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How
often to do go to the movies and see a Theatrical trailer, and better still with a Dolby
Digital soundtrack, and your jaw drops at how cool it looks and sounds?
How many of you saw the trailer/s for the Haunting and thought how cool does THAT look, I
gotta see that one!!!! (yeah it suckered me in as well :)
If only a movie trailer for a comedy wouldn't spoil it by previewing the best jokes, and
in general, we weren't so manipulated by hype, most films would probably bomb at the box
office, and god only knows there's plenty that deserved to.
With
one of the best sounding trailers to have been released, the haunting scared up a lot of
business at the box office. Pity the film was pretty average at the end of the day
with it's totally overblown special effects, and laughable dialogue (Home & Away
delivers wittier remarks than this one!...errr....so I hear! :)
So
the deal is, Dr Marrow (a miscast Liam Neeson) has gathered together a few test subjects,
all of who suffer from sleep disorders, and put then in a haunted house (this of course is
not known to our lab rats). Before you can say,
oh-god-not-another-ghost-chasing-us-around-the-house-moffy-with-corny-dialogue-but-kick-ass-special-effects-and-awesome-sound,
sure enough that's what we get!.
Thankfully
there is "some" talent to grace the screen, (but maybe they read another script
or something :). Our heroine of the movie is Eleanor aka Nell, (Lili Talyor), for
over 10 years she's taken care of her bed ridden mother and has locked herself away from
the rest of the world, then to keep the movie up to date, & with hints of taboo
titillation, we have a bi-sexual in Theo, (Catherine Zeta Jones), and then there's the
plucky comic relief, Luke (Owen Wilson).
Granted
The Haunting has some truly awesome moments that will just blow you away (and I mean that
literally). Pity about the rest of the film, as it had sooo much potential to be the
scariest haunted house film out there.
Anyhoo.
So how does this transfer hold up?
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VIDEO
Readers over at Mike D's
will no doubt recall the often used line "why do all the bad movies get the best
transfers" and The Haunting is a prime example!
What a wonderful Anamorphic Widescreen Transfer we've been given
Directly compared to the DTS-ES region 1 version our region 4 version shows a much
sharper, smoother picture overall, yet both are strikingly similar and so the region 1 is
still excellent by all standards.
The Haunting has a very film like quality with excellent colour saturation and a dead on
level of black and as a result shadow detail goes nice and deep. Sharpness is
generally very good, without it ever really looking overly edge enhanced (only on
occasions)
Now and then the level of sharpness drops off a tad and even these "softer"
shots where still quite good.
Spread over 2 layers of an RSDL DVD, the layer change occurs 69:03 (within chapter 16 in
the kitchen). Nicely placed to.
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AUDIO
WOW. First a note of warning. This is without a doubt THE most
aggressive multi-channel soundmix released to DVD. The Low Frequency Effects
channels is as loud as they come and could do damage to your system if you crank this
puppy up first time around. With this being so dynamic, it won't take long for you
to find out how pumped up it can get :)
Okay so now onto the really good stuff. For it's theatrical release, The Haunting
was released with a Dolby EX soundtrack. (which incorporates a matrixed
"Surround Back" channel and can be decoded to create a third Surround)
Both the Dolby 5.1 and DTS-ES 6.1 discrete DVDs released in the USA are known to include
this extra channel, and I'm pleased to say that our region 4 DVD (encoded as a Dolby
5.1 mix) still carries the Surround Back Channel information for Dolby 5.1
Surround EX playback!
As I mentioned this is an incredibly aggressive sound mix, there's so much bass in this
track Pharmaceutical companies could almost sell it as a new dihoretic! Bass gets
low and dirty yet maintains very good control throughout, and it will really show you how
good your subwoofer is.
While many movies use the surround tracks mostly for light ambience, The Haunting
delivers a full-on music and effects assault from the sides and behind. It also
delivers a wonderful ambience when required with a great amount of detail. It's incredibly
clean and clear, so you'll hear every little nuance. Dialogue is also always clear
and intelligible which is quite impressive considering how much noise this movie makes.
Having been mixed for 3 channels of matrixed surround sound playback, the panning effects
are excellent and make very good use of the Surround Back Channel. The sound coming
from not only the sides but from behind adds to greatly to the overall atmosphere, and
with a film like the Haunting there's lots of little ghostly things happening right behind
you. Toward the end of Chapter 21 (1:35:55) makes very good use of this. As
we near the end of the film our heroine Eleanor yells out to the nasty ghost. She
moves away from the camera (her back is turned) and the voice of the ghost, as he booms
out her name, comes right from behind you, then to the left surround and up to the front
left speaker. It's a killer demo sequence in that respect, but sadly is one of a few
moments in the film which suffers from a very slight and very brief audio distortion.
Throughout the movie there are moments were the soundtrack is getting pretty heated up and
there are a few peaks in the soundtrack. There's also a nasty little static pop from
the right surround channel a good 77 minutes into the film. (it really sounds just like
when you touch something metallic and you get that ticking noise! :) I did Not
hear these problems in the region 1 DTS-ES version.
I was surprised to find the Dolby Surround EX mix compared quite favourably to
the DTS-ES mix [sans those few audio glitches].
Though Overall there is audibly an improvement in sound quality moving to the DTS-ES
6.1track. That being better definition with more dynamic control, especially with the LFE,
and the surround channels are a little more expansive compared to the matrixed Surround
tracks on the Dolby EX mix, with the Surround Back Channel having far more presence.
(By the nature of pro-logic, the 3 channel surround soundstage does collapse a little into
the surround back, so side wall imaging is lessened)
At the end of the day our little 448kilo bits per second encoded Dolby mix holds up quite
well though the DTS track clearly is better as it's able to extract that extra bit
of detail which I believe is worth it. (I really do hope that dreamworks
international follow the lead of their USA counterpart and release a DTS-ES DVD version to
PAL territories..soon)
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EXTRAS
A few goodies to be had here.
Other than the very plain jane menus (the region 1 animated menus are very cool) Both Theatrical
trailers have been encoded in Dolby 5.1 and the second trailer sounds very much
like it's also in Dolby EX..sweeeet
There's also a near 30 minute behind the scenes featurette narrated by
Catherine Zeta Jones. Though it's of a very average MPEG2 encoding, it's watchable
and is a nice addition (though I'd happily sacrificed it the addition of a DTS-ES track :)
I really hate to say this but with subsequent viewings I'm actually beginning to enjoy
this movie. But I'm thinking with a killer sound track, and an awesome Jerry
Goldsmith Music Score, part of the human brain no doubt has the ability to block certain
impulses permitting other senses, to extract whatever pleasure it can from a mediocre
movie. Highly recommended only as a demo DVD.
| PICTURE
QUALITY |
9/10 Gorgeous |
SOUND
- Quality
- 6.1 WOW Factor |
9/10 a few audio nasties let it down :(
9/10 only bettered by
the DTS-ES 6.1 mix :( |
| EXTRAS |
6/10
love the 5.1 trailers! |
Click HERE for more Region 4 DVDs released in Dolby Surround EX
or DTS-ES
Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717 (using RGB outputs)
Receiver : Denon AVC-A1SE THX Ultra (Dolby Surround EX, DTS-ES Discrete)
Speakers:-
Mains: Quadral Phonolgue Gold Amun
Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
Surrounds Left/Right: B&W 602
Surrounds Back : Jamo Magic 14
Subby: M&K V125
- Reviewed 19th March 2001
*The Haunting jpeg files for
internet promotion use only. Copyright© exists on all aspects of these files by Universal
Home Video |
