[Blu-Ray Review] ‘Slasher: Season One’: Now Available On Blu-ray & DVD From Scream Factory

Slasher: Season One [Blu-Ray]

Cast: Katie McGrath, Brandon Jay McLaren, Steve Byers

Release Date: Now Available On Blu-ray & DVD

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

Thirty years ago, in the sleepy community of Waterbury, a killer known as “The Executioner” murdered Sarah Bennett’s parents. Now Sarah (Katie McGrath) and her husband Dylan (Brandon Jay McLaren) have returned to town, only to find herself the centerpiece in a series of horrifying murders centered around the seven deadly sins. It seems “The Executioner” is back. But if Tom Winston – the original Executioner – is behind bars, who is the new person behind the mask? As the murders escalate, long-buried secrets are revealed, making everyone around Sarah a suspect…or a victim.

The first season of ‘Slasher’ follows married couple Sarah (McGrath) and Dylan (McLaren) Bennett as they arrive at Sarah’s hometown in order to move into her parents’ old home which she now owns. Moving in comes with its share of reluctance though as it also served as the location in which her parents were brutally murdered and she herself barely survived, still in her mother’s womb. Upon her return, a new chain of murders mysteriously begins occurring with the killer sporting the infamous costume worn by the original killer Tom Winston (Garrow) decades prior and seemingly quite interested in Sarah. Refusing to simply pack up and run away scared, Sarah begins visiting with the incarcerated Tom Winston in an attempt to gain some insight into the new killer and hopefully stop him/her before the body count increases further. Yet in a town where everyone seems to keep secrets, the real mystery of the killer and their motivation may be more difficult to unravel than she had initially expected.

‘Slasher’ is a well constructed horror series that not only manages to capture the tension and mystery of many slasher films we genre fans know and love, it also makes certain to deliver plenty of blood soaked terror and some notably gory moments, as well as providing a well done storyline featuring some surprisingly intricate characters and a collection of drama within this small town that never feels uneven or pushed. The wise decision to treat the series with the anthology approach also helps tremendously as it allows every aspect of the storyline and the mystery to come together without ever feeling stretched out or becoming stale; in many ways feeling more like a six and a half hour horror film. Creator Aaron Martin who is probably best known for his thorough involvement with the Canadian series ‘Degrassi: The Next Generation’ defies expectations and delivers an impressive series here that clearly displays his talent to venture into different genres and the relatively talented cast including Katie McGrath (Jurassic World), Brandon Jay McLaren (TV’s Graceland), Steve Byers (TV’s The Man In The High Castle), Patrick Garrow (TV’s Killjoys), Christopher Jacot (TV’s Rogue), and Dean McDermott (Saving God) along with a number more only help to make the series that much more enjoyable.

Fans of the series who caught it during its initial run on Chiller or possibly more recently on Netflix will likely want to grab a copy of ‘Slasher: Season One’ on Blu-ray to add to their collections. The Blu-ray release for the first entry in this entertaining horror anthology series delivers solid high definition video and audio presentations on every episode in the debut season. While the release unfortunately doesn’t contain much in the way of extras, including only a sole Featurette (more detailed information regarding the bonus content can be found in the special features section of the technical specification coverage below), many fans will nonetheless likely still want to grab a copy in order to relive the entire season time and again in the best possible quality available.

Overall, fans who have already had a chance to check out the series and thoroughly enjoyed it will likely want to grab a copy of ‘Slasher: Season One’ on Blu-ray in order to relive the debut season of this notable horror series time and again with the solid high definition video and audio presentations included on this release. I would also strongly urge any genre fans who haven’t yet had the pleasure of ‘Slasher’ to make certain you check it out when you have the opportunity to do so, it’s a well constructed and gory good time with some fleshed out characters that is well worth a watch and should be right up the alley of most horror fans.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Slasher: Season One’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the show’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio on all of the first season’s episodes. The video presentations look pretty wonderful as a whole and provide clean and detailed presentations on every episode with no notable faults to be found throughout. They hold up admirably even during the numerous darkly lit and/or fast moving sequences in the series, never resulting in anything occurring on screen to become negatively affected or rendered indiscernible. Overall, these are solid high definition video presentations that should easily please.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on all 8 Season One episodes. These lossless multichannel soundtracks deliver more than capable and often fairly aggressive audio presentations on every episode. Utilizing all five available channels regularly in order to send the music and a number of action related auditory effects, in addition to plenty of crowd chatter and more throughout the various speakers, while never causing any dialogue which may be occurring simultaneously to become distorted, let alone rendered inaudible. Overall, these 5.1 channel DTS-HD MA soundtracks deliver in every way required of them and contribute nicely to the overall viewing experience of this entertaining horror series.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Slasher: Season One’ includes a sole extra, a ‘Behind the Scenes’ Featurette which includes behind the scenes footage and interviews/comments with the cast and crew (running approximately 15 minutes in length).