6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Fire-and-brimstone preacher sees Satan everywhere, trains gullible young boy to "detect" evil, and the two of them commit several murders in the name of Jesus. Based on a true story.
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Chad Lowe, Mia Sara, Knut Husebř, Rutanya AldaHorror | 100% |
Mystery | 18% |
Drama | 10% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.83:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
To quote a venerable sage or at least a pop song writer, “Do you believe in magic?” Hallowe’en has passed for another year, and with it perhaps a more general awareness of “arcane” matters like witches, warlocks and other “magicians”. It might be kind of funny if some kid somewhere decided to dress up as a so-called “powwow” man or woman, for a couple of reasons: first of all, and probably most saliently, relatively few people have even heard of this little “branch” of American grown magic; and second of all, practitioners of this “art” don’t wear anything special, at least as evidenced by Apprentice to Murder, a film which posits powwow medicine or magic as one of its central plot points. In a rather appealing and broad ranging supplemental analysis of certain elements in Apprentice to Murder, not to mention a host (sacred or otherwise) of other films and media, Kat Ellinger talks about the perhaps odd but also seemingly inevitable collision of religion and aspects of gothic horror that include a wealth of extremely well remembered properties like Frankenstein (whose source novel famously included the sobriqet A Modern Prometheus), but also arguably lesser remembered outings like this very film. While the whole powwow aspect of Apprentice to Murder certainly gives this film an undeniably interesting foundation, unfortunately the film itself is a somewhat confusing mishmash of plotlines exacerbated by some odd editing choices and some other performance decisions that some may feel are less than helpful.
Apprentice to Murder is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.83:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the restoration:
Apprentice to Murder was exclusively restored by Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 [sic] with mono sound.This can be a fairly widely variant looking presentation, as I've tried to document in some of the screenshots accompanying this review. Some of the rougher looking moments feature noticeably more chunky grain which can occasionally splotch and look yellowish, but I would just generally say that in motion, things look considerably better than at least a couple of the screenshots might suggest. A lot of the film is kind of autumnal looking, and colors can be somewhat subdued. There are isolated moments when the palette suddenly warms appreciably, noticeably toward the end of the film starting with a sequence in a cemetery (detail levels also perk up appreciably starting with this sequence), but earlier moments can look slightly anemic. Grain structure and clarity are similarly skewed, with some moments offering a really nicely resolved grain field and a rather well saturated palette supporting good detail levels, while other moments are noticeably grittier, with less observable fine detail and sometimes a kind of muddy, mottled looking palette.
The original 35mm interpositive was scanned in 2K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director at EFilm, Burbank. The film was graded and restored at Pinewood Studios Group, London. Picture grading was completed on a DaVinci Resolve and restoration was completed using PFClean software. The original audio mix was remastered by Lakeshore Entertainment.
Apprentice to Murder features an LPCM 2.0 mono track which capably supports the film's somewhat limited sound design. A rather nice, at times poignant, score by Charles Gross, one which often offers solo piano cues, sounds nicely full bodied throughout, with a really warm tone and no brashness in the higher keyboard frequencies. Dialogue is rendered cleanly throughout, and there are some realistic ambient environmental effects in some of the outdoor sequences.
There seem to be warring factions in Apprentice to Murder , aside and apart from the good old fashioned battle between good and evil. I'm not quite sure what the filmmakers ultimately had in mind, but what is here is an often jumbled mess that might have benefited from some serious reshaping or even rethinking. Sutherland is often completely over the top here, which may in fact recommend the film to some fans. Technical merits are generally solid, and as usual Arrow has assembled a really interesting array of supplements, for those considering a purchase.
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1972
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1970
1966
1979
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2013
1976
Retro VHS Collection
1985
The Secret of Marrowbone
2017
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2020
1970
Special Edition | Sette note in nero | 4K Restoration
1977
1972
1976
Collector's Edition
1962