6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 3.7 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Body snatchers Arthur Blake and Willie Grimes have pillaged their last grave. With just five hours before Arthur follows Willie to the chopping block, he recounts his life story to Father Francis Duffy. It soon becomes clear that Blake and Grimes are no ordinary grave robbers. And through Arthur's story the priest learns that not all corpses are equal.
Starring: Dominic Monaghan, Larry Fessenden, Ron Perlman, Angus Scrimm, John SperedakosHorror | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Horror comedy I Sell the Dead wears its influences on its sleeve like a bloodstain that sure as hell isn’t coming off in the wash. Mix EC Comics’ macabre illustrations, Roger Corman’s B-movie money stretching, the creaky, fog beset Victorianism of Hammer Films, the gothic soap opera of Dark Shadows, and the ghastly vignettes of Tales From the Crypt—stir well, drain off the gory effluence, and dilute—and you have Irish director Glenn McQuaid’s feature length debut. For a certain breed of horror hound, I Sell the Dead’s shambling, low-budget aesthetic will feel like a comforting throwback to the times when fright films were defined by atmosphere, not their kill counts, when penny-pinching inventiveness was more important than endless screen tests, careful product placement, and dumbed-down scripts engineered to appeal to a target demographic of lowest common denominators. Others simply won’t get it, and will inevitably dismiss I Sell the Dead as a cornball indie horror outing without a single good scare to its name. A third group—to which I count myself as a member—will see and appreciate what McQuaid is trying to do here, but regretfully admit that the execution could’ve been a lot better.
Blake and Grimes
I Sell the Dead sells itself fairly well on Blu-ray, with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that looks true to its source material. Of course, since the film makes due with a paltry budget, said source is not the cleanest, clearest, or most vibrant, but the look is better than you might expect. Aside from a few scenes that were actually part of McQuaid's previous short film, The Resurrection Apprentice—which look hazy, overly grainy, and indistinct—I Sell the Dead's stylized aesthetic is easy on the eyes. Yes, the green screen composites are incredibly obvious, a split diopter shot leaves Monaghan's ear oddly translucent, and the digital fog drifting over the photoshopped backgrounds looks disjointed and artificial, but it's all part of the film's on- the-cheap DIY approach. Clarity is actually decent—especially in close-ups, where you can make out a modest but appreciable amount of detail and texture—and the film's bleak color palette, though endlessly tweaked and desaturated in post-production, totally suits the mood. Black levels, which crush and/or go slightly milky on occasion, are adequately deep for most of movie, and aside from the aforementioned digital artificiality, there are no real problems on the technical/transfer side of things.
I Sell the Dead's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track has one big thing going for it, and that's Jeff Grace's deliriously camp score, which calls to mind the serpentine oboe melodies of creaky B- movie orchestration and sounds excellent here. Harpsichords ring with metallic clangings, trumpets blast and strings swoon, all anchored by appropriately morose bassoons. The music fills the rear channels, where it's occasionally joined by slight environmental ambience, like rippling thunder, creepy bird caws, and a hush of wind broken by a vampiric moan. Still, most of the mix is shifted front and center, where dialogue is buoyant and easily understood. There's nothing here that stands out as impressive in terms of sound design, but it all comes together nicely to support the film's comic horror tone.
Commentary Tracks
If you enjoy the film, the disc includes two worthwhile commentaries. The first, a solo excursion
by director Glenn McQuaid, is expectedly technically oriented, brimming with details on how to
shoot a period horror comedy—in New York—on a super low budget. To contrast, Dominic
Monaghan and Larry Fessenden's discussion is more of a laugh track, with genial reminiscences
and plenty of jokes.
The Making of I Sell the Dead (SD, 1:04:13)
From prop shop to costume department, Staten Island to Long Island shooting locations, this
quite extensive making of documentary covers it all, with endless on-set footage and interviews
with all the key players, including Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman, and first time director Glenn
McQuaid.
Visual Effects Behind the Scenes (1080p, 13:05)
The challenge on a film like this is to get believable effects on an ultra-low budget, and here we
see how the producers made it happen, as several visual effects supervisors and CGI animators
show us the intricacies of their craft.
Trailer (SD, 1:02)
Comic Book
Inside the case you'll find a 40-page comic book version of the film, which the director apparently
used to recruit actors to the project. You're not getting any new adventures of Blake and Grimes,
as the book follows the movie's plot almost to the word, but it's definitely a nice addition.
The idea for I Sell the Dead—a tip o' the hat to Hammer, Corman, and EC Comics—is better than the finished film, but fright fans hungry for something different from the "torture porn" and endless remakes of today's horror films might want to give first-time director Glenn McQuaid's low- budget Victorian vision a rental.
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