Salem's Lot Blu Ray (A short-ish review)

My copy arrived a few days ago..

After initial inspection there is no artwork to speak of, except for the front and back cover which include images that were used for the DVD release and elsewhere. I was expecting an inlay card with detailed liner notes but there is absolutely nothing, no commemorative booklet, the disc rests inside a slip case all by itself.

Special features include a commentary track by Director Tobe Hooper and a theatrical trailer. That's your 'Lot'.

Let's move on to the picture quality. I would dearly love to know how they produced the remastered edition, there is noticeable grain throughout the movie but overall the image is incredibly sharp. The cynic in me was expecting a shoddy clean up with digital image correction, the fact that the grain is still present suggests that no such techniques were used and there is nothing wrong with film grain it adds a certain quality to the movie.

The film could do with some colour correction though, and of particular interest (to me at least) is the reveal of Barlow, the blue hue is lost during this scene. Oddly enough Tobe Hooper mentions gradually introducing blue in to the film to signify decay and the presence of evil..

Tobe Hooper's commentary track is sedate but informative. He pauses in all of the right places taking his time to reveal details of the film but I felt that the comm track would have benefited from having a cast or crew member present, it lacks detail some what.

Given the age of the film and the studio (who are notoriously lazy when it comes to back catalogues), I would recommend the Blu Ray edition. The lack of supplementary material is disappointing but I am prepared to let that go.....until Shout! eventually acquire the rights....:).

Ciao! (That's a familiar Italian expression meaning 'goodbye').