Impuratus Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Impuratus Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 20, 2023

According to Google translate, "Impuratus" is the Latin word for "impure." That's an apropos translation for the story and the film, a story of a wounded Civil War soldier's demonic encounter and burden, and a film that struggles to build a whole, satisfying endeavor. The film, from writer/director Mike Yurinko (Fading, Entity), stars the late Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan) as a detective who finds himself embroiled in a decades-old demonic mystery. The film is overlong, overdeveloped, and underwhelming. It's passable as a low-grade, quasi-professional venture -- it shows some promise -- but the overlength and underperforming story deny it the higher cinematic engagement the story deserves.

Sizemore is Detective Clayton Douglas, a hardened, obsessed detective who ditches his daughter's birthday party to investigate a mysterious phone call he received from a nearby insane asylum. There, he encounters Dr. Heysinger (Robert Miano), the man who is treating the enigmatic Daniel Glassman (Jody Quigley), an impossibly old, frail, and decayed Civil War veteran. Though Douglas has no idea who Glassman is, Glassman has repeatedly called for him by name. Via the written word, he shares his story: he was a Union soldier who was shot and stabbed in the back, survived, and found his way to a nearby house where he was bedridden and encountered resistance to his full treatment. But there was more: demonic influence. As a brutal winter storm closes in on the asylum, Douglas finds himself caught up in a remarkable, but unbelievable, story of darkness unlike anything he has encountered before, a story that will push his beliefs, his sanity, and his soul to their limits.

While Impuratus finds its basis in some semblance of a good story, one that is worth telling and one that is worthy of the genre -- even if it feels somewhat rote at its most foundational level -- the film's lack of polish is easily its biggest downfall. That lack of polish extends from the writing room to the set and from the editing room to the home theater screen. The film is, worst of all, terribly paced. It's grossly overlong, running at well over two hours, and the story is not deep or interesting enough to sustain such a lengthy exercise. Dialogue plays out with far too much exposition, needless banter, slow delivery, and needless commentary that slows the pace well beyond what a film of this scope -- narrative scope and budgetary scope -- can sustain.

The film is also troubled in terms of its technical merits as well. The film was clearly constructed under less-than-ideal conditions for budget and know-how. It's sustainable where it's at, and it never looks obviously amateurish, but it is definitely lacking the Hollywood system polish that even the midlevel films within this genre enjoy. The acting is subpar as well, sad to say, with Sizemore more or less going through the motions, seemingly aware of the script's troubles and going along for the ride rather than trying to infuse his character with any sort of added depth, insight, or performance gusto to help lift the film from the bottom end of mediocrity. The support cast is adequate enough, but there are no standout performances in the film; everything feels rather monotone and flat. On the plus side, the set pieces are actually good, and the spartan environments, especially in the asylum, definitely help to give the illusion of place and time.

Impuratus Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Impuratus arrives on Blu-ray via a burned (not pressed) Blu-ray disc. It is framed at the very odd 2.88:1 aspect ratio. The image quality is probably just about best-case scenario. Most of the issues appear to trace back to the source. This includes some dense noise in low light and also some pretty significant banding in more challenging low light environments (the 55:40 and 1:23:58 timestamps are two good markers to see the worst of the banding in action). Otherwise, this image represents a fairly straightforward, lower grade digital shoot. The movie was not shot with the highest end digital camera, nor is the lighting and postproduction work up to Hollywood standards, so the image looks a little pasty and murky. Detail is effective but not great. The image offers satisfactory facial, clothing, and environmental detail, but don't expect to be blown away by any sort of unusually high levels of visual intricacy. The same goes for the colors. The palette is generally bland and drab, reflective of the movie's tone. There's no vivid color explosion here, but general depth and contrast are fine. Flesh tones are a bit pasty, black levels can teeter on crush, and whites are merely adequate. This is hardly a looker, but this is hardly a poor image, either.

Impuratus Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Gravitas Ventures releases Impuratus onto Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. If everyone was told that this was a two-channel track, most listeners would be none the wiser. While there are a few lingering effects here and there beyond the front area of the soundstage, back-channel stretch is limited to just a few insignificant odds and ends. There's very little immersive atmosphere at work and no real surround depth to any of the more prominent audio cues, of which there are very few to begin with. Music is present from time to time, and it also lingers just about fully in the front (listen around the 82-minute mark for a good example). When it becomes more aggressive, there's no real sense of back-channel support. Likewise, the subwoofer offers no significant usage, either. Still, despite the front-end dominance, clarity is very good overall and there is good separation along the front and positive instrumental definition to be enjoyed. Dialogue is the primary driver here. Clarity, prioritization, and front-center placement are consistent. Within the fairly limited range and parameters, the track more than satisfies the film's meager audio demands.

Impuratus Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Impuratus contains no supplemental content. The main menu screen only offers options to "Play" the film and toggle "Subtitles" on and off. It's a static image screen with overlayed music. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

Impuratus Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Impuratus is more of a missed effort than it is a total loss. The film exhibits some positive qualities, including a good foundational story, a solid setting, and at times some decent cinematography, but the film is burdened by needless length that cannot sustain a mediocre script and acting that doesn't quite rise to the level of excellence a film like this demands to find real success. It's also shortchanged by a smaller budget. With more to work and budget this might have been a serviceable-to-good genre film, but as it is Impuratus just barely stays afloat. Gravitas Ventures' Blu-ray disc delivers serviceable video and adequate audio. No extras are included. Worth a look at a much more aggressive price than the current (at time of writing) $18 price tag on Amazon.