Cellar Dweller / Catacombs Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Cellar Dweller / Catacombs Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 29, 2017

For individual reviews of each film, and a few more screenshots, please click through the links below. Note that these films are also available as part of the Empire Pictures Collection.

• Cellar Dweller
• Catacombs

Cellar Dweller
Score: 3.5/5.0

Thirty years ago, a popular comic book artist by the name of Colin Childress (Jeffrey Combs) created a masterpiece, so good it came to life and violently recreated the horrific scenes he drew. Fast forward a few decades. A budding young artist, Whitney Taylor (Debrah Mullowney), travels to a small boarding school for gifted up-and-coming artists. She struggles to impress those around her, but she talks her way into turning an old dank, dusty, cobweb-riddled cellar into her studio. She's long been inspired by Childress' works and becomes determined to recreate his characters. Little does she know that by doing so her creations will come to life, ready to kill in the most grotesque manners possible.

Cellar Dweller is another old Empire production that nails the genre B-movie. It's silly but quite a bit of fun. It's full of all the genre staples: bare breasts, a nasty creature, blood, black magic, and all sorts of other little touches like the dank basement, cobwebs, and secrets within dusty old chests. It's something of a revenge movie at its core. As the artist discovers the powers behind her works, she begins to use them to her advantage, but there are consequences, of course. The movie is well paced, to the point, and enjoys quality production values. The creature is simple but scary, the production design is terrific (including the artwork seen throughout the film), and the locations fit the movie nicely. Acting is surprisingly good, too. There's not much to dislike about the film for what it is and what it tries to accomplish.

Catacombs
Score: 2.0/5.0

Buried deep within an ancient monetary is a deadly secret. Many centuries after an unspeakable evil last killed, a young teacher, Elizabeth (Laura Schaefer), visits hoping to take some pictures and learn a few things to share with her eager class back home. Unfortunately, that unspeakable evil lurks and, after centuries in dormancy, is ready to once again shed human blood.

Catacombs is a fairly dull film, slow to build, slower to crescendo, and failing to offer any substantial characterization or location drama or intrigue. The film's payoff isn't much, and it's certainly not worth what becomes a laborious wait. The film is certainly the beneficiary of solid enough performances all around, but it never finds a sense of individuality or character, much the opposite of a movie like Cellar Dweller. Even as the film efforts to build mood and atmosphere over opting for a typical Slasher formula where a character is randomly killed every 15 minutes, the film's inability to gain traction and failure to create an interesting atmosphere or villain leave it struggling to keep up with even more modest genre features.

Cellar Dweller / Catacombs Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cellar Dweller
Score: 3.5/5.0

Cellar Dweller begins with a disclaimer: "The new HD transfer was created from the only surviving film element, a film print, direct from MGM's vaults. Some video and audio anomalies may be present." Be that as it may, the image is quite pleasant. It reveals an endless supply of print wear -- scratches, speckles, hairs -- but with the otherwise filmic texturing, it adds a bit of vintage drive-in flair to the presentation. It's not perfect by any means, but it shows character that actually suits the movie quite nicely. Detailing is firm, showcasing artwork, various environments, skin, clothes, and creature effects with pleasing depth and textural nuance. Colors are well balanced, black levels are fine, and flesh tones appear accurate.

Catacombs
Score: 2.5/5.0

Catacombs was shot on film, but the results are rather bland. The image is quite flat, well detailed in places but it cannot find any organic, effortless complexity for the duration. It's a battle of a bland canvas with a mushy grain structure against rather healthy skin textures in select close-ups, but even the finer points around the old monastery cannot produce many rich, tactile textures. Colors lack significant punch; natural greens, yellow paint, or brown robes are all rather dull and, to use that word again, flat. Black levels and skin tones aren't perfect, but rather serviceable. Print wear is commonplace, fairly heavy and rarely relenting for any significant stretches of time.

Cellar Dweller / Catacombs Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cellar Dweller
Score: 2.5/5.0

Cellar Dweller's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack carries the movie to baseline sonic satisfaction. The track struggles to push wide at the beginning, but it opens up as the film moves along. Effects like distant thunder claps engage the further reaches of the stage nicely enough. Clarity is passable but there's ample room for improvement. Dialogue is adequate, though it, too, could use a boost in clarity to eliminate a scratchiness that accompanies any number of scenes. Dialogue positioning is decent enough, though there are times when it's not imaged quite to the middle.

Catacombs
Score: 2.5/5.0

Catacombs features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. The presentation fails to excite, even as a few elements extend beyond a center-imaged position. Ambient effects, such as chirping birds around the abbey, present with adequate width. Dialogue reverberation around the catacombs is surprisingly rich and well spaced along the front. General effects often struggle to hold clear and firm; crunchiness and a general sense of jerky, scratchy elements are not uncommon. Basic dialogue stays fairly close to the center. Clarity and prioritization are adequate.

Cellar Dweller / Catacombs Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only supplement on the disc is a Director David Schmoeller commentary track for Catacombs.

Cellar Dweller / Catacombs Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cellar Dweller makes the package. The film is fun and very well done and video is enjoyable despite the disclaimer. Catacombs is a drag, though, both in terms of the film and its Blu-ray presentation. The lack of extras is disappointing, particularly for Cellar Dweller. Pick it up for the movie with the catchy title.