Synopsis
Recently released from a psychiatric institute, but hardly a model of stability, archaeologist Taylor Melnick (Geoffrey Lewis) returns home, still haunted by nasty hallucinations involving his demented mother (Karen Black). Complicating his attempts to function are the people around him, ranging from the alcoholic woman across the street to his shady uncle.
As one would expect, everyone’s life reaches a crisis point with the unfortunate Melnick as a focal point. Though some would-b… jolting editing effects are rather overused, and the pace could be tightened a bit, the film also has some solidly nightmarish imagery, and is legitimately interested in telling an interesting story.
Audio
The 2.0 audio is absolutely deafening, particularly when it comes to the score, which is so aggressively enveloping that it helps the atmosphere of the film to a great degree. Other than that, the audio track plays out pretty much as expected for this kind of a mix on a low-budget film. The job is done, but don’t expect miracles. There is also at least one occurrence of a blip interrupting the sound.
Video
Similar kind of deal here. The picture is definitely watchable, and there is some interesting use of different colour palettes. The colours are, however, sometimes a bit bland, and there is some pixelation. The image is sharp enough, considering the source, but there’s nothing award-winning here.
Special Features
There’s an amusing animated short here: “Open Mic Fright” by David Donar, which takes a good shot at poetry competitions, but the distortion on the sound here is quite noticeable. The other extras are a storyboard slideshow and a gallery showing the progression of the poster (I have to say that the final result isn’t as good as some of the earlier ones, as it gives the impression that this is some sort of blaxploitation horror film). The theatrical trailer for the feature is accompanied by a handful of others.
Closing Thoughts
While not a home run, this is still a committed little effort.
Special Features List
- Animated Short
- Long Trailer
- Sneak Previews
- Progression of a Poster Gallery
- Director’s Storyboards