6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
In the name of medical research, a man experiments on animals. His relationship with his wife becomes stressed when she becomes inquisitive about his work.
Starring: Stephen Ramsey (II), David Van Tieghem, Miriam Healy-Louie, Richard Topol, Ashley ArcementHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Note: This title is currently available as part of The Larry Fessenden Collection.
You might think Larry Fessenden would be better known as a director, given the fact that entries in his filmography bear such iconic titles
as
Jaws, A Face in the Crowd and Chinatown
. Of course Steven Spielberg, Elia Kazan and Roman Polanski might prefer to have someone pointing out the fact that Fessenden’s films
with those titles are not the “famous” ones, so to speak, so there’s that. Fessenden has carved an interesting niche for himself as an indie
horror meister,
while also frequently appearing as an actor in not only his own films, but those by such iconic names as Martin Scorsese (Bringing Out the Dead) and Neil Jordan (The Brave One). Fessenden might seem like a somewhat odd subject for a
“career
retrospective” of sorts like the new four disc set from Scream Factory which assembles Fessenden’s films from a fifteen year span (give or
take)
bridging the 1990s to the 2000s. Fessenden may exploit an unabashedly (and unapologetically) lo-fi ambience in many of his films, but he’s
also an (at times at least) unusually intelligent writer of horror. While each of these films has its own hurdles to overcome (as even
Fessenden
admits in his charmingly self deprecating commentaries), this set also provides an interesting example of an independent filmmaker growing
and
becoming more and more technically competent as his career progresses. There's at least some thematic consistency in play between these
quite disparate films, including a recurrence of the traditional horror staple that Mother Nature doesn't take kindly to humans not respecting
her enough.
No Telling is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of IFC Midnight and Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Though the IMDb lists this as having been shot in 35mm, a cursory review of the screencaptures included with this review would suggest otherwise, and in fact Fessenden mentions Super 16 as the format in his well done commentary. While sharpness and clarity are never mind blowing due to the limitations of the format, they're quite commendable most of the time, especially in close-ups. The palette is fresh and vibrant looking, offering clear blue skies and some nicely verdant pasture land. Detail can be a bit disturbing on elements like the fly encrusted dead deer that Fessenden found and decided to film as part of the story. Grain has a tendency to swarm pretty strongly in low light situations—when Geoffrey and Lillian first arrive at the farm, for example, the white clapboard siding of the house becomes a patchwork of bug like blackness. Even in some brightly lit sequences, grain tends to be on the heavy side (look at the sky in the background of screencapture 1 for a typical example). While heavy, grain resolves naturally. Blacks are deep and convincing, though the format and a tendency to shoot in low light conditions means that some scenes offer only baseline shadow detail and have a tendency to verge on crush at times.
No Telling's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is often quite subtle, establishing an otherworldly, quasi-hallucinatory ambience in some nuanced sound effects like when Lillian first ventures out into the countryside surrounding the farmhouse. Dialogue is cleanly and clearly rendered, and the film's interesting score (co-written by co-star David Van Tieghem) spills through the surrounds and effectively supports the film's unsettled mood. There is also a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track included as an option.
No Telling has its fair share of flaws, as Fessenden himself seems all too aware of in his self effacing commentary. But the film still manages to create and sustain a palpable mood of uneasiness. The personal dynamics of the focal trio ultimately become more interesting than the science fiction-y side of the medical experiments and even the ecological screed elements Fessenden none too subtly shoehorns into the proceedings. While the film has issues, it's quite interesting taken on its own terms, and this Blu-ray release contains some very enjoyable and worthwhile supplements. Taken as a whole, and as a part of the entire Larry Fessenden Collection package, No Telling comes Recommended.
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