Ever After Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Ever After Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 3, 2019

Some wag named Shakespeare or something said a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, but this Ever After is most definitely not a so-called Cinderella Story. It is also not a tale of "Flower Children", a la the Summer of Love (and beyond), this despite the rather odd addition to existing "zombie movie" canon of a kind of hybrid "new species" that is at least part plant, part human. In yet another post-apocalyptic future, only two cities in Germany have managed to make it through the gauntlet, Weimar and Jena. Weimar has decided to summarilyexecute anyone suffering from the zombie plague, while those in Jena struggle to find a cure. Vivi (Gro Swantje Kohlhof) and Eva (Maja Lehrer) begin the film in the remnants of Weimar, but both want "out" for personal reasons, and the bulk of the film is a kind of odd "road trip" for the pair when they set out for Jena.

While there are a few scenes of zombie attacks that will keep things lively, or at least un-deadly (sorry), for genre aficionados, Ever After (which bears the actual German title Endzeit ) has more on its mind than “only” horror thrills. There’s a potent ecological subtext and also echoes of post traumatic stress disorder, especially with regard to Vivi, whose fraught psyche may end up annoying some viewers. The film is long on style, but encounters several narrative hurdles along the way, with a couple of completely outré moments which may in fact provoke unintended laughter in some.

Ever After Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Ever After is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Juno Films and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb has no technical data on the shoot, but I found a Facebook post from Arri's European division which suggests this was captured with Alexas, and I'm assuming things were finished at a 2K DI. This is a sharp and appealing looking transfer, one with some positively lustrous outdoor material that takes advantage of "golden hour". The palette is natural looking and nicely suffused, and detail levels benefit from generally sunny or at least daylit conditions.

Ever After Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While the menu on this disc touts English language tracks, the actual audio is German, delivered via either DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or LPCM 2.0 (with forced English subtitles). The sound mix features a lot of ambient environmental effects including things like whirling wind and what sounds like mixed in low frequency electronics, to create a rather ominous and foreboding ambience. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free presentation.

Ever After Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers

  Endzeit Trailer (720p; 1:45)

  
  

  Ever After Trailer (720p; 1:51)

Ever After Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm not sure everything totally clicks in Ever After, but it's a rather interesting take on a perceived zombie film. The character of Vivi may cause angst of an unexpected variety in some simply because she's quite mouselike in the early going and spends a lot of time cowering in fear. Technical merits are solid for those considering a purchase.