PET SEMATARY (2019) (4K UltraHD Review)

PET SEMATARY (2019) 

Label: Paramount Pictures
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: R
Duration: 101 Minutes
Video: 2160p 4K UltraHD Widescreen (2.39:1), Dolby Vision HDR, 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1) 
Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer
Cast: Jason Clarke, John Lithgow, Amy Seimetz, Naomi Frenette, Jeté Laurence

As remake announcements go I wasn't too awfully excited when they announced Stephen King's Pet Sematary was up for a re-imagining. I am not really against remakes but I am still quite enamored with the original film, but when I found out that Starry Eyes directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer were helming the remake I was a bit more willing to re-visit the property. 

The film begins exactly the same way as the first film, with Boston doc Louis Creed (Jason Clarke, Terminator Genisys) moving into the small town community of Ludlow, Maine where he has taken on the roll of a doc at a small college. He arrives with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz, Alien: Covenant) and their two young children, Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and Gage (Hugo & Lucas Lavoie), plus the beloved family feline, Church. Just as in the first film the couple apparently didn't realize their new home is right next to a road plagued by high-speed tanker trucks coming from a nearby industrial center. They meet their new neighbor, a friendly widow by the name of Judd Crandall (John Lithgow, Raising Cane) who takes a liking to their daughter, but not in a weird way, whom he meets while she's exploring the nearby pet cemetery. 

On Creed's first day at work at the college he shaken when a young man named Victor Pascow is killed by a car, finding himself haunted by the man's ghost, warning him to stay away from the local burial ground. Creed proceeds to ignore is otherworldly advice when the family cat is found splattered on the side of the road on Halloween, which is when neighborly Judd suggests they go bury that cat at the local native American burial ground, the place he believes is haunted the the spirit of a Wendigo! Of course nothing good can come of this, and strangely the cat returns the very next, as if nothing had happened, but with a more ferocious disposition. You might think this would deter the father from further ideas of resurrection, but when one of his kids ends up the next victim of a high-speed eighteen-wheeler he once again returns to ancient burial ground with not wholly unexpected results. 

As stated before the film sticks to the path of the first film quite a bit, a bit too much for my liking, with only a few new turns to keep things fresh. New stuff comes by way of a strange funereal procession of kids in animal masks burying their pet dog in the pet cemetery, and there's no suicidal housekeeper this time around. There's also a reversal of roles happening here which I won't spoil, the trailers do good enough work of that already. 

I've always heard people slam Dale Midkiff in the first film, saying he was wooden, well let me tell you that Jason Clarke is a pretty bland Louise Creed himself, so he doesn't improve on it. However, the kids here are pretty great, with the young Lavoie twins looking quite a bit like Miko Hughes from the first film, and young Jeté Laurence carrying most of the emotional weight of the film as young Ellie who has a lot more to do in this version of the story. John Lithgow had some literally big shoes to fill stepping in as Judd previously played by the affable Fred Gwynne (The Munsters), and he does good work, but it's the sort of role he could sleepwalk through to be honest, and he doesn't have that strange menace that Gwynne brought to the role. 

The film looks great, the locations and sets used are outstanding, the pet cemetery and Indian burial ground are creepy and atmospheric, plus the flashbacks to Rachel's suffering sister Zelda are even creepier and well-executed than the original version of the film . 

Audio/Video: Pet Sematary (2019) arrives on 2-disc Blu-ray/4K Ultra HD from Paramount framed in 2160p widescreen (2.39:1) looking solid. Green of the forest and surrounding natural settings have a lushness, colors are HDR-enhanced and vivid throughout, occasionally giving way to more macabre darker tones in the fog shrouded pet cemetery and the burial ground. Details really shine throughout by way of fabric and wood grain texturing, close-ups of facial features and the often blood clumped fur of the family cat. 

The Dolby Atmos is a potent presentation, offering solid reproduction of the score and also using the surrounds to full effect with sounds of the forest and creepier atmospherics, optional English subtitles are provided. 

Extras are relegated to the Blu-ray disc n the set, we get 9-min alternate ending, 13-min of deleted and extended scenes. Separate from the deleted scenes are a series of nightmares suffered by the main family, plus another story from John Lithgow's character, not sure of these were promotional in nature or why they're not included with the deleted scenes. There's also a four-part making-of doc that runs a bit over an hour, which is cool as we don't usually get comprehensive docs for newer films these days. 

The 2-disc release comes housed in a 4K keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster for the film, which looks great, it's also featured on the accompanying slipcase for the film. Inside there's a digital redemption code for the film. 


Special Features: 
- Alternate Ending (9 min) 
- Deleted and Extended Scenes (13 min) 
- Night Terrors – Family Haunting Visions (5 min) 
- The Tale of Timmy Baterman (3 min) 
- Beyond the Deadfall: Chapter One - Resurrection – Directors, screenwriters and cast discuss bringing this classic back to life (17 min)
- Beyond the Deadfall: Chapter Two - The Final Resting Place—A deeper look into finding the right location for the terror to unfold (13 min)
- Beyond the Deadfall: Chapter Three - The Road to Sorrow— Inside the film's tragic themes and creating the iconic cat "Church" (18 min) 
- Beyond the Deadfall: Chapter Four - Death Comes home—Unearth the creepy elements behind the climax and final scenes of the film (14 min)

Pet Sematary (2019) doesn't surpass the original for me, but it comes damn close, with a brisk pace that keeps the chills coming at a steady clip, doing just enough differently to keep it from being a paint-by-numbers retread. That said, it doesn't do enough to set itself apart for me to see it as something better than what came before, and what it retreads it doesn't necessarily do better consistently. The new 4K dual-format release from Paramount looks and sounds great, plus the extras are plentiful, a definite recommend for fans of this macabre Stephen King story. 

OBSESSION (1976) (Scream Factory Collector's Edition Blu-ray Review)

OBSESSION (1976) 

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: PG
Duration: 98 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 & 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Brian De Palma
Cast: Cliff Robertson, Geneviève Bujold, John Lithgow
Obsession opens in 1959 New Orleans where wealthy real estate broker Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson, Spider-Man) is a celebrating his tenth anniversary with lovely wife Elizabeth (Genevieve Bujold, Dead Ringers). It's a grand occasion with a large celebration at their home, an event attended by friends, associates and his business longtime partner Robert La Salle (John Lithgow, Blow Out). After the festivities have ended and every one's departed for the evening the family are settling in for the night when the unthinkable happens, his wife and daughter are kidnapped, leaving behind a ransom note demanding $500,000 cash for their safe return. He contacts the authorities who arrange a sting operation which sadly spins wildly out of control, an ensuing car chase results in the fiery deaths of both mother and child.

Fifteen years later Michael is still deeply distraught over the deaths of his beloved family, blaming himself in part for going to the authorities. He regularly visits a grand monument he's erected in their memory on a lucrative parcel of land which has remained undeveloped, to the chagrin of his business partner. Robert convinces Michael to accompany him on a business trip to Florence, Italy where their firm is brokering a real estate deal with a group of wealthy Italians. While there Robert attempts to distract Michael from his mourning with women and wine, but it has little affect on him. We learn that Florence is where Michael met his late wife, years earlier at a historic church. He makes a day trip to that church, there he is quite startled to meet a young woman named Sandy (Bujold) who is the spitting image of his dead wife, it's uncanny. Michael immediately begins courting the young woman, becoming completely obsessed with her, at one point training her to walk like his late wife. If you've seen Hitchcock's Vertigo this will be very familiar territory, De Palma makes no efforts to disguise the film as anything other than a love letter to Hitchcock's body of work, that film in particular. It's a whirlwind romance with the pair falling deeply in love with each other, despite Sandy being young enough to be his daughter. Michael whisks Sandy away back to New Orleans with the intention of marrying her as soon as possible.

Settling into the house Sandy becomes more intimately aware of the circumstances behind the deaths of Michael's late wife and daughter, realizing how truly similar in appearance she is to his wife after viewing a portrait of the woman hanging in the home, and to the startled response of the housekeeper greeting her at the door. At the same time Michael's obsession is becoming worrisome to friends and business partner, they call in his psychiatrist whom it seems Michael have not seen in some time, and the encounter it's deeply unsettling for him, it's pretty obvious that he is lost in a fantasy world. Angered by his partner's meddling he sells his share of the business and severs ties with pretty much everyone, at the same time he is haunted by dreams of Elizabeth and Sandy merging into the same person, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, with his sanity is crumbling in the process. 

At the height of this confusion Sandy is kidnapped and Michael discovers a ransom note demanding $500,000, it seems history is repeating itself. Determined to not to make the same mistakes again Michael does not reach out to the police, leading to a truly twisted finale featuring Michael reliving the events from fifteen years earlier culminating in a series of reveals and betrayals that are disturbing on several different levels.

As the deeply troubled yet sympathetic widow Cliff Robertson sells the character's anguish and mental deterioration well, with Genevieve Bujold also turning in a solid performance, both anchor the films tragic love story with subtle performances. In only his second film John Lithgow is pretty great as the deceitful business partner, though he's clearly too young to play the part convincingly in my opinion, but he's great. 

For a thriller with such a deeply fucked-up finale the film is steeped in a lot of romantic melodrama, at tragic tale of grief and forbidden love, which is immeasurably enhanced by the score from Bernard Hermann (Vertigo), a sweeping, lush score that really stands out. The film has a lyrical lensing, the soft focus cinematography and gorgeous gliding camera movements from cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) really set a tone for the film. I found myself entranced with it, though I would say it does have a slow-burning pace which could throw off certain viewers looking for something more psycho-sexual or feverishly pulpy from De Palma along the lines of Dressed To Kill and Body Double, but stay with it, it's a well-crafted thriller that's evocative of a bygone era with a dizzying twist that won't disappoint thrill seekers. 

Audio/Video: Obsession (1976)was previously issues on region-free Blu-ray from Arrow Video, this new region A locked Blu-ray from Scream Factory looks to be the same transfer to my eyes. Presented in 1080p HD and framed in 2.35:1 widescreen the film's grain is nicely managed, with the soft focus cinematography having a slightly gauzy effect that adds a dreamy quality to the film but doesn't translate into the sharpest looking HD image. However, the fine detail looks good in context, and the colors looks natural, a bit muted, but a transfer that nonetheless is sure to please.

Audio options include English DTS-HD MA 5.1 or 2.0 Mono with optional English subtitles. It's nice to have Bernard Herman's lush score in lossless surround sound, it's a powerfully dramatic presentation, some might say overpowering at times, but in a good way. The 5.1 gives the film some breathing room but I had no issues with the original mono audio either, both are clean and dynamic, with good depth and fidelity.

Scream Factory exceed the Arrow release by including new extras, but also carry-over the 2001 documentary 'Obsession Revisited' doc, featuring interviews with Brian De Palma, writer Paul Schrader, actors Cliff Robertson and Genevieve Bujold, cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, editor Paul Hirsch and producer George Litto. De Palma right off the top tells of the film's origins beginning with screenwriter Schrader and himself seeing Hitchcock's Vertigo and immediately wanting to do something similar, he also speaks about the difference in opinion between the two about the film's ending which led to Schrader disowning the film. 

Onto the new stuff we get a new commentary from Douglas Keesey, author if 'Brian De Palma’s Split-Screen: A Life in Film', plus new interviews with both producer George Litto, and editor Paul Hirsh, both of whom are candid and fun. During his 26-min interview Litto speaks about his career trajectory from musician to agent, to  producer, his collaborations with De Palma, and the making of this film. He speaks about the casting of the film, a few differences in opinion with De Palma, including he wanting John Williams to score the film while De Palma was pushing for Bernard Hermann, and his dislike for the tanning make-up used by Robertson, and how writer Paul Schrader was not a fan of the third act changes made to his script by De Palma. Hirsch speaks for 21-min about his career, going from architecture student to film editor, his experience editing the film, how actor Cliff Robertson would only shoot in profile from one side and how that caused some editing issues, and how composer Bernard Hermann blew up on him over a simple misunderstanding during the final mic of the movie, comparing it to a scene from a Dostoevsky novel. He also says that this film is one of his personal favorites of the eleven he did with De Palma, allowing him to work both Hermann and Zsigmond. He also speaks about how Roberston would play tricks with his co-star Bujold, delaying his lines and walking away from her during close-ups to draw here eyeline, and how the incest angle was softened through some clever editing on his part. 

The disc is buttoned-up with trailers, radio spots and a still gallery of promo images, lobby cards, stills, pressbooks, soundtrack sleeves, and various movie posters. The single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with reversible sleeve of artwork, one side featuring the original poster artwork, plus a new illustration by the WBYK collaborative (Sonny Day & Biddy Maroney), who also did the artwork for the IFC Midnight Blu-ray release of Antibirth. I don't love it, but I wasn't a huge fan of the new Dude Designs illustration that Arrow used on their release either, but that's why we have the original artwork option, the new one here looks more like De Palma's Sisters by way of The Fury in a strange way, not capturing the feel of this film in particular in my opinion. 

For the sake of comparison, what Arrow brought to the table with their release that's missing from this one are two of Brian De Palma short student films; Woton's Wake (1962) and The Responsive Eye (1966). The Arrow edition also include a window boxed slipcase with four reversible artwork options, plus a massive 110-page collector's booklet containing with an appreciation from author Brad Steven's, plus Paul Schrader's original screenplay, originally titled Deja Vu which includes unfilmed sequences, including a completely different and unused third act, plus a foldout reversible poster. 

Special Features:
- NEW audio commentary with author Douglas Keesey (Brian De Palma’s Split-Screen: A Life in Film)
- NEW Producing Obsession – an interview with producer George Litto (26 min) HD 
- NEW Editing Obsession – an interview with editor Paul Hirsh (21 min) HD 
- Obsession Revised – vintage featurette featuring interviews with director Brian De Palma, Cliff Robertson and Genevieve Bujold (38 min) HD 
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD 
- Radio Spots (1 min) HD 
- Still Gallery

Obsession (1976) is not as lurid or deliciously pulpy as either Dressed To Kill or Body Double, but it's a dark melodramatic thriller that's up to it's elbows in Hitchcockian devotion, and it has one heck of a satisfyingly disturbed shocker of an ending. This was still early still in his career, so it isn't quite the Brian De Palma of legend came to know, but the pieces are there and beginning to come to fruition, that's for sure. The new Blu-ray from Scream Factory is fantastic, the A/V is a draw when compared to the Arrow release, but the new extras make this the more desirable of the pair in my opinion, so buy it with condidence.  

RAISING CAIN (1992) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

RAISING CAIN (1992) 

Label: Scream Factory
Release Date: September 13th 2016 

Region Code: A

Rating: R
Duration: 91 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0, DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Brian De Palma
Cast: Lolita Davidovich, John Lithgow, Frances Sternhagen, Steven Bauer, Gregg Henry

Dr. Carter Nix (John Lithgow) is child psychologist taking a break from his professional practice to braise his young daughter Amy (Amanda Pombo). He seems like a wonderful father and husband, but his wife Jenny (Lolita Davidovich) begins to feel he might be a bit too obsessive when it comes to their daughter, and he's acting erratic in their relationship as well. When Carter learns that Jenny is having an affair with an old flame named Jack (Steven Bauer) his devious twin Cain arrives on the scene and the bodies of women start turning up in the local lake. Also, the women's children have gone missing though no bodies have turned up yet. What does this have to do with kind-hearted Carter and his late father's diabolical childhood behavior studies? 

Brian De Palma returned to the thriller genre in the early nineties for the first time since Body Double (1984) channeling story elements from his own Dressed To Kill (1980) with his now familiar Hitchcockian themes, including some visual cues straight from Psycho (1965). What he came up with was a somewhat delirious thriller that to put it plainly I loathed when I caught it at the campus cinema. I walked away angry that I had just wasted a few bucks on a clunker, I thought Lithgow chewed-up the scenery, and that the movie was front-loaded with insanity that seriously shot the suspense in the face straight out the gate.

As with music I find that revisiting a movie that didn't sit right with me after a few years can have the affect of making me appreciate it a bit more the second time around. eventually I re watched Raising Cain on home video years later at which point I was more familiar with Brian De Palma as a filmmaker, and sure enough it went down smoother. I now absolutely loved the John Lithgow performance, but the movie proper was still a hard watch with a poorly structured narrative that left me confused and worse yet, it blows the suspense of the movie right from the opening scenes with the reveal of Carter's split personality, which is a huge misstep.

The new 2-disc Blu-ray from Scream Factory offers up the same theatrical cut restored in HD but also throws in one heck of a bonus, a recut of the movie by super-fan Peet Gelderblom who re sequenced the movie as it was originally envisioned by director Brian De Palma, who dramatically re edited and re ordered the movie in post-production. The new recut is a vast improvement as it has a more natural flow, opening with Jenny's story and her unease in the relationship with Carter and the start of the affair. The split personality stuff is eased into and were not hit over the head with it right from the start. It makes for a much better viewing experience, however, that ending is still a a train wreck, including the shocker of an ending that seems lifted right from Dario Argento's Tenebrae (1982).

Audio/Video: Brian De Palma's Raising Can (1992) arrives on 2-disc Collector's Edition Blu-ray from Scream Factory which is derived from a new HD master and looks quite nice. The movie lacks to my eyes much of the style I associate with his earlier works and has the look and feel of more conventional 90's thriller from the era. The image has some nice depth and clarity which easily advances over the Universal DVD from 1998. The image has an inherent softness by design so it is not overly sharp, but color reproduction is vibrant and looks solid through and through.

Audio on the discs come by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 Surround with Optional English subtitles. Everything is clean and  nicely balanced in the mixes, no issues with deciphering dialogue, and the lush Pino Donaggio score sounds wonderful. 

Scream Factory have stuffed this 2-disc set with some cool extras beginning with the inclusion of the aforementioned Director's Cut which is actually a re cut assembled by fan Peet Gelderblom, who in 2012 discovered that the movie was re-sequenced by De Palma in post-production, which dramatically changed the structure of the movie. After obtaining the original script Gelderblom set about re-sequencing it to reflect De Palma's original vision for the movie. The recut has been created from the new HD version of the theatrical cut so it looks great. The end result is a more fluid version of the movie which while unfortunately  not incorporating any additional footage does flow much differently, the flashbacks, the dream sequences and storylines marry together much better, this is a superior version of the film, though it is not the miracle cure, the movie still has some serious issues. The Director's Cut is on the second disc of the 2-disc set, which also features an introduction from Peet Gelderblom and his video essay which accompanied his version of the movie which debuted it on IndieWire. Brian De Palma was very happy with the re cut and was instrumental in having this version of the movie included on the Collector's Edition from Scream Factory, which as a fan must have sent Gelderblom through the roof.

Extras on disc one include brand new interview with Actors John Lithgow, Steven Bauer, Gregg Henry, Tom Bower, Mel Harris And Editor Paul Hirsch adding up to about an hour and twenty minutes. Lithgow gives a half hour interview touching on his trio of movies with De Palma but focused on Raising Cain and his turn in what amounted to five separate roles and what fun that was, he also speaks about Brian De Palma's process on-set and what a great director he is. Editor Paul Hirsch also comes in to speak about being brought in to re-edit the final scene, not surprisingly De Palma was having difficulty piecing together this choppy thriller, and even Hirsch thought it was a hot mess. extras are finished-up with the original theatrical trailer, a gallery of images, a sleeve of reversible artwork, and a slipcover. 

Special Features:
Disc One:
- Theatrical Version Of The Film (91 Mins) HD
- NEW Not One To Hold a Grudge: Interviews With Actor John Lithgow (30 Mins) HD
- NEW The Man in My Life: Interview with Actor Steven Bauer (24 Mins) HD
- NEW The Three Faces of Cain: Interview with Actor Gregg Henry (16 Mins) HD
- NEW The Cat's in the Bag: Interview with Actor Tom Bower (8 Mins) HD
- NEW A Little Too Late For That: Interview with Actress Mel Harris (9 Mins) HD
- NEW Have You Talked to the Others? Interview with Editor Paul Hirsch (11 Mins) HD
-Original Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins) HD
- Still Galley (2 Mins) HD (26 Images)
Disc Two:
- Director's Cut Of The Film Featuring Scenes Reordered As Originally Intended (91 Mins) HD
- NEW Changing Cain: Brian De Palma's Cult Classic Restored Featurette (2 Mins) HD
- NEW Raising Cain Re-Cut – A Video Essay By Peet Gelderblom (13 Mins) HD

Scream Factory have put together a wonderful edition of Raising Cain (1992) for Brian De Palma fans. Watching the new recut is the best watch of the movie so far, still an imperfect watch but I love Lithgow's performance more and more each time, he saves the movie. The new Scream Factory Blu-ray looks and sounds fantastic, the new recut is a solid bonus and the new interviews make this a must-own for De Palma fans. 

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP (1982)

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP (1982) 

Label: Warner Archive 
Region Code: A 
Rating: R
Duration: 136 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: George Roy Hill
Cast: Robin Williams, Mary Beth Hurt, Glenn Close, John Lithgow, H, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Swoosie Kurtz, James Mccall, Peter Michael Goetz, George Ede, Mark Soper

T.S. Garp (Robin Williams) is the bastard-son of feminist author Jenny Fields (Glenn Close) and this is his story, from the beginning of his life until maybe the end, we follow the youthful exploits of him as an inquisitive young boy, a horny teenager and as a frustrated and horny married man. It has been and probably always will be my favorite performance from the late Robin Williams, a movie that has always touched me, through laughter and through tears in remains a poignant and sweetly dark movie loaded with both saccharine and salt, and it only gets better the older I get.

Garp as a young man is an aspiring writer of sad stories, his writings spur his mother to write about her own life in an autobiographical book she titles 'Sexual Suspect', which finds a home with a small publisher and it unexpectedly becomes an overnight sensation, becoming a feminist manifesto, which attracts all sorts of women, creating a cult around the author, from battered-wife refugees to the transsexual Roberta Muldoon (John Lithgow, Blow Up), a former NFL footballer turned woman, plus a radical cult of women who have cut off their own tongues to protest the rape of a young woman named Ellen James, who was kidnapped and raped, her captors having cut out her tongue so she could not speak their names and identify them. Hearing the story horrifies Garp, that these women would disfigure themselves in such a way deeply disturbs him,and the encounter fuels his next book, which angers his other's supporters, receiving numerous death threats against him. 

In Garp's own life he has married his teen-crush Helen Holm (Mary Beth Hurt) and has fathered two loving sons Walt and Duncan, he has his own career as an author but is frustrated that his own career has been overshadowed by his that of his mother, he is commonly identified as "the bastard son of Jenny Field". His marriage faces difficulties, his own wandering eye for the horny babysitter and his wife's attraction to a persistent young graduate student she teaches among them.

There's a wonderful symmetry to the movie, events that happen during Garp's formative years come around again in various ways, during an adolescent semi-sexual encounter with a neighbor girl Garp is bit on the ear by her father's dog, years later Garp takes a chunk out of the same dog's ear, this sort of life-symmetry happens throughout in a myriad of way with a sense of sometimes tragic poetry, such as an early assassination attempt on his mother by an anti-feminist, which is thwarted, but comes back around. There's underlying sense of doom and dread throughout, a scene of Garp's son Walt standing into the ocean mirrors an earlier scene of Garp as a boy, and then there are numerous references by Walt about Death and dying, scenes I hadn't noticed in my youth but which sent shivers down my spine this time around

I do believe this was the feature film debut of actress Glenn Close who turns in a brilliant performance as the feminist writer Jenny Fields, her matter-of-fact approach to feminism and child rearing is odd, her approach to sex is clinical and detached, the story of how she came to be pregnant with Garp is quite a story, one she reveals to a shocked older gentleman as she explaining how she cam to be preggers without the baggage of having to be a married woman, by raping a near comatose patient during WWII, one with a handy hard-on which made mounting easy.

Garp as portrayed by Robin Williams is so damn relateable, he cuts to the center of the everyman in a way that Williams was so very good at, he could always find human-center of any character, through his acting told a truth and never more so than as the bastard son of Jenny Field. His character loves being a father and wears his worry for their well being of his on his sleeve, which I can now appreciate as a father, when I first saw it these scenes as a kid they were touching but didn't resonate with me that way they do now. I certainly shed a few tears watching it this time around, i is still deeply affecting. 

Eagle eyed viewers might recognize actor Brandon Maggart from the cult-classic Christmas Evil (1980) as Helen's father, the wrestling coach, and he also happens to be the father of singer Fiona Apple.  Lithgow's performance as an transsexual former star athlete seems so prescient watching it now in the era of Bruce Jenner turned Caitlyn Jenner, that the sensationalism of it at the time n the early was so downplayed here also seems so progressive, it also serves to heighten the humor of the line, "I mean, I had mine removed surgically under general anesthesia. But to have it bitten off in a Buick..." with the character referencing the unfortunate outcome of a poorly timed blow-job, in a rather tragic scene. 

Audio/Video: The World according to Garp (1982)looks superb on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive. Colors are nicely saturated, there's a layer of film grain, black levels are deep and the skin tones look accurate. The English language DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo soundtrack exports audio nicely, dialogue, score and sound effects are crisp and clean without any distortion, optional English subtitles are provided. There are no extras on the disc which is pretty standard for the Warner Archive MOD titles.

This is not a film I can approach on a genuine clinical level, I saw it in my youth at a very formative time, I found it deeply affecting then, at a time I could not fully appreciate the more sophisticated and adult-oriented subject matter, and I only appreciate it more now with each passing year as the themes become more poignant and personal, and that is the mark of not just a good movie, but a truly great movie, it becomes more meaningful with age. Another great title comes to Blu-ray from Warner Archive, a movie that seems all the more poignant as I grow older and with the passing of it's star Robin Williams, highly recomended. 4.5/5

Blu-ray Review: OBSESSION (1976)

OBSESSION (1976)

Label: Arrow Video
Region: ABC (Region FREE)
Rating: 15 Certificate
Duration: 98 mins
Video: 2.35:1 16x9 1080p
Audio: English LPCM Mono and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Director: Brian De Palma
Cast: Genevieve Bujold, Cliff Roberston, John Lithgow
Tagline: The Love Story That Will Scare The Life Out Of You

Brian De Palma gets unnecessarily hammered for his Hitchcock fetish but it's never irked me the way it does some, I actually relish it, much like I did JJ Abram's Spielberg nostalgia porn SUPER 8 - I ate it up with a spoon and asked for seconds, but it was not always so for me, no sir. Like many my introduction to the films of Brian De Palma came with viewings of the Stephen King adaptation CARRIE, but this came along prior to my interest in film as a bodies of work by specific directors, it was just another awesome scary movie at the time. Unfortunately my deeper awareness of De Palma's filmography came with THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES, SNAKE EYES and RAISING CAIN, a series of films that really put me off De Palma's work. I was in my late teens at the time, and walked outta the cinema scoffing RAISING CAIN, I thought it was simply horrendous stuff, though I will say that a recent viewing of it has much improved my opinion of that film, I was in my teens, what the shit did I know anyway? It was just this past year that a rewatch of CARRIE  spurred me to seek out a few of his earlier works, so I snatched up BODY DOUBLE and DRESSED TO KILL and what can I say? I was floored by how utterly captivating these films were, both wonderfully twisted Hitchockian thrillers with no small amount of deliciously pulpy subject matter. And after slapping myself for not doing so earlier so began a Brian De Palma journey of sorts. Apparently my rediscovering of De Palma's early works is well-timed for at this very moment I'm waiting for my Criterion Blu-ray of BLOW OUT to arrive and both DRESSED TO KILL and SCARFACE are coming to Blu-ray in September. I also continue my quest for both SISTERS and PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, hopefully at a price that won't break the bank, such is the life of a poor blogger.

OBSESSION opens in 1959 New Orleans. Michael Courtland (Cliff Roberston, SPIDER-MAN) is a wealthy real estate broker celebrating his 10th anniversary with his lovely wife Elizabeth (Genevieve Bujold, DEAD RINGERS). It's a grand occasion with a large celebration at his Southern home attended by friends, associates and his business partner Robert La Salle (John Lithgow, BLOW OUT). After the festivities have ended and every one's departed for the evening the family are settling in for the night when the unthinkable happens, his wife and daughter are kidnapped. Michael discovers a ransom note demanding $500,000. He contacts the authorities who arrange a sting operation which spins wildly outta of control and the ensuing car chase results in the fiery deaths of both mother and child.

Now fifteen years later Michael is still deeply distraught over the deaths of his beloved family, he blames himself in part for going to the authorities. He regularly visits the enormous monument he's erected in their memory on a vast parcel of land which remains undeveloped, to the chagrin of his business partner. Robert convinces Michael to accompany him on a business trip to Florence, Italy where their firm is brokering a real estate deal with a group of wealthy Italian businessmen. While in Florence Robert attempts to distract Michael from his mourning with women and wine but it has little affect on him. As it turns out Michael met his late wife here at a church years earlier. He makes a day trip to the church and is quite startled to meet a young woman named Sandy (Bujold) who is the spitting image of his late wife, it's uncanny. Michael immediately begins courting the young woman, he's completely obsessed with her, at one point training her to walk like his late wife. If you've seen VERTIGO this will be very familiar territory, De Palma makes no efforts to disguise the film as anything other than a love letter to Hitchcock's film. It's a whirlwind romance and they fall deeply in love with each other. Michael whisks Sandy away to New Orleans with the intention of marrying her.

Once she settles into the house Sandy becomes more aware of the circumstances behinds his wife and daughter's death, and just how truly similar in appearance she is to his wife after viewing a portrait of the woman. At the same time his obsession is becoming worrisome to friends and business partner,and  they call in his psychiatrist whom it seems Michael have not seen in some time. The encounter it's deeply unsettling to him. It's pretty obvious that he is lost in a fantasy, angered by his partner's meddling he sells his share of the real estate business and severs ties with pretty much everyone. At the same time he is haunted by dreams of Elizabeth and Sandy merging into the same person, the dreams are blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, and his sanity is crumbling fast. At the height of this confusion Sandy is kidnapped and Michael discovers a ransom note demanding $500,000, history is repeating itself. At his sanity's end he is determined to not to make the same mistakes again, which lead to a truly twisted finale featuring Michael reliving the events from 15 years earlier culminating in a series of reveals that are disturbing on several different levels.

As the deeply troubled but sympathetic widow Cliff Robertson sells the film, sadly my only recollections of the actor outside of Uncle Ben from SPIDER-MAN is as the president from John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM L.A.. The stunning Genevieve Bujold was only slightly more familiar to me having recognized her from the medical thriller COMA and David Cronenberg's DEAD RINGERS. These two fantastic performances anchor the films tragic love story with nuanced, subtle performances. In only his second film John Lithgow, who recently knocked it out of the park in season 4 of DEXTER, is pretty great as the deceitful business partner, though he's clearly too young to play the part convincingly in my opinion.

For a thriller with such a deeply fucked-up finale the film is steeped in pure romantic melodrama, at it's heart it's a tragic tale of romance gone wrong, which is immeasurably enhanced by Bernard Hermann's (PSYCHO, VERTIGO) sweeping score which accentuates the film's deeply romantic leanings. The film is lyrical in it's soft focus cinematography and the gorgeous gliding camera movements enhance the otherworldly qualities of the film, for this much credit must be given to cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND). I found myself entranced with the film though I would say it does have a particularly deliberate pace which may threaten to throw off viewers looking for something more psycho-sexual or feverishly pulply from De Palma like DRESSED TO KILL and BODY DOUBLE but stay with it, it's a well-crafted thriller that's evocative of a bygone era with a dizzying twist that won't disappoint.

Blu-ray: Arrow has given OBSESSION a brand new 1080p HD transfer and the film's grain structure is left nicely intact. I saw no clear evidence of heavy DNR scrubbing in effect here, if it was used it was done so appropriately and respectfully. The film's preference for soft focus cinematography has a slightly gauzy effect that adds a dreamy quality to the proceedings but doesn't really allow for the razor sharp fine detail that some viewers may expect from Blu-ray but when compared to the alternately sourced clips from the featurette on the disc it's pretty obvious this is an improvement in every way. The color scheme feels  natural if a bit muted, though some of the reds do occasionally pop. The image does not appear to have been color boosted or artificially heightened, it's a very natural looking transfer that's sure to please.

Audio options include English LPCM mono and a DTS-HD Master 5.1 track with optional English subtitles. It's nice to have Bernard Herman's lush score in lossless surround sound, it's a powerfully dramatic score, almost overpowering at times. The 5.1 gives the film some breathing room but I had no issues with the original mono audio either. There were no snap, crackle or pops noted during playback, it's a very clean and dynamic audio presentation.

By Arrow standards the supplements are pretty slim but quite interesting. They begins with Laurent Bouzereau's 2001 documentary OBSESSION REVISITED which is ported over from the now out of print R1 Sony DVD. It's a great watch and features interviews with De Palma, writer Paul Schrader, actors Cliff Robertson and Genevieve Bujold, cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, editor Paul Hirsch and producer George Litto. De Palma right off the top tells of the fim's origins beginning with screenwriter Schrader and himself seeing Hitchcock's VERTIGO and immediately wanting to do something similar, he also speaks about the difference in opinion between the two about the film's ending which led to Schrader disowning the film. It's a great watch and the numerous film clips prove to be a great measuring stick by which to judge the Arrow transfer, it's quite impressive. Also included are two of Brian De Palma short films; WOTON'S WAKE (1962) and THE RESPONSIVE EYE (1966)  which are presented in their original fullframe aspect ratio in 1080p. The film's are in pretty rough shape and have pretentious film school leanings but should prove of value to De Palma fans. There's also the original theatrical trailer in 16x9 1080p. Like most of Arrow's releases the extras aren't merely limited to the AV presentation, there's a slipcase, 4 reversible art options, a collector's booklet containing an essay from author Brad Steven's plus Paul Schrader's screenplay, originally titled DEJA VU which includes unfilmed sequences. One thing I found slightly conspicuously absent was the non-inclusion of any supplements from High Rising Productions who are usually all over the Arrow titles. A quick tweet to Nick Frame from High Rising Production's garnered this response "all extras were brought in with the master - no need for anything from us this time - very nice extras though!". Well, there you have it, and I would agree, very nice extras indeed.

Special Features:

- Exclusive collector’s booklet featuring an essay on the film by critic and author Brad Stevens

- Paul Schrader’s original screenplay of the film in a perfect bound booklet. With the original title Déjà vu, Schrader’s original script includes unfilmed sequences and sees the tripartite structure deal with the past, present and future of Michael Courtland.

- Obsession Revisited: Interviews with director Brian De Palma, stars Cliff Robertson and Genevieve Bujold and more!

- Early Brian De Palma short films: WOTON'S WAKE (1962) and THE RESPONSIVE EYE (1966) 1080p

- Original Trailer (1:35) 1080p

- Original art by Tom 'The Dude Designs' Hodge

Verdict: OBSESSION is not as lurid or deliciously pulpy as either DRESSED TO KILL or BODY DOUBLE but it's still a dark melodramatic thriller that's up to it's elbows in Hitchcock devotion with a satisfyingly disturbed shock ending. It's early still in his career and he isn't quite the Brian De Palma of legend we know but the pieces are being set in place and coming to fruition, that's for sure. The film is definitely overshadowed by CARRIE, which was released that same year, but it deserves more attention and now that we have a great Blu-ray from Arrow Video I say have at it and enjoy.