6 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.2 |
Laura Baxter is a young woman suffering from parasomnia or 'sleeping beauty condition', a rare syndrome that causes its sufferers to literally sleep their lives away. When art student Danny Sloan visits his friend in the secure psychiatric unit where Laura is incarcerated, he is drawn to the mysterious dreaming girl. But the hospital is also home to notorious serial killer Byron Volpe, and he too has set his sights on Laura. Can Danny save her from Volpe's evil intentions?
Starring: Cherilyn Wilson, Dylan Purcell, Patrick Kilpatrick, Timothy Bottoms, Kathryn Leigh ScottHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 73% |
Romance | Insignificant |
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 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
I’ve never walked out of a movie at the theater. I’m just not that kind of guy. I pay my $9.50 or whatever and hope for the best. It helps that I’m not easily offended and that I have no problems with slow paced films—really the only two reasons anyone ever ducks out of a theater early. There was one instance, however, when I was this close to bolting. My then-girlfriend/now-wife and I went to the cinema on a lazy Sunday with no intentions of seeing anything in particular. When we arrived, there was nothing on the marquee that interested us, but, well, we drove over there, so we had to see something. We were on a bit of a horror kick at the time, so we decided on FeardotCom, the 2002 film by director William Malone, and one of the first entries in the so- called “torture porn” genre popularized by Saw and Eli Roth’s Hostel. “Should we leave?” I asked midway through the film. We weren’t grossed out or offended—although, certainly, the movie has no artistic or otherwise redeemable merits whatsoever—we were just monumentally bored and almost in disbelief over how poorly constructed and creatively bankrupt the film is. I got the same feeling from Malone’s latest movie, Parasomnia, which is just now going straight to video after being filmed in 2008.
Johnny Depp called. He wants to know how he ended up in this film.
E1 brings Parasomnia to Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that does what it can with the film's low budget source material. Shot on 16mm, the film is never going to have the clarity of a 35mm production, and you'll notice that most scenes have a soft, hazy quality, a product of decreased analog resolution, poor lighting, and—I'm assuming—less than top-level lenses. There are times when you can make out an appreciable amount of fine detail, but overall the picture just isn't as resolved as most high definition images. Of course, it doesn't help that the film's color palette is as murky as a mud puddle at night. A look at the screenshots will tell you this is a dark, dimly lit film, and there are few instances of vivid—or even well saturated—color. Skin tones are pallid, black levels are hazy, and contrast is generally on the weak side. Worse, when we go into Laura's dreams, the 16mm foreground image clashes awkwardly with the CGI landscapes in the background. Grain is fairly heavy throughout, but at least it's not completely smeared away by DNR. I'm sure Parasomnia looks better on Blu-ray than on DVD, but I'll bet the visual divide between the two is more of a crack than a chasm.
Probably the best thing about Parasomnia's Blu-ray presentation is this DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, which capably handles all of the film's sonic requirements. That said, there's really not a lot going on here. Horror films are typically host to all manner of creepy crawly sound design, but this one really sticks to the basics—balanced, comprehensible dialogue, dynamically solid music that complements the tension (or, in this case, tries to complement the attempts at tension), and a modest amount of place-establishing ambience and environmental atmospherics. You'll hear some thunder in the rears, some whispering—stuff like that—but that's about it. And it's fairly quiet. Most of the action takes place up front and rarely competes with the dialogue volume-wise. Overall, the audio design is closer to that of a SyFy original than a theatrical feature film, but this track has no real shortcomings in reproducing the movie's limited soundscape.
Commentary by Director William Malone
Malone seems like such a nice guy here that it makes me really wish Parasomnia were
better. Throughout the track, he offers up the usual insights about the creation of the project, the
challenge to fund it, and the shooting process. I have to say that watching the film with the
commentary is much more enjoyable that watching it without.
Making of Featurette (SD, 13:23)
Here, a woman from TV-WIRE, wielding an enormous microphone, interviews various members of
the cast and crew on set. This is really just a warm up for:
Interviews with the Cast and Crew (SD, 52:11)
Includes interviews with director William Malone, actors Dylan Purcell, Cherilyn Wilson, Jeffrey
Combs, Timothy Bottoms, and Patrick Kilpatrick, Composer Nicholas Pike, and Visual Effects
Supervisor Gene Warren III.
Deleted Scenes (SD, 12:14)
There are three deleted scenes here, including the film's "original black and white
opening."
"The Plagues" Music Video (SD, 2:44)
Footage from the film set to music from Malone's own 1960s garage rock band.
Stills Library (1080p)
Trailer (SD, 2:27)
It's always admirably ballsy when a filmmaker chooses to self-finance a production, but it's doubly disappointing when the film flops and goes straight to video. William Malone's Parasomnia is marginally better than his previous film, the dismal FeardotCom, but that really isn't saying much. It goes against every bone in my critical body—I generally root for underdog writers and directors—but I'd much rather watch a glossy Hollywood horror remake than endure Parasomnia again. And that really is saying something. On a technical level, this Blu- ray likewise fails to impress, with a decent lossless audio track but murky, undefined visuals. Stay away.
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