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Breed (The) AKA Wes Craven Presents: The Breed (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - First Look Studios Review written by and copyright: Samuel Scott (12th April 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.*** They can smell your fear. A group of friends (Michelle Rodriguez, Oliver Hudson, Taryn Manning, Eric Lively and Hill Harper) fly away to a deserted island for a weekend excursion. They soon realize that this beautiful getaway was once controlled by a special canine research unit and will soon become their biggest nightmare. Inspired by the horror classics, The Breed takes you into the jaws of a flesh eating pack of wild dogs, genetically engineered to hunt and kill. Outnumbered and trapped they struggle to outsmart and outrun this terrifying species.
Video
First Look Studios have released the rabid dogs horror movie "The Breed" onto Blu-ray at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The transfer is 1080p and uses a VC-1 encode. Considering the genre and the budget, it's a pretty good transfer. The first scene shows you what you are in for, for the majority of the run time. The camera pans across the sea and the colours of the water, boat, and two characters really pop. Once we get to our main characters, these exterior shots look consistently great - with the shrubbery and grass surrounding the house looking particularly good. It's not all gravy though, as several of the dimly lit shots which take place indoors become a little noisy, and have a much heavier grain structure which causes a loss of detail and sharpness. Still, 95% of the time, everything is hunky-dory. Details can be surprisingly strong, especially the fur of the ferocious dogs in the background, and black levels - at least in exterior scenes - are inky. There are no major issues such as edge enhancement, aliasing, banding or digital noise reduction, and no scratches or blemishes. There was one scene with some minor compression artefacts, but nothing worth complaining about. The disc is region free, and the feature runs 90:54.
Audio
There are two options here: - English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 - English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo For my viewing, I made the obvious choice of selecting the English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track, and it's a technically good effort. Straight from the off, there are plenty of subtle effects that work really well. You get the usual environmental effects such as wind, but the growls of the dogs, breaking windows and thuds, as well as the low key rumblings of the car engine, use direction well, and make full use of the soundfield. Sure, the jump scares are typical for the genre, and relatively unsurprising, but they're done well. Dialogue is clear at all times, and volume levels are consistent. There are no problems with background hiss, scratches, or drop outs. Subtitles are available in English HoH and Spanish.
Extras
The only extra of real note, is the "On the Set of The Breed" featurette which clocks in at 24:10. I'm not sure what this was originally filmed for, but it's a better than average making of, especially compared to other films of this ilk. The narrator details where the cast and crew have come from, how the animals are trained, and how they made the film as real as possible whilst keeping both the actors and dogs safe on-set. It's interesting to see how they set some of the scenes up, and also to see how the nerves of some of the cast were set aside by using stunt actors in rehearsals to show the cast how the dogs will react. It doesn't always go to plan though, with one of stunt actresses being bitten when one of the dogs misses the hidden toy he is aiming for! The dog then misses the toy slightly during the take and actually nips Michelle Rodriguez. Well worth a watch. Apart from that we get a bunch of trailers, as specified below. Start-up Trailers (6:33): - "Day of the Dead" (1:46) - "Sukiyaki Western Django" (1:57) - "Blood Brothers" (0:51) - "War, Inc." (1:54) Bonus Trailers: - "Day of the Dead" (1:46) - "Meet Bill" (2:33) - "Blood Brothers" (0:51) - "War, Inc." (1:54) - "Sukiyaki Western Django" (1:57) - "August" (1:42) - "Transsiberian" (1:37) Theatrical Trailer (1:55)
Overall
"The Breed" is an enjoyable rabid dogs movie which doesn't really add anything to the genre, but deserves to be seen. The disc has an above average technical presentation, and the featurette offers some informative info.
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