Plan B Brings us a lovely package of "Stephen King's Firestarter" on Blu-ray. The 1080p image has a really nice amount of detail and grain, with a constantly impressive image. The contrast is also great, with deep blacks and a nice color range, this is helped by a completely maxed out bitrate. In short, the image here is great, especially for a film of this age.

The film is presented in its original 1.0 mono on a 24-bit linear PCM soundtrack. Obviously, one of the huge attractions of the film is the wonderful score by Tangerine Dream (Miracle Mile, Risky Business, Thief, Sorcerer etc.). The synthesizer's eerie and throbbing score only serves to highlight the intensity of ever scene. There are optional English SDH subtitles on this Region 'B'-locked Blu-ray.

Plan B have given some wonderful extras here. First, lets start with what is usually mentioned last; the packaging. This is a jam packed set with a cool fold out poster, postcard-sized lobby cards, and a 24-page booklet by horror writer Dr. Charlie Oughton. Oughton's extensive writing goes into the themes of the film, the casting, and the differences between the film and King's source text. Next up we have 2 commentary tracks. The first is with director Lester, and the second is with horror writer and Anthologist Johnny Mains. These are both great tracks full of contextual information. Next up is a really extensive 53-minute documentary on the film (and its music) featuring interviews with director Mark L. Lester, Actors Freddie Jones, Drew Snyder, Stuntman/Actor Dick Warlock And Johannes Schmoelling Of Tangerine Dream. Speaking of Tangerine Dream, we also get a separate 17-minute extra with Schmoelling discussing his music for the film, and there is a separate 2.5-minute extra with him performing the theme from the film on piano. We also get trailers for the film, as well as radio spots playing over the poster image for the film.

Wow. Plan B have given us a wonderful package for a film that has been long forgotten in most circles. The soundtrack and performances (young Drew Barrymore's performance really was radiant, so to speak). The Blu-ray packaging alone would warrant a recommendation for fans, but the transfer is the real star here, not to mention the tons of worthwhile extras. Strongly recommended.  

 - Colin Zaivitz