Poltergeist (1982)
Horror • 1h 54m
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Beatrice Straight, Dominique Dunne, Heather O'Rourke, Oliver Robins, Zelda Rubinstein, Richard Lawson, Martin Casella, Michael McManus, Virginia Kiser, James Karen, Lou Perryman, Clair E. Leucart, Dirk Blocker, Allan Graf, Joseph Walsh, Helen Baron, Noel Conlon, Robert Broyles, Sonny Landham, Frank Welker, William Vail, Craig Simmons
WB 4K Blu-ray
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 year ago
UHD tiers
Overview
Upon realizing that something truly evil haunts his home, Steve Freeling calls in a team of parapsychologists to help before it's too late.
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Second Sight 4K Blu-ray/France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray (preference)
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Second Sight 4K Blu-ray/France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray (preference) (Carlotta 4K Blu-ray has some better shots than Second Sight 4K Blu-ray and is more accurate to the theatrical grade: https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=18250&d2=18597&s1=210919&s2=219265&i=4&l=0&a=1)
LaserDisc/VHS likely will have less filtered and correct audio. MPI 4K Blu-ray’s mono appears to be correct content-wise.
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray, caps by asacmurr. Comparison between the Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome and Turbine releases with Arrow (Engine House) being the best encoding-wise. Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray has mediocre encode and over-saturated skin tones. Also, the Arrow 4K Blu-ray has reported issues with Panasonic players.
Director: Tobe Hooper
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · YouTube (opens in a new tab)
WB 4K Blu-ray see caps and comparison video
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: George Cukor
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Michael Mann
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: Old Warner Bros DVD or fan restoration
Revised Cut: 2012 Japan Blu-ray for less revisionist colors, 2022 Disney 4K Blu-ray is controversially regraded and too dark overall.
Sources: fanrestore.com (opens in a new tab)
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Director: Richard Linklater
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Director: Richard Linklater
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
More Horror on Blu-ray
Director: Julia Ducournau
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Curzon 4K
HDR helps considerably with the deliberately murky aesthetic. VDMS encode is overall very good despite chroma noise in flashback sequences.
Director: Brian De Palma
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Arrow 4K Blu-ray has a better encode than the Kino Lorber and Capelight 4K Blu-rays. Capelight 4K Blu-ray looks low-passed in comparison to the Arrow but is slightly closer to the Arrow in PQ than the Kino Lorber.
Director: Bob Clark
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray in December
Directors: Banjong Pisanthanakun & Parkpoom Wongpoom
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Australia Umbrella 4K Blu-ray encoded by FiM
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray or US Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Both the US Arrow 4K Blu-ray and UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray are better than the horrible grade of the France Le Chat Qui Fume which has blacks looking greenish and milky with some yellow push. However, comparing these two, there's significant tradeoffs; Arrow has less black crush and some shots seems to be better graded but it's worse in some shots with a slight magenta grade; the UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray has a better color grading.
UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray and US Arrow 4K Blu-ray have exclusive extras
Director: John Carpenter
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Universal 4K Blu-ray. Maybe Turbine Blu-ray instead for better audio?
Sources: blog.sporv.com (opens in a new tab)
1997? Signature Collection LD
Good: 2017 Arrow and 2016 Shout! Factory Blu-ray have the original audio options.
the only track on Universal 4K, which is in DTS:X, has a mixing error of around 6dB too low on side channels, otherwise very similar to other 5.1 mixes.
Director: Ridley Scott
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray
2003 Directors Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray
2003 Directors Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray (additional scenes appear to be upscaled)
Original Theatrical 70mm 6-Track Stereo: Fox 4K Blu-ray (DTS-HD MA 4.1)
Original Theatrical 35mm Matrixed Dolby Stereo: 1999 DVD? (2.0 mix on the UHD is a downmix)
2003 Directors Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray, Fox Blu-ray (DTS-HD MA 5.1)
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
US Celluloid Dreams 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
US Celluloid Dreams 4K Blu-ray caps and detailed QC breakdown
Director: Dario Argento
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
US Synapse 4K Blu-ray or UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray (some may prefer Synapse's grading, while some prefer Shameless's grading)
4.0 track on the Synapse 4K Blu-ray
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Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.