Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

EXTANT: SEASON 1

DVD REVIEW: EXTANT: SEASON 1 / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: VARIOUS / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: HALLE BERRY, GORAN VISNJIC, PIERCE GAGNON, HIROYUKI SANADA / RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 2ND

Halle Berry may just be one of Hollywood’s biggest hit or miss actors. Thankfully, Extant (based on her performance alone) is one of the hits. CBS’ straight-to-order sci-fi series from creator Mickey Fisher and executive producer Stephen Spielberg makes its DVD debut and they aren’t pulling any punches with this four-disc set loaded with interesting extra – just a shame about the content.

Berry (who also co-exec produces) plays an astronaut who after a solo mission discovers she is pregnant, opening up a secretive world of discovery, deception, and paranoia. The series offers a believable peek into a future that doesn’t look terrifically different to our present: iPads, electric cars, and advanced prosthetics. But it is an antiseptic vision of tomorrow, never as immersive as the L.A. of Blade Runner, instead it feels staged.

Episode 1, Re-Entry, is a thought-provoking look at re-establishing normality after a thirteen-month solo space mission. Though there was oodles of room for a more considered approach, Fisher opts for this way. From there on out, the brain gets left by the wayside, which smacks of a larger problem; the writing isn’t nearly up to scratch.

It’s all very familiar to seasoned sci-fi fans, and given Spielberg’s involvement it’s no surprise it bears more than a passing resemblance to his own A.I. Indeed, even the central idea is nothing new; a mysterious space pregnancy was explored in the so-so Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Child. The show balances two through-lines; the fear of artificial intelligence, and the search for alien life – and, try as they might, the two never quite gel.

Starring genre mainstay Hiroyuki Sanada doing what he does best, all wise and charismatic in a role strikingly similar to his turn in Helix. Pierce Gagnon gives a decent performance as the android child Ethan, and Goran Visnjic is noteworthy, but it’s Berry who carries the show with her powered performance proving some of the best actors are late bloomers.

Ultimately Extant is a show is about mortality, which plays it safe and avoids any risks. Episode 6 marks the show’s highpoint, and by the twelfth its gets bogged down in its own convoluted plot. Despite being picked up for a second series, the first doesn’t leave you particularly hungry for more. For those of you who find 2001 impenetrable, Star Trek too cerebral or Battlestar Galactica po-faced, Extant is the show for you.

Special Features: Eight featurettes / Gag reel

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RAGNAROK – THE VIKING APOCALYPSE

DVD REVIEW: RAGNAROK – THE VIKING APOCALYPSE / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: MIKKEL BRAENNE SANDEMOSE / SCREENPLAY: JOHN KARE RAAKE / STARRING: PAL SVERRE HAGAN, NICOLAI CLEVE BROCH, BJORN SUNDQUIST, SOFIA HELIN / RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 2ND

In recent years, Norway has slowly and quietly been positioning itself as a contender in the world’s genre movie market with the likes of Dead Snow and its sequel, Troll Hunter, and now Ragnarok: The Viking Apocalypse. With Norway’s rich history and folklore, it’s a wonder that it hasn’t capitalised on its legends before. And it doesn’t this time… well, not quite.

The film’s title is somewhat misleading as it only features a very small facet of Ragnarok. With the exception of the Viking-prolific prologue, the film is firmly entrenched within its contemporary setting with nary a horned helmet in sight, let alone the end of the world. Archaeologist Sigurd Svendsen (Hagen) discovers a rune from the many artefacts found with the millennium-old Oseberg long boat, which roughly translates as “man knows nothing.” Coincidentally, his colleague Allan (Broch) finds an artefact that proves that Vikings travelled to Finnmark, the northernmost part of Norway and an area that was supposedly Viking-free.

Thinking that the two artefacts are connected, Sigurd, along with his two children, Allan, fellow archaeologist Elisabeth (Sofia), and grizzled rifle-toting guide Leif (Sundquist) travel to the little explored border between Norway and Russia. Once there, they find much more than the evidence of Viking occupation that they were hoping for.

Director Mikkel Brænne Sandemose evokes the spirit and feel of the post-Raiders of the Lost Ark action/adventure movies boom and creature features wonderfully well. But that is also the film’s downfall. Instead of producing a homage to ‘80s adventure movies, as J.J. Abrams did so successfully with Super 8, Sandemose seems to have used those films as a template. This gives Ragnarok a strangely dated quality. The characters also feel as though they are displaced in time, most obviously evidenced in Sigurd’s daughter, whom is a petulant teenager to begin with until, like so many petulant movie teenagers before her, she metamorphosises into a decent human being by the film’s conclusion. The same is true of rifle-toting guide Leif, who you just know will succumb to greed and meet an untimely demise. Plot spoilers? Well only if you’ve watched nothing but natural history documentaries all your life.

All in all, Ragnarok – The Viking Apocalypse isn’t a bad film and makes fun viewing. The cinematography is sumptuous, the lead characters are likeable, the performances are fine, there’s action aplenty, the troublesome creature is used sparingly but not too sparingly, and it doesn’t outstay its welcome being a respectable ninety-odd minutes. It’s just a shame it isn’t a great film, which it had the potential to be.

Special Features: TBC

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SAVING HOPE: SEASON 2

DVD REVIEW: SAVING HOPE: SEASON 2 / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: VARIOUS / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: MICHAEL SHANKS, DANIEL GILLIES, ERICA DURANCE, HUSE MADHAVJI / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Canadian supernatural medical drama Saving Hope settles down into the delicate absurdity of its first season with Season 2 and continues to provide a quirky take on its light, entertaining brand of hospital-based drama. The fallout of Hope Zion’s Chief of Surgery Charlie Harris’ (Shanks) coma accident from Season 1 begins to have adverse effects on his professional and personal life when friends, family, and colleagues take note on his apparent psychic abilities when it comes to saving people’s lives.

For those not in the know, Charlie’s abilities are that he can speak to his patients when they’re either unconscious or just plain dead. Strange as it may sound, such a technique for plot and character development is given a remarkably human touch – enhanced by Saving Hope’s hospital setting.

Season 2 develops the antics of Season 1 as characters attempt to balance their personal affairs (and sometimes literal affairs) with working in a hospital alongside a high-ranking surgeon who can communicate with the dead and the unconscious. The gentle feel of the show and the on-off story arcs make for laid-back viewing, but Saving Hope never comes across as lazy.

If anything, it’s too darn pretty to be lazy. In true big name American/Canadian network style (Saving Hope is broadcast on NBC and CTV across the pond) the girls remain pretty, the boys remain ruggedly handsome, the show itself is shot with a swooning array of slow zoom and soft close-ups, and just about every other shot is neatly littered with the show’s trademark angelic strobe lighting effect.

And just like any good TV drama, characters receive well-drummed-out development that is carefully moved along by Charlie’s paranormal abilities. Series regulars such as Dr. Shahir Hamza (Madhavji), Dr. Maggie Lin (Julia Taylor Ross) and Dr. Joel Goran (Gillies) all receive pleasant if unremarkable storylines that keep the drama alive.

The real jewel in Season 2’s crown, however, continues to be Charlie’s ability to communicate with his patients’ ghosts, which doesn’t nearly give the show the supernatural element it suggests. There’s no apocalyptic visitations from the Devil or God claiming Charlie as their beyond-human disciple – Saving Hope is far too snugly for something of that intensity. Instead, Charlie’s abilities lend a helping hand in giving the ever-present human drama a few steps up in terms of impact and development of the show itself.

Season 2 brings with it an added dose of drama as Charlie’s abilities start to have an effect on his relationship with fiancée Alex (Durance) and ex-wife Dawn (Michelle Nolden), both of whom draw closer to Charlie as well as drift apart from him. The rest of the characters’ stories, as mentioned above, are enjoyable enough but never retain as much impact as Charlie’s predicaments – after all, with a character like Charlie, anyone else in the show can be considered an anti-climax, or at best there to merely add to the narrative quality of Charlie’s adventures with the dead.

Perhaps shows such as Scrubs and House have made television far more difficult for any new medical drama to bring with it something memorable, but you can’t blame Saving Hope for trying. Sometimes, throughout Season 2, Saving Hope does more than try – it quietly succeeds and thrives in its charmingly strange world.

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THE KILLERS

BLU-RAY REVIEW: THE KILLERS (1946) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: ROBERT SIODMAK / SCREENPLAY: RICHARD BROOKS, ANTHONY VEILLER. JOHN HUSTON / STARRING: BURT LANCASTER, AVA GARDNER, SAM LEVENE, CHARLES MCGRAW, WILLIAM CONRAD, ALBERT DEKKER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Film noir can trace its roots right back to German expressionism and the silent days of cinema. It’s still around today and science fiction has memorably embraced its tropes in the likes of Blade Runner (1982), Twelve Monkeys (1995) and a host of other not-so-cheery visions of the future. But the genre’s golden age was indisputably the 1940s when Hollywood knocked a shed-load of stylish crime dramas featuring fatalistic heroes and devilish femme fatales set against the murkiest visions of the human psyche. There are quite a few that are rightly regarded as absolute classics of cinema and The Killers is one of them.

Ole “the Swede” Anderson (Lancaster in his screen debut) is our doomed hero; we know he’s doomed as he gets bumped off in the first twenty minutes (a common occurrence in film noir). But he doesn’t care; he did something wrong a long time ago (so he tells us) and he’s just going to be as fatalistic as any film noir hero can be about it. From then on we’re in flashback mode as insurance investigator Jim Reardon (O’Brien) pieces together exactly how this sorry state of affairs came to pass; there’s a prematurely finished boxing career (there often is); a slide into crime; the falling out of thieves; and, of course, a very bad girl in the form of Ava Gardner. Just why is something so depressing so entertaining?

Well, like we say so many times about great movies, it’s a good yarn well-told. The flashback structure, while occasionally confusing, keeps you paying attention. It’s a series of vignettes as Reardon pieces together the facts to get to the bottom of this Hollywood version of a Greek tragedy and, in their own way, each is as satisfying as the last; be it Anderson’s first encounter with the woman-that-will-be-his-downfall or his final boxing match (and we don’t even like boxing). But there’s an intensity to it all that makes it seem so modern no better illustrated than in those opening twenty minutes. Curiously, Ernest Hemmingway’s short story that acts as the source material provided only that opening: two contract killers (not only do they provide the title, they also include another screen debut: William Conrad for anyone who remembers TV’s Frank Cannon) enter a diner and order food. But they’re not interested in food, they’re after the “Swede” and are at least as scary as Pulp Fiction’s (1994) Vincent and Jules. Tarantino’s hitmen owe an awful lot to these two.

Like most film noir,The Killers is beautiful and moody, and Blu-ray always does a good job of black and white movies. So all in all, you’ll be wanting this one.

Special Features: Two documentaries / Three archive radio pieces inspired by The Killers / Trailers

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KABUKIMO-NOGATARI

BLU-RAY REVIEW: KABUKIMONOGATARI / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: AKIYUKI SHINBO, TOMOYUKI ITAMURA / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: HIROSHI KAMIYA, CHIWA SAITO, YUI HORIE, MAAYA SAKAMOTO, EMIRI KATO / RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 22ND

Kabukimonogatari collects Mayoi Jiangshi parts one through four, based on the series of light novels by Nisio Isin, and making up part of the wider Monogatari series. Despite the lack of an English dub, it’s an anime far different to many of its contemporaries, and bridges the gap between manga and anime as if the two never existed separately.

The elegant animation needs applauding, marking the series out for those more inclined for the arty, intellectual side of the genre. Starting off with a surprisingly in-depth philosophical conversation about traffic lights, before shifting the focus to Koyomi Araragi, who has the sudden realisation he only has one day of summer vacation left. With all his homework still outstanding, he asks his companion Shinobu Oshino to travel back in time. Yes, like Bill and Ted, the reasons behind time travel are homework-related. Messing with time (as any sci-fi fan worth their salt will tell you) never works out and, predictably, Koyomi will have to deal with the consequences.

Superior animation aside, it’s a strange and often baffling series, quirky though never in the same sorts of ways that lesser titles have suffered from. Standing out with the near subliminal flashes of text cards on screen, and given English readers will struggle to take everything in, its frenetic presentation is pretty headache-inducing.

The story is largely well written, due in no small part to Isin’s light novels, and often funny at times. Though similar in many ways to The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, it’s not nearly as charming. Despite the gaudy opening theme, the soundtrack plays like Dave Brubeck and suits the stylish animation. The series’ biggest flaw, however, is a couple of uncomfortable scenes where Koyomi preys on little girls.

Kabukimonogatari is a slow burn series, made of up mostly of dialogue, reminding viewers that anime doesn’t have to be all oversized weapons and aerial combat. If you want something that stands out from the crowd, with some of the most breath-taking visuals you’re likely to see in any anime, this is definitely one to check out.

Special Features: TV Spots / Openings / Omnibus 2 / Trailer

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REMEMBER ME

DVD REVIEW: REMEMBER ME / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: ASHLEY PEARCE / SCREENPLAY: GWYNETH HUGHES / STARRING: MICHAEL PALIN, MARK ADDY, JODIE COMER, JULIA SAWALHA, SHEILA HANCOCK, MINA ANWAR / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The BBC appear to be establishing a tradition for spooky three-part Sunday night supernatural dramas, with 2012’s Secret of Crickley Hall, adapted from the novel by the late James Herbert, followed by this year’s brooding and oppressive Remember Me, an original story from Gwyneth Hughes. Cold winter nights are made for shows like these and Remember Me is a much darker and less predictable affair than Crickley Hall; it’s an out-and-out unashamed ghost story which flirts with themes and images reminiscent of the likes of The Ring and The Woman nn Black.

Michael Palin, in his first starring dramatic role in over two decades, plays frail-but-cheery eighty-something Tom Parfitt, who willingly surrenders his independence and moves into a care home. But before he can settle into his new home – Tom’s travelling light with nothing but an empty suitcase to show for his life and times – the spooky stuff starts happening. A social worker plunges to a grisly death from the window of Tom’s room, and troubled young care assistant Hannah (Cromer) finds herself fascinated by Tom and intrigued by the mystery of his long and tragic life. Crumpled, disillusioned police detective Rob Fairholme (Addy) is also drawn into Tom’s world of lost love and betrayal – and the unearthly spectral figure from Tom’s past who just won’t or can’t let him go.

Filmed in and around Huddersfield and Scarborough (the song ‘Scarborough Fair’ is integral to the storyline), the grim North has rarely looked grimmer than in Remember Me. The skies are constantly gloomy and thundery, the towns and villages are cold and grey, the countryside is barren and windswept; there‘s a discomfiting touch of the apocalyptic about the show‘s visual aesthetic. Yet it’s a perfect and unsettling backdrop to a story which unfolds at a measured and stately pace, a story which sets out its stall almost immediately and without pretension. This is an out-and-out ghost story and there’s no attempt made to rationalise what’s happening as anything other than supernatural. Tom himself, as we discover in the third and final episode, is trapped in and by his own past, and the eerie, ethereal figure which we first see, hair-raisingly, washed up on a beach in the first episode and which crops up to spook us throughout the series, is inexorably tied to the old man down through the ages.

Ultimately Remember Me wears its influences proudly and shamelessly on its sleeve. Its carefully-staged scares – running water, banging doors, creaking floors, ghostly figures in photographs – will be familiar friends to the horror literate but they’re largely new and untested territory for a sleepy Sunday night prime time BBC TV audience. If nothing else, Remember Me might itself be remembered as one of the shows which helped to reintroduce good old-fashioned shiver-me-timbers horror to mainstream British telly. And that, surely, can only be a very good thing indeed…

Special Features: None

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LES MISERABLES (1934)

BLU-RAY REVIEW: LES MISERABLES (1934) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: RAYMOND BERNARD / SCREENPLAY: RAYMOND BERNARD, ANDRE LANG / STARRING: HARRY BAUR, CHARLES VANEL, FLORELLE, PAUL AZAIS, JOSSELINE GAEL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Newly restored in 4K at its original length by Pathé, the 1934 version of Victor Hugo’s immortal novel, Les Misérables, was the most thorough of all film adaptations and Raymond Bernard is one of the more overlooked filmmakers of the early French cinema. Originally released as three separate feature-length chapters during its release, Bernard’s film recounts the stories of the ex-convict Jean Valjean (Baur), hounded by the overbearing Inspector Javert (Vanel), the virtuous Fantine (Florelle), who sells herself into prostitution for the welfare of her young daughter Cosette (Gael), and of intersections of these threads, which all culminates with the June 1832 French Rebellion.

There have been so many different versions of Les Misérables throughout the years, and the high watermark, regardless of what anyone else thinks, is the 2012 musical version (directed by Tom Hooper) as it was a huge, ambitious, sweeping epic that produced a tidal wave of tears (even though Russell Crowe sounded like a close relative of Pierce Brosnan). But what the musical version did was that it took Hugo’s novel and condensed it for the screen in a strong and coherent form.

In the case of this version, even though it is beautifully handled and well-performed, having the film at over four hours to try and translate nearly every page of the book onto the screen is somewhat problematic. One of the things about great adaptations of books is the way in which filmmakers take a great text and wrestle it down to the form of one movie. In the case of this, like Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, having it at great length only makes it somewhat baggy as a result.

Despite the bagginess, it still deals with deep thematic themes and ideas, like redemption, unrequited romance, and the lengths of motherhood. Fantine is still the strongest character as she’s clearly an archetype for self-abnegation and devoted motherhood, and her tragic end still produces eye-watering results. Jean Valjean here is represented as an enormous bear-like mountain of a man, but like in the Beauty and the Beast tale, beneath that gruff exterior is a gentle-natured human being, and Harry Baur brilliantly embodies that.

Ultimately, Raymond Bernard’s Les Misérables is a solidly mounted, yet baggy, affair that is brilliantly performed and stylishly shot, but yet it loses the tight and constrained narrative of its musical counterpart.

Special Features: 40-page booklet / Further extras to be confirmed

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DEAD SNOW 2: RED VS DEAD

BLU-RAY REVIEW: DEAD SNOW 2: RED VS DEAD / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: TOMMY WIRKOLA / SCREENPLAY: TOMMY WIRKOLA, STIG FRODE HENRIKSEN, VEGAR HOEL / STARRING: VEGAR HOEL, ØRJAN GAMST, MARTIN STARR, JOCELYN DEBOER, DEREK MEARS / RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 12TH

Norwegian horror Dead Snow was one of those films that had a plotline so absurd and intriguing that it was hard to ignore – a group of students vacationing in a remote cabin are attacked by reanimated Nazi zombies. Throw in some gratifyingly gory death scenes, sharp dark humour, and a blatant nod to Sam Raimi’s classic Evil Dead (1981) and you’ve got the recipe for a fun film. It’s no wonder Tommy Wirkola’s splatter flick achieved a little bit of a cult status for itself in the horror circuit.

As is almost inevitable with the success of a low-budget film, a sequel seems to be beckoning before the end credits have even rolled on the original. The foreseeable sequel comes in the form of Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead, which picks up exactly where the original ends. It opens with solitary survivor Martin (Hoel – minus an arm) fleeing the Nazi zombies who are now making their way down the mountain to threaten the unsuspecting town of Talvik, which leader of the Zombie pack, Colonel Herzog (Gamst), has some unfinished business with on the orders of one Adolf Hitler.

If not already traumatised enough by the events of the first film, an early scuffle with Colonel Herzog leaves our survivor Martin in a ‘Freaky Friday’ situation where his lost limb is replaced with Colonel Herzog’s Nazi saluting, bloodthirsty, cursed arm. Obviously, chaos and hilarity ensue. Joining Martin in his fight against the undead, genocidal army are a few new recruits, namely the ‘Zombie Squad.’ All they way from the US of A, this trio of geeky Americans have been preparing for an attack for years, but perhaps not one like this.

In the film, both Herzog and Martin (through Herzog’s cursed appendage) proceed to raise some zombie recruits to aide them. If the first film was a zombie slasher, think of Red vs. Dead as an all-out zombie war film, made bolder and brasher thanks to its improved budget. The film’s locations actually look splendid and the picturesque Norwegian countryside provides the perfect backdrop to some spectacular bloodshed. In fact, a considerable sum of the improved budget must have gone towards paying for the sheer amount of intestines in the film. One wonders how Wirkola keeps finding intuitive ways to pull them out of a human body.

The narrative isn’t without its flaws though, which come partly due to one too many cringe-worthy Star Wars references (bar one good Hoth one) from Zombie Squad member Monica (DeBoer). The inclusion of a foul-mouthed police officer and his attempts to catch Martin, who he blames for the original film’s murders, also seems a little miscalculated and in honesty is a rather superfluous addition to the overall plot.

Dead Snow 2, is certainly not a perfect film, but it ultimately manages to equal the fun factor of its predecessor, which is by no means an easy task. Some will actually prefer the second appearance of Herzog and his men due to some beautiful cinematography and even more gooey fatalities on a much larger scale – the zombies have a bloody tank this time!

In a clear meta-reference during the film, Zombie Squad leader Daniel (Starr) proclaims to Martin, “You’ve created a whole new genre here, man!” Whilst perhaps not a WHOLE new genre, you can’t deny that Tommy Wirkola’s work is innovative and motivated by a desired drive to present entertaining horror flicks… that also happen to have a lot of intestines in.

Special Features: VFX Breakdown / ‘The Arm’ short film

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INTOLERANCE (LOVE’S STRUGGLE THROUGHOUT THE AGES)

BLU-RAY REVIEW: INTOLERANCE (LOVE’S STRUGGLE THROUGHOUT THE AGES) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: D.W. GRIFFITH / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: LILLIAN GISH, CONSTANCE TALMADGE, DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, SPOTTISWOODE AITKEN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

It would be understandable if a filmmaker who had just produced a film considered the most controversial of his generation, and possibly of any generation, would take a little time to consider his next move and perhaps maintain a low profile. Not D. W. Griffith. Unable to understand some of the reactions to The Birth of a Nation (reactions that included rioting after several screenings) he set about creating a silent epic to surpass all epics, embarking on a production that would raise filmmaking standards to a level that has rarely been equalled, and arguably never bettered.

Upon its release in 1916, Intolerance (Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages) was the most expensive motion picture ever made, estimated at $2.5 million, the equivalent to $47 million in 2014 money, with a huge central cast including leading silent film stars Lillian Gish and Constance Talmadge. There were also over 3.000 extras. Weaving four unrelated yet similarly-themed stories set across the ages, Griffith determined that intolerance was a blight on humanity and suppressed developing civilisations. Edited together with masterful intricacy is a Babylonian story remarkably depicting the fall of Babylon itself; a Judean tale dealing with the crucifixion of Christ; a French story relating the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre; and a modern American tale of class struggle and the search for justice.

It may seem somewhat curious that a director who struggled to understand the response to a film that featured blacked-up white actors, blatantly racist politics, and an origin story for the Ku Klux Klan, as The Birth of a Nation did, would then tackle the subject of intolerance for his next project. But that is exactly what Griffith did, and he did so with spectacular results. Even when judged by modern standards when anything and everything can be shown on screen, when arguably some of the magic of cinema is missing due to an audience’s over-exposure to the fantastic, Intolerance is jaw-droppingly awe-inspiring. Some of the set pieces, in particular during the Babylonian thread, are of such a scale as to inspire wonderment at how it could have been possible at all. The battle scenes rival The Lord of the Rings for their choreography and majesty, but dwarf even those with the knowledge that each performance is physical and not the work of a computer effect. That is not to denigrate Peter Jackson’s achievements, but it does certainly provide some perspective to the comparison.

The interesting thing is that Intolerance is more than likely a film that has passed most casual film fans by. Overshadowed by its controversial predecessor, and initially a flop at the box office, this is a film that only through the passing of time has received the plaudits it deserves. In fact, so great was its failing in 1916 that it almost single-handedly brought about the failure and subsequent sale of Triangle Film Corporation, the studio behind the production.

Watching it now it is easy to see influences on the history of cinema, and it is interesting that in a time when a three-hour running time is becoming the norm, a visionary filmmaker was demonstrating how that time could be used nearly 100 years ago. Intolerance has a grandeur that few films of any era have captured and is an essential addition to any cinephile’s collection. For that matter, it is really a film that should be seen at least once by everyone.

Special Features: Orchestral score by composter Carl Davis / Two feature-length films by Griffith / ‘Three Hour That Shook the World’ documentary / 56-page booklet

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SICK: SURVIVE THE NIGHT

DVD REVIEW: SICK: SURVIVE THE NIGHT / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: RYAN M. ANDREWS / SCREENPLAY: RYAN M. ANDREWS, CHRIS CULL / STARRING: DEBBIE ROCHON, CHRISTINA ACETO, RICHARD ROY SUTTON, ROBERT NOLAN / RELEASE DATE: VOD OUT NOW

Having done the rounds on the festival circuit in 2012, writer and director Ryan M. Andrews’ Sick: Survive the Night is being released on DVD and VOD early next year, but you’ll be better off spending your Christmas money elsewhere.

Given its low budget, Andrews taps into the indie spirit with gusto, putting drama over horror, and while the blood doesn’t splatter every which way, the performances fail to ignite. It’s difficult to sympathise with any of the cast, whose motivations, histories and relationships are unclear. Like the script, the acting could have done with more nuance. Seph (Sutton) is an especially unlikable character, and given he’s one of the last left standing, you end up rooting for the zombies instead.

The way the story unfolds is one of the film’s few strengths, kicking off with a flashback before returning to the present, spliced up with Dr. Joselda Fehmi’s (Rochon) video diary. There isn’t much in the way of explanation where the outbreak’s concerned, but then there isn’t a discernible plot. Instead it’s a series of events and, like its namesake, is just about surviving the night. While the point may be to showcase the breakdown of narrative in a devastating, world-changing epidemic, it doesn’t make for the most compelling watch.

As the majority of the film is set outside, it does suffer from being over-exposed, while adding an eerie apocalyptic quality to some scenes, it’s often only jarring. During one of the few action sequences, there’s an irritating use of freeze frames, which puts a halt on the adrenaline. The sound effects, though, are the films major stylistic shortcoming, as if Andrews found a free sound pack on a shoddy corner of the web.

The zombies themselves are more in a traditional vein, which is a refreshing return to Night of the Living Dead territory. Given the low budget, it’s good to see a lot done with a little in terms of gore and makeup, though it’s not enough to forgive the other inadequacies.

The world Andrews has crafted is an ambiguous one, which scrimps on details and leaves questions you don’t care enough to want answered. If it’s an understated indie leaning zombie film you want, stick with The Battery.

Special Features: TBC