Spell Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Spell Blu-ray Movie Review

'Misery' Doesn't Need Company.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 8, 2021

Spell cannot conjure up anything of real originality, but it’s very adept at the delicate process of recycling familiar content into the guise of something terrifyingly watchable, anyway. Elements of movies like Misery and The Skeleton Key unmistakably current through the film with such a tight adhesion that it's difficult for it to steal away to a place of its own. Still, the film's superficialities prove of just enough interest to carry the material through a remedial open, a familiar second act, and a predictable finale.

Marquis Woods (Omari Hardwick) is a high-power attorney who has found success in life despite growing up poor. It’s been years since Marquis saw his abusive father, and when he receives news of his death, he is urged to return home to Appalachia and find closure for a dark past. His entire family – wife Veora (Lorraine Burroughs), son Ty (Kalifa Burton), and daughter Samsara (Hannah Gonera) – accompany him on the trip. They take their private plane and stop at a remote fueling station only to experience the local “creepshow,” a hodgepodge of strange, eccentric characters who all seem to portend problems ahead. When turbulent weather strikes on the journey’s second leg, the plane goes down. Marquis awakens in a strange place, his body broken and unbale to walk. He quickly finds himself bedbound and trapped by a trio of individuals: Earl (John Beasley), Eloise (Loretta Devine), and Lewis (Steve Mululu). Marquis is told that only he was pulled from the plane; nobody else was inside. That can’t be. His family was with him. As he struggles to find answers, never mind move about without the pain getting the best of him and keeping his maneuverings a secret from Eloise, he slowly begins to piece together the dark truth about where he is, what has happened, and what is to become of him.

Standard riffs shape the film’s essence. Spell’s main ingredients are scenes in which Marquis attempts to get his bearings, discover where it is that he is being held and who it is that is holding him, and perhaps most important to his life and sanity, why. The film follows a wash-rinse-repeat cycle of scenes in the middle stretch that see him hobbling about the house in an effort to find something to help him, locate some means of escape, and discover some truth about the people holding him or, more importantly, his family’s whereabouts. Once another piece of the puzzle is in place, like clockwork his captors make their return and it’s off to shuffle back into bed in hopes that they won’t notice that he’s been out-and-about. Again. And again.

It grows a bit tiresome but it’s the movie’s stylish, atmospherically creepy and visually engaging production design that helps to assuage the feel of tedium and stick with it through the lean 90-minute runtime. Marquis’ new world is an uncomfortable blend of simple comforts and terrifying accents, much like his captors who seem jovial enough on the outside but clearly hold to something darker and more sinister just beyond the surface. His world is peppered with small signs of fear that amplify his personal terror and do a decent job of creating at least a sense of unease in the audience. The film has a few gruesome scenes in its arsenal, too, which help to greatly intensify the darker currents. Hardwick and Devine play well off of one another, the latter finding that just-right balance between charming and terrifying. Hardwick is more adept at handling the film’s physical challenges rather than deeply exploring his character's mental anguish. It’s not the best performance in the world, and his work here is not James Caan-esque, but it’s good enough at the foundation to carry the audience through his struggle. The film uses blurred content and skewered angles to great dramatic and aesthetic effectiveness, a fine compliment to the first-class production design and allowing the audience to experience Marquis’ new world through his own skewered, uncertain perspective.

Spell Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The digitally sourced film transfers quite well to Blu-ray. It's razor sharp and reveals high clarity facial features with exacting ease and efficiency. Viewers will appreciate the depth to pores, the tactile definition to facial hair, and the clarity of eyes. Intense sharpness is maintained throughout, minus the many examples of obvious diffusion meant to aesthetically enhance a feeling or perspective. These are frequent throughout the film and compliment, not distract from, the material. The movie dabbles in all different levels of color influence. Cool blues and steely grays dominate the open, heavy green tints define the stop at the out-of-the-way refueling station, and warm oranges are prominent throughout much of the remainder. No matter where or when or how once Marquis finds himself confined to the bed, contrast is always amplified. During Marquis' captivity, the picture pushes fairly intense and hot which leads to some heavy-handed black levels, but again these appear stylistically relevant rather than a transfer flub or flaw. Skin tones are heavily influenced by the color scheme. Noise is kept in check and there are no other source or encode maladies to be found.

Spell Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack can be a little on the mild and timid side. When thunder cracks and rain falls around the plane and instruments beep and bloop in chapter three, the collected sounds lack the dynamic depth one might expect to find, but some of the deeper cues to follow are a little more pronounced. Rainfall is more realistically pronounced in a key scene partway through with Marquis crawling around a rooftop during a driving rainstorm. Clarity is tight and surround integration is fuller, though certainly the track just never quite escapes the feeling of mild cramping, failing to truly open up in way that fully transforms the stage into the soaking locale. A few key scenes later on deliver some robust sound elements, whether a couple of moments of squishy, stomach-churning gore or a raging fire at film's end. Musical cues are satisfactorily clear and engaging, though not so full as to completely command the stage. Dialogue is clear and center focused.

Spell Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Spell includes deleted scenes and three featurettes. A digital copy code is included with purchase. This release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.

• Deleted Scenes (1080p 26:51 total runtime): Included are Alternate Opening, Words Aren't Enough, Money Can't Getcha Everything, Blood in Urine, I'm Coming for You, There You Go, Come Back, Big Lewis, Wreckage, The Surgery, Baby Pig, Under the Porch, Doctor on the Run, It's Not My Blood, and Alternate Ending.
• The Nightmare Spell (1080p, 3:10): An eerie tour through Marquis' new reality.
• Rootwork: Conjuring Spell (1080p, 17:54): A straightforward making-of that explores story, themes, characters, performances, and so forth, made of behind-the-scenes footage, film clips, and interviews.
• The Art of Hoodoo (1080p, 12:49): A look at Hoodoo through the perspective of the film's production design and shooting locations.

Spell Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Spell languishes in cinema's midrange where passable and well crafted entertainment is stymied by a total lack of vision and originality. Genre fans will find it worthy of a one-and-done and the Blu-ray, despite good tech specs and a few extras, is probably best enjoyed as a purchase only when it's on a good sale.