4K Ultra HD Film Review | Arrow Video

The Gift (2000) • 4K Ultra HD [Arrow Video] — a convincing Cate Blanchett and scary Keanu Reeves in Sam Raimi’s Southern Gothic mystery

A psychic woman in a small Georgia town becomes involved in a murder case.

Long before he was catapulted into the big leagues by Spider-Man (2002), writer-director Sam Raimi’s filmography suggested he was a horror-and-superhero specialist. It was The Evil Dead (1981) which launched his career, after all, and Darkman (1990) which became his first major box office success (even if it’s now little-remembered). But during these decades he also worked in a range of other genres, including the Western (1995’s The Quick and the Dead), Coen Brothers-style noir (1998’s A Simple Plan), the sports movie (1999’s For Love of the Game), and then Southern Gothic with The Gift.

Of these, A Simple Plan is the highest-regarded. But The Gift at its best certainly comes close. It’s not as sophisticated as A Simple Plan, true, but it’s much more human than the rather artificial-feeling, relentlessly…