Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Two horror franchise entries featuring the iconic Jason Voorhees have received impressive 4K treatment from Arrow. These ninth and tenth installments in the Friday the 13th series showcase the killer's supernatural evolution and eventual space adventure.

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Jason Goes to Hell Limited Edition 4K (Arrow)
Any horror franchise that hits double digits, particularly when almost all of the movies feature the same antagonist, is at some point going to have to embrace the silly.

New Line understood that, and by the time Jason Goes to Hell rolled around in 1993, hockey-masked serial slayer Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) had gained the power to slide into other people's bodies in order to continue his killing spree post-mortem. He's in search of his only living relatives, who alone have the power to destroy him for good (umm…) but also the ability to bring him back to his true self, so yeah, it's gonna get gory (shout-out to KNB EFX Group for that). Not much of a spoiler if you read the title but he is ultimately dragged to the underworld by a nasty group, among them another well-known horror icon.

Arrow restored the film from 4K/16-bit scans performed by Warner, with Dolby Vision and the original lossless stereo plus a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 remix. Goes to Hell arrives in two different cuts, each on a separate platter; same tech specs but three minutes more sex and violence in the unrated version.

The 1.85:1 image is dark for sure, but this is a horror flick so it feels right, and it's showing more shadow detail than ever before. The reinstated snippets display a slight shift in quality, but nothing too jarring. The accompanying soundtrack is jarring, but in a good way - the mix does a great job building tension and underscoring the jump scares.

Three new talent interviews await us on the theatrical Disc One alongside a host of previous extras, most quite enjoyable. Interestingly, all three audio commentaries (one new film historian track and two archival, both of those with director Adam Marcus) appear on the unrated Disc Two.

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Jason X Limited Edition 4K (Arrow)
Rather than follow up with the inevitable face-off between two supernatural slashers in his next outing, Jason X nine years later (the biggest gap in the series), the erstwhile Camp Crystal Lake Killer went in a totally different direction, namely into deep space.

Some 400+ years from now, settlers from new and improved Earth II discover a cryogenically frozen Jason back on the OG Terra and think it's a good idea to take him aboard their ship and let him thaw. This being over-the-top horror mixed with sci-fi, X gives us some of the most inventive kills in the whole lot, this time courtesy of special effects artisan Jim Isaacs.

Like Jason Goes to Hell, Arrow restored Jason X from 4K/16-bit scans performed by Warner, with Dolby Vision and the original lossless stereo plus a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 remix.

Perhaps benefitting from a higher budget and completely reset production design, X in particular has a distinctive new look that benefits from high dynamic range, especially once the story transitions to the future scenes. The confined environments make clever use of the surround channels, and I'm always happy when a studio provides the theatrical audio as well.

X's single platter has three commentaries (one new, from the same two experts who contributed to Jason Goes to Hell), a handful of new interviews and a pile of ported goodies.

Both titles include a two-sided poster, reversible cover insert and an illustrated booklet with insightful writing on their subjects. They arrive in regular-sized slipcases like Arrow's LE of the 2009 reboot and all three covers work well together, stylistically.

Independently, Paramount seems to be 4K-ifying their chunk of Friday the 13th catalog from the first movie onward (albeit very slowly). So perhaps we'll have all 12 in Ultra HD someday? A pity the filmmakers haven't managed to produce just one more: If a saga ever deserved a 13th installment….