Muck Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		0.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Muck Blu-ray Movie Review

What's with the poster? Is she frozen in Carbonite? Whatever. Makes as much sense as anything else in this Muck-up of a movie.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 14, 2015

Maybe never has there been a Horror movie quite so awful as Muck, Writer/Director Steve Wolsh's misfire of a film that sets its sights ambitiously high and falls epically hard. Muck is so concerned with being everything else -- "a blood-stained love letter to horror fanatics everywhere!" according to the press release -- that it winds up with no identity, no soul, and not even much of a plot. This is bottom-feeding cinema with a slick veneer and more skin than the issue of Playboy that featured star Jaclyn Swedberg, both haplessly trying covering up for a rock-bottom, aimless disaster that's packed with unlikable, one-track-mind characters who are never shaped beyond either their lack of clothes or their craving for sex and alcohol, even in the midst of their friends' blood and guts.

"Hey, I don't know what I'm doing here, either."

There's really no plot of which to speak in Muck. Picture a bunch of random teens/young adults in various states of undress and under duress, hunted by some guys painted in white and carrying pitch forks, axes, and other assorted weapons. The girls are eye candy and typical Horror fodder. The guys are there to talk about sex and alcohol. Various fights ensue against a seemingly endless stream of these "natives" living somewhere in the Boston area, around a town called "Wes Craven" to be specific. The press release can't even shed any more light. It describes the film as a "scary, sexy, indie shocker that joins a group of friends just as they emerge from the thick, murky darkness of the marshes tattered, bloody, and lucky to be alive. But they will soon find out that the lucky ones are already dead." Then again, that's where the films stops making any sense (and starting in, apparently, the middle of the story when it's the first film released, which doesn't help), so it's no wonder the description ends there. And this one ends there, too.

Yawn. Muck opens with a wounded, filthy girl in her underwear, calling out for her friends, surrounded by mist, ankle-deep in a marsh. She's wet, tired, beat-up, and there's a big old mystery house just up ahead (unlucky number 7). Several others show up, all in some state of despair, bleeding, tired, and quibbling with one another over sex and alcohol. The movie starts at what appears to be an end (apparently a prequel is in the works, and this movie ends just as abruptly and randomly as it begins) and its structure is so random that it's nearly impossible to keep up with who is who, what they are doing, or where they are at. Characters look alike and talk alike to the point that it's hard to tell if the bar scenes are a flashback or something happening at the same time, somewhere else, and whether discussing scenes at the bar or the house there's not much of an identifiable difference in the characters, either. It finally makes a little more sense at the end, but Muck is so murky in its construction that even its most prodigious bits of violence get lost in the shuffle as the audience tries to piece together the who's, the what's, the when's, the where's, and the why's rather than enjoy it in some context that at least identifies the characters by a bit more than butts and boobs for the girls, chauvinism and alcoholism for the guys, and white paint and weapons for the enemies.

It's bad enough that it's so scattered, but the movie tries so hard to be other movies, or make fun of other movies, that even when it seems it's settled down a bit and is on the verge of making a little sense, it goes and calls a nearby town "Wes Craven" and features a character talking about how it used to be a kinda-sorta happening place but now it's just bleh. Too bad for Muck that Wes has the last laugh without even laughing, because he's probably too smart to even watch this (and his The Hills Have Eyes and Scream, two movies that seem to have influenced Muck, are worlds better). The movie also appears heavily influenced by Hatchet, a similar no-excuses Horror movie that actually got it right where Muck gets it -- "it" being "everything" -- wrong. Then there's the bad guy's name (is it actually ever said in the movie, or is it just listed in the credits?). Said bad guy is played by Kane Hodder of Friday the 13th fame (though he's not the only bad guy, and they all look the same, so he's in it for name recognition and a poster blurb only, it seems). The name? "Grawesome Crutal," a blend of "awesome," "gruesome," "brutal," and "cruel." Hooray for creativity! That must have taken as much brainstorming as the random "Wes Craven" thing.

Perhaps the worst part is the movie's insistence of diving so deep into cliché that it often feels like a parody rather than a serious Horror flick. Combine that topsy-turvy feeling with the aimless characters, undefined bad guys, wayward structure, and general uncertainty as to what's happening, who's who, when's when, and so on and so forth and it's a wonder Muck made it out of the editing suite at all. The movie is almost nothing but one gratuitous scene after another of girls in various state of undress, often covered in filth but sometimes not, while the guys, even if they're wounded, bloody, and battered, are nothing but pigs concerned with sex and booze. Add in plenty of cliché like walking down into the dark basement, doors slamming shut, lights going off, cars not starting, and....whatever. Enough. The movie isn't worth the effort of either trying to sort it out or tear it down. It's nothing but a collection of stuff cobbled together into 98 minutes of cinema hell. "The lucky ones are already dead?" No, the lucky ones never sat down to watch in the first place.

Muck Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Muck's dark and murky 1080p transfer was shot digitally in 4K. It looks quite good, but the low lighting doesn't really let it breathe. The movie is mostly bleak. It suffers from a few less-than-purely-dark black levels at the beginning that do tighten up and stay dark and true without crush for the duration. Details are precise. The image is crisp and sharp and reveals all the blood and yuk-covered skin and clothes nicely. It also captures some very well defined woods at the bar and, when the light allows, the paint on the bad guys. Colors, again mostly in the well-lit bar, are accurate and true, particularly the warm woods and the green clothes. The image doesn't suffer from any excess noise, banding, aliasing, or blocking. It looks good throughout, even in the low light.

Muck Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Muck's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack opens with a nicely balanced, rich, detailed, and immersive ambient landscape. The track always feels alive and in-tune with its surroundings, enveloping the listener no matter the location. Music is aggressive, whether the faintest drum beat, strum, or piano stroke or the most mashed-up, full-on sonic assault of sound. Clarity is precise, spacing robust, surround full, and bass tight. There's a deliberate hard edge to some of the most aggressive music. Sound effects, like splattering blood, tearing skin, and ripping clothes enjoy a tangible realism. Dialogue is accurate and consistent as it flows from the center.

Muck Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Muck contains no supplemental content.

Muck Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The only thing that keeps a movie like Muck from jointing the absolute worst of the worst genre films like Wicked Lake is its slick façade. But even that can't save the movie from the void that is its plot, the emptiness that is its characters, and the aimlessness that is its pace. The movie gets everything wrong even as it tries so desperately hard to do everything right. It's made with aplomb but winds up just a bomb. Anchor Bay's featureless Blu-ray does offer rock-solid video and audio. Skip it.