6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Lacking consciences because they were born during a solar eclipse, a trio of 10-year-olds embark on an indiscriminate killing spree.
Starring: Julie Brown, Billy Jayne, Susan Strasberg, José Ferrer, Michael DudikoffHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 10% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit)
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
You have to make a living. Was that timeworn phrase lingering in the minds of such acting legends as José Ferrer and the scion of an acting teaching legend, Susan Strasberg, when they signed on to appear in the decidedly lo-fi quasi- slasher film Bloody Birthday? Evil and/or possessed kids have been a trope in cinematic outings like The Bad Seed, Children of the Corn and Village of the Damned, and Bloody Birthday simply takes that basic idea and plops it down in the then fashionable slasher idiom which had become a major moneymaker for filmmakers in the 1980s. Bloody Birthday gives a bit of lip service to the supposed astrological reasons behind a trio of tots becoming murderous savages, but the bottom line is, the rationale really doesn’t matter all that much because Bloody Birthday is all about the killing. Perhaps surprisingly, though, there's really very little on screen mayhem to go around (even for a film that came relatively early in the slasher cycle), and the film actually spends quite a bit of time detailing the kids’ usually dunderheaded plans to off various nemeses. That gives Bloody Birthday a somewhat more procedural twist than some slice and dice fests. Still, the film ends up feeling extremely derivative, with one of the characters, a flaxen haired little girl named Debbie (Elizabeth Hoy), seeming to be a “next generation” version of the sweetly sociopathic character brought so memorably to life (and death) by Patty McCormack in The Bad Seed.
Bloody Birthday is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Severin's press material state this is sourced from "original vault elements", without actually describing what those "vault elements" are, but generally speaking this is a commendable if problematic presentation. The opening scenes are the worst in terms of overall clarity and (especially) contrast and color timing. This is the prologue where two teen lovers are getting it on in a graveyard, and the nighttime setting is almost completely devoid of shadow detail, as well as contrast issues which push blacks toward a smeary purple effulgence. Once the actual film gets underway, things are manifestly better, though color timing is still kind of odd, with fleshtones rather peach colored at times, and a kind of slightly yellowish tint to everything (this is something that I've noticed in other Severin releases, notably their recent slew of Australian horror offerings). The image is fairly cinematic, however, with a natural looking (and at times pretty heavy) grain field, and above average fine detail in close-ups.
Bloody Birthday's LPCM 2.0 mono track has a somewhat muffled, murky sound that also has pretty rampant clipping in the high end (noticeable in little moments like when a school bell rings), but it's actually listenable, if awfully muddy sounding at times. The film's above average score fares a bit better, though even here there's occasional damage and distortion.
Bloody Birthday might have been marginally more effective had it gone the full blown slasher route, with lots of blood and guts and over the top violence. As it stands, it's a pretty lackluster entry in the "demon spawn kid" subgenre. A couple of decent shocks may give this some value for genre enthusiasts, but even those folks may walk away underwhelmed by this film. Both the video and audio of this release have issues, but the supplemental material is outstanding.
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