- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
- Rating: R
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Discs: 1
- Studio: Image Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: February 1, 2011
- List Price: $29.97
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BestBuy.com:
Purchase Chain Letter on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:2.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:2/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
The Film
[Rating:2/5]
Having just reviewed Saw: The Final Chapter, I can confidently say that Chain Letter is a wholly unoriginal and uninspired imitation of the Saw franchise, with perhaps a little Prom Night thrown in, which is really pretty bad when you consider that even the Saw franchise has lost its luster at this point.
Writer/director Deon Taylor’s film is a slickly produced, derivative horror flick with mundane plot development, stereotypical characters and genre devices (naked teenage girls anyone?) and a ludicrous resolution. The story, as it stands, finds your typical suburban high school kids all wrapped up in the drama of their teen lives, and fully entrenched in their tech gadgets when they begin receiving an odd chain email from a mysterious online character. They must forward the email or suffer dire consequences. When they begin deleting the message, they are stalked by a chain using, scar faced, masked murderer.
The script has a strained anti-technology subplot that raises concerns about privacy in the modern era, but it never quite melds with the killer on the loose, deadly chain mail story. Helping to keep the film afloat are familiar faces Keith David as Det. Jim Crenshaw investigating the teen murders and Brad Dourif of Deadwood fame as the teen’s concerned teacher. But none of the actors can save this convoluted film from being anything more than a gore bore.
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Chain Letter’s 1080p AVC/MPEG-4 encoding offers strong shadow details, reds that really “pop,” which is great for all the gory scenes, and generally natural looking flesh tones, but its gritty image too frequently lapses into softness and loses detail, especially in backgrounds and sometimes even in the foreground shots.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio is a solitary DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. It is pretty typical of one might expect of a film like this with a rather aggressive use of the surround channels and lots of atmospheric sound effects panned around the room. Dialogue is clean and clear, but high frequencies are a bit tizzy sounding.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
Forget about the supplements for this release. The only thing provided is the original theatrical trailer (1.78:1; 1080i/60)
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:2.5/5]
Skip it and go see Saw for more original deaths and less pretentious story lines.
Additional Screen Captures:
[amazon-product align=”right”]B0047P5FSG[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Chain Letter on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:2.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:2/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
