1. In this case, the altered ratio seemed more perplexing, as unlike H2O, the original Blu-ray of Resurrection came with the original 2.35:1 ratio.
That means someone had to go back to the source to crop the framing for this subsequent Blu-ray. I assumed this disc would recycle the earlier one, so I remain befuddled that it brought a different transfer with the non-theatrical ratio.
Even if we ignore the incorrect dimensions, the quality became an issue. Like the last two sequels, Resurrection suffered from too much processing, and that meant persistent edge haloes as well as digital noise reduction.
Both of those impacted definition. The movie often seemed hyper-sharp, as those haloes jacked up edges and gave the film an artificial, unnatural feel.
Some shimmering and jagged edges resulted as well. In terms of print flaws, I saw occasional specks and marks.
These didn’t dominate but they seemed more prevalent than they should. In addition, grain looked more like artifacts and never seemed natural.
Like sharpness, colors felt overdone. The movie tended toward a blue-oriented palette with hues that seemed oddly accelerated and heavy.
Blacks were crushed and too dense, while shadows felt murky and stiff. From the incorrect aspect ratio on down, this became a problematic image, one that felt like a holdover from the DVD days.
Given that someone screwed the proverbial pooch with H2O and gave it a monaural soundtrack, I felt pleased that Resurrection came with its appropriate DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix. It went with an active soundscape – maybe too active, as the track felt hyper much of the time.
This meant that we got lots of information from all five channels, and these elements seemed fairly well-placed. They also tended to seem too aggressive and not especially natural.
Still, I couldn’t criticize the track’s ambition, as it attempted to pack a punch. After the mono of the H2O Blu-ray, an actual multi-channel mix came as a relief.
Audio quality worked fine, with speech that appeared fairly natural. Lines could seem a little edgy at times but they usually came across as distinctive and appropriate.
Music was bold and bright, while visuals seemed accurate and dynamic. This wasn’t the most realistic soundscape I’ve heard, but the audio usually seemed positive.
No extras appear on this set.
Despite attempts to reinvigorate the franchise, Halloween: Resurrection offers nothing more than cheap stabs at horror. None of these elements succeed, and this becomes a tedious, fright-free effort. The Blu-ray comes with problematic picture and no supplements, but audio seems pretty good. Only Halloween diehards should bother with this stinker.
Note that this version of Resurrection appears as part of a “Halloween Triple Feature” along with 1995’s Curse of Michael Myers and 1998’s H2O.
As mentioned earlier, an individual version of Resurrection exists as well, one that appears to use an alternate transfer. Unlike the extras-free single-movie BDs of Curse and H2O, the solo Resurrection also includes a mix of supplements, none of which pop up here.