The 5.1 has altered music cues (sometimes starting a second or two earlier/later), and Carpenter’s score is also too damn loud. There are many new sound effects added throughout the film, namely insect/ambient ‘night’ noises during outdoor scenes. When Annie gets in her car and closes the door, these insect noises can still be heard (ahh!), whereas the mono mix transitions into a very eerie silence the moment this happens. If there’s something that sounds a bit unpleasant on the mono, it’s the scene where Laurie and Annie are driving around and listening to Don’t Fear the Reaper—it sounds extremely trebly in the mono, to the point of causing some serious irritation. But, it’s part of the original mix and was clearly intentional, and actually fits quite well with the era’s preference for such EQ.
A mono track is included on the 35th anniversary remaster, but it’s just a mixdown of the 5.1. The recent Shout Factory disc (which has the remastered 35th anniversary video) thankfully has a proper version of the original mono mix. But, it’s been nuked hard with noise reduction and sounds quite murky as a result (the 5.1 is similar, actually).
The Criterion LaserDisc mono track sounds miles better than the Shout mono track.
A mono track is included on the 35th anniversary remaster, but it’s just a mixdown of the 5.1. The recent Shout Factory disc (which has the remastered 35th anniversary video) thankfully has a proper version of the original mono mix. But, it’s been nuked hard with noise reduction and sounds quite murky as a result (the 5.1 is similar, actually).
The Criterion LaserDisc mono track sounds miles better than the Shout mono track.
the sad but not surprising thing is the new SF 4K master recycles the same mono track as their set, much better than the fold down mono but still disappointing nonetheless
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