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Screen Captures

Region ABC (Australia) BD:

Region B (UK) BD:

Note: Click the thumbnails above to enlarge images to full size. The captures are in their native 1920x1080 resolution with no image manipulation. Because of the large image sizes, integrated roll-over comparisons would be impractical. However, you can recreate the effect by using tabbed browsing: simply open the corresponding images (e.g. Australia shot 1 and UK shot 1) as separate tabs in a new browser window and cycle between them using the Ctrl+Tab hotkey.

Commentary

Is there really anything to call between these two releases in terms of video quality? Not really. Both are sourced from the same master - which features the "stylised", "contrasty" look that also characterised every DVD release known to man as opposed to the more washed out, naturalistic-looking version that appeared on the US BD release from Lions Gate - and while there are slight differences between them, it's hard to call one "better" than the other. The colour space is different, which leads to some noticeable alterations in the more saturated hues, but your guess is as good as mine as to which one (if either) is correct. Either way, I doubt it will affect anyone's purchasing decisions. I'm tempted to suggest that the encoding is a hair better on the Australian release (see the background in Example 1 or the actors' faces in Example 6 for some mild instances of blocking on the UK disc), but I've watched both in motion and had no complaints about either with regard to compression artefacts. If you went through both discs with a fine toothcomb, I'm sure you could find just as many instances of mild artefacting on the Australian release as on the UK one. This is absolutely normal: find me a BD of any kind that doesn't have a single artefact and I'll call you a liar.

In the end I wouldn't lose too much sleep over this, as the extras clearly tip the balance in favour of the UK version, which ports over everything that was included on the 2-disc DVD release, whereas the Australian disc only includes about half of the available material. On the other hand, the UK release is locked to Region B whereas the Australian release is encoded for all regions, so, for those without a Region B player, the decision has already effectively been made for you.

Basically, regardless of which one you buy, you can expect a top-notch AV presentation of one of the best horror films of the last decade. It's a win-win situation.