Death Knot Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Death Knot Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 13, 2023

Death Knot is a film that would have been completely "at home" in a compendium which recently made my Top 10 list for last year (even though it was actually released in 2021), All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror. While a number of talking heads and audio commentary providers in that set from Severin actually kind of hotly debate what constitutes so-called "folk horror", I doubt many of those experts would quibble too much about Death Knot fitting pretty snugly in this perceived (sub?) genre. Here, though, things are perhaps made a bit more "exotic" due to an relatively unusual location (Indonesia), as the film documents the return to their native land by two adult siblings whose mother has committed suicide. In fact, the film begins with the disturbing suicide sequence, which suggests that Mom had some kind of proclivities toward spell casting or mysticism. Even after she's rather horrifyingly hung herself from an oversized tree, she seemingly sends a telepathic message to her children not to return to their homeland. So, of course, that's exactly what they do after getting confirmation of her death.

Co-writer and director Cornelio Sunny also appears in the film as one of two focal characters. Hari (Cornelio Sunny) and sister Eka (Widika Sidmore) both have the same disturbing dream of their apparently dead mother speaking to them from the tree where she's just hung herself. When their uncle suddenly phones telling them their mother has committed suicide, the two travel back for her funeral. Accompanying them is Eka's boyfriend Adi (Moran Oey), but almost immediately the trio becomes aware that they are far from welcome in an atavistic rural community, and that in fact their mother is considered "better off dead", as the villagers suspect her of having practiced Black Magic, with the result being a spate of suicides that the village has been regularly experiencing, almost as if on schedule.

There are both some undeniable pluses as well as perhaps a few minuses about Death Knot. Chief on its list of assets is its indelible mood, one helped immeasurably by some really evocative cinematography of mist laden Indonesian forests. Arguably on the deficit side of things is an unwillingness to really explain exactly what's going on with regard to whatever curse is in play. There's some passing lip service, and a lot of suspicious behaviors on the part of various villagers, but there's still some underlying lack of clarity about what exactly Hari and Eka are up against.

In this regard, it's really interesting to compare the subtitles in the feature with those in the trailer included on this disc as a supplement, because while the trailer offers only a generic "curse" for a key sequence where the siblings get as close to what amounts to an info dump in this film from a local lady, the actual feature offers what I assume is some kind of indigenous Indonesian term for whatever is going on. I think Death Knot might have benefitted from some more overt information, but as it stands (and/or hangs, as the case may be), it's a really spooky endeavor with a palpable mood of dread.

Death Knot Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Death Knot is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. I haven't been able to track down any verifiable technical data on the shoot, but as can be seen in the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, this is a really interesting looking presentation that is filled to overflowing with watery blues, yellows and greens. In fact, torrential downpours are part of the story, and a lot of the outdoor material in particular can been extremely aggressively graded, especially toward blues, something that can keep fine detail levels at bay at times. That said, this very stylized approach is what gives a lot of Death Knot its really creepy feel, even when there really isn't a ton of overtly "scary" material going on. As can also probably be made out by perusing the screenshots, a lot of the film is pretty dimly lit, something that again can lead to fine detail ebbing. A prevalence of mist and fog along with rain in a couple of outdoor shots provides some momentary challenges for compression, but nothing overly problematic.

Death Knot Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Death Knot features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track in the original Indonesian (there are a couple of passing snippets in English, including one perhaps slightly funny moment where an increasingly confused and distraught Hari utters the phrase that "WTF" stands for). As outlined above, this is a film that perhaps commendably doesn't rely on a surplus of "scare tactics" like bursts of LFE or startle effects, and instead the track relies on some consistent immersion courtesy of background ambient environmental sounds. Outdoor scenes in particular benefit from subliminally spooky effects like the rustle of breezes through what look like quaking aspens. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Death Knot Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 2:10)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Death Knot Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

An inordinate amount of horror films pass through my review queue, and so I've almost become numb to them over the course of so many years, but "little" films like Death Knot tend to stand out simply by dint of the fact that they try to do something at least a little new, though that said, there are certainly elements of this story that horror fans are going to recognize from other efforts, especially so-called "folk horror" outings. Still, Death Knot offers a really nicely fraught mood that doesn't rely on traditional tropes like jump cuts and the like, and it should be enjoyed by fans with a taste for something a little different. Technical merits are generally solid. Recommended.