Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Good thrillers, urban legends
Likes: Indies that are better than their budget, twist endings
Dislikes: Confusing films
Hates: Prescription drugs

The Movie
The only people who trust drug companies either work for them, own them or own stock in them. Everyone else has a healthy mistrust for an industry that offers drugs despite side effects like "exploding head," and is waiting to simultaneously buy up and damn the nest miracle drug. In EMR, the drug of the moment is Protex-E, epilepsy medicine to control fits.

Adam (Adam Leese) is part of a critical trial of the drug, but it doesn't seem to be working. After taking another fit, his life goes haywire, as everything he has crumbles around him, costing him his job, his health and much, much more. An avid consumer of urban legends and conspiracy theories, Adam is certain the drug company is behind his problems, and seeks to find out the truth.

Along his path to a real reality are many pitfalls, enemies and friends, including his online girlfriend Lily, his ill mother and secret agents who are following him. Worse yet, he seems to be losing track of his life, losing weeks at a time; even winding up in other countries with no explanation why.

There's little more that can be said about the plot before it's given away, except that it does a good job of throwing viewers off the path of the puzzle's solution with some subtle storytelling, before explaining it all at the end. Once you get that answer, you might say, "Oh! Just like (that other mind-bender!)" but I don't think it is choreographed.

For such a tiny budget, the crew squeezed plenty of movie out of every dollar, creating an interesting film, both in terms of the plot and visuals. It gets to be a bit too much at times, as you'd like one person to act normally, but when the end of the movie comes, you understand many of the things that were just strange before, and maybe gain an appreciation for how they were accomplished.

The DVD
EMR's one DVD is packed in a standard keepcase, without an insert. The disc has an animated, anamorphic main menu, which follows the themes in the movie and offers a choice of play, scene selections, set-up and extras. Language options include English subtitles, while the scene-selection menus include still previews and titles for each scene. The menus do a nice job of capturing the feel of the film. There is no closed captioning available.

The Quality
This film tries some unique visual tricks, making the look an important aspect of the feel. The anamorphic widescreen transfer is good, but not great, with decent color. It can run a bit dark and features a great deal of video noise, limiting the amount of detail visible. There's also banding and pixilation along straight lines, appearing often enough to be considered a problem.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack works well, especially when it attempts to represent Adam's mental state. The music, a big part of the film according to the package, is strong, but not overpowering, allowing the center-channel dialogue to proceed unencumbered. A 5.1 mix might have helped the scenes with wilder audio, but the presentation is solid anyway.

The Extras
Two relatively substantial extras are included with this release, starting with a 31-minute behind-the-scenes featurette. Essentially, the camera acts as a fly on the wall during the production, throwing in short interview clips as well. If you want to see how a very low-budget flick comes together, this is a decent start. The mini-doc is broken-up into 13 chapters, which can be viewed separately, or all at one.

The second extra is a feature-length audio commentary with writers/directors James Erskine and Danny McCullough. They are a very talkative pair, pointing out details and sharing information on the film's development. Quite a bit of thought went into the final product, making this track a useful guide to the movie, though they could have explained what the title meant.

The Bottom Line
A confusing blend of urban legends, conspiracy theories and cinematic mindbenders, EMR trips over its figurative feet on its way to a twist ending that isn't overly obvious, thanks to the complex plot that precedes it. Like most films in the genre, the twist will earn you just one, possibly two viewings, but after that, it's unlikely to become a part of your regular rotation, despite a decent presentation and a few quality extras. Its biggest audience is likely to be amateur filmmakers looking to achieve this film's success, while the average viewer should be fine with a rental.

Follow him on Twitter

*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.