Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) 4K UHD Review (1 Viewer)

[Patrick McCart]

In Invasion of the Body Snatchers Don Siegel and Walter Wanger’s sci-fi/horror classic returns to disc with new 4K remasters, plus new and archival supplements.



Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)



Released: 05 Feb 1956
Rated: Approved
Runtime: 80 min




Director: Don Siegel
Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi



Cast: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates
Writer(s): Daniel Mainwaring, Jack Finney, Richard Collins



Plot: A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.



IMDB rating: 7.7
MetaScore: 92





Disc Information



Studio: Paramount
Distributed By: Kino Lorber
Video Resolution: 2160p HEVC w/HDR



Aspect Ratio:...

Continue reading...

 

[Robert Crawford]

Thank you for your fine review as I look forward to watching my 4K/UHD next week. Hopefully, Target ships it out for that to happen.

 

[Bartman]

I have the original Olive Blu-ray, it was a BIG improvement over the previous Republic DVD. It probably doesn't have subtitles, that would be nice to have. I don't have a 4K player so I'll wait for a Paramount 4K streaming version.

 

[cda1143]

I have the original Olive Blu-ray, it was a BIG improvement over the previous Republic DVD. It probably doesn't have subtitles, that would be nice to have. I don't have a 4K player so I'll wait for a Paramount 4K streaming version.

According to Blu-ray.com, the Olive Signature does have English Subtitles.

 

[Bartman]

According to Blu-ray.com, the Olive Signature does have English Subtitles.

I have the original Olive Blu without subtitles.

 

[RolandL]

"The original theatrical release did feature a Perspecta stereo track, which has allegedly not been preserved (Kino Lorber did apparently attempt to include it)."

That would have been cool if they found the Perspecta stereo track. I sold my copy of the Olive Blu-Ray. Not sure if I'll get the 4K set or just the Blu-ray. I sit 16 feet from my Sony 85-inch TV so, might not see much of a difference.

 

[BobO'Link]

According to Blu-ray.com, the Olive Signature does have English Subtitles.

I have the original Olive Blu without subtitles.

I own a copy of both Olive BR releases. The original has no SDH/CC and the Signature edition *has* SDH (I just watched it a few days back using SDH). And I'll be purchasing the new KINO BR for both aspect ratios.

 

[Robert Crawford]

After watching the 4K/UHD a couple of times, I have a higher grade for the video presentation than this review. My grade is 4/5 and I'm happy that Kino released it on 4K/UHD with Dolby Vision. Yes, if they had the OCN or even the fine grain to work from, I'm sure it would look better than what we currently have here. Anyhow, on the whole, I'm happy with this 4K/UHD release and have come a long way since the 1998 DVD or even the 2012 Blu-ray. Last night, I only watched this disc in the 1.85 ratio. Sometime in the future, I'll try to compare the two different aspect ratios.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hi Patrick, thanks for the great review, I’ve been mostly posting on the Robert Harris thread on this film. I’ve seen this film many times and I think pretty much agree with your review. And I agree with Robert Crawford, the 4K disc is a fine presentation. What I am confounded by and learning more about is the 2.0:1 version verses the 1.85:1 version and how that was derived. It just seems like the 1.85 was made from cropping the 2.0 as no actual film elements survive to correctly recreate the 1.85. That’s my guess, but I’d like to learn more.

I posted comments on the Robert Harris thread that I had a hard time seeing a significant difference between the 4K and the Olive Signature disc. The main difference is a slight increase in black levels on the 4K. The sharpness of the image was very similar. Below is what I posted on the Robert Harris thread, if anyone cares:

Last night I tried to spend a little time to compare Invasion of the Body Snatchers on the 4K 2.0:1 disc to the Olive Signature blu ray. It was hard to do a proper A-B comparison with one player set-up. I had already ripped the Olive Signature disc as an MKV file, so it’s a perfect copy for playback on my Plex server. So I queued up the Olive and the Kino and played them. Switching between versions took a few seconds as I was switching between two sources. Not an ideal way to check, but from what I could see, the 4K was not sharper looking then the Olive. if it is, it was hard for me to tell, I was not up in front of the screen, I sat back at my normal viewing distance. The Kino does look like the blacks are a tad blacker which is nice. I focused on looking at the textures in Kevin McClory’s jacket in the early scenes when he’s talking to Mrs Olson, sorry, I think of the Folger’s Coffee commercials when I see the young Virginia Christine as Wilma Lentz. Watching the early parts of the movie from both versions, I really had a hard time seeing a big difference. During the opening credits, the text does look a tad blacker if IIRC. The framing is interesting as on the Olive, I can see more of the car roof as Miles and his nurse drives from the train station. This looks like how it looked on the 1.85 version of the Kino IIRC. This was not a very scientific or properly set up methodical comparison, just a quick casual effort. I may ripped the Kino blu ray to an MKV file so I can compare the Olive more easily.

 

[RolandL]

Olive 2.0

Kino 1.85