Channel Zero: Season Two - No-End House Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Channel Zero: Season Two - No-End House Blu-ray Movie Review

A dish best served bloody.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 10, 2020

If the Internet has given the world anything anything, it's not an endless stream of information or connectivity -- those things it's supposed to foster and facilitate -- but rather the seemingly random world of word stews that have in many ways both thrown the grammar rule book out the window and effectively, if not sometimes mind numbingly, jumbled words or the language for some sort of effect. Take "creepypasta," to the untrained ear a nonsensical meshing of two otherwise unrelated words (except, maybe, when "they're only noodles, Michael"). For the uninitiated, "creepypasta" is basically a term for digital urban legends, user created and web-based short stories detailing some kind of horrific violence or frightening situation: virtual campfire stories, basically. And in an age where the Internet is king and television shows are countless, it was an easy marriage for SyFy's Channel Zero, a collection of self contained TV seasons built around various "creepypasta." Season Two, No-End House, was directed by Steven Piet and aired on SyFy from September-October 2017.

Margot (Amy Forsyth), who has recently found her father dead in the living room from an allergic reaction, is struggling to move on with her life. She finds some comfort in the company of her good friend Jules (Aisha Dee). The two, along with J.D. (Seamus Patterson) and Seth (Jeff Ward), decide to follow the pack and take a tour through the mysterious "No-End House," a legendary haunt that randomly pops up here and there with non rhyme or reason. The foursome enter, along with a few others, despite the warnings they hear from those lucky enough to leave. "It’s crazy in there," they're told, as they witness those who made it back outside vomiting in the street. Their journey into the house begins innocently enough but it quickly takes a turn for the bizarre. The house seems to know its visitors: who they are, what they want, how they feel, and why they've come, even if it's more deeply seeded than they know. They are tasked with maneuvering through six rooms, each more emotionally draining and psychologically intense than the last, in a tour that will challenge their resolve and their lifelong perceptions of right, wrong, up, down, real, imagined, life, and death.

In the first episode, the characters begin their journey through the house. With each room their experience begins as a curiosity and becomes progressively confusing, increasingly creepier, and ultimately chaotic, physically to be sure but also psychologically. The house blurs the line between real and imagined, pain and pleasure, digging into the very essence of what makes each character tick. One of the season's strengths is in how so much of it plays matter-of-factly yet obviously off-kilter, such as when Margot finds herself reunited with her father (John Carroll Lynch in a well developed performance) who appears in the kitchen, fixing her an omelette as if nothing had happened before. The show integrates some blood and gore but it smartly leans most heavily on the psychological attack on its characters.

But the season is really best enjoyed for its superficialities. The mind-bending aspects and the emotional wear and tear that the characters endure certainly help boost the overall experience, but it is arguably the aesthetics where No-End House shines brightest. Episode one begins a little slow but it's quick to gain terror and momentum as the house opens its doors. It's disquieting at its most relaxed and spine-tingling at its most intense. The show gets a lot of mileage from terror amplified not through traditional boogeyman theatrics but instead the sort of simple terrors that get under the skin, and it's relentless. Episode one is the highlight; it's all downhill from there in terms of narrative exploration, mostly because of its need to focus on the characters beyond Margot, whose story is the only one with real, lasting draw and the sort of tangible emotional currents necessary to carry the season's psychological terrors. Everything else that isn't directly in support seems more like cannon fodder to extend the runtime, but Margot is the season's focus and, even with some pacing issues through the middle, there's enough narrative draw, emotional attachment, and visceral terror to make it work, and work effectively.

Channel Zero: Season Two - No-End House Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Channel Zero: Season Two - No-End House's 1080p transfer is fairly standard stuff, an image that offers a quality superficial viewing experience suited to the casual viewer but one hardcore videophiles will find a little more troubling. The issues largely begin and end with macroblocking, which can be severe at many lower light junctures throughout. Take a look early in the season, around the 15-minute mark in the first episode, followed a few minutes later in a lower light interior. Such issues are prevalent throughout but at least represent the bulk of the sore spots. Mild noise and banding are in evidence as well, but not so much as to really detract or distract from any given shot, scene, or sequence. Core detailing is solid, featuring good essential character and clothing clarity while many of the critical environmental details -- whether in the title house, Margot's home, or out on the open street where pavement, grass, and structural textures abound -- present with solid, accurate reproduction. Colors are neutral, enjoying quality contrast and never a feel of over- or under-saturation. Skin tones are fine and black levels don't veer too far towards crush or, at the other end of the spectrum, paleness.

Channel Zero: Season Two - No-End House Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Channel Zero: Season Two - No-End House features no lossless audio option. The only track is of the Dolby Digital 5.1 configuration. But never mind the tech specs. It's robust and regularly engaging, offering expressive front engagement, intense surround support, and plenty of low end output. Episode two opens with some airy and spacious, yet deep and foreboding, sound elements, a very good example of the track's spacing and potency as well as clarity. Each episode delivers numerous examples of high energy and totally immersive elements, all of them of the same high standard that's pretty much best case scenario for the lossy encode. Less intense, but no less critical, ambient effects are nicely folded in, as is more prominent front end music. Dialogue is clear, well prioritized, and positions naturally in the front center channel.

Channel Zero: Season Two - No-End House Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Channel Zero: Season Two - No-End House contains no supplemental content. No DVD or digital copies are included. This release does not ship with a slipover. The artwork does include an inner print that displays a montage of available Blu-ray releases from Via Vision.

Channel Zero: Season Two - No-End House Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

No-End House dabbles in more visceral scares but finds itself in the psychological realm, building a fairly substantial story for its protagonist, one with both relatable superficialities and thoroughly explored, borderline exhaustive, internal processing. The show is well built considering its aesthetics, too, and carried by several strong performances. Via Vision's Blu-ray is featureless. Video is good enough and audio is fairly good, even with the lossy configuration. Recommended.