5.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
When a group of high school students dig into their town's infamous past they unwittingly unlock an Evil that corrupts and destroys them. Possessing its victims through video playback and using them for malevolent purposes, it closes in on one specific soul, threatening to expose the town's deepest, darkest secret.
Starring: Christian Slater, Ambyr Childers, Toby Hemingway, Alessandra Torresani, Johnny PacarHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 39% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
Midway through Playback, yet another tired teen horror film about a haunted videotape, I had a stabbing moment of
sad exasperation. Like a
fed-up buddy movie cop one week from retirement, it suddenly hit me: I'm too old for this s--t. Granted, I am 30 and
a few years outside of
the film's target demographic of early twenty-somethings who desperately wish they were still in high school, but here's the
thing--I think
everyone is too old for this kind of intelligence-insulting nonsense. My "well, it is aimed at teenagers"
tolerance for bad writing and
cringe-worthy acting has finally bottomed out, and I'm left with a new credo: A turd of a movie is a turd of a movie, no matter
who's watching.
And Playback stinks. It might be the worst horror film I've seen so far this year, and that's saying something
considering I've sat through
The Devil Inside and Human Centipede 2. With a been-done-to-death premise, a lack of anything remotely
resembling tension, and
the goofiest oh-so-emo antagonist in recent memory, it's an all-around tedious experience that takes itself way too seriously
for how unimaginably
awful it is.
Think of all the films you could be watching instead of this one.
Playback has that distinct, low-budget-horror-shot-on-mid-level-digital-video vibe, and although it was clearly made on the cheap, it gets a solid, 1080p/AVC-encoded Blu-ray presentation courtesy of Magnolia Home Entertainment. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say the picture looks "cinematic"--the cinematography is pretty bland--but the image is clean and fairly sharp and decently graded. There's plenty of high definition detail visible in close-ups, from Christian Slater's scruffy five o'clock shadow to the pasty textures of Toby Hemingway's heavily made-up face, and even longer shots look well- defined. Color is well-saturated and processed to have a sort of punchy realism, with good contrast and solid black levels. There are moments when highlights look a bit overexposed and washed out, but it's never a persistent problem. Likewise, there are no real compression issues beyond occasionally noticeable source noise and a few instances of very mild banding. This isn't a title you'll seek out for its stunning picture quality, but for what it is--a z-grade straight to video horror flick--it doesn't look half bad.
Similarly, the film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track falls squarely into good-but-not-great territory, with sound design that at least makes an effort, even if it's sometimes hokey and over-the-top. Like most horror films, there's an attempt here to craft an immersive and engaging soundscape, with robust use of the rear channels for ambience and cross- channel effects, but Playback unfortunately relies on a stale "scary" audio gimmick that should've died out in the early '00s--glitchy static punching in and out, a "ghost in the machine" sort of sound that's now seriously overplayed. The other persistent element in the mix is the godawful soundtrack, which veers from angsty whine to pseudo-dubstep to cheesy metal, sometimes all within the same song. The worst song features lyrics about "stupid American trash," and seems like a blatant lesser-than ripoff of LCD Soundsystem's "North American Scum." Dialogue is always cleanly recorded and easily understood though, and the disc comes with optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles for those that might need or want them.
An early contender for worst horror film of 2012, Playback plods and grates and annoys in equal measure. It's not scary. Its story doesn't make any sense. It features Christian Slater as a perv with an eye for underaged girls. Do I need to go on? The film looks and sounds decent on Blu-ray, but there's no redeeming this mess. Avoid at all costs.
2005
Uncut
2008
2006
2014
2010
2013
Unrated Version
2008
2000
2006
Collector's Edition
1989
2009
25th Anniversary Edition
1997
Scre4m
2011
2019
2015
2019
2005
30th Anniversary Edition | Includes "Terror in the Aisles"
1981
Collector's Edition
1978
2018