Never Open the Door Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Never Open the Door Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson December 8, 2016

Vito Trabucco's short feature Never Open the Door (2014) attempts to bring back the aura of ultra low-budget, underground "B" horror pictures pioneered by auteurs like Romero while simultaneously taking a new stab at the sub-genre of "cabin in the woods" films. The notion that the movie has a retro feel stems from Trabucco and co-writer Christopher Maltauro's intent to make a stylistic homage to such vintage television series as "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "The Outer Limits," and "The Twilight Zone." Never Open the Door is dedicated to Maltauro's grandfather, John Brahm (1893–1982), who directed some of the most well-regarded episodes from each of the three series. Brahm also directed The Lodger (1944), a remake of Hitchcock's eponymous 1927 silent film, which the filmmakers also cite as an influence. Trabucco and Maltauro assembled the same troupe of actors that they worked with on Bloody Bloody Bible Camp (2012), which was also shot in Big Bear Valley in San Bernardino, CA. For reasons never explained, six friends congregate in a secluded, modern house deep in the woods for Thanksgiving dinner. After about ten minutes of friendly gossip and lewd banter, the tenants hear repeated loud knocks at the door. With all of them initially reluctant to open the door, Tess (Jessica Sonneborn) eventually does and is shocked to discover a stranger (Steven Richards) coughing up blood. No one seems to know who the stranger is and why he has come to the cabin. There are genre clichés like the electricity going out and ghastly voices emanating from the upstairs. The young adults appear flummoxed at the unexpected happenings transpiring both inside and outside where men clad in black stare ominously at the houseguests peering through the windows. Doppelgangers also start popping up and no one is sure if they are impostors of the people who sat in the dining room.

A Thanksgiving feast about to be interrupted by an unpleasant visitor.

Ironically, the area that Trabucco claims is his film's greatest strength turns out to be its biggest impediment. John Briscoe and Chad Ferrin's editing is recurrently problematic throughout the picture. At the beginning of the first reel, the filmmakers cut intermittently between the friends' conversations and a bouncy, handheld camera traversing through the forest. The roving, subjective point-of-view shots come near ground level and suggest a werewolf or prowler approaching its prey(s). A hindrance is that the audience never gains a sense of where this predator lurks and how far it is away from its intended victims. The cross-cutting persists for about ten minutes and never generates the anticipated suspense it sought to achieve. If the audience could more pointedly gauge the vicinity in which this unseen presence lurked, the sequence could have been more effective. Trabucco tries to ratchet the tension and dread by amplifying Carlos Vivas's score, a pastiche of strident string riffs akin to Harry Manfredini. (In an interview on this disc, Trabucco says that Bernard Herrmann served as inspiration but Manfredini is the more appropriate musical antecedent.) Furthermore, Trabucco strives to inject a shock editing style to keep the audience off balance. There are abrupt cutaways to a character's state of mind, for instance. The camera's gaze fixates on a character who then visualizes premonitions, visions, and/or hallucinations in rapid succession. This is meant to show how things have become so discombobulated in the house. When a filmmaker experiments with form or introduces a new layer to a genre trope, it can produce refreshingly innovative results. But in Never Open the Door, the edits don't pay any real dividends. Cast members have difficulty playing off each other. One exception is the pairing of Matthew Aidan's Isaac and Kristina Page's Angel, who have good chemistry together as a marriage-hopeful couple. However, Deborah Venegas's Maria and Mike Wood's Luke seem ill-matched for each other, even if their off-kilter actions can be plausibly explained by a contagion infesting the house.

Never Open the Door boasts brooding black-and-white cinematography by Joe Provenzano. Trabucco and Provenzano keep the confined settings interesting by varying the camera angles, particularly through overhead shots. However, the cast never seems comfortable as a group and Trabucco's screen direction is very erratic when he elicits screams from his female performers. Looking at the film as a whole, the story zigzags once the characters meander the house and try to account for the supernatural events. Trabucco's point seems to be the obfuscation of everyday reality and our worst fears but he struggles to consummate that vision with any totality.

Never Open the Door Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Never Open the Door arrives on US Blu-ray courtesy of Christopher Maltauro's production company, Maltauro Entertainment. The disc feels like an inaugural Blu-ray as it uses the MPEG-2 codec and comes on a slim BD-25 with a meager video encode of 14274 kbps (the total bitrate reaches just 15.26 Mbps). This is a very low-budget edition that befits the production values of the main feature. It seems to be intended mainly for DVD owners so we should be thankful that it even received an HD release. The movie is presented in its presumed original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The style of the opening credits is a paean to "The Twilight Zone" and the main title design makes overt reference to Saul Bass, the legendary designer of motion picture graphics. (See image #20 of the main menu. This is the same design concept used for the movie's poster.) Despite the low bitrate, Provenzano's photography looks quite sharp. This appears like a recent feature shot digitally in black and white and the transfer mimics its intended aesthetic. There is video noise present but it is not a conspicuous issue. If you watch the 1080p trailer, you'll notice aliasing but that does not stand out during this presentation. There is no black crush but there are not deep blacks, either. (This could have been rectified with an upgraded codec and a substantially higher bitrate.) In sum, this is a surprisingly good picture considering the antiquated codec. Maltauro has broken the feature up into six chapter stops.

Never Open the Door Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The sole audio track is a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix presented at a paltry 192 kbps. For a film like Never Open the Door that relies heavily on its sound design, an uncompressed track would have been the natural way to go. Both the treble and bass of Vivas's score sound crisp but music is limited to the front channels. Sound effects recorded off-screen would have been ideally suited for the surrounds so this is a missed opportunity. Dialog is generally discernible and Maltauro has provided optional English SDH.

Never Open the Door Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Trailer (1:40, 1080p) - a teaser trailer for Never Open the Door optimized for 16x9 playback.

• A Conversation with Actress Jessica Sonneborn (7:22, 1080p) - Sonneborn discusses how her experience making this film compares with her roles in slasher flicks. In English, not subtitled.

• A Conversation with Director Vito Trabucco (11:41, 1080p) - Trabucco touches on a range of production aspects but his delivery is inhibited by filler words as he moves on to a different point. In English, not subtitled.

• A Conversation with Producer Christopher Maltauro (11:45, 1080p) - Maltauro is more informative than Trabucco, recounting his grandfather's contributions in film and TV as well as factoids about their latest film together. The interview is hastily edited, though. There is pixelation and unsmooth segues into the next part. The interview ends abruptly with Maltauro in the middle of a point before fading to black and returning to the root menu. In English, not subtitled.

• Photo Gallery (4:20, 1080p) - a montage of sharpened monochromatic images from the movie's production. The slide show contains mostly B&W stills but some color photos as well. This is accompanied by Vivas's score, special effects, and excerpted dialog.

• For Maggie (6:16, 1080p) - a tribute to the late special makeup artist, Maggie Dillon. Sonneborn, Trabucco, and Maltauro share their affectionate memories of working with Dillon. In English, not subtitled.

Never Open the Door Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Never Open the Door's atmospheric cinematography is the picture's most alluring attraction but the editing and cast never uniformly come together the way they should. The photography is decently reproduced on this BD-25 but the sound leaves a lot to be desired. Bonus features are relegated to EPK material, which should have been better edited and held to higher technical standards. The disc presently carries a high price tag so indulge only if you are a big fan.