It’s been said time and time again, and I believe I’ve even made the exact sentiment in another review prior but it deserves to be said again, if you love physical media then you, we, I, have to do everything in our power to ensure that it continues to exist. If you’re fortunate enough to live in North America or the UK, there’s certainly less concern with losing the ability to collect physical media but who knows, it truly is the wild wild west out there. If you told me, or frankly anyone, five years ago that Disney (yes, the Disney that owns Fox and Marvel, and seemingly now James Cameron) that it would be more cost effective to just stop selling physical media in Australia, then I would’ve said you were crazy. However, collectors in Australia discovered that the last physical Disney release they could purchase,— without importing — was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3.
L-R: Isabella Star LaBlanc as Donna and Forrest Goodluck as Manny appearing in PET SEMATARY: BLOODLINES, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
Now with all of that being stated, we’re going to dive into the newest Blu-ray + digital code release of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, helmed by first-time feature director Lindsey Anderson Beer. Now, while I typically would provide a review of the film itself, I do think our own Hunter Hellman summed up how I also feel about this sequel to the original film and you can read more about that here. Again, we should be supporting physical media in any way we can and, with this originally being a Paramount Plus exclusive which was, at one time, believed to be the mystery 4K in the Paramount Scares box set, getting this solo standard release is honestly unexpected and a very nice surprise.
On the set of PET SEMATARY: BLOODLINES, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
Now, doing a comparison between the physical Blu-ray disk and the stream, there are some slight differences in color and textures of the film, but they’re incredibly minimal. They’re most noticeable in the dark, nearly pitch-black scenes, as a few things on the stream are indistinguishable, but the disk shows there are things actually in the scene and are properly captured. However, again, as noted earlier, this movie was sentenced to Paramount Plus, a streaming service, almost ensuring that it would never see a physical release. Thankfully there is a Blu-ray disk and a 4K disk out there, so fans of the movie, people curious about the movie itself, or just people who love physical media and add anything and everything to their shelves, never have to worry about it disappearing from their collection spontaneously without any rhyme or reason.
Jackson White as Jud Crandall appearing in PET SEMATARY: BLOODLINES, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
As for the quality of the disk, as we discussed earlier, the disk does look better than the stream (as is usually the case) and it includes Dolby Atmos as well, which is an impressive move for a streaming released film. Atop of all of this, there are a handful of features that ring in over 50 minutes of content, so Paramount wants to please the physical lovers out there by ensuring that not only do they make a disk available, but they provide something extra to incentivize the customer further than ensuring content is preserved. Surprisingly, in the features, there isn’t a commentary track or a Fantastic Fest sizzle reel/Q&A, but rather five separate features that are all behind the scenes and specific to different elements of bringing the fourth Pet Sematary movie to life.
Pam Grier as Majorie appearing in PET SEMATARY: BLOODLINES, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
While there is a copy readily available on any device with a signal attached to it, those streams do not offer the special features or the guarantee that it will always be there. Licensing and rights issues affect different countries differently, so while it may be a Paramount Plus exclusive title, that may only pertain to North America, or it might get moved and/or sold down the road. So the only way to ensure that there is always a way to watch Pet Sematary: Bloodlines and the five bonus features that it comes with it is to purchase the Blu-ray + digital code, the 4K + digital code, or the DVD to ensure that the movie and its features will always be viewable to audiences.
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines Special Features
- Origins
- Fresh Blood
- Death’s Design
- Method to the madness
- War comes home
Available on Paramount+ October 6th, 2023.
Available on digital December 5th , 2023.
Available 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD December 19th, 2023.
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Categories: Home Release, Recommendation
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