Bring
Her Back
(2025/A24 Blu-ray)/Final
Destination: Bloodlines 4K
(2025/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)/Watson:
Season One
(2025/Paramount/CBS DVD Set)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: B+/X/C Sound: B+/A-/C+
Extras: B/B/C+ Main Programs: B-/C+/C
Now
for a mix of
mystery and horror releases....
A24
continues to bring intense and captivatingly original stories to the
screen with Bring
Her Back
(2025,) the story of a grieving Mother (Sally Hawkins) who adopts two
estranged children (a brother and his adopted blind stepsister) to
live with her in her secluded home. As the kids move in they notice
her other adopted child who is a bit odd and non verbal. Soon they
realize that their new foster mother has sinister intentions for them
that involve helping transfer the human soul to a new vessel in an
attempt to bring back her dead daughter.
From
the directors of the smash hit Talk
to Me
(also from A24), Danny and Michael Philippou, the film has the same
hard edges that film had with exceptional performances and
cinematography. The film leaves you with an uneasy feeling the
entire time and not many moments of levity which can make it
difficult to swallow for some. There are two standout sequences that
are certainly going to make your stomach wench as they are pretty
tough to watch involving the possessed little boy.
The
film also stars Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, Jonah Wren Phillips, and
Stephen Phillips.
Special
Features:
Director
Commentary with Danny & Michael Philippou
Deleted
Scene
''Coming
Full Circle: Making Bring Her Back''
Featurette
and
Six Collectible Postcards with Behind the Scenes Photography
The
film has excellent packaging and menus which I must commend A24 for.
They seem to be one of the only modern Hollywood studios that really
care about the presentation of their physical media and it shows in
this very nicely presented Blu-ray edition.
The
Final
Destination
franchise dusts itself off for a satisfying albeit not too original
reboot with Final
Destination: Bloodlines 4K
(2025) which yet again centers on the invisible force of Death coming
for a group of young people (or their ancestors) who avoided a near
death experience. Aside from some fun and inventive kills, the plot
is predictable and not that much different from prior entries.
However, the film was a financial success for the studio and succeeds
as fun popcorn fare which was the goal here.
The
film stars Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen
Patrick Joyner, Rya Kihlstedt, Anna Lore, and Brec Bassinger. It
also features a touching final appearance by franchise regular Tony
Todd (Candyman) in one of his final roles.
Death
comes for a group of youngsters after their grandparents avoided
Death decades prior during a tragedy at a dining party. As it takes
down person after person the race is on to figure out a way to
outsmart the creeping murderous aura.
While
the film features some pretty inventive kills (particularly the MRI
sequence) and doesn't take itself overly seriously, the one thing
that bothers me is the heavy reliance on digital animation for the
gore versus practical special effects. It feels a little lazy for
literally every special effect to be so heavily doctored in post, to
the point where some look cartoony. With films like Terrifier
getting praised from fans for using practical special effects in an
old school '80s kind of way, I feel like most older horror fans will
be a little frustrated with the look of some of the violence here.
Not to mention I think the violence would look far better as
practical. I'm not sure if the general audience takes notice of this
or what younger generations feel or if they have a preference.
Special
Features:
Audio
Commentary by the film's directors Adam Stein & Zach Lipovsky
Death
Becomes Them: On the Set of "Final Destination Bloodlines":
Catch up with the fresh new cast and dynamic directing duo of "Final
Destinations Bloodlines" to hear about their experiences on set
and what fun surprises they managed to sneak in for the fans.
The
Many Deaths of Bloodlines:
From the collapse of the Skyview Restaurant to the world's worst MRI,
get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the most gruesome Final
Destination deaths yet!
The
Legacy of Bludworth:
Tony Todd reflects on the decades-spanning legacy of his iconic
character and re-examines Bludworth's impact on the franchise now
that all has been revealed.
Final
Destination: Bloodlines
continues franchise tradition and delivers the same level of thrills
that prior entries have. For a look at some of our earlier coverage
of previous films in the series try these links:
Final
Destination 3D
in Blu-ray 3D
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9420/The+Final+Destination+3-D+(2009/New+Line+%C3%A2
Final
Destination 5
Blu-ray
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11361/The+Collector+(1965/Image+Blu-ray)/Final+Destinatio
Finally
we have yet another
show extrapolating from the classic characters Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
established with his Sherlock Holmes stories. Watson:
Season One
(2025) is a lightyear or two from old London as the likable Morris
Chestnut is the title doctor, working at the 'Holmes Hospital' in
Pittsburgh, PA (the only city that has hospitals on TV lately, like
The
Pitt?)
in a show that is surprisingly flat, predictable and everything we
have seen before.
The
same can of beans in a new label with some intrigue, this delivers
not much and it turns out Holmes was alive, but is now dead
(!?!?!?!?!) so Watson much carry on and use all he learned from him
(save medical knowledge, which Holmes never had) and we get twelves
full episodes that never really get anywhere. Why do this? Who
knows, but any fans of the original books or any of the many great
big and small screen adaptions will be very disappointed. Only see
if you are very, very, very, very, very, very, very curious.
Extras
include Deleted Scenes, a Gag Reel and two Making Of featurettes: My
Dear Watson
and Creating
The World Of Watson.
Now
for playback performance. Bring
Her Back
is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4
AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.00:1 and audio tracks in
lossless, English Dolby
Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems;
48kHz, 24-bit). There is a 4K UHD version that is not reviewed here
but will obviously be an improvement over this 1080p Blu-ray version
form what we've heard and we hope to catch up with that version soon.
There's no denying that the sound mix really commands the film and
gives it a lot of weight with a chaotic musical score and hard
hitting sound design that helps elevate the piece.
Final
Destination: Bloodlines 4K
is presented in 2160p on 4K UHD disc with Dolby Vision/HDR10, an HEVC
/ H.265 codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.40:1 and an audio
tracks in lossless, English Dolby
Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems;
48kHz, 24-bit). The modern made film looks sharp on 4K UHD with
little to complain about in terms of texture and detail.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the Watson
episodes are a little softer than I would have liked and highly
likely look better in the HD format it was shot in, but the lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes on each show fare a bit better in this old
format.
-
Nicholas Sheffo (Watson) and James Lockhart
https://letterboxd.com/jhl5films/
