Horsehead Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Horsehead Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson January 5, 2017

The titular equine phantom in French director Romain Basset's feature debut Horsehead represents one of the more original creations in contemporary horror. The movie opens with the young and sophisticated beautiful blonde, Jessica (Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux), in her bed enclosed by crimson draperies. A human-sized figure with a horsehead and thin claws enters Jesscia's space holding a bishop's crosier. Something terrible is happening to Jessica but she awakens from one of these recurring nightmares. She receives a voicemail from her estranged mother, Catelyn (Catriona MacColl, an alumnus of Lucio Fulci's films), informing Jessica that her maternal grandmother has just passed. Jessica travels via train to an unspecified European town to visit her mom and amicable stepfather, Jim (Murray Head). (The movie was shot in Paris and the village of Argenton-sur-Creuse, France.) Upon her arrival it is apparent that Jessica has been away from her family for quite some time and there is a rift between mother and daughter. Jessica sleeps not too far from where her grandma's corpse lays and resumes having unpleasant dreams that hinge on some discovery.

The main title sequence features some spoken narration by Jessica's psychotherapist who explains to the audience the process of psychophysiology, the branch of physiology that grapples with the connection between mental and physical phenomena. Jessica brings with her a book titled Lucid Dreams, which describes precisely the type of dreams that she experiences. In that book and a sketchbook of her grandma Rose that she uncovers, the Jungian archetype Horsehead signifies a malevolent maternal presence of the unconscious that acts as a bridge between the end of life and the beginning of death. Jessica habitually takes a bottle of ether and is transported to a dream world where Rose and Jessica's grandfather, Winston (Fu'ad Aït Aattou), are young adults. Jessica both dreams and hears bad rumors about the persecutions and purgatory that took place in the Saint Winston chapel long ago. Jessica's dreams are a means of discovering the long-buried secrets that her family has harbored for many years.

Reunion of an estranged family.

A refreshing aspect about the dream sequences is that they are set in the distant past and are not used to forecast a premonition that the main character has about someone or something, which is a staple in a lot of modern horror films. Basset also incorporates characters from the story's present into the dreams so that they can act as either observers or participants in the events. For example, Basset crosscuts between Catelyn speaking to Jessica's doctor on the phone and Jessica dreaming. In fact, Jessica has a surreal vision of what her mother is up to at that very moment as she comes into the dream. Basset shuffles the story events around within the dreams to keep the audience on edge and uncertain of their direction in the larger narrative.

Horsehead hearkens back to a genre of Italian cinema from the 1970s know as giallo films. These pictures contain characteristics of the murder mystery, suspense thriller, and fantastique work. In an interview with Modern Horrors' Spencer White, Basset states that he examined the framings and color schemes of two neo-giallo titles: Amer (2009) and The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears (2013). Horsehead's production design, shifts in color contrast, and widescreen compositions bear the mark of a giallo. Basset's updating of the genre, however, comes with at least two drawbacks. The deep baritone voice of the evil Winston is obviously dubbed and carries with it the clichéd sound of a modulated monstrous roar uttered by Zuul or Pinhead. Futhermore, Basset aims for a collage-style music video from the nineties through his juxtaposition of image and sound in the lurid scenes. Composer Benjamin Shielden's score intersperses high-octane rhythms comprised of electronic dance music and more specifically, dubstep. The clanging and banging of instruments sometimes approaches heavy metal in all its cacophony. Basset's sound design is effective as it is and he needlessly attempts to amplify the scares and terror with contrapuntal cues. To fit the scene and time period, Horsehead would have benefited from a dark, romantic, and Gothic work from the likes of Danny Elfman. Basset probably could not afford a composer of Elfman's fee but a picture like Horsehead needs mood-enhancing music rather than overly dramatic or artificial material that diminishes its effectiveness.

Horsehead Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Horsehead appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1 on this AVC-encoded BD-25. Originally, Artsploitation put the movie on a MOD disc. In summer 2015, however, they replaced the BD-Rs with regular pressings. The Blu-ray could have benefited from an extra layer to accommodate the making-of doc and short films. There is banding visible, particularly in candle-lit scenes that also reveal some artifacting. Nonetheless, this is a very strong transfer that showcases both the movie's over-saturated colors (e.g., red gels) and the subdued tones. The pure white skin on the occasionally nude body of Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux glistens with a radiant beauty, especially the blue moonlight shown on her during the bathtub scene. Contrast between the actors' faces and their characters' garments is rock solid. Horsehead has a generally dark look to it and despite the low average video bitrate of 18.16 Mbps, the transfer displays a nice amount of detail. Outside of artifacts, there doesn't appear to be any other source flaws or video noise.

Artsploitation has given the movie nine scene selections.

Horsehead Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Horsehead's Blu-ray comes with three English audio options: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, and Dolby Digital Surround 2.0. I played the uncompressed track in my home theater twice and was repeatedly impressed with the spatial depth and extra dimensionality music and sound effects were able to generate. In spite of my reservations with Shielden's music, the sound track delivers a wholly satisfying sonic performance. The room rumbled and the walls shook when a cue reached a crescendo or rose to a high pitch. The cast is mostly if not entirely European and accents exhibited variance but dialogue was predominantly intelligible to discern. There is quite a bit of whispering in the movie but the viewer should be able to make out most of the words.

Thankfully, Artsploitation has supplied optional English SDH. They appear light yellow in a relatively small font. It seems that Artsploitation didn't finalize them, though, since the HTML code for italics displays on the screen. They pretty faithfully replicate dialogue, if not completely. There are two scenes featuring two or more characters where the subtitles are out of sync with the spoken words. The subs usually lag behind the visuals but eventually display. This is one area of quality control that Artsploitation can continue to improve on.

Horsehead Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Inside HORSEHEAD: Making of (57:25, 1080p) - this is a behind-the-scenes documentary produced by Hughes-Alban Bermond and narrated in English by Hannah Mullaghy. Director Romain Basset is seated by his main lead Pointeaux. The two recount the production's origins and their interpretations of key characters and themes. There are also anecdotes and interviews with other cast members. The program shows a lot of what went into this low-budget yet ambitious production. In English and French with optional English subtitles where necessary.

• Four Short Films - Basset's short films Bloody Current Exchange (10:50, 1080p), Light Drowning (1:05, 1080p), Rémy (6:46, 1080p), and Faces & Landscapes of Beaujolais (3:10, 1080i) are presented in HD and can be played together. Basset either directed or co-directed them. They are all worth seeing. The longest, Bloody Current Exchange, is about a romance between an old man and younger woman with a vampiric twist. Set in a bedroom, it bears the stamp of Joe Eszterhas. Basset must have seen and studied Jagged Edge (1985) and Basic Instinct (1992) as he prepared to film this. The shorts are in their original language(s) with English subtitles.

• Original Theatrical Trailer (2:21, 1080p) - an uncensored trailer for Horsehead that contains some nudity.

• Also Available (Previews) - Artsploitation Films trailers for The House With 100 Eyes (1:44, 1080p), Der Samurai (1:55, 1080p), and The Treatment (2:16, 1080p).

Horsehead Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Horsehead is one of the better titles in Artsploitation's catalog. Romain Basset is a smart filmmaker who has a promising career as a director. (He should give better thought in the future to his methods for sound editing and music, though.) Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux's performance reminds me of both a young Kate Winslet and Scarlett Johansson. Catriona MacColl's turn as the mother made me of think of fellow Brit Vanessa Redgrave. On the disc, while authoring and compression could have been better organized, image quality is very good and the acoustics are outstanding. I also laud Artsploitation for including some worthwhile extras. For fans of Guillermo del Toro, Horsehead is a MUST SEE!