5.7 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
When ambitious young real estate agent Leigh is asked to sell a house with a checkered past, she crosses paths with a disturbed girl whom she believes is the runaway daughter of the couple selling the property.
Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Naya Rivera, Ashley Rickards, Mark Steger, Ava AcresHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
One of the most frustrating parts of reviewing Blu-rays from IFC/MPI is wondering why some of the movies featured in introductory trailers are being relegated to DVD-only releases. The studio's Blu-ray of At the Devil's Door opens with trailers for the Spanish horror comedy Witching & Bitching and the high-concept web thriller Cam2Cam, neither of which may be a great film but I'd rather write about either of them than this Frankenstein clunker of recycled parts from writer/director Nicholas McCarthy (The Pact). The film is so lacking in suspense, so halting in its attempts to generate fear and ultimately so disappointing in its "reveals", that it's tempting to spoil everything to spare readers from sitting through it. I'll keep it clean, but you've been warned. When the credits roll and the feeling of having wasted 93 minutes settles on you like a funk, you'll have only yourself to blame.
At the Devil's Door was shot by Bridger Nielson, McCarthy's cinematographer from The Pact. From the behind-the-scenes footage in the extras, the camera was the Arri Alexa, and McCarthy's commentary confirms that post-production was completed on a digital intermediate, where certain scenes were deliberately desaturated to the point of being almost black-and-white, while others were left with a carefully chosen color palette, the better to distinguish between various eras as the film shifts back and forth. MPI Media's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, which was presumably sourced directly from digital files, presents a generally pleasing image, though not without issues. The image is sharp and finely detailed, even when it becomes extremely dark, which is often, because sudden blackouts are an essential part of McCarthy's scare tactics. Colors, especially reds in the Hannah sequences, are vivid without intense saturation, so that they can better blend with the less saturated hues of the Leigh/Vera sections. Except for the issues noted below, blacks are deep and solid, which is essential to McCarthy's visual design. The big negative of the presentation is banding, which is never severe, but occurs periodically throughout the film, usually in dark areas with a brightly lit center. It is possible, though not certain, that this issue might have been avoided if MPI had used a BD-50 instead of a BD-25. The smaller disc space, which is fully occupied, results in an average bitrate of 19.80 Mbps, which would be adequate for many digitally acquired productions of this length (93 minutes), but At the Devil's Door has a lot of dark and complex imagery, and many Steadicam and other active scenes. It needed more bandwidth. As things stand, the image is serviceable but not exceptional.
The 5.1 sound mix for At the Devil's Door has been encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1, and it's thoughtful but not particularly subtle. Deep bass tones emanate from nowhere in particular as soon as the film opens, and they recur throughout, signaling danger and a demonic presence. The haunting score by Ronen Landa (another veteran from The Pact) is also filled with deep bass; its unsettling quality is one of the film's greatest assets. A recurring sonic theme is alarms—car, house, wakeup, etc.—and they are always jarringly loud and insistent. McCarthy and his sound team delight in shocking the audience with other sounds that are turned up too loud, such as a rap on a pane of glass or the sound of gas flame. It's a familiar technique, but they use it effectively. The mix uses the surrounds primarily to immerse the viewer in the experience, although there is an occasional rear channel effect, usually an off-screen voice or sound effect. As little as I think of At the Devil's Door, if the film is going to scare you, the soundtrack will probably be the reason. An alternate PCM 2.0 track is also included.
Especially given who is in it, I really wanted to like At the Devil's Door. The cast can't be faulted. The three lead actresses all give intense and committed performances. Indeed, the deleted scenes selected by McCarthy and his editor suggest that there is much more on the cutting room floor that would show just how good the film's leads really are. Unfortunately, the actors are locked inside a vehicle that, at least for this viewer, bumps along like some Rube Goldberg contraption built from spare parts that someone persuaded himself could be made to fit together. Rent if you must.
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