NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Kino have brought the late 90's science-fiction horror Deep Rising to a stacked 'Anniversary' Blu-ray edition - an inferior package was released in 2012 by Millcreek in a two-pack with The Puppet Masters HERE. The Kino is on a dual-layered disc with a very high bitrate. It looks very consistent - has some inherent softness and the creature effects are more transparent by today's standards being made in the formative years of digital F/X, but colors look true, and the film's very dark interiors are strong without noise or artifacts. It is in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio and detail in the film's frequent close-ups looks very pleasing. Thumbs up to the image quality.

Kino Lorber provide the option of a DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround or a 2.0 channel (both 16-bit) tracks in the original English language. The film is rife with effects and the surround exports some decent separation and impacting depth. The score is by the great Jerry Goldsmith (The Illustrated Man, Breakout, The Mephisto Waltz, Seconds, Hoosiers, The Blue Max, Breakheart Pass, The Omen) and it sounds impressive in the lossless adding to the film's building tension and ever-present suspense present in the second half of the film. Kino Lorber add optional English subtitles (see sample below) on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

Kino don't scrimp on the supplements starting with an audio commentary by director Stephen Sommers and editor Bob Ducsay who discuss making a 'monster movie', other cruise ship films made at the same time, and the extensive effects among other topics. It certainly has value and the participants are laid-back and informative. There are many new interviews, done by Kino, including 9-minutes with with actors Wes Studi, 1/4 hour with Kevin O'Connor and 13-minutes with Anthony Heald as well as almost a dozen minutes with second unit director Dean Cundey, VFX John Berton, VFX Van Ling, Brad Proctor (SFX/Make-Up) + Doug Morrow (SFX/Make-Up) plus cinematographer Howard Atherton covering all their expertise in creating the final product. There are a handful of Animatic sequences showing the final, 2 on the creature etc., an animated gallery as well as trailers. The package has newly commissioned Art by Jacob Phillips on the cover as well as reversible art and as a limited edition has O-card slipcase.

Deep Rising is an exhausting ride that carries a fever pace through a darn effective horror. It has a super setting on an ocean liner and doesn't let up with the heavy gore and effects. It has some creature-feature conventions with rare clear views of the always attacking beast. The Kino Blu-ray has plenty of value with a strong a/v and extensive extras including hours of interviews and the filmmaker's commentary. Absolutely recommended!

Gary Tooze