Antichrist Blu-ray

Antichrist

 (2009)

Drama | Horror



Lars von Trier's controversial exploration of depression, guilt and sexuality stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a couple grieving the death of their young son. The mother is initially admitted to hospital following the incident, but her husband - a therapist - insists on taking her to their remote forest cabin, 'Eden', and looking after her himself. Presented in four chapters with a prologue and epilogue, the film charts the often violent and disturbing course of the couple's anguish as they immerse themselves in nature and act out their deep suffering in a sequence of increasingly bizarre and brutal rituals.

For more details about Antichrist on Blu-ray, see the Antichrist Blu-ray Review

Starring: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Director: Lars von Trier

Antichrist Blu-ray, Video Quality

 


Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and ranted a 1080i50 transfer, Lars Von Trier's Antichrist arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Artificial Eye.

I had a very difficult time taking the screen captures that you are seeing in this review. For some strange reason, there was a lot of "combing" that was visible on some of them, which I don't recall seeing on the screen captures that I took to include with our review of the French release, courtesy of M6.

I don't see a notable gap in quality between the Artificial Eye and M6 discs (though the M6 one is BD50 while the Artificial Eye one is BD25). The Artificial Eye disc appears to have retained the exact same qualities we noted in our review for the M6 disc - the cold color-scheme, the "dreamy" look, the unusual contrast fluctuations. Again, edge-enhancement and macrobloking are not an issue of concern. I did not notice any annoying specs, debris, scratches, stains, or cuts to report in this review. The disc's main menu can be set in Danish or English.

(Note: This Blu-ray disc is encoded in 1080i50, a standard not supported by the overwhelming majority of Blu-ray players and TV sets in the U.S. Therefore, you must have a Region-Free player capable of converting 1080i50 to 1080i60, or a native Region-B player and a TV set capable of displaying 1080i50 data, in order to access the disc's content in the U.S.).

Antichrist Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 


There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English Dolby Digital 5.1. Artificial Eye have provided optional Danish and Italian, but not English, subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

Again, I did not encounter any issues with the audio treatment. The dialog is crisp, clear and easy to follow. The surround activity on the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is limited, but there are some rather neat ambient effects. Finally, I did not detect any disturbing pops, cracks, or hiss to report in this review.

Antichrist Blu-ray, News and Updates

• Antichrist Gets Blu-ray - November 12, 2009


• Antichrist Blu-ray Arrives in the UK in November - August 2, 2009

Antichrist Blu-ray, Forum Discussions

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