6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
25-year-old Alex Borden is handsome, charming, and intelligent. In fact, he may be too smart for his own good as his life is swiftly becoming a living hell. Alex's nightmare begins when he meets Harry, a mysterious artist and chess-master. Alex becomes alarmed when his intellect mysteriously begins to grow, and so do the horrors that invade his nightmares, and soon his waking hours. Long-suppressed memories surface and Alex must face the terrors of his violent past, a vanished older brother, a father who abandoned both his sons, and a mother who was viciously murdered. The visions intensify and he begins to experience intense headaches that ultimately cause him to blackout.
Starring: Christopher Denham (II), Sean Young, Larry Fessenden, Daniel Manche, Quinn LujanHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 11% |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Hardcore fans of the original Star Trek accord a special place in their obsessed little hearts for the episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, which initially aired as the third outing of the series in September 1966 during its first season. What makes “Where No Man Has Gone Before” so interesting to Trekkers (and/or Trekkies—take your pick, depending on whether you’re one of them or not) is that the episode was actually shot as the second pilot for the series, after the incredible first pilot, “The Cage” (which ultimately was reedited as the two-parter “The Menagerie”, airing during the series’ third season), failed to get NBC’s greenlight go-ahead to series. “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, even though it aired third, has all sorts of little discrepancies since it was actually filmed before the series actually went into production, differences that may seem picayune to most but which have attained a cultlike cadre of analysts (how could it be otherwise with this legendary show?). It’s easy to spot some of the bigger oddities, like a different doctor than Bones, or Sulu being a physicist rather than a helmsman, or no sign of Uhura. But there are all sorts of other idiosyncracies, from sets to costumes to Kirk’s middle initial, which have been discussed ad infinitum by Trek aficionados for decades. The basic story of “Where No Man Has Gone Before” has entered the public consciousness in a way that very few other original Star Trek outings have, perhaps due as much to the guest starring turns by Gary Lockwood and Sally Kellerman as to any inherent innovation in the writing. Lockwood and Kellerman portray two Enterprise crew members who become super-intelligent after having been exposed to some alien territory barrier. While this interaction initially gives them what the episode refers to as “ESP”, what really happens is an incredibly rapid acceleration of their cognitive powers on all levels. One of the episode’s most memorable sequences has Lockwood, who has been confined to the ship’s infirmary, quickly scanning through thousands of pages of the computer’s archives of various books, obviously taking Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics to a level heretofore unimagined. Imagine that same basic plot setup altered slightly and mixed with a generous dose of H.P. Lovecraft and you’ll have the general gist of Headspace, an interesting though flawed 2005 thriller-gorefest that may be of most interest due to its rather outré list of guest stars (echoing that long ago Star Trek episode).
Headspace is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual with an a AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Headspace was shot on Super 16, and for a film done in this smaller format it looks really rather surprisingly good on Blu-ray. As cinematographer William Miller discusses in his commentary included on the Blu-ray as a supplement, quite a bit of post was done on the image, with color correction and filtering giving the film a decidedly surreal edge a lot of the time. The overall image here is of course grainy and fairly soft, but in sequences that haven't been artificially skewed, fine detail pops at least at above average levels, if not exactly at eye popping levels. The biggest detriment to this presentation, and one probably endemic to the source elements (I confess I never saw Headspace theatrically) is its incredible darkness, one simply awash in crush and nonexistent shadow detail. While this adds a suitably spooky ambience, it also deprives the viewer of some essential information—it's hard to be totally scared if you can't see anything that's going on.
MVD is another niche label which hasn't quite stepped up to the plate on all of its releases with regard to lossless audio options, and so Headspace is granted only two lossy Dolby tracks, a 5.1 surround mix and a standard Dolby 2.0 stereo fold down. The 5.1 mix is reasonably aggressive as far as Dolby audio goes, with a good low end and some really well placed sound effects in the surround channels that offer a few "startle" moments. That said, the mix is fairly front-centric, with the moody score providing most of the consistent surround activity. Fidelity is fine here, with good prioritization of dialogue, effects and score. A lossless track would have provided a little more sonic "oomph", of course, but there's nothing major to complain about here other than the lossiness itself.
Headspace is a commendable first effort by Andrew van den Houten, but it has too many lapses in logic to make it a totally satisfying thriller. Still van den Houten proves himself a capable craftsman here, and Headspace may be reevaluated down the line if the fledgling producer-director manages to really break into the mainstream (think of what happened with Peter Jackson and Dead Alive). This Blu-ray offers decent video quality considering the film's shooting format, and okay sounding Dolby audio. The best thing about this package is the copious supplements. You could do worse than Headspace, but that's probably damning with faint praise.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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