5.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Audra's graduation gift is her dream house, but it soon becomes a living nightmare when some uninvited guests come to her homecoming party.
Starring: Arielle Raycene, Kane Hodder, Ellie Gonsalves, Danielle Mathers, Brianna KellumHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
*Stares. Blinks. Rubs his eyes. Is that a headache setting in? Checks watch. Thirty minutes in. Good God, he thinks. This is boring. And so, so bad. He grimaces at another obligatory topless scene. Thinks of how he'll make fun of the dozens of excuses the script makes to shed a shirt off a soon-to-be horror victim. Looks at watch longingly, thinking of all the things he could be doing. Forty-five minutes in. Other than the opening, still no horror. Still no kills. Is this all there is? Glances at cover art. Ah, didn't realize the cast was a lineup of Playmates. Explains some things. He closes his eyes, considers stopping the film and resuming another day. No, push through. Fifteen more minutes drag by, exceedingly slow. Promises of the beast. Supernatural perhaps? Dream sequences unfold. Are we finally getting somewhere? Checks the clock on his phone. An hour in. Still inching along. Wait... is that... He pauses. The goat-headed creature (killer?) appears at last and begins his reign of... terror? He notes the lack of scares. Squints to try to see what's even happening. It's so dark. How is anyone supposed to follow what's going on? Blood. Blood. Nudity. Blood. Blood. Nudity. Realizes for all the skin there's been no sex. (The future. Wife reads last sentence. You can't write that. It sounds like you want more sex in the movie. He's confused. Explains that's not what he meant. She laughs. Just edit it so it's more clear. He wonders how he'll make it more clear. An idea of an interjection from the future occurs to him.) No sex whatsoever. Other than the violence, which is now proving to be weirdly sexual. Not sure which would be more unappealing. Probably the chainsaw. Death. Death. Death. Lambo. Death. Requisite plot twist. Twists. Flash forward to the film's opening aaand... credits. He sighs, long and exasperated. What am I supposed to write about this thing? Someone's proud of it. But ooph. What a mess. He wonders how to open his review and begins typing...*
Kill Her Goats features the sort of 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation that would normally earn an easy 4.0 technical video score and a shrug of the shoulders. Digital sheen, low budget, film school cinematography... it all seems decent enough (even compared to its 4K counterpart) and properly encoded; other than the dark-to-the-point- of-blind opening kill scene, but at the time I assumed the film's darkness was stylistic rather than problematic. Fast forward to the hour mark when all hell breaks loose. Shadows occasionally become so heavy and murky that it becomes difficult in some scenes to determine exactly what's happening when the killer comes calling. You can certainly get the gist. I was never lost. But sometimes I just shrugged and went with my best guess. Otherwise the image is perfectly... fine. Skin tones are warm and lifelike, primaries pop (especially the blood, as is required by horror law), contrast is adequately balanced when the sun is up or the girls hang inside the house (not so much when the lights go out), and detail, though hit or miss (particularly the opening beach sequence), is pretty good when the lights are on. If only clarity didn't run screaming the moment night fell and the lamps turned off. Some slight banding and blocking creep in too, issues that aren't present (or as apparent) in the 4K edition's presentation. All told, I suspect Kill Her Goats looks exactly as it was intended. It's shortcomings aren't the result of poor encoding, just at-times subpar contrast, brightness and color grading at the source level.
The standard Blu-ray edition of Kill Her Goats doesn't include lossless audio. Instead, we get the same -- here comes that word again -- decent Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track that's included on the 4K release. I'm not sure the low-rent '80s-homage sound design could sound better, even if lossless were an option. Dialogue is too floaty and disconnected from the soundscape, effects are suitably clear but a bit canned (perhaps intentionally), and the rear speakers and LFE channel really only pipe up and kick in during the third act when the killer begins tearing through Audra's house, chainsaws whirring and whirling. Music sounds great as well, and dynamics prove solid. The soundfield, sadly, less so. Rather than an immersive fright-fest I sometimes found myself reminded I was watching a movie whose sounds were coming out of multiple distinct speakers. The lack of aural and spatial cohesion was disappointing, especially when also considering the absence of a lossless track.
Like the 4K release, the standard Blu-ray edition doesn't include any special features.
If Kill Her Goats is meant to be intentionally bad, and hilarious as a result, I missed the joke. The first hour drags terribly and the sudden explosion of horror that does finally come arrives when boredom has already set in. It's nice to see Kane Hodder get some work, but otherwise, this one's a dud. As is the standard Blu-ray release of the film. With a merely decent video transfer, a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track, and zero special features, the at-times low Amazon price point is about all Kill Her Goats has going for it.
Limited Edition | Includes 8 Numbered 4'' x 5'' Lobby Cards
2023
2023
Widescreen Collector's Edition
2023
(Still not reliable for this title)
Limited Edition | Fully Embossed Magnet 4'' x 5'' | High Gloss Collectible Mini-Poster
2023
2019
2022
2023
1982
1984
Limited Edition
2009
1989
1986
1985
2013
1988
2014
2019
2009
1968
Remastered
1992
Collector's Edition
1981
1991
1988