Software Features

Fans of horror, or genre movies in general, will have heard of FrightFest, the international film festival which plants its flag in Leicester Square each August, runs a two-day terrorthon at the Glasgow Film Festival in February, and organises one-off screenings, panel discussions and more throughout the calendar. Since its debut in 2000, it's hosted premieres from directors including George A. Romero and Neil Marshall, and been described by Guillermo del Toro as 'the Woodstock of Gore'. 

Joe Letteri has been responsible for the visual effects for many of the major box office blockbusters of the past two decades. The original Lord of The Rings trilogy, I, Robot, King Kong, Rise of The Planet of The Apes and this Summer’s Man of Steel are just some of the landmark titles that Weta Digital’s senior visual supervisor has toiled on. 

Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List is the latest high profile classic to be digitally restored by Hollywood giant Universal. Hot on the heels of the studio’s acclaimed 2012 centenary Blu-ray restorations, this 20th anniversary release makes its HD bow courtesy of the cutting-edge mastering techniques, although offered a few unique challenges all its own.

On a mission to find the platters that both test your system's mettle and provide a treat for your ears, Team HCC rounds up its favourite multichannel mixes – be they sci-fi extravaganzas, raucous 'toons or old-school classics.

25: John 'Scottie' Ferguson (Vertigo)

Tenacity and perseverance are key strengths in any cop – traits that James Stewart's detective 'Scottie' Ferguson displays both before and after retirement in Hitchcock's thriller. As Vertigo opens, even latent acrophobia can't stop Ferguson pursuing a criminal in a rooftop chase (although, sadly, it does prevent him stopping a fellow officer falling to his death). Later, an old friend's suicide leads to the kind of obsessive behaviour that's necessary to solve even the most complicated cases – but also causes Ferguson to have a nervous breakdown. Still, imagine what he would be capable of if he was working on a case he was less personally involved with. And which didn't involve heights…

The 3D Blu-ray market is exploding. Where once stereoscopic HD titles were as rare as a decent movie starring Michael Madsen, you can now fill your 3D disc-shelf with everything from music concerts and documentaries to kids’ toons, sci-fi extravaganzas and blood-soaked slasher flicks.