6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A TV station employee takes a camera crew out to an abandoned factory to investigate a purported snuff film that was made there, as she gets closer to the truth, she and her friends are subjected to a brutal nightmare.
Starring: Miyuki Ono, Aya Katsuragi, Hitomi Kobayashi, Eriko Nakagawa, Masahiko AbeHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 77% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Japanese: LPCM 2.0
Japanese: LPCM 2.0 Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
If Calum Waddell's name doesn't ring an immediate bell, but if you have a particular interest in horror, specifically Asian or Italian horror, you might want to check out Waddell's main IMDb credits listing page, where Waddell has amassed a kind of astounding 163 credits as producer, along with 142 as director, with a handful of other credits in writing and as either an actor or as a talking head in various featurettes. Chances are if you are a horror fan, especially if your collection has any number of cult items in it, you may in fact have seen a piece that Waddell had some hand in along the way. In that regard, when in a bonus feature included on this Blu-ray disc Waddell launches into a veritable laundry list of directors and/or films with a perceived connection to Evil Dead Trap, he has a rather authoritative ambience, despite the almost comical number of items mentioned. These include Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, and Mario Bava in the Italian giallo category, along with a glut of films ranging from Ringu to Emanuelle in America to Videodrome. And in fact David Cronenberg comes in for special mention not just by Waddell, but also by James Munch, in one of three commentaries also included on this disc as supplementary features. This if all to say that is some come away from Evil Dead Trap feeling like they've been consuming a very strange hybrid, there may be reasons why.
Evil Dead Trap is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Unearthed Films and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. I couldn't see any technical data listed anywhere on the packaging of this release, but a cursory look at the screenshots will probably fairly easily reveal a transfer that is rather heavily grainy most of the time, with some of the darkest scenes looking pretty splotchy and close to pixellation at times. While the entire transfer is fairly soft looking, detail levels are actually rather good in some of the (relatively brief) brightly lit outdoor scenes. That said, those scenes can feature a somewhat peculiar peach tint which becomes inherently less visible in the vast bulk of the presentation, which can alternately be just plain dark or often bathed in almost cobalt blue tones. There are some noticeable deficits in general detail and fine detail in particular in these very dark or deeply lit and/or graded scenes, to the point that it can be hard to make out what's going on in the frame at certain selected moments.
Evil Dead Trap features LPCM 2.0 and LPCM 2.0 Mono tracks in the original Japanese. I frankly didn't hear a whale of a lot of difference between these two, though the interest score, which some of the supplements compare to Goblin but which also reminded me at times of Mike Oldfield's immortal "Tubular Bells" from The Exorcist. Dialogue is presented without any issues. Optional English subtitles are available.
Evil Dead Trap may be of more interest for some its "meta" connections than for its actual content and or execution (pun probably unavoidable), but fans of Asian horror have evidently long considered this a Holy Grail of sorts, and so this release should be well appreciated at least by that particular demographic. Video quality encounters some hurdles, but audio is fine, and the supplements are very good, for those who are considering making a purchase.
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