Director
Dante Tomaselli’s HORROR ($20) is like a drug-induced nightmare,
by way of an Italian art house horror movie festival. Tomaselli’s
imagery sometimes gives the impression that he had taken an entire group
of Italian horror movies, dropped them in a blender, and then hit frappe.
For this reason, the plot of HORROR is hard to describe, lets just
say one has to take in the whole movie, before they can even begin to
unravel it all. Elements of the story involve a kidnapped girl, escapees
from a juvenile rehab center, heavy drug use, unorthodox men of the cloth,
plus a wandering goat that would appear to be an embodiment of the devil.
The cast of HORROR is made up of virtual unknowns, except for The
Amazing Kreskin- who delivers a mesmerizing performance, but Olivier, he
is not. HORROR is the kind of off the wall genre offering that you
will either love or hate- there is no middle ground here. Some are going
to dig the surreal style that Director Tomaselli creates with HORROR,
while others are certain to be put off by it. If you were into Tomaselli’s
first film DESECRATION, then you should get a lot out of HORROR.
Elite
Entertainment Inc. has made HORROR available on DVD in a 1.85:1
wide screen presentation that has NOT been enhanced for playback on 16:9
displays. The transfer leaves a lot to be desired, especially on big
screen 16:9 monitors. Grain is a serious issue, and in places it looks
alike a snowstorm with a weird solarization effect going on. Maybe it’s
intentional, maybe it’s a side effect of ultra low budget 16mm
filmmaking, but it doesn’t look very appealing on a large display.
Otherwise the image is reasonably crisp and well defined. Colors are
saturated at a fairly natural level and remain pretty stable. Blacks seem
accurate and shadow detail is respectable. Digital compression artifacts
seem well concealed, but I keep thinking about that weird solarized snow.
The
packaging claims Dolby Digital 5.1, but the DVD only offer 2.0 matrixed
stereo surround. Even for regular surround, the track is atmospheric and
effective. The rear channels are well deployed for ambient effects and
musical envelopment. The forward soundstage is sufficiently loud to allow
effects to leap out and creep out the viewer. One can usually understand
the words coming out of the actors’ mouths, although it won’t
necessarily help one to make head nor tail of the plot. Full motion video,
animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s interactive menus.
Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection and set
up features, as well as an audio commentary with Dante Tomaselli, trailers
for HORROR and DESECRATION, some behind the scenes footage
of both films, plus another bit that focuses on Kreskin and a photo
gallery.
Although
not to everyone’s taste, Dante Tomaselli’s HORROR is a surreal,
but visually interesting genre offering. If you liked DESECRATION,
then HORROR is definitely worth checking out. However, had the
presentation been stronger (ie 16:9 enhanced), the DVD would have made it
to the purchase category, instead of just being a rental.
Director
Dante Tomaselli’s HORROR ($20) is like a drug-induced nightmare,
by way of an Italian art house horror movie festival. Tomaselli’s
imagery sometimes gives the impression that he had taken an entire group
of Italian horror movies, dropped them in a blender, and then hit frappe.
For this reason, the plot of HORROR is hard to describe, lets just
say one has to take in the whole movie, before they can even begin to
unravel it all. Elements of the story involve a kidnapped girl, escapees
from a juvenile rehab center, heavy drug use, unorthodox men of the cloth,
plus a wandering goat that would appear to be an embodiment of the devil.
The cast of HORROR is made up of virtual unknowns, except for The
Amazing Kreskin- who delivers a mesmerizing performance, but Olivier, he
is not. HORROR is the kind of off the wall genre offering that you
will either love or hate- there is no middle ground here. Some are going
to dig the surreal style that Director Tomaselli creates with HORROR,
while others are certain to be put off by it. If you were into Tomaselli’s
first film DESECRATION, then you should get a lot out of HORROR.
Elite
Entertainment Inc. has made HORROR available on DVD in a 1.85:1
wide screen presentation that has NOT been enhanced for playback on 16:9
displays. The transfer leaves a lot to be desired, especially on big
screen 16:9 monitors. Grain is a serious issue, and in places it looks
alike a snowstorm with a weird solarization effect going on. Maybe it’s
intentional, maybe it’s a side effect of ultra low budget 16mm
filmmaking, but it doesn’t look very appealing on a large display.
Otherwise the image is reasonably crisp and well defined. Colors are
saturated at a fairly natural level and remain pretty stable. Blacks seem
accurate and shadow detail is respectable. Digital compression artifacts
seem well concealed, but I keep thinking about that weird solarized snow.
The
packaging claims Dolby Digital 5.1, but the DVD only offer 2.0 matrixed
stereo surround. Even for regular surround, the track is atmospheric and
effective. The rear channels are well deployed for ambient effects and
musical envelopment. The forward soundstage is sufficiently loud to allow
effects to leap out and creep out the viewer. One can usually understand
the words coming out of the actors’ mouths, although it won’t
necessarily help one to make head nor tail of the plot. Full motion video,
animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s interactive menus.
Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection and set
up features, as well as an audio commentary with Dante Tomaselli, trailers
for HORROR and DESECRATION, some behind the scenes footage
of both films, plus another bit that focuses on Kreskin and a photo
gallery.
Although
not to everyone’s taste, Dante Tomaselli’s HORROR is a surreal,
but visually interesting genre offering. If you liked DESECRATION,
then HORROR is definitely worth checking out. However, had the
presentation been stronger (ie 16:9 enhanced), the DVD would have made it
to the purchase category, instead of just being a rental.