Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

No Telling Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 13, 2015

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 bears the alternate title The Frankenstein Complex, and much like that iconic literary and cinematic doctor, this film’s research scientist Geoffrey Gaines (Stephen Ramsey) is trafficking in areas where humans are not meant to meddle. In what will turn out to be a theme Fessenden will return to repeatedly in several other films in his oeuvre, No Telling examines not just the individual proclivity to play God, but a certain corporate mentality that evinces the same tendency, wreaking havoc on the entire planet as a result.

Gaines is involved in some kind of supposedly groundbreaking research, including animal experimentation, something he tries to keep as secret as possible from his artist wife Lillian (Miriam Healy-Louie). The Gaines marriage is not exactly one of domestic bliss, and the two have sequestered themselves in a rural environment, ostensibly for Geoffrey to continue his research, but also just as obviously to give the two a respite and perhaps reestablish their connection to each other.

Exploring in the sylvan fields around their country home, Lillian stumbles across the horrifying remains of a cow which has evidently been poisoned by pesticides being used in great amounts by farmers in the area. Lillian also meets neighbor Alex Vine (David Van Tiegham), an activist who is trying to get the rural community to wake up to the effects of this very use of pesticides. As Fessenden discusses in his interesting commentary included on the Blu-ray as a supplement, Rachel Carson’s epochal Silent Spring played a formative role in helping Fessenden to flesh out some of the ideas which are present in No Telling.

Fessenden tends to stage things a bit clunkily in No Telling (as even he admits in his commentary), and there are certain scenes, including a relatively late “showdown” between the three focal characters, that play almost like talking points being ticked off by those with opposing views about the environment, the ecology movement, and corporate greed vis a vis things like pharmaceutical research, where the ends supposedly justify the means. Some of this material is interesting at a baseline level, but is presented inartfully in the film.

Still, No Telling has a visceral mood going for it, and it tends to resonate rather successfully in its depiction of the Gaines marriage falling apart under the weight of subterfuge and attrition. The “triangle” aspect between Lillian, David and Geoffrey actually provides at least as much tension in the film as do the (admittedly horrifying) experiments that Geoffrey is involved with, experiments that ultimately involve a family pet, in one of the film’s most disturbing elements.

Fessenden ends up asking more questions than he answers in No Telling, but the film is an often quite interesting exercise in exploring a number of redolent ideas. While not completely successful, and at times suffering from a less than polished atmosphere in both production and performance areas, No Telling has a number of compelling aspects that provide chills if not outright scares.

No Telling Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making of No Telling (1991) (1080i; 24:16) is a fun vintage piece with some good interviews and behind the scenes footage. Are we being punked that the "dead cow" made front page news in New York?


• Archival Footage (1990) (1080p; 26:44) contains some contemporary interview footage with Fessenden and a variety of vintage behind the scenes footage.


• Short Film: White Trash (1979) with music by composer Will Bates (1080p; 9:16) also contains a contemporary Fessenden introduction, who discusses his environmental activism.


• Glass Eye Pix Sizzle Reel (1985-1990) (1080p; 7:34) contains another Fessenden intro and then a variety of snippets from Glass Eye Pix productions.


• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director/Executive Producer Larry Fessenden is a great tour through this particular film (which Fessenden sees with clear hindsight) and some of the larger issues Fessenden has addressed over the course of his filmmaking career. Note I'll just go ahead and point out for spelling geeks that whoever authored the menus on this disc missed a letter in "Executive".

No Telling Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.