I have not seen a good, newly released horror film in sometime, so when I was asked if I wanted to review B.T.K I jumped at the chance, although I made that choice simply by looking at the cover on Amazon, even though I should know that you shouldn’t judge a book (nor a film) by its cover.

The film is based upon the real life murderer Dennis L. Rader who was captured in 2005 and sentenced for the murders of 7 women, 1 man and 2 children. B T K stands for Bind, Torture, Kill, for the style he used to killhis victims. This film is a fictional piece and does not represent the crimes that he is actually convicted of.

Writer/Director Michael Feifer has directed 11 movies so far, none of them I have heard or and none of them scoring over 4.3 on IMDB so I prepared myself for a major disappointment as I put the disk in the player; but ratings have been wrong before, will they be wrong now?

Kane Hodder plays the part of Dennis Rader and he has the thickest neck in the entire world. He is a family man, a man with a decent job as a compliance officer although he does come across as over zealous and a complete jobs-worth in this and a man with a passion for binding, torturing and killing innocent people.

As I said earlier because of looking at the directors previous movie outings I was preparing to be disappointed with the film however, I have to say it was not as bad as I had first feared, although by no means perfect I felt that there were elements that came across very well; the gory bits were convincing, and there were scenes that had some genuine tension and I suppose that these surprised me as I was expecting the film to be terrible. The problem for me was the story or lack of one. The entire film for the most part seemed to be a series of set pieces for the crimes that are committed with little to no story in-between and that is where, for me, it falls down, although saying that it is suggested that the film could be a dream sequence which would explain the set piece type of story.

Acting wise Kane Hodder is actually pretty good, he is a big guy and can look menacing and yet harmless at the same time. He actually has a lot of experience within the movie world mainly as a stunt man working on films such as se7en and enemy of the state but also as an actor where he has played Jason Voorhees in various Friday the 13th movies; however he is let down by some of the supporting actors, the worst of which were the actresses who played his daughters they could not convince me that they had any range of emotion and this stood out like a sore thumb, Dru Ashcroft who played Sharon being the worst culprit, so much so that in a few emotions scenes towards the end of the film, when you look at her she is showing just zero emotion to the situation that is unfolding, and when she does do something like cuddle her mother she turns her face away from the camera and you know its because she would just not be convincing any other way.

There isn’t really much else to say about the film, it is not mind numbingly terrible and from what I’ve read about the other B.T.K movies that are out there then this one may well be the best of them yet, but at the same time there are enough poor points to keep the movie in the category of an average B-Movie which is mildly entertaining.

Picture:

The picture is surprisingly good for a low budget film. The image is sharp and clear. Even on some of the brighter scenes there was no real blooming of any kind, blacks were nice with little detail lost, The dream sequences where everything is tinged with yellow looks particularly clean too, overall I was very happy with the picture quality.

Sound:

The score consists of a creepy musical undertone that permeates throughout its running length, at the beginning it comes across as quite creepy but soon fades into the background and is quite unmemorable. I couldn’t really hear much going on in the surrounds on this Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The dialogue was sometime quite low, but generally was sufficient even though it only came from the front array, there are no real loud noises and certainly nothing to test any speakers really, overall the sound was sufficient.

Special Features:

Audio commentary with Director Michael Feifer and Actor Kane Hodder:
This was quite an interesting commentary, it is pretty lively from the directors side of things, Kane is more subdued but we are treated to a decent analysis of each scene and the ideas of the director.

Behind the Scenes:
The director talks us mainly through the crimes that take place within the film, certainly not something to watch before watching the main feature as it would like spoil those scenes in the film, we do find out that the entire shooting period of the film was 10 days, which concerned me somewhat as I did indeed watch this feature before watching the main feature. This feature is around 19 minutes long

Overall:

It is a mildly interesting film although does have problems with the story and some of the actors performances but from what I’ve heard this seems to be one of the better B.T.K movies out there. If B-Movies about serial killers is your thing then this maybe worth a rental but you would need to be a die-hard fan in order to purchase.

View The Whole Blog At Movie District

B.T.K (Bind, Torture, Kill): DVD Review

Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs is the first ‘real’ horror film in years for one simple reason, it’s horrifying. The French director pulled no punches with this film, and has made possibly one of the most graphic films ever to be released.
 
Although saying that this isn’t your average slasher film that’s completely void of any plot, this is instead a twisted story which revolves around violence and torture. It begins in the 70’s, when a young child named Lucie (Mylène Jampanoï) is found wandering the French roads with obvious signs of abuse. The police soon find that she had been tortured at great length in a disused slaughterhouse, which she had apparently never left, and strangely for an abuse case of this nature there are no traces of sexual contact. Luice is soon placed in an orphanage, where she befriends a girl called Anna (Morjana Alaoui), although she remains traumatized by what has happened to her, beings self-harming, seeing things and refuses to communicate the experience to anyone else.
 
After one fairly frightening incident in the care home involving a mutilated girl, the film picks up fifteen years later, after the pair have left the orphanage, and still traumatised by her ordeal Lucie is out for revenge. She tracks down her former abusers, and aims to make them pay for what they did, however Anna isn’t so sure that it is them, as the only evidence is a newspaper photo and Lucie’s old memories. The onset of violence is quick and uncompromising, as Luice exacts her particular brand of revenge with little remorse, spattering the victims’ blood all over the pristine white walls they called home.
 
That look, the red blood on white walls, is very powerful; presenting the setting almost like an abattoir, something which is heightened by the level of brutality and limited colour palette used, as practically all major colours seen are red, white or black. It’s not just powerful, but mesmerising, and yet slightly distracting, as you constantly realize that the cinematography and direction have come together so perfectly that every shot is tragic, yet beautiful, but that success is also a downfall as the viewer is constantly reminded that they are watching a film.

 
Then again, Martyrs is also a film that can thoroughly draw the viewer in, and keep them transfixed, as mentioned before; this isn’t an average slasher film, and characters here really matter, you feel disturbed yet saddened by Lucie’s actions, waiting for her to ‘get better.’ It’s similar with Anna, at the beginning you are slightly indifferent to her, as she is little more than the rational side of Lucie’s personality, but as the story progresses she becomes worthwhile, and particularly in the latter half anyone watching would feel a deep sympathy for the ordeals that befall her. Martyrs is largely void of other characters, and whilst they appear, and in some cases play fairly important parts they are largely soulless (something that is perfectly fitting for the majority of later characters) but also have believable interactions with one another, something helped that the acting by all parties involved (particularly Morjana Alaoui and Mylène Jampanoï) is superb and near faultless.
 
Horror fans won’t be disappointed, as there is plenty of gore here, and Martyrs is definitely not one for the squeamish, there’s gallons of blood, a fair chunk of torture and plenty of cringe-worthy sadomasochistic charm, but that’s not to say that other audiences won’t be entertained, as the story develops, particularly in that latter half, as more of a spiritual one and has you caring what happens to the leads, not simply waiting for the next bimbo to get bumped off. The particularly graphic nature of the film rejects the notion that less is more, and instead opts for bloody, shocking realism, allowing the viewer to see everything, something which could have failed the film, if not for the amazing job conducted by the effects department; every gunshot, cut, hammer to the head or even skin-peel (that’s right, skin-peel) looks real, not just good, but real. Prosthetics, CGI and make-up all work together exceptionally well here to create an effect even hardened viewers would have troubled picking apart, and help to fully immerse the viewer in the gory spectacle.
 
In short, Martyrs is simply a must for any horror fan, it’s got shock value, will make you jump and doesn’t fail to frighten. However, one point that is worth hammering home, it is a French film, without an English soundtrack, so be prepared to read the subtitles; and for those of you thinking that as it’s a horror “ahhh” sounds the same in every language, it does, but remember there is a story here, with character interaction and spiritual messages which you will need to read to fully appreciate this film. And again, it is very violent, so if Hostel was too much for you, steer clear as the truly graphic nature of Martyrs is likely to not only have you up all night, but to have you up all night with your head down the toilet.

Picture:

Martyrs is presented in full 1080p glory, and it’s a transfer that doesn’t disappoint; every spatter of blood, every wrinkle and every tear are as rich and detailed as can be. This isn’t The Dark Knight, or RocknRolla, but it’s amazingly close, blacks are bold and deep, the contrast is particularly striking and helped by the director’s choice of colours, and whilst there is the inevitable spot of grain, it’s hardly distracting, hardly noticeable and hardly there. Truly one of the best Blu-ray transfers to date.
 
Audio:

Once more Martyrs fails to disappoint, as the soundtrack is presented in DTS HD Master Audio, and the 5.1 track is crystal clear. However surprisingly for a horror it makes little use of the rear channels, with only one or two relatively short uses during the entire film and it isn’t a film with much bass, but there is some subtle application of the woofer. Seppuku Paradigm’s score was completely forgettable, some people say that the best film scores are ones that you do not notice, a statement that isn’t totally without merit, but do not expect to be moved either way by the music from the relatively new composer. Whilst this may not be the sensory extravaganza that one would expect from a horror title on Blu-ray the sound is perfectly clear, and more than adequate for shocking the audience, and progressing the story.

Extras:

The special features on the disc are limited, yet quite in depth and detailed. There is a making of featurette, interview with writer/ director Pascal Laugier and an interview with the special effects/make-up artist Benoit Lestang. Each one is fairly detailed and interesting, with a uniquely intimate and low budget family feel. However any non-French speaker is likely to become both distracted and bored whilst watching the features, as they consist of constant talking (as you would expect from an interview) and therefore the need to read subtitles makes them feel stretched.

The Bottom Line:

Martyrs is well worth a look, even if that look comes from behind a cushion. I usually wouldn’t put much stock in foreign films, and generally don’t want to read subtitles, but for anyone that doesn’t mind having to read this is a gem. Strangely for a horror film it actually has realistic characters that you will feel for, and a strange yet slightly undefined spiritual element. If horror or subtitles aren’t you’re things then steer clear, as a strong stomach is needed to watch Martyrs. Picture and audio quality are superb (despite little use of rear channels) which more than warrant the extra money for the Blu-ray, but the extras would only really be suitable for hardcore fans, or French speakers. It’s a unique film, that’s worth a look, has garnered huge praise, been marked for a Hollywood remake and propelled Pascal Laugier to the big time; so if it’s simply the language that puts you off, it maybe worth waiting for the Americanised version, or Pascal’s upcoming remake of Hellraiser, otherwise, I advise you watch this beautifully crafted, uniquely twisted thriller.

View The Whole Blog At Movie District

Martyrs, Blu Ray Review

Mirrors (Region 2)
A man whom we don’t know is running through a subway, we have no idea why he is running, but he looks scared. He finds his way to a locker room and tries to get out by way of a window, only he can’t. Suddenly the locker doors start to open and on the inside of each is a mirror, the mirrors start to crack and splinter, the man looks horrified, he repeats that he doesn’t want to die over and over before slitting his own throat with a shard of glass… so begins Mirrors.

Ben Carson (Kiefer Sutherland) is a suspended NYPD detective with a recently disowned drink problem who has taken a job as a night security guard in a burnt out department store called The Mayflower. He has taken the job to get back on his feet to provide for himself and his ex-wife Amy (Paula Patton) and Children Daisy (Erica Gluck) and Michael (Cameron Boyce).

He is shown around the place by the day watchman Lorenzo Sapelli (John Shrapnel) however before the end of his first night Ben realises that all is not as it should be. The mirrors show things that are not happening around him. The mirrors become menacing and he realises that there is something malevolent behind the glass. Something that if given the chance will destroy him and his family.

Frenchman Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes) helms this horror/mystery release and does a pretty good job too… at least in the first half which I found to be excellent in terms of both the tension that is portrayed to the viewer through the fast paced start with the guy running through the subway through to the brilliant set that they used for the actual department store. I found this particularly eerie and was interested to read in the extras that rather than a sound stage a lot of the interior shots were in an old, mostly abandoned building in Romania. This location is excellent in portraying how I would imagine a burnt out department store to look, with ruined counter tops, half burnt and melted mannequins casting a ghostly eye over the charred walls and floors, ash and debris everywhere but with perfectly clean mirrors sitting as a contrast between all the chaos.

It is also worth mentioning that the lighting in these initial shots around the stores are very well executed and really gives us a feel for what this place is. I felt that they really set the tone well. The second half of the film lost a little of what they had built in the first half as the film centred on his estranged family for extended periods of time and the film turns into a chase to solve the clues kinda movie. Whilst not terrible this did cause some of the tension and what I felt was fairly unique about the film to fizzle out a little during the final phases.

Acting wise the film stood up too, I’ve always enjoyed watching Keifer Sutherland and he delivers a convincing performance as an ex alcoholic detective who is suspended for accidently shooting a policeman, quite how he come to shoot a uniformed Police Officer is never explained but as Sutherlands character is portrayed as a good guy then I have to assume it was an accident of some description. But the little bit of back story on this is there to explain why him and his wife are apart at the moment and also explains some of the clue solving later in the movie.

Paula Patton plays his wife Amy, she doesn’t have much to do at the beginning of the film but her role comes more to the fore in the last two thirds, she is a strong, beautiful woman and holds her own against the very good Sutherland also has one of the worst lines in the film when finally realising her husband isn’t a fruitcake and some weird stuff is definitely happening within the mirrors by saying “I should have believed you” and she felt guilty about doubting him. That’s not her fault though, just a dodgy line that should have been removed from the script.

The kids are pretty good in it too, I generally find that kids can be a little wooden in films but these seemed fairly natural and comfortable in their roles, which of course didn’t hurt the movie one bit.

Overall I found Mirrors to be an enjoyable movie, the first half is definitely better than the second, but even falling into a fairly generic movie towards the end doesn’t make it a bad movie. But you won’t be keeping a wary eye on your reflective surfaces afterwards.

The Disc
On inserting the disc you get the option between theatrical and unrated version, nothing else. I went for the unrated version. After you have chosen this you go through to the more familiar menus such as special features, scene selection etc.

Once the disc is in we get play, language, scene selection and special features, language has English 5.1m English audio descriptive audio 5.1 dolby, Italian, castellano. There are also subtitles in various languages.

Extras
Play Theatrical/Unrated Version depending on which option you chose at the beginning.

Deleted and Alternate Scenes:
Here you can play them all or individually either with or without commentary there are 7 deleted scenes and an alternate ending to view. The usual reasons are there for deleted the scenes although they are mainly because they didn’t really add anything to the story.

The sound quality on the alternate ending is a bit naff, obviously not being polished up to release standard something they admit to in the commentary. They had added a few shots and taken a few away, it didn’t really alter the ending, in fact it gave less away about the end so I think the one they went with was the better of the two.

Reflections: The Making of Mirrors:
A decent making of documentary that covers all aspects of production of the film, covering the story, cast, production etc so we get a good idea of what went into the making of the film. An annoying thing here is when the editor speaks as he only speaks French, whereas everyone else does manage English so you will need the subtitles on, but only for a few minutes dotted around the film.

Behind the Mirror:
This extra has some of the actors and crew talking about the general mythology surrounding mirrors.

Weblinks to three fox websites

Ratings for disc overall

Film:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Video:	★★★★★★★★☆☆
Audio:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Extras:	★★★★★★★★☆☆
Overall:	★★★★★★★★☆☆

View The Whole Blog At Movie District

Mirrors – DVD Review

Undead or Alive, A Zombedy

Everything about this film screams comedy, from the full title “Undead or Alive, A Zomedy” through to a few funny written lines at the beginning telling us we won’t have to read for much longer. So genre wise it would be more like Shaun of the Dead than Day of the Dead but also has the added originality of being a comedy zombie film set in the old Wild West. The film lasts for about 80 minutes, but was it a scream or a squib?

Apparently the last act that the famous Indian Geronimo performed was to create a curse for the white man, this curse gives them a hunger for human flesh and the curse can be transferred by a bite. A farmer called Ben (Brian Posehn) is in jail waiting to be hanged after eating his family. Elmer (James Denton) who is an Army deserter and Luke (Chris Kattan) who is a broken hearted cowboy are in jail themselves after getting into a fight although it isn’t long before they escape locking the deputy in the cell next to Ben. From there it seems that everyone gets bitten whilst Luke and Elmer flee town. Ben bites the Deputy, who bites the sheriff and the both of them bite the posse that has been formed to track the fugitives. Meanwhile Elmer and Luke meet Sue (Navi Rawat) Geronimo’s niece and they try to escape the zombified posse that are tracking them.

I must admit I didn’t think that I would enjoy this film; I thought it would be one of those really low budget films with gallons of gore, and little real entertainment value. But I am glad to say that I was pleasantly wrong. The story itself isn’t that original with it really just being a chase movie with our three people trying to get away from a posse, what is original though, at least to me, was the fact that it was set in the wild west and although not side splittingly funny it had some good gags.

Acting wise things are ok, Denton comes across well as the straight guy, good with a gun and coming up with most of the ideas, he is the overly sensible one, Kattan is there for the laughs and whilst sometimes I just thought his lines were a bit silly he thankfully didn’t really go for full on slapstick and most of his gags raised a smile, although little else. Rawat was good in her role, she is a beautiful woman and her part Indian heritage definitely helped her come across as being as authentic as she could in the film, in terms of looks at least. Chris Coppola played Cletus the deputy, he was the main comedy element of the Zombie side; he reminded me a bit like Nick Frost’s Ed in Shaun of the Dead only nowhere near as funny. Lastly Matt Besser was the evil Sheriff Claypool bent on revenge after Luke and Elmer steal his retirement money; he came across as a nasty piece of work even when he wasn’t a zombie even if he did look like a cross between Charles Bronson and Charlie Chan.

It certainly isn’t a film to be taken seriously, Rawat’s character spurts out dialogue that as an Indian she just wouldn’t know and language is used throughout that probably was not used in that time, but it’s doesn’t really matter as no one watching this movie is really going to expect historical accuracy when dealing with a comedy zombie film. However all three of the “good guys” seem to have good onscreen chemistry and come the end of the movie I felt that I had been entertained and it was an ok film.

Sound
Its a Dolby Digital 5.1 track which came across as clear and level regardless of loud noises or dialogue, surrounds were used to some degree but I would liked to have heard more from the rears.

Picture
For a budget film this has an excellent trnsfer, nice natural colours show off the landscape very well.

Extras
There are three extras on the disc, an audio commentary with Director Glasgow Phillips although it also has James Denton and Navi Rawat in on the chat. It is quite a light hearted talk through the film and worth a watch although it seems that James and Navi are sitting at the back of the room with the microphone being at front, Chris Kattan actually comes in on the commentary a few minutes in. From South Park to the Wild Wild West is a documentary where Glasgow Phillips talks about the whole concept and production of the film, I got the impression that he really felt out of his depth when making it and I have to give him credit for coming up with a film that was quite entertaining. Geronimonsters, the zombies that walked the west looks into the make-up that went into making the zombies in the film.

Overall
Not the best film you’re going to see, but a light hearted, fun comedy film that has good entertainment value for its relatively short running time.

View The Whole Blog At Movie District

Undead or Alive DVD Review

Ángela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) is a reporter whom along with her cameraman Pablo (Pablo Rosso) are spending the night with a Barcelona fire crew for a TV program called while you sleep; my guess is that it is supposed to be one of those documentaries that shadow a group for a period of time to give an insight into their lives. Whilst at the station a call comes in about a woman trapped in an apartment and they all jump in the fire engine to assess the situation.

Once their they join two policeman who are already onsite and they make their way to the apartment that the lady lives in, once there they find a crazed, bloodied and distressed woman who attacks and bites one of the police officers. Panic ensues as they carry the wounded cop to the entrance of the building only to find that the entire building has been sealed and Ángela, Pablo and the residents of the apartment block are trapped inside with infected people they show very aggressive tendencies.

Before I start anyway I will tell you that this film is a Spanish film with a Spanish soundtrack (either Dolby 5.1 or DTS) although you can pull up English subtitles. The reason I viewed it was because I recently reviewed a film called Quarantine and when doing my research for that film found that it was supposedly almost a shot for shot remake of this Spanish movie called REC, however a lot of reviewers seemed to think that this film was much better than the remade American counterpart… so was it?

The simple answer is no. See, Quarantine is almost a shot for shot remake of REC, obviously with different actors but if you have seen one then you most certainly will recognise pretty much everything that happens in the film. Also as the acting in each film is very good and on par with one another, I cannot see how one film can be classed as superior to the other. I just think it is a case of people being aggrieved that the film was copied in the first place and the obvious reason for that is because generally people prefer to see an English speaking film, not everyone appreciates a film with sub-titles no matter how good the movie.

Actor wise, unless you’re into Spanish films you will not have heard of anyone, but the acting from the main characters was very good, everybody seemed well cast for their role and nothing really stood out as unbelievable which is always a bonus. For me not knowing the actors involved at gave it a real documentary feel to it, I felt that it we were seeing these events unfold in front of the camera, the mother of the small girl was particularly convincing as someone panicked and on the verge of hysteria. And it did all come across as a bit scary when everything starts out all relatively calm and ordered before degenerating into a panic fuelled mess.

I thought that the editing maybe slightly superior in REC, I am sure there were a few scenes and cuts sprinkled in that just seemed to handled a little better than the US remake, but saying that I think that the location used in the US version was superior to this one, particularly in the foyer areas, whereas the apartment and the penthouse at the top all looked pretty good no matter which version you view. The only other real area of differences was the soundtrack. I ran with the Spanish DTS track with English Subtitles and found the bass to be nice and rich, definitely adding to the atmosphere and making certain scenes that little more jumpy. As a final point I don’t understand why all the healthy people didn’t lock themselves away in a abandoned apartment once they realised how it was caused. 7/10

Extras
Extras are totally lame on this particular disc, consisting of 4 trailers for Waz, the escapist, one missed call and shutter. 0/10

Overall
Apart from these small differences I thought that both films were really just as good as each other, both told a story well, both had good scary jumpy moments but the American remake edged ahead for me only because it had an English soundtrack and I personally prefer English sound tracks, but even so i couldnt mark down the score on that. 7/10

View The Whole Blog At Movie District

[REC] DVD Review

Movie

Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) hosts a TV show and she along with her cameraman Scott (Steve Harris) are spending some time with a Los Angeles Fire Department in order to examine what these guys do on a typical night shift. She and Scott are being shown around the department by George (Johnathon Schaech) and Jake (Jay Hernandez) when a call comes in reporting strange screams coming from an apartment building downtown. They all leap on the fire truck for the drive and they enter the building to find a number of scared residents and a couple of Police Officers. Upon investigating the apartment where the screams are coming from they find an old women acting very strangely; the old woman attacks one of the group. This spooks everyone out but when they try and leave the building they find that the CDC (Centre for Disease Control) has quarantined it and isn’t letting anyone out. Meanwhile other people seem to be showing the same symptoms as the old woman and the race is on for them to find an escape route before they are turned upon.

From what I’ve read Quarantine is almost a direct remake of a Spanish thriller called [REC], although I cannot verify that as I have yet to see that version of the film. However something that was apparent when reading other opinions on the film was that whilst everyone seemed to praise [REC] very highly, most people seemed inclined not to lavish that same praise onto Quarantine, this surprised me really as although the film does have its faults, if it was a shot-to-shot remake of the “superior” Spanish film why would that one be excellent and this one bad? It certainly isn’t the acting that drags it down as I thought that for the most part the acting came across as realistic and certainly when people start to panic in the film some of that panic emanates from the TV to the viewer. I say for the most part because there are a few incidents of what I called “Stupid Syndrome” where a person will do something that does not ring true in real life and it breaks some of the suspension of disbelief, with quarantine stupid syndrome is basically approaching people that are obviously infected asking if they are “ok” when in reality anyone how is looking even remotely ill would be avoided and all costs.

Quarantine

For me those parts didn’t ruin the film and it certainly didn’t make it a bad one; and don’t forget this is supposed to be almost a take for take copy of [REC] so that same problem may (I assume) exist in that movie too? Perhaps then it is the fact that it is guilty of being a remake, and that it was made around the same time as the Spanish film If so then that is really an unfair way to judge a film, after all I would rather watch a film that has an English soundtrack as opposed to reading English Subtitles off of the Spanish only soundtrack in [REC], it doesn’t make that Spanish film a bad film; it is simply my preference that I prefer English as the spoken language for films. Anyway that aside I felt that the movie had everything that I look for in a horror film, and that is jumps, scares, some good visuals and effects as well as a creepy location. So for me the film certainly hit the right note.

Picture

The film is shot in the documentary style with a handheld camera similar to that of Blair Witch and Cloverfield. This does take a little getting used to, and it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I must say it is a style that I like especially in a horror film where it elevates the panic that the characters are feeling to a whole new level especially when the location is a darkened apartment building using soft lights that cast deep shadows across everything.

Audio

We get a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack (English) which adds that extra element to the film, all dialogue is clear and the general audio is nice and punchy with lots of LFE usage and the surrounds are utilised effectively too. Loud noises and the “scary bits” within the film are done well and you will be sure to jump once or twice as action gets ramped up.

Quarantine

Extras

Commentary with writer/director John Erick Dowdle and writer/producer Drew Dowdle:

Quite an interesting commentary from the two brothers as they discuss aspects of the movie, the actors and location choices etc. worth a listen.

Locked in: The making of Quarantine

Standard making of documentary really, it doesn’t go on forever but gives enough information to make it fairly interesting.

Dressing the infected: Robert Halls make-up design

Robert Hall whose company almost human did the special effect son the film, and here he explains the process.

Anatomy of a stunt

This is a pretty good sequence actually that goes into detail on one of the stunts that went on in the film, it really highlights the amount of work that goes into doing stunts in films.

Trailers

5 trailers one being a blu-ray is high definition, then Red Sands, Screamers: The Hunting, Against the Dark and Lakeland Terrace

Overall

I enjoyed the movie, I thought it was scary, made you jump and kept you on the edge of your seat although there is a stupid syndrome that affects some people, so a good effort from me.

View The Whole Blog At Movie District

Quarantine, DVD Review

The basic story is that Joan Burrows (Angela Bettis) used to live in a small town in Colorado called Ovid, she moved away after killing a local undertaker called Ernie Bishop who had been kidnapping, torturing and cutting kids up for laughs, Joan would have been one of his victims had she not been able to escape her bonds and kill him. Well now she has come back to town to see her brother (Christopher Titus) and her niece Olympia (Kirby Bliss Blanton) who is to be prom queen, but upon her return the murders start to occur again and where being a teenager in Ovid, Colorado isn’t such a good thing.

As indicated above, the unique selling point of this film is that it is in 3D, so you can now watch all your stomach churning, gory bloodfest in 3D splendour but gimmicks like that do not necessarily make a good film and we will come back to the 3D portion of the film later, is the actual film any good? Erm… not really but then maybe that is because I am not a massive fan of mindless slasher films that liberally apply gore, guts and fake blood to everything.

The acting from everyone is pretty much average to what you would expect of a film like this also the whole thing has a very low cost feel about it to me and I found that I wasn’t particularly engaged or caring about any of the characters and come the end of the film I was quite relieved.

The 3D is done pretty well, you really get a good depth of field although some shots are too dark for it to look that good, but then horror films are shot in the dark, and so it was always going to be a trade off, but even so it was pretty well done, I have to say though that the stupid cardboard 3D glasses that came with the review copy gave me a headache after a while, luckily there is a 2D version of the film on the same disc. Despite its decent 3D aspect, even that isn’t enough to elevate this movie above mediocre.

Overall I would say that unless you are a fan of B film teen slasher movies then this is one to avoid.

View The Whole Blog At Movie District

Scar 3D, DVD Review

         

Quarantine

Available to buy on Blu-ray and DVD / rent on DVD 9th March 2009

First-rate fright-fest Quarantine is available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray on 9th March 2009, courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

A critically acclaimed remake of the cult hit [Rec], Quarantine stars JENNIFER CARPENTER (Exorcism of Emily Rose, TV’s Dexter), JAY HERNANDEZ (Hostel, Lakeview Terrace), and JOHNATHON SCHAECH (Prom Night, That Thing You Do).

No details, no witnesses and no evidence – until now. Television reporter Angela Vidal and her cameraman are assigned to spend the night shift with an LA Fire Station. After a routine 911 call takes them to a small apartment building, they find police officers already on the scene in response to blood curdling screams coming from one of the apartments. They soon learn that a woman living in the building has been infected by something unknown. After a few of the residents are viciously attacked, they try to escape with the news crew in tow, only to find that the building has been quarantined…

A genuinely chilling and claustrophobic film that racks up the tension with stunning special effects and realistic hand-held camera work, this must-see horror is as scary as hell with a host of jumpy scenes.

Guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat, dare you see Quarantine?
Quarantine Links

Zip
http://greenroom-press.com/clients/sony_pictures/home_ents/Quarantine/quarantine_16x9.zip

Quicktime
http://greenroom-press.com/clients/sony_pictures/home_ents/Quarantine/quarantine_16x9_hi.mov
http://greenroom-press.com/clients/sony_pictures/home_ents/Quarantine/quarantine_16x9_med.mov
http://greenroom-press.com/clients/sony_pictures/home_ents/Quarantine/quarantine_16x9_lo.mov

Windows
http://greenroom-press.com/clients/sony_pictures/home_ents/Quarantine/quarantine_16x9_hi.wmv
http://greenroom-press.com/clients/sony_pictures/home_ents/Quarantine/quarantine_16x9_med.wmv
http://greenroom-press.com/clients/sony_pictures/home_ents/Quarantine/quarantine_16x9_lo.wmv

Real Media
http://greenroom-press.com/clients/sony_pictures/home_ents/Quarantine/quarantine_16x9_hi.rm
http://greenroom-press.com/clients/sony_pictures/home_ents/Quarantine/quarantine_16x9_med.rm
http://greenroom-press.com/clients/sony_pictures/home_ents/Quarantine/quarantine_16x9_lo.rm

View The Whole Blog At Movie District

Quarantine

What they believe they’ll find there is an ancient pyramid that predates the Egyptian, Cambodian and Aztec pyramids but contains features from all three cultures so may be a missing link to these ancient cultures. They also hope that it will hold an array of fabulous secrets that have lain beneath the ice for millennia. What they don’t realize is that they are being lured into an ancient battleground where they are intended to be the ritual sacrifices necessary to allow mankind’s ancient Gods to prove themselves worthy of their kind by hunting and killing the most terrifying creature in the galaxy.

Review

This is the movie fans of both franchises had been waiting for ever since, by some caprice of Stan Winston, an Alien skull appeared in the spaceship trophy room in Predator 2. That sparked the fans hunger for a confrontation between the two most terrifying movie creatures to date and what resulted was a series of comic books and video games that just had to inevitably lead to a movie and 15 years later, here we have it.

Most of you will already know that this movie suffered from a fairly negative and later unsubstantiated internet press around the time of its release but, having seen it in the cinema, I didn’t think it was as bad as was being put around at the time, even though it’s obvious that it was shot to get it in on a PG-13 certificate (and a wider teen audience). Director and co-writer Paul W.S. Anderson must take some of the stick but, avid Alien fan that he is, he stepped down from directing both Mortal Kombat: Devastation and Resident Evil: Apocalypse to write and direct this film and even though it’s already been nominated for a Razzie for worst remake or sequel, I think he made a reasonable, if flawed attempt.

First thing, the movie is too short at just 96 minutes and over 11 of those are spent on the end credits. That leads to a serious lack of build-up and character development resulting in a lack of fear factor and, other than for a few of the characters, I never really cared either way what happened to them and most were just monster fodder. The lack of time also meant things were rushed through to get to the action. For example, when John Hurt got impregnated in Alien it took several hours for the creature to gestate and rip its way out and then it took a while for it to grow but here, all of that seemed to take a few minutes to get from the face hugging of a few initial victims to a pyramid full of full grown Alien nasties. Then there’s the lack of the gore present in earler movies in the franchise, another price paid for its younger certificate.

There are a few other bits of sheer bollocks in the script such as saying things like “ancient maps show Antarctica was free of ice”. Sorry but any such maps would need to be modern ones as there wasn’t anyone around then to make the maps. References to time were also a bit outrageous. I mean, why would the Predators measure anything by our solar system time reference and if they came back every 100 years, there must have been some lean hunts before mankind returned to the Antarctic or we had satellites to “notice” their presence. Then there’s the laughable device that can be used to dial 10/10/2004, not even remotely close to the Aztec’s way of measuring such things, and the 10-minute cycle used to reconfigure the pyramid based on the same premise.

Anyway, the negative stuff aside, while Anderson hasn’t exactly had a stream of hits so far (Mortal Kombat, Soldier, Resident Evil), his directing here is on target and his style of fast cuts and well framed shots suits the pace of the film. The cast also perform well enough – Sanaa Lathan, who played Wesley Snipes’ mom in Blade, is the real heroine of the piece as Alexa Woods, the team guide and Lance Henriksen, a serious veteran of science fiction movies including Aliens and Alien³, gives an excellent performance as Weyland and it was nice to see him back in the franchise. Others worth a mention, although they don’t really add much to the story, are Raoul Bova and Ewen Bremner as two of the scientists and Colin Salmon as Weyland’s right hand man. Everyone else is pretty forgettable and just fodder for the hunt.

The picture is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and is an absolutely excellent transfer even given that most of the scenes are pretty dark being shot at night or underground in the pyramid. Colours and blacks are solid and shadows well defined and everything is sharp and free of grain, artefact, etc. Altogether an excellent quality picture. The sets and visual effects are also excellent with the Aliens and Predators well realised and especially the periodically reshaping pyramid – a brilliant concept that adds a little more edge to the plot.

There are two choices for sound, a Dolby Digital 5.1 and a DTS 5.1 track. The DTS is as ever the best of the two but you really won’t be disappointed with the Dolby track if you don’t have the hardware to appreciate the DTS one. Both are very well engineered surround sound experiences and once the action gets going down in the continually reshaping pyramid, the soundstage becomes seriously dynamic and effects laden. The DTS track is simply excellent and adds so much more value to the movie.

Anyway, leaving the fairly thin plot to one side, what this movie is all about is the battle between the Predators and Aliens and the scenes where we get to see them get it on. Can the technologically advanced and super strong Predator species prevail over the ultimate predatory species, the Alien? Their history in this movie suggests that they can or they wouldn’t breed them for this sport but the result is never a sure thing and the danger factor is still there and the fight scenes between the two in the film worked quite well for me. As for the corny ending, it reminded me of the ending in Species and it’s obviously a lead into a possible sequel with some new possibilities so here’s hoping they do it a lot better than this one.

Extras

There are two discs here and a pretty full package of extras…

Disc 1

This contains both the theatrical and extended versions of the movie, the latter of which was being hyped as containing a new, never seen in the cinemas, opening sequence. However, that is all you get, a new opening that lasts about 90 seconds, almost a teaser trailer in itself, and no other deleted or extended scenes.

Commentary by Paul W.S. Anderson, Lance Henriksen and Sanaa Lathan – This is a pretty good collaboration where they all seem to be enjoying the experience and that gives us some good information all round and really shows us just how Alien crazy Anderson is. It covers all the usual stuff such as casting, characters, sets, locations and the monsters and we also get a rundown on all the little tributes to the earlier movies in both franchises, and there are a lot of them.

Commentary by Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr. and John Bruno – This is the technical commentary and these guys are the creature designers and visual effects supervisor. They’ve all worked on some of the earlier Alien or Predator movies and they give an interesting commentary on the visual effects used here and give some comparisons on those used on the earlier movies as more and more use is made of CGI these days. It’s not as chatty as the other commentary and is a bit drier but tech-heads will probably love it.

NB: The above commentaries are only available in the theatrical version of the movie.

Inside Look – Promotional previews and behind the scenes peeks at some upcoming Fox projects. Includes Hide and Seek, Elektra and Robots and lasts about six and a half minutes in all.

Trailers – Insert the disc and, after the annoying anti-piracy messages, you get trailers for Millennium/Harsh Realm, Man on Fire, The X-Files, The Clearing and Enduring Love.

DVD-ROM – Stick the disc into a PC DVD drive and it’ll get you into a setup to install something, which eventually gets you to the menu, the first three items of which are decent Flash presentations where mousing over the text bubbles blows them up to a readable size…

• Read The Complete 1st AVP Comic Book – Tear through all 27 pages of AVPs first comic book.
• Making Of AVP Comics – Have a look at the stages involved in making a 10-page comic book. Includes an article written by Randy Stradley, author of Dark Horse’s first Aliens Vs. Predator miniseries (1989) and originally appeared in the Aliens Vs. Predator trade paperback collection, first published in 1991.
• Sneak peek Of The Latest AVP Graphic Novel – View the first 16 pages of “Thrill of the Hunt”
• Dark Horse Comics Official Website – Just a link to the site.
• AVP Official Website – As above.
• Play Movie – Guess what this does?

However, I’ve got a Mac and this isn’t a Mac friendly DVD but open the disc on the desktop and you’ll see a DVDROM folder. I did a bit of digging around in there and entering file:///Volumes/AVP_SE_D1_FG_UK/DVDROM/Screens/base.html into a Flash enabled web browser will get you into the above menu. Not that it works as expected but you can access the first three items directly as follows and they’re well worth it if you’re an AvP fan…

1. Open the DVDROM folder.
2. Open the Screens folder.
3. Open the Comics folder.
4. Open the appropriate file as follows…

• first_comic.html – Read The Complete 1st AVP Comic Book
• making_comic.html – Making Of AVP Comics
• novel_comic.html – Sneak peek Of The Latest AVP Graphic Novel

Disc 2

Pre-Production

• Conception – A pretty good 26-minute piece with director Paul W.S. Anderson, producer John Davis, production designer Richard Bridgeland and creature effects designer Tom Woodruff Jr. talking about the origins of the movie. They also discuss the design concepts for things like the pyramid, whaling station, Predator weaponry, costumes and the animatronics creatures.
• ADI Workshop – Some behind-the-scenes footage showing the ADI (Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc.) visual effects guys at work on some Predator/Alien footage, animatronics Alien facehugger, the Predator shoulder weapon and various other bits and pieces. Lasts about seven minutes.
• Storyboard Gallery – Browse through the 200 storyboards created by Brent Boates, Phil Norwood and Richard Bennett and containing some excellent early artworks.
• Concept Art Gallery – 29 more pieces of Richard Bennett’s excellent artwork on stuff like sets, creatures weapons, etc.
• Conception Enhanced Viewing Mode – This is just the Concept featurette above but supposedly in enhanced viewing mode. I couldn’t tell what was new here though.
• Easter Egg – Highlight the ADI Workshop item and press the Right arrow to reveal a facehugger just to the right. Press Enter to get a nine-minute comical piece with Tom Woodruff Jr. talking to some poor Czech technicians about his roles as the creature in this movie, Alien³ and Alien Resurrection and some of his earlier work on Jumanji, Evolution, X-Files, Mortal Kombat and Pumpkinhead.

Production

• The Making of AVP – An entertaining, hour long feature on the making of AVP with input from Director Paul W.S. Anderson, producers John Davis and Chris Symes, cinematographer David Johnson, creature designers Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr, production designer Richard Bridgeland, miniature supervisor Richard Van Den Bergh and Sanaa Lathan, Lance Henrikson, Colin Salmon, Raoul Boya, Carsten Norgaard and Agathe De La Boulaye. This is the best extra in the package and it gets right into the nuts and bolts of making a big visual effects movie. We get to see the huge sets created in Prague, how they made the Antarctic seem real, the enormous pyramid set, the Alien Queen and her minions and more.
• Miniature Whaling Station – A seven-minute short where Director Paul W.S. Anderson, visual effects supervisor John Bruno and miniature supervisor Richard Van Den Bergh show us how they achieved the collapse of the Whaling Station using amazingly detailed miniatures.
• Trouble at the Mouth of the Tunnel – Cinematographer David Johnson gives us a behind-the-scenes look at filming the tunnel explosion and explains how a camera got destroyed by the sledge and we also get to see how things can go disastrously wrong when you’re working with fire. Lasts just under four minutes.
• Facehuggers and Eggs – 15 minutes worth of showing the filming of the sacrificial chamber scene where Ewan Bremner and Carsten Norgaard are facing a nasty end at the mercy of a horde of facehuggers.
• The Making of AVP Enhanced Viewing Mode – Like the Concept feature above, this is supposedly in enhanced viewing mode but again, I couldn’t tell what the difference was.

Post-Production

• Visual Effects Breakdown – An excellent 30-minute featurette with Director Paul W.S. Anderson, visual effects supervisor John Bruno, visual effects producer Adam Valdez, CG supervisor Ivor Middleton and visual effects supervisor Ben Shepard show us how they created some of the visual effects for ÔAlien vs. PredatorÕ. We get a look at animating the facehuggers, the Predator technology and sequences from roughs to finished composites for the big Alien vs. Predator fight, the Piper Maru, the Flashback, the Queen and the climax scenes.
• Deleted Scenes – There are 11 deleted scenes here and they can be played with an optional director’s commentary with Paul W.S. Anderson and Lance Hendrikson telling us why they were cut. The whole lot lasts just under nine minutes.

Licensing The Franchise

• Alien vs. Predator: The Comic Book – A short, 11-minute look at the Alien vs. Predator comic book with Dark Horse Comics publisher Mike Richardson, editor Randy Stradley and artist Chris Warner and how the movie compares to those stories.
• Monsters in Miniature by Todd McFarlane – This is the guy that created the action figures for Alien vs. Predator and he talks for about 13 and half minutes on how they were designed, produced and marketed for a more adult audience.

Marketing

• HBO Special – A 13-minute featurette giving us a behind the scenes look at making the movie. Includes interview material with director Paul W.S. Anderson, producers John Davis and Chris Symes, production designer Richard Bridgeland, creature designer Tom Woodruff Jr., various visual effects team members and Lance Hendrikson, Sanaa Lathan and Raoul Boya. It’s not bad as a short promotional piece and they talk about the origins of the story, the sets, the creatures, the CGI and visual effects and the characters.
• Theatrical Teaser – A 50-second teaser trailer, just enough to whet the appetite.
• Theatrical Trailer – A two-minute trailer for the movie, promises more than the final result delivers.

Overall

The critical slamming this received aside, AvP is a reasonable piece of sci-fi popcorn entertainment. Okay, it’s a bit short on thrills and running time but the excellent video, sound and the top-notch set of extras on this DVD set goes a long way to try and make up for that here. With two commentaries and a load of extras, there’s way more material here than anyone could reasonably watch in one evening and fans will love the comic book stuff on Disc 1 and there’s even a hidden Easter Egg if you need more.

View The Whole Blog At Movie District

Alien Vs. Predator Extreme Edition, DVD Review

A group of students are going on a trip to France. While they are waiting for their plane to taxi from the gate, Alex (Devon Sawa) has a premonition that the plane will explode after take off. Alex tries to rush off the plane in a panic and six other passengers end up being thrown off with him. Just minutes later while they are being detained in the lounge they see the plane explode through the window.

Naturally everyone is very suspicious of Alex and how he knew this was going to happen. Things start to become more sinister as the surviving passengers start to get killed off. While the FBI suspects Alex is involved, he suspects that a higher force is cleaning up from a mistake.

Video / Audio

Video quality is excellent, as you might expect from such a recent film. The picture comes in a 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and is sharp and richly coloured. There are quite a few dark scenes in the film and they come through very well.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is very atmospheric. The film is loaded with surround effects and the whole sound stage is used effectively. One of the more impressive things though is the use of subtle sound effects like the wind breezing through the windows. The film also has an excellent and atmospheric musical score.

Extras

First up is the commentary track. This track feature James Wong (Director), Glen Morgan (Writer / Producer), James Coblentz (Editor) and Jeffrey Reddick (Screenplay). One of the problems I always have when a commentary has this many people is that I can’t keep track of who’s currently talking. It would have been nice to have a subtitle display the name of whoever’s talking during the commentary. Complaints aside, it’s a pretty good commentary with some real insights into the background of the film. For example we find out that all the character names are tributes to Horror actors and directors.

Next up is a selection of three deleted scenes. These scenes are all linked as they make up a whole subplot and alternative ending to the film. It’s worth checking them out to decide which ending you prefer. Also hats off to New Line here for taking the time to make these scenes anamorphic.

There’s a 13-Minute featurette on the process of test screening the film. The feature discusses how they changed the ending after the results of test screenings. There’s also read out some of the more humorous comments on the questionnaires. There are some major spoilers on this extra so don’t even think about watching it before you watch the film.

The other featurette is a 20-Minute feature on Pam Coronado, a Psychic or Intuitive Investigator as they call it. Whether you believe in this stuff or not, the extra is interesting enough to watch once.

The rest of the extras are a Theatrical Trailer, some extensive Cast & Crew Bios and two games. One of these games is a Psychic Eye test in which you have to guess the card from a choice of five. After playing several times I can conclude that I’m about as psychic as a dead fish. The other games is called death clock. After answering a series of questions on your general health, it tells you the date you will die on, charming.

Finally, although I don’t normally mention them as an extra, I have to say that I quite liked the animated menus. They are fairly simplistic in style but very effective.

Overall

I actually fly around Europe quite a lot with my job and no matter how many times I get on a plane I still fear flying. If you’re like me then the opening 20 minutes will utterly scare the pants off you. The way Alex checks the body of the plane over and watches the flaps / engine etc to make sure they’re working is just like when I’m on a plane. This just goes to make it all the more scary as the flight starts to go wrong. When things do start to go wrong my stomach was churning just watching it.

As I mentioned at the start of the review, I am not a big horror fan. I quite enjoyed this film though, it has more than it’s fair share of jump out of your seat moments. The violent scenes, while pretty gruesome aren’t too over the top and I’ve definitely seen a lot worse. One of the things that always puts me off these kind of films is the fact that they always have a rubbish ending. This one isn’t actually too bad though, not the best I’ve seen, but definitely not the worst either.

The acting generally was very good with notable performances from Devon Sawa as Alex and Ali Larte as Rivers. There’s also a brief but very good role played by Tony Todd as Bludworth the undertaker. He comes across as extremely sinister and puts a real chill up the spine. Generally the rest of the cast are very good with only one or two actors looking really wooden.

Although I did enjoy it, this is basically another teen horror movie and if you’ve feel that you’ve overloaded on your scream movies it might be a bit too samey for you. For me though, with the jump out of your skin moments and very scary first twenty minutes, plus a good selection of extras, I’m going to give it 4 out of 5.

View The Whole Blog At Movie District

Final Destination, DVD Review