Kingdom Hospital: The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	?
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Craig R. Baxley
Studio Distributor	ViaVision	Starring	Andrew McCarthy Bruce Davison Diane Ladd Brandon Bauer Jack Coleman Jennifer Cunningham Meagen Fay Lena Georgas Jamie Harrold Allison Hossack Suki Kaiser Sherry Miller Del Pentecost
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Gary Chang

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Kingdom Hospital is horror maestro Stephen King’s reworking of the Danish mini-series Riget (The Kingdom) by Lars von Trier and Niels Vorsel, moving the setting to Maine in the United States. A pre-credit sequence informs us that during the Civil War a clothing mill factory stood on the site, with terrible working conditions for the men, women and children who slaved in the factory. In 1869 the factory burnt down; most of the adults escaped but many of the children were burned alive. Later a hospital was built on the site where experiments were conducted on the human brain, before that hospital was destroyed in 1939. And now, 150 years after the mill factory fire, a modern hospital, Kingdom Hospital, has been constructed on the site but the ground is uneasy and regular earth tremors occur for some of the dead are restless and patients and staff fleetingly see, and hear, the voice of a young girl.

     In any case, the hospital staff are a bizarre bunch, most belonging to a secret society within the hospital. Head neurosurgeon Dr Stegman (Bruce Davison) is a borderline psychotic who is facing a medical malpractice claim due to botched surgery on a young girl’s brain, although Dr Brenda Abelson (Meagen Fay) still thinks Stegman is a genius and is destroying evidence of his malpractice, hospital administrator Dr Jesse James (Ed Begley Jr.) has more than a screw loose, security man Otto (Julian Richings) is almost blind, Dr Elmer Taff (Jamie Harrold) is incessantly pursuing older woman Dr Lona Massingale (Sherry Miller) who operates the hospital sleep lab while Dr Hook (Andrew McCarthy) is an excellent surgeon but has his own issues. Among the more rational personnel are Dr Christine Draper (Allison Hossack), older, conscientious doctor Louis Taff (William Wise) and Nurse Carrie (Lena Georgas), who unfortunately is prone to faint at surprises, including the sight of blood, while two Down Syndrome kitchen employees act as a Greek chorus and seem to know a lot about what is going on. And among the patients is Sally Druse (Diane Ladd) who has psychic powers and is sure that something evil has been awakened.

     Then, wealthy, successful artist Peter Rickman (Jack Colemen) is run down by a hit and run driver while jogging; with broken legs and pelvis, damage to his spine and serious head and brain damage he is admitted to the hospital barely alive where Dr Hook operates. He does what he can but he tells Peter’s wife Natalie (Suki Kaiser) that there is almost no chance of recovery. But next day Peter can occasionally open his eyes and move his fingers, which Hook can only think is a miracle although Peter remains comatose. However, Peter has paid a price for this “recovery”; he is the catalyst that opens up the link between the living and the dead, specifically the ghost of young child Mary (Jodelle Micah Ferland) and the evil that pursues her. Mrs Druse manages to convince Dr Hook that Mary exists but with additional patients being admitted with brain damage, including convicted serial killer Rolf Pederson (Jim Shield, a seismologist who is an alcoholic, a sleazy lawyer, a baseball player who famously dropped a catch which cost his team the World Series, a mounted policemen and an ancient ghost ambulance that drives around without a driver, things are only going to get more complicated and the line between worlds increasingly fluid.

     Kingdom Hospital is strange and unusual television. It is a blend of supernatural horror, comedy and gory, realistic medical procedures, the staff occasionally break out into song and dance, we hear the thoughts of comatose people, birds, animals and the huge aardvark type creature called Antubis, and witness out of life experiences. It is also very funny with a strand of macabre, black humour, including a headless corpse that searches frantically for its missing head, which turns up in various surprising places, and the ongoing issue with Stegman’s car. About two thirds of the way through the 13 episodes the series loses its focus with a couple of episodes that get off the main plot including one about a baseball player and another about a Christ like Reverend, but it does return to the main story and the climax manages to tie the strands together; whether successfully or not is a matter of personal opinion.

     Kingdom Hospital consists of 13 episodes which aired in the US between March and July 2004; the first and last are double episodes. All 13 episodes are in this set on three Blu-rays.

Video

     Kingdom Hospital is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, the original broadcast ratio, in 1080p using the MPEG 4 AVC code.

     Unusually, this TV mini-series was shot on film on the insistence of Stephen King who apparently paid the extra cost himself. Blacks are solid and shadow detail very good, seen to great effect in the grey, monochrome “otherworld” sequences. The result is a spectacular looking print. Daylight colours are deep and natural with vibrant greens and blues, while the inside of the hospital is colour neutral as expected. Detail is solid, even in the scenes in the operating theatre when the camera jumps around somewhat. Skin tones, brightness and contrast are consistent.

     Heavy grain is noticeable in some scenes but is generally nicely controlled. Artefacts are not evident.

     No subtitles are provided.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is lossy English Dolby Digital 2.0 at 448 Kbps.

     The audio is surround encoded and is surprising enveloping, so much so that I rechecked the specifications more than once. Dialogue is clean and the rears are very active with music, the noise of rain, footsteps echoing along hospital corridors, distorted voices, chaos in the operative theatre, hospital trollies, elevator noises, the thumps and rattles of earth tremors, glass shattering, crowds at the baseball park and a rumble that creates tension. The sub-woofer added depth to the lift noises and the rain.

     The original score by Gary Chang is effective; it is augmented by contemporary popular music and the haunting theme song Worry About You by Ivy.

     I did not notice any lip synchronization issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     The Blu-ray slick indicates that the discs contain as extras an audio commentary and features on the making of, the cast, the design and visual effects. These were the extras that were available on the previously released DVD set (for details, see the summary section below) but, sadly, the cover is incorrect as there are no extras provided with this Blu-ray set.

     This Blu-ray release of Kingdom Hospital: The Complete Series is the only one presently listed on sales sites.

     As a supernatural horror / mystery Kingdom Hospital sets up an interesting premise and throws into the mix quirky characters, macabre black humour and stunning visuals. The usual question when one reaches the conclusion of these supernatural mysteries is whether the explanation makes sense in terms of the films parameters. Running almost 11 hours, Kingdom Hospital meanders a bit part way through and while it does draw the various strands together in the double concluding episodes it also tends to over explain and repeat itself and, in the end, it arrives at a resolution that I felt was a cop-out. But each to their own.

     The video and audio are very good.

     A DVD set of Kingdom Hospital was released some years ago and was reviewed on this site here. The reviewer noted that it was an “all but flawless transfer”, the Dolby Digital 5.1 was very good and the extras decent. The video presentation of this Blu-ray release is also excellent, while the audio, although very good, is a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 and the extra features are missing. It is the only Blu-ray release of Kingdom Hospital presently listed on sales sites, but if you already own the DVD it is hardly worth updating. On the other hand, if you don’t have the DVDs and are a fan of Stephen King this Blu-ray of Kingdom Hospital is worth a look.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall