Direct to DVD Dissection looks at a movie that features both horror and action elements, among several others. Featuring undead vigilante killers who drink blood, how will it stand up to other films for this month?
Watch Trailer Here
The Specs
Rated R
Director: Kerry Prior
Running Time: 101 minutes
Studio: Lions Gate
Released: September 18th, 2012
The Story
The night after his funeral, Bart, a soldier killed in Iraq gets up out of his grave and seeks out his best friend Joey. At dawn Bart’s body falls to the floor, only to reawaken the following dusk. He and his buddy decide that he is a revenant: an articulate zombie that needs to drink blood to arrest the decomposition of his body.
The Cast
David Anders as Bart. Horked on such TV series as 24, ALIAS, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, and ONCE UPON A TIME.
Chris Wylde as Joey. Besides his own talk show, he’s also worked on films like EVOLUTION, COYOTE UGLY, & SPACE COWBOYS
Louise Griffiths as Janet. She worked in various inedepndant features, as well as the video game COMMAND & CONQUER: RED ALERT 3 – UPRISING (long title alert), as Cmdr. Lydia Winters.
Jacy King as Mathilda. Got her start in DROP DEAD GORGEOUS and SUGAR & SPICE, and appeared in shows like GREY’S ANATOMY and CSI.
The Dissection
Bart (David Anders) and Joey (Chris Wylde) sitting back on their couch.
Before the released, this movie spent about 3 years touring various festivals and being in a release limbo. When you have a long span from completed production and general release, it could be an issue of a film getting screwed by a distributor or either that the movie didn’t seem up to snuff by those same people. While it’s not an issue of quality and it doesn’t seem like it should have held back so long, there is something off about the whole film.
The movie is one of those genre-bending films that takes a whole bunch of ideas and either turns them on their heads or jokes around with them. It’s a film that is self-aware, as the term is called. The issue with that is that all that humor feels really forced at times. A majority of the jokes lead to where you expect them to go when you first see the set up. There are some good jokes here or there, but the rest falls flat, especially if you have a healthy knowledge of what they are referencing.
The action, meanwhile, is pretty good, but gets lessened by the visuals. Not the effects, the camera. The look of the film is very grainy, and not in the way of films that try to copy the grind-house effect. It’s has a negative effect on the movie, instead of adding to the style. It’s been reportedly an issue with the DVD, as the HD video stream and the international Blu ray have no issues with it. If you do watch the standard definition or the DVD version, it impacts the movie with some of the movements the screen makes during the high velocity shots. It’s not a deal breaker, but it’s noticeable.
Bart with dinner. It doesn't go well.
As it tries to branch out to various genres, the horror part gets the short stick. While the effects and make up and gore look good, there’s no real sense of terror or horror. It’s more in the style of Troma, with spectacle being greater than tension in these cases.
This is a big bright spot to the movie, and it is with the two main characters. David Anders and Chris Wylde work well together and deliver some entertaining moments. Even in the jokes that do fall flat, there is some kind of charm to seeing these two deliver them to each other. The rest of the cast, though, is forgettable for the most part. Then again, the movie is just for the two characters, and anyone else feels tacked on.
The Extras
The DVD features some commentary from both the director and the cast. There’s also a making of featurette as well as some entertaining delete scenes. Some various trailers also round of the extras.
The Verdict
For a movie that tried to appeal to every fan’s tastes, it leaves some out in the cold while others with some decent entertainment. It’s restrained from it’s full potential by a lack of cohesion, and suffers as a result. There is an audience for it, and those in that audience would enjoy it.
Rent THE REVENANT at Redbox
http://www.redbox.com/movies/the-revenant
View THE REVENANT on Amazon Instant Video
http://www.amazon.com/The-Revenant/dp/B009CPJQN6/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1350271263&sr=1-2&keywords=The+Revenant
Buy THE REVENANT on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Revenant-David-Anders/dp/B008JQGR04/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1350271263&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Revenant
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