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Horror
Elite // Unrated // May 27, 2003
List Price: $19.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie
In 1999, writer/director Dante Tomaselli released his first film "Desecration" and it immediately garnered the attention of horror film fans. Despite the fact that the film was modern, it could have easily been a European film from the mid-1970s, as the movie maintained all of the trademark traits of EuroHorror. But, with his second effort, "Horror", Tomaselli has taken a giant step backwards.
"Horror" opens with two seemingly disconnected storylines. We are introduced to Grace (Lizzy Mahon), a young girl who lives with her parents Reverend Salo, Jr. (Vincent Lambert) and his wife (Christie Sanford). It appears that Grace's parents are holding her prisoner, as they keep her heavily medicated -- and she is visited by her late (?) grandfather Reverend Salo, Sr. (The Amazing Kreskin). Meanwhile, a group of youngsters, lead by Luck (Danny Lopes) have escaped from a treatment center (?) and are on their way to rendezvous with Reverend Salo, who had visited the center and invited them to join him. Upon arriving at the Salo's farm, Luck and his co-horts find themselves in a nightmare world of hallucinations and evil.
While "Desecration" was certainly lacking in the story department, Tomaselli's inventive and intense visuals more than made up for that. The ambiguous story allowed the film to introduced its unusual sights and sounds and that was enough to keep the viewer interested. But, Tomaselli misses the boat in "Horror". He has attempted to bring in more plot this time with the two intertwining stories, but the overall script is no less ambiguous. The film never takes the time to explain much of what is happening, and the total lack of logic to the story would even confound David Lynch. And when the zombies show up, you know that the film is simply trying too hard.
But, as with "Desecration", this would be excusable if "Horror" showed any of the visual flair of Tomaselli's freshman effort. Unfortunately, the film shows little of this style. Images which are clearly meant to come off as disturbing are simply boring. The film is laced with shots of a goat (which Tomaselli refers to as "Satan himself" on the commentary). I'm sorry, but there is nothing scary about a goat just standing around doing nothing. And, it's hard to comment on the acting in "Horror", as most of the cast spends more time reacting than acting. I can say that the inclusion of The Amazing Kreskin is novel, although the film grinds to a half not once, but twice so that man can perform part of his act.
As someone who truly appreciated "Desrecration", I was really looking forward to "Horror", but found myself to be utterly disappointed.
Video
"Horror" arrives on DVD from Elite Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1, but the transfer is not anamorphic. The film was shot on 16mm film, and this transfer shows off both the pros and cons of that medium. The image displays some sharpness, and the colors (which Tomaselli uses in-part to tell the story) look great. However, there is a heavy sheen of grain which covers the image throughout the film. On the plus side, there are few defects from the source print to be had.
Audio
There is a discrepancy with the audio on this disc. The packaging claims a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio remix. And the Dolby trailer on the disc is in 5.1. But, the film itself is in 2.0 Surround. The dynamic range is way out of whack, causing the musical cues and "scare" sound effects to be far too loud, thus making the dialogue sound muffled at times. Overlooking this flaw, the sound is good and the sound design (the film's one bright spot) is well represented here.
Extras
Elite has put together a nice package of extras for this release. We start with an audio commentary from writer/director Tomaselli. Here, he mixes general info about the film (locations, actors, etc.) with more personal revelations such as what the movie means to him and what he was thinking as he shot each scene. Next, we have a 10-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, which features the occasional soundbyte from the cast or crew, but is mostly made up of footage showing Tomaselli working on the set. This is followed by a 13-minute segment which focuses on Kreskin's involvement with the film and how he lent his act to the story. For fans of "Desecration", we have an 11-minute shot-on-video short which shows the beginnings of that film, along with the trailer for "Desecration". Finally, there is the trailer for "Horror" and a still photo gallery.
I had high hopes for "Horror", but was ultimately let down. There will be those who claim that I didn't "get" the film. Oh, I got it, but I found the movie to be boring and uninteresting. And DVD fans will be further disappointed by the lack of an anamorphic transfer.
In 1999, writer/director Dante Tomaselli released his first film "Desecration" and it immediately garnered the attention of horror film fans. Despite the fact that the film was modern, it could have easily been a European film from the mid-1970s, as the movie maintained all of the trademark traits of EuroHorror. But, with his second effort, "Horror", Tomaselli has taken a giant step backwards.
"Horror" opens with two seemingly disconnected storylines. We are introduced to Grace (Lizzy Mahon), a young girl who lives with her parents Reverend Salo, Jr. (Vincent Lambert) and his wife (Christie Sanford). It appears that Grace's parents are holding her prisoner, as they keep her heavily medicated -- and she is visited by her late (?) grandfather Reverend Salo, Sr. (The Amazing Kreskin). Meanwhile, a group of youngsters, lead by Luck (Danny Lopes) have escaped from a treatment center (?) and are on their way to rendezvous with Reverend Salo, who had visited the center and invited them to join him. Upon arriving at the Salo's farm, Luck and his co-horts find themselves in a nightmare world of hallucinations and evil.
While "Desecration" was certainly lacking in the story department, Tomaselli's inventive and intense visuals more than made up for that. The ambiguous story allowed the film to introduced its unusual sights and sounds and that was enough to keep the viewer interested. But, Tomaselli misses the boat in "Horror". He has attempted to bring in more plot this time with the two intertwining stories, but the overall script is no less ambiguous. The film never takes the time to explain much of what is happening, and the total lack of logic to the story would even confound David Lynch. And when the zombies show up, you know that the film is simply trying too hard.
But, as with "Desecration", this would be excusable if "Horror" showed any of the visual flair of Tomaselli's freshman effort. Unfortunately, the film shows little of this style. Images which are clearly meant to come off as disturbing are simply boring. The film is laced with shots of a goat (which Tomaselli refers to as "Satan himself" on the commentary). I'm sorry, but there is nothing scary about a goat just standing around doing nothing. And, it's hard to comment on the acting in "Horror", as most of the cast spends more time reacting than acting. I can say that the inclusion of The Amazing Kreskin is novel, although the film grinds to a half not once, but twice so that man can perform part of his act.
As someone who truly appreciated "Desrecration", I was really looking forward to "Horror", but found myself to be utterly disappointed.
Video
"Horror" arrives on DVD from Elite Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1, but the transfer is not anamorphic. The film was shot on 16mm film, and this transfer shows off both the pros and cons of that medium. The image displays some sharpness, and the colors (which Tomaselli uses in-part to tell the story) look great. However, there is a heavy sheen of grain which covers the image throughout the film. On the plus side, there are few defects from the source print to be had.
Audio
There is a discrepancy with the audio on this disc. The packaging claims a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio remix. And the Dolby trailer on the disc is in 5.1. But, the film itself is in 2.0 Surround. The dynamic range is way out of whack, causing the musical cues and "scare" sound effects to be far too loud, thus making the dialogue sound muffled at times. Overlooking this flaw, the sound is good and the sound design (the film's one bright spot) is well represented here.
Extras
Elite has put together a nice package of extras for this release. We start with an audio commentary from writer/director Tomaselli. Here, he mixes general info about the film (locations, actors, etc.) with more personal revelations such as what the movie means to him and what he was thinking as he shot each scene. Next, we have a 10-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, which features the occasional soundbyte from the cast or crew, but is mostly made up of footage showing Tomaselli working on the set. This is followed by a 13-minute segment which focuses on Kreskin's involvement with the film and how he lent his act to the story. For fans of "Desecration", we have an 11-minute shot-on-video short which shows the beginnings of that film, along with the trailer for "Desecration". Finally, there is the trailer for "Horror" and a still photo gallery.
I had high hopes for "Horror", but was ultimately let down. There will be those who claim that I didn't "get" the film. Oh, I got it, but I found the movie to be boring and uninteresting. And DVD fans will be further disappointed by the lack of an anamorphic transfer.
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