Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 5, 2019

Alex Proyas is certainly some kind of visionary, though some curmudgeons may allege that Proyas’ “visions” are closer to hallucinations. There’s a psychedelic quality that runs rampant through at least parts of all of Proyas’ films, a not very large assortment of titles that includes The Crow, Dark City, Garage Days, I, Robot, Knowing and Gods of Egypt. Proyas has often been accused of favoring style over substance, and that may indeed occur to some watching Proyas’ lesser known debut feature, Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds. This is yet another “Aussie-pocalypse” entry, a kind of odd subgenre with survivors attempting to perservere in the sometimes harsh environment of Down Under which includes such disparate films as On the Beach. Mad Max. Tank Girl. The Rover and These Final Hours.

Proyas’ startling visual sense is apparent from the get go in Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds , with a series of scenes that shows a lone guy we later find out is named Smith (Norman Boyd, identified as “The Norm” in the credits) wandering through an arid wasteland that is populated with odd elements like the carcasses of vehicles perched upright in the sand (an effect Proyas states in his commentary was achieved “in camera” since they had next to no budget). When things segue to an odd looking woman named Betty Crabtree (Melissa Davis, billed here as Rhys Davis, because evidently everyone wanted an alias) playing some kind of bizarre stringed instrument out in the middle of a desert, it almost seems “normal” by comparison. But once Betty spies Smith encroaching on her “territory”, she goes slightly crazy, screaming for her wheelchair bound brother Felix (Michael Lake) to get a gun to ward off the stranger.

What ensues is a frequently weird feeling ménage à trois of sorts, wherein Smith ingratiates himself with Felix, even while Betty insists he may be some kind of nefarious demonic presence. Smith is trying to get away from something, or perhaps more saliently someone (or two or three), but there doesn’t seem to be any easy way of egress from the Crabtrees’ location, which is where a mad plan to build a “flying machine” comes into play. It’s all very odd, but what may really strike some about this film is its fairly lethargic pace. This is not a Mad Max-athon by any stretch of the imagination, and in fact tends to play out in rather languorous takes that emphasize the admittedly astounding visuals, arguably to the detriment of any perceived “story”.

If the story is opaque at best, the iconography in the film is both clear and potentially confusing. In fact, it may be the Proyas commentary that clarifies things, as he states up front that the ubiquity of crosses and other talismans was meant to suggest that Felix, perhaps under the throes of religious fervor, has put up any manner of a “safety wall” that he can muster. But other elements in the visual presentation, while almost always striking, don’t seem to have much context and therefore meaning, including everything from Betty’s appearance to the bizarre stringed instrument she plays.

Proyas also mentions that his aim with this film was to meld science fiction and western elements, and there is certainly an almost Fordian appreciation of some very stark scenery in the film. But the whimsical, dare I say outright weird, “flying machine” aspect may remind some of a film that was about as far from a western as you can get, Robert Altman’s completely peculiar Brewster McCloud.

Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.32:1. Umbrella (and Proyas himself) tout this as a new 2K scan of the film's original 16mm negative, and, as mentioned above on several occasions, this is often an extremely striking looking film. As Proyas gets into in his commentary, a very distinct and distinctive palette was chosen, along with a strategy to shoot perpendicular to light sources, something that Proyas avers tips things toward red hues. One way or the other, the film's warmer tones, be they red, orange or even amber, pop extremely well here, and some of the differentiation between this end of the spectrum and things like bright blue skies look great for the most part here. There are some fairly wide variances in clarity, especially with regard to some of the dimly lit interior shots (see screenshot 19). There are also occasional and transitory issues with grain resolution, which can become chunky and pixellated out of nowhere for a second or two, and then return to a more organic appearance, without any edits in between the variations (screenshot 16 is one such moment, and there are seconds before and after this moment with the same camera setup where the grain looks quite a bit better than this does). There's still a bit of noticeable wobble during the opening credits, but no real issues with any kind of image stability during the course of the film.

Note: While Umbrella Entertainment services Region B, this is a Region Free release which played perfectly fine on my Region A players and in my PC drive.

Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 tracks. The surround track arguably gets most of its activity from the sweeping pad sounds of Peter Miller's score. The score has evidently been embraced by a coterie of fans, but I personally found it a bit overwhelming on several occasions. There are also at least intermittent placement of ambient environmental sounds, especially with regard to some of the wind that blows through the environment. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation.

Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Alex Proyas


• Audio Commentary with Composer Peter Miller and Editor Craig Wood


• Interview with Cast Member Rhys Davis (1080p; 7:50)


• Interview with Cast Member Michael Lake (1080p; 36:51)


• Spirits: Making a Post Apocalypse Western (1080p; 23:31)


• Spirits Song Music Video (1080p; 4:09)


• Image Gallery (1080p; 8:31) has been authored to advance automatically, but you can chapter skip through images if you want to.


• 2018 Trailer (1080p; 2:17)

Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds doesn't really have the ingenuity of Dark City, nor does it frankly have the general visual audacity of many of Proyas' later films, but considering what must have been a paltry budget, there is style in abundance here. Whether there's much if any substance will probably be debatable, but if you're going to see only one "Aussie-pocalypse" film featuring an attempt to build a "flying machine", this is probably your best bet. Technical merits are first rate and the supplements are quite enjoyable. Recommended.