UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Paramount Scares -- in 4k UHD (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Paramount Scares, as nicely boxed set of horror/thrillers is a nice idea, and hopefully the studio will create further volumes.

Packaging is first class, with all five features, each within their own new attractive slipcase (with different art than the front jacket) in turn within a hard-shelled box with inserts holding the individually wrapped features in place.

The three earlier of the five are film-based, and the two newer are digitally created.

Starting from the earliest, Roman Polanski's 1968 Rosemary's Baby, I fear that there is not only no 4k data here, but it appears to be an older transfer, with digital anomalies, ie. stagnant grain behind the main titles. After that the new 4k looks every bit as good as a nice Blu-ray with the exception that the problematic titles might not be quite as obvious in 2k.

Audio is Dolby TrueHD monaural.

The original 1989 Pet Sematary is nicely done, with good grain, rich blacks, good colors and a clean image. Now Mr. King's fans can have both in 4k. It's a repackaged, re-release from 2019.

Number three in the line-up, ???????????????'s ???? ?????????????? is gorgeous, and appears to be a new, if not recent image harvest, with beautiful shadow detail, rich blacks and accurate representations of color.

Coming up next, the 2019 Crawl. Shot digitally in 3.4k, and completed in 4k is another beautiful 4k UHD presentation, looking much akin to the earlier Blu-ray, but more highly resolved.

And finally, Smile, from 2022. Absolute gorgeous from a Arri Alexa 65 source, captured in 6.5k, and completed in 4k.

Overall, a nice boxed set, for a bit more than $22 per film.

I only wish that the absolute classic of the bunch had been handled as a new image harvest and updated.

The three earlier films all come with Blu-rays.

The scores:

Rosemary's Baby

Image – 2 (Dolby Vision)

Audio – 5 (Dolby TrueHD Monaural)

Pass / Fail – Pass

Plays nicely with projectors - nothing special

Makes use of and works well in 4k - 2

Worth your attention - 2

Upgrade from Blu-ray - No

Slipcover rating - 3


Pet Sematary

Image – 5 (Dolby Vision)

Audio – 5 (DTS-HD MA 5.1)

Pass / Fail – Pass

Plays nicely with projectors - Yes

Makes use of and works well in 4k - 8

Worth your attention - 6

Slipcover rating - 3

Recommended


????????????????????

Image – 5 (Dolby Vision)

Audio – 5 (Dolby TrueHD 5.1)

Pass / Fail – Pass

Plays nicely with projectors - Yes

Makes use of and works well in 4k - 10

Worth your attention - 9

Slipcover rating - 3

Highly Recommended


Crawl

Image – 5 (HDR)

Audio – 5 (DTS-HD MA 7.1)

Pass / Fail – Pass

Plays nicely with projectors - Yes

Makes use of and works well in 4k - 10

Worth your attention - 7

Slipcover rating - 3

Recommended


Smile

Image – 5 (Dolby Vision)

Audio – 5 (Dolby Atmos)

Pass / Fail – Pass

Plays nicely with projectors - Yes

Makes use of and works well in 4k - 10

Worth your attention - 7

Slipcover rating - 3

Recommended

RAH



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[plektret]

Is there any chroma grain on Rosemary's Baby or did they filter all of it like on the Godfather UHD?

 

[Robert Harris]

Is there any chroma grain on Rosemary's Baby or did they filter all of it like on the Godfather UHD?

Didn’t spend much time with it, once I saw the problems. Unfortunately, a waste. My second favorite title is the secret, and it’s beautiful.

Without a new, clean 4k of Rosemary, I’m not sure the box is worth it, unless it’s the only way of getting the unnamed title.

Interesting concept for marketing. Three titles available individually in 4k, for a few dollars more. One old transfer, first time in 4k, and another another unique to the set.

Rosemary should have been beautiful.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Didn’t spend much time with it, once I saw the problems. Unfortunately, a waste. My second favorite title is the secret, and it’s beautiful.

Without a new, clean 4k of Rosemary, I’m not sure the box is worth it, unless it’s the only way of getting the unnamed title.

Interesting concept for marketing. Three titles available individually in 4k, for a few dollars more. One old transfer, first time in 4k, and another another unique to the set.

Rosemary should have been beautiful.

Sounds like Rosemary's issues could have been resolved with a new scan and a deft hand at the HDR tiller.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Any thoughts on how the Paramount "Baby" BD compares to the Criterion BD?

I've only seen the Criterion.

I assume the included BD is the same one they already released.

I have the box but won't have a chance to watch for a couple days so curious to know if the Paramount BD cloned the Criterion.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

BTW, kudos to RAH for reading and respecting Paramount's request not to reveal the "mystery title".

 

[Kyle_D]

The cat is out of the bag on the "mystery title" for anyone willing to search the interwebs.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

The cat is out of the bag on the "mystery title" for anyone willing to search the interwebs.

That's unfortunate.

 

[Kyle_D]

Honestly, the more interesting mystery to me is why Paramount wanted to keep the title a mystery in the first place.

 

[Robert Harris]

BTW, kudos to RAH for reading and respecting Paramount's request not to reveal the "mystery title".

A reasonable request. And a great looking product

 

[JoshZ]

Rosemary's Baby

Image – 5 (Dolby Vision)

Audio – 5 (Dolby TrueHD Monaural)

Pass / Fail – Pass
Plays nicely with projectors - nothing special

Makes use of and works well in 4k - 2

Worth your attention - 2

Upgrade from Blu-ray - No

I think you need to revise your rating system, RAH. The perfect 5 score for video is in serious conflict with your actual comments on the disc. This is not the first review of yours where that has happened.

 

[JoshZ]

Honestly, the more interesting mystery to me is why Paramount wanted to keep the title a mystery in the first place.

I'm wondering if there's some possible rights issue with the title they have planned that could cause it to be swapped out for a different movie at the last minute?

The film I've heard it rumored to be is a former DreamWorks title that was previously distributed by Paramount in the U.S. but Warner Bros. in other territories. (It's also not strictly speaking a straight "horror" movie.)

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I'm wondering if there's some possible rights issue with the title they have planned that could cause it to be swapped out for a different movie at the last minute?

The film I've heard it rumored to be is a former DreamWorks title that was previously distributed by Paramount in the U.S. but Warner Bros. in other territories. (It's also not strictly speaking a straight "horror" movie.)

See my comments in the release announcement for this set regarding Paramount's rights to certain DreamWorks library titles here: https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...mount-scares-vol-1-4k-uhd.380407/post-5263180

 

[Robert Harris]

I think you need to revise your rating system, RAH. The perfect 5 score for video is in serious conflict with your actual comments on the disc. This is not the first review of yours where that has happened.

Thank you.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I'm wondering if there's some possible rights issue with the title they have planned that could cause it to be swapped out for a different movie at the last minute?

The film I've heard it rumored to be is a former DreamWorks title that was previously distributed by Paramount in the U.S. but Warner Bros. in other territories. (It's also not strictly speaking a straight "horror" movie.)

Meaning you think that they're gonna remove Mystery Title now a week before street date?

Even though they've manufactured the discs, put 'em in the box, and sent them to reviewers?

Huh?

 

[Colin Jacobson]

The cat is out of the bag on the "mystery title" for anyone willing to search the interwebs.

Yeah, I saw that but didn't want to advertise it.

Would like to give the site that revealed it the benefit of the doubt that someone didn't get the memo.

But dunno. Maybe they just decided they didn't care if Paramount got mad at them.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I don’t really understand the logic of “we’d like you to buy our product but won’t tell you what’s actually in it” but hey that’s just me.

 

[jayembee]

This release isn't for me, as I'm not a horror fan in general -- I do watch some horror films -- and the mystery title aside, I wouldn't care for any of the others except for Rosemary's Baby, which I could get by itself. But the thing is that if I was a horror fan, I'd want to know if the mystery title was something that I'd want enough to entice me to buy the set despite not wanting the other titles that aren't RB. And I imagine people would be pissed if they bought the set without knowing what the mystery title, and discovered that the mystery title was something they didn't care for.

That said, I do know what the mystery title is, and it's not anything that I'd want to watch, let alone own. Others' mileage would certainly vary.

(Before anyone asks, I read this thread because (a) I try to read all of RAH's "Few Words" threads, and (b) I was curious about what "Paramount Scares" was. I'm not here to thread-crap.)

 

[Robert Harris]

I think you need to revise your rating system, RAH. The perfect 5 score for video is in serious conflict with your actual comments on the disc. This is not the first review of yours where that has happened.

An endemic problem of cut and replicate with a phone continually ringing.

Thank you. Fixed.

 

[Robert Harris]

Had a thought about Rosemary, and double checked to confirm that the 4k disc was mounted on the right side of the case, and that I’d not mistakenly viewed a 2k. Confirmed.