Friday The 13th 1980 Blu: I am not impressed

[FendersRule]

Granted this discussion is only for PQ purposes only because my sound system is minimal (I have a stereo hooked up to my TV) and I have also never seen this movie on DVD. I did think the sound was stellar though...for an older movie.

Some scenes in Friday the 13th look great. Mainly it's the close-ups of Jason's Mother, and of other charactors.

[Show spoiler] Did you notice that Jason's mom was a man when she was decapitated?

The film really has troubles with it's blacks. I found a lot of grain (grain isn't bad, but when you can see oddly colored grain over your blacks, it is bad) in the night shots. I also found uneven lighting in just about all of the night shots that kept detracting me from the movie.

The lake, trees, forest, etc have the detail of an upscaled DVD, with slightly better detail. I clearly was not wowed at anything in the movie, except of close facial shots. I do understand what an upscaled DVD looks like since I have an eye for these kinda things. The detail in the environment in Rambo (yea, even with crappy Lionsgate remaster) takes a walk on this one.

A quick journey over to Blu-ray's review, and the PQ gets a 4.2 from the members, and a 4.0 from the reviewer. I highly disagree with this. If you disagree with me fine, but please do not use these excuses/responses:

(1) This is the best way to watch it.

I understand that this is the best way to watch it, and that the BD is obviously the one to get. However, I cannot help but notice that most of the scenes product a very similar look to upscaled DVDs, and black lighting is atrocious. This is a probably since most of the scenes are shot at night.

(2) This is a 30 year old movie, what do you expect?

Granted, I completely understand this too. 2001 is a 50 year old movie, and it ranks upon the most cleanest of films I have ever seen on BD. Look at Halloween for BD, and you will see that it is much better quality than Friday The 13th. The Autumn trees, the deep blacks of the night, the detail is astonishing.

So, was the film that was shot in this movie worse than Halloween? I guess the remaster of Halloween completely had my expectations high. I'm not trying to make this off as a "Bad remaster". It's just a decent one, but I think a 4.0 is a bit misleading given what I have mentioned above.

I would recommend a pickup for this movie once it hits a lower price point ($19.99 might set your expectations a little too high).