Synopsis
Little Tim is convinced the boogeyman is in his closet. He’s right, and it gobbles up his dad.Fifteen years later, after many years of therapy devoted to convincing him that he didn’t reallysee a monster that night, Tim (Barry Watson) is still afraid of closets and is haunted by terrifyingvisions. When his mother dies, he returns to his home town for the funeral, and decides to stay atthe old house in order to confront his demons. Big mistake.
The basic set-up is no… unlike Darkness Falls, but this is easily the better of the twofilms. The mood is carefully built up, and the story does a very credible job of confronting uswith the honest-to-god boogeyman, playing off traditional childhood fears quite effectively. Theresolution is a clever one, too. Of the rush of horror films that hit the theatres this winter andwere thoroughly trashed by the critics (Darkness, White Noise, and so on), thisis the best.
Audio
The sound certainly doesn’t disappoint when it comes to frightening the audience. Creaks,roars and startling sound cues are given the full surround treatment, so there is no escape. Thisis about as immersive as one could wish, and helps no end in building that atmosphere ofdread.
Video
Deep, deep blacks here, which is both fitting and necessary for the film to work. The coloursare excellent, each of the film’s varied palettes being wonderfully rendered. There is no edgerenhancement or grain to worry about, either. Great stuff.
Special Features
I do wonder how a disc can call itself a “Special Edition” and not have a commentary track.What you have here is a two-part featurette (essentially promotional, but not a complete wasteof time), 6 deleted scenes, 3 animatics, 4 visual FX progressions, an alternate (and technicallyunfinished) ending, and plenty of trailers. Not bad, exactly, but hardly special. The menu’s mainscreen is animated and scored.
Closing Thoughts
A solid little horror movie. It won’t redefine the genre, but it gets its job done very nicely,thank you. More like this, please.
Special Features List
- Deleted Scenes
- Alternate Ending
- Making-of Featurette
- Animatics
- Visual FX Progressions
- Trailers
