Blu-rays for home cinema nuts: Se7en

Se7enth heaven for the new Se7en Blu-ray
Se7enth heaven for the new Se7en Blu-ray

In TechRadar's weekly look at up-and-coming Blu-rays which every audiovisual head needs, we traipse through the dark and deadly territory of Se7en.

Back when Brad Pitt wasn't just known as Angelina Jolie's play thing, when Morgan Freeman didn't just play Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey was a relatively unknown actor who excelled at portraying mentalists, Se7en was a breath of putrid air for the movie industry.

Director David Fincher managed to pull off the ultimate whodunit detective story with one of the best twist endings ever seen.

And it gave us all a catchphrase for when we open our Christmas pressies. 'What's in the box,' indeed.

Disc-ussion

Se7en is finally making its way to Blu-ray and Home Cinema Choice – part of the TechRadar network – have managed to get their hands on the disc and are mightily impressed by what they have seen (and heard).

"Fans of Fincher's 1995 masterpiece are going to be blown away by Warner's Blu-ray release," said Anton van Beek, News Editor for HCC.

"Not only does this BD50 pack in pretty much all of the bonus materials from New Line's two-disc Platinum Edition US DVD release (including four commentaries, deleted scenes, extensive art and photo galleries, and even the featurettes looking at the video and audio remastering for that release), but Fincher himself has overseen a great brand-new transfer."

It's a sin

The transfer for the film has been completely re-done since the DVD version, with van Beek noting: "Unlike the oddly green-tinted remaster that appeared on DVD, the new VC-1 2.40:1 1080p encode has been completely overhauled to deliver an image that is much more in-keeping with the original CCE silver retention process that was used on the initial first-run prints during the film's cinema release.

"And if all of that ain't enough for you, then there's also a thunderous DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix to give your speaker system one hell of a workout."

To prove how good the transfer is, HCC has posted some high-res images of the film, taken straight from the Blu-ray. They are so good, you can pretty much read every word in John Doe's diaries.

Get your self over to hcc.techradar.com now to see for yourself.

The Blu-ray version of Se7en has a UK release date of 25 October and will be priced at £17.99.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.