There is good news and there is bad.
Great it finally arrived on blu ray! A widescreen release of the first classic film, have been in talks for years since the rumor that J.R Bookwalter supervised a transfer of Subspecies. Unfortunately this is not the transfer he worked on, because this is a cropped 16:9 anamorphic release. I highly doubt that Mr Bookwalter would have released the film looking like this.
If you compare the 4:3 video release to the 16:9, you will notice that you have full widescreen, but top and bottom is cropped to fit your 16:9 television.
Why Full Moon insist on releasing there films to fit the current TV frame is beyond me. Why not release it in it's proper widescreen aspect which it was intended and let the consumers choose if they what to zoom the film out to fit the TV frame.
The good news is, Subspecies looks surprisingly good! Colors are deep and steady and the black level is pretty good. Also the noise level is better than expected. Still have in mind, this is not a top notch release from a big studio. I Bought Puppet Master on blu, and it looked horribly. This compared, is much better!
The audio is 2.0 stereo and sounds flat at times, but the dialog is clear and over all, the soundtrack is acceptable.
I would certainly recommend this blu ray to any one who love these classic films, and those who are looking to upgrade, but have realistic expectations before you sit down to watch it. PS. this disc is region free.
