Cherry Tree Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Cherry Tree Blu-ray Movie Review

Stunted Growth

Reviewed by Michael Reuben April 6, 2016

Director David Keating and writer Brendan McCarthy have followed up their 2011 tale of country black magic, Watch Wood, with a tale of witchcraft in the city. Once again, the team borrows liberally from other (and better) horror classics, but they've failed to grasp that what worked in the insular environment of Watch Wood's isolated rural community can't be transferred directly to a contemporary urban setting. The eruption of ancient supernatural forces in a modern city requires careful plotting, so that only the intended victims are fully aware of the danger, while the rest of the city continues about its business blissfully unaware. And the victims have to react to the unaccustomed peril with an appropriate combination of shock, disbelief and self-doubt. Otherwise they become mere stick figures being pushed around the landscape while the filmmakers pour on special effects. One of the most cleverly engineered of such tales is Rosemary's Baby, from which Keating and McCarthy have borrowed key plot elements while managing to learn nothing from Roman Polanski's masterly creation of fear and paranoia.

A modern-day witch named Sissy (Anna Walton) is the keeper of a cherry tree that connects her to ancient black magic. It is typical of the film's sloppiness that, as frequently as the tree appears, its location remains unclear. All we know is that its roots penetrate deep into the earth, multiple levels below the venerable house that, as Sissy explains, has been in her family for years. Many of Sissy's machinations occur in the deep basement of that house, which requires a long descent along dark and narrow stairs. In just one of Cherry Tree's credulity-straining elements, people follow Sissy down those stairs without question or apparent hesitation, even though she's clearly up to no good. (Anna Walton's sinister performance is the best thing in the film.)

After finagling her way into a position as field hockey coach at a local high school by dispatching the current holder of that job, Sissy targets a student ironically named Faith (Naomi Battrick), who, on the cusp of her sixteenth birthday, is struggling not only with the usual high school indignities but also with the impending death of her father, Sean (Sam Hazeldine), from leukemia. Sissy offers to cure Faith's father in exchange for a service so intimate and personal that even the dimmest bulb in class would smell a rat. But Faith embraces the bargain without any apparent hesitation. Naturally there are undisclosed consequences.

Wasting little effort on selling this setup (or presenting Faith as a credible high schooler), Keating seizes every opportunity to smear the screen with cherry juice, bloody makeup effects and centipedes photographed in closeup (and, according to the Blu-ray extras, requiring special handling because of their hazardous venom). According to Sissy, the insects provide a conduit to the powers of the underworld, but their connection to Sissy's ancient cherry tree remains vague. One of the film's producers has effectively admitted the insects were included solely for their novelty, which wears thin after the tenth closeup of the creepy-crawlers' legs and mandibles. But Keating and McCarthy don't bother with the details of their mythology. Their interest doesn't extend beyond killing off most their cast as graphically as possible.

There are signs that Cherry Tree suffered from trims in the editing room, notably a male member of Sissy's coven who seems to have an unspecified role of importance but is unceremoniously dropped. Whatever may or may not have been removed, the “twist” in Sissy’s scheme (foreshadowed in the opening text, though never adequately explained) and the nonsensical shock ending leave no doubt that narrative coherence was never on the table.

Cherry Tree Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shot on Alexa by DP Eleanor Bowman, Cherry Tree arrives on Blu-ray from MPI Media in a 1080p, AVC-encoded presentation that features the typical sharpness and detail provided by digital capture. Black levels and contrast appear to be accurate, and the film's palette is dominated by shades of red, either as an overall tint to the frame or in recurring objects like the school uniforms worn by Faith and her classmates (and, of course, blood and cherry juice, which, in this film, are virtually indistinguishable). There are no noticeable artifacts or distortion, and MPI has given the 86-minute film the benefit of a BD-50, resulting in an average bitrate of 29.99 Mbps.

Cherry Tree Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cherry Tree's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 sound mix relies on simple tricks for its shock effects, e.g., door slams that have been unnaturally amplified or the icky rustling of the ever-present centipedes. Dynamic range is broad, with deep bass extension. The dialogue has been mixed too low, so that it sometimes can't be heard without turning up the effects to an uncomfortable level. The score is the first feature film creation by composer John Walsh.

As always with MPI titles, an alternate PCM 2.0 track is included.

Cherry Tree Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (1080p; 1.78:1; 11:58): Comments from the cast and crew.



• Trailer (1080p; 2.35:1; 1:56).



• Bonus Trailers: At startup the disc plays trailers for Convergence, Deathgasm, Emelie and Traders, which can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

Cherry Tree Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Since MPI rebooted Dark Sky Films, the label has given a broader audience access to numerous distinctive horror films that never got a chance in the U.S. because they were not produced by major studios. But Cherry Tree is not one of those undiscovered gems. Skip it.