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Dream House (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - United Kingdom - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Samuel Scott (10th February 2014). |
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The Film
 ***This is a technical review only. For reviews on the movie from various critics, we recommend visiting HERE.*** Once upon a time, there were two little girls who lived in a house. Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts and Rachel Weisz star in this mind-bending suspense thriller about a man whose only hope for the future is to decipher a puzzling tragedy about his past. Successful publisher Will Atenton (Craig), his wife (Weisz) and two daughters are just settling into their new life in a quain New England town, only to discover that their perfect home has a disturbing history. As Will's dream house quickly becomes a nightmare, his reality unravels, and its up to a mysterious neighbour, Ann (Watts), to help him face the truth about what is wrong with his house.
Video
Warner Home Video have released "Dream House" onto Blu-ray in the United Kingdom using the original aspect ratio of 2.40:1. The transfer is 1080p and uses an AVC MPEG-4 codec. There are one or two minor flaws, but overall, the transfer is strong. The main flaw with the transfer for me, was there was some very occasional instances of edge enhancement, especially around some of the clothing. The overall colour scheme sticks to dark colours, and thankfully, the varying amount of blacks are deep with minimal crush. When the feature calls for use of some lighter colours, they are vibrant, and pop well without being too light. Of particular note, are the numerous shades of pinks in the children's bedroom, and the blood on the child's back. Although the child bleeds, the colours don't. Skin tones look a little warm sometimes, but never worryingly so. Details are generally strong throughout, especially in lighter scenes where we can see every facial contour and even the minute details in Daniel Craig's leather jacket. As to be expected for such a new movie, there's no damage to the print such as scratches or dirt. The disc is region free, and the feature runs 91:45.
Audio
The release includes the following audio options: - English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 - French Dolby Digital 5.1 - Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 - Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 - English Audio Descriptive Dolby Digital 5.1 For the purposes of the review, I went for the obvious choice of listening to the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, which was on a par with the transfer. "Dream House" is quite dialogue heavy, but the surrounds and LFE are still well utilised. The score, as mediocre as it is, builds tension at all the right times, and uses the bass well. The LFE kicks in nicely for gun shots and other loud thuds, with gun shot noises also moving around the sound stage as required, showing great directionality and channel separation. Even subtle effects such as a door being knocked sounds satisfying. It must be said though, the final ten minutes are easily the highlight of this competent mix. There are no drop outs or scratches, and I noticed no signs of background hiss. Optional subtitles have been provided in English HoH, French, Portuguese, Spanish (South America) and Spanish (Spain).
Extras
The extras start with the "Building a Dream House" featurette, running 5:29. This looks at the decision to keep computer generated visual effects to an absolute minimum. We hear from various cast and crew members about the sets and effects, and how the look of the film differs as Will Atenton's (Daniel Craig's) mental state changes as the story becomes clear. They actually built a house in a town's park, and how they went about co-ordinating filming and building with the local community. The "Burning Down the House" featurette (3:41) is exactly what it says on the tin. This gives us a more detailed look at how they filmed the scenes where the house burns down, and how the fire department used a fireproof paint so the crew were able to film all the scenes required. It shows us the safety systems used, as well as some of the equipment. It's an interesting piece that provides a little insight into how much work is involved with filming such complex scenes. The final substantial extra is a featurette entitled "Dream Cast" (6:07). This shows the main cast members (Rachel Weisz, Daniel Craig and Naomi Watts) talk about the cast and working with director Jim Sheridan (who also provides soundbites). This was obviously filmed early on, because producers changed the finished film so much that Sheridan went to court to turn this into an 'Allen Smithee' film. He failed, but the cast stood by him and refused to promote the film in any way. There is also a start-up trailer for "Contagion" (2:27).
Overall
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