Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.0

Stag Night Blu-ray Movie Review

So little time, so many clichés.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 14, 2011

Perhaps the best indication of how completely derivative Stag Night is is the fact that I could virtually repeat my review from the first “Ghost House Underground” release from Lionsgate, Psych: 9, substitute the film name and make a few plot point changes, but otherwise just send it out into the big, wide world as is and see if anyone noticed. Like Psych: 9, we get the standard prelude with a terrified blonde running from some unseen source. She comes to a locked door (in this case a subway gate), of course can’t get out, tries to escape another way and (yes, yes, you’re probably breathless with suspense, but wait for it) meets her doom. Jump cut to four obnoxious but generally likable guys who are out on the town for a bachelor party. The most obnoxious of them gets them kicked out of a dive and they then get into an altercation with two “working girls” on a subway, leading to them stumbling off the train at a closed stop. Thus begins an evening of terror and dread the likes of which have never been seen. No, I’m not referring to events within the film; I’m warning you of what’s in store for you should you choose to watch this dreck.

"Nope. . .it's no better watching this mess upside down."

Unlike Psych: 9, Stag Night had a somewhat more stellar pedigree, having been written and directed by Peter A. Dowling, a youngish filmmaker who won the Fulbright TEB Clarke Screenwriting Fellowship in the late 1990’s and whose first major screenplay was the Jodie Foster film Flightplan. But right there is the wary viewer’s first clue. Flightplan, though an immense box office hit, was another highly derivative film, a typical mother in distress, “what have you done with my child?” thriller that, a la the long ago Bunny Lake is Missing, attempted to walk a thin line between rooting for the heroine and wondering if she was completely crackers, imagining a child who didn’t exist. Flightplan lacked even Bunny Lake’s modest charms, however, and it spilled the beans so early in terms of the “reality” of the child that there was no real ambiguity. And once the actual conspiracy came to light, the film turned into an unintended comedy.

Unfortunately, Dowling seems to have fallen under that peculiar hypnotic spell that so mesmerizes new filmmakers, namely the “I can do that, too” syndrome, which seems to especially haunt (pun intended) the horror genre. Seemingly every new to Hollywood kid has grown up seeing every Grindhouse feature ever made and wants to prove they’re capable of producing the exact same feature again. And by exact same feature, I truly mean exact same feature. There is nothing new, unexpected or even slightly innovative about Stag Night. Claustrophobic setting with a dazed group of potential victims? Seen it. Crazed, cannibalistic feral humans living in the dank shadows? Been there. Everything from foreplay interrupted by an attack to jump cuts with attendant LFE to startle the viewer? Puh-lease.

Is it even necessary to talk about performances here? Kip Parker, who some sharp eyed viewers may remember from his “arc” role on ER a few years ago, is stalwart and steady, even when he’s strung up by his heels and looking at the decimated remains of his buddies, Saw style. Parker needs to carry the film pretty much single-handedly (as the other characters slowly but surely get—or become—their just desserts), and as far as he’s able, he gives a decently heroic performance. But this film is probably not going to make it to his audition roll, for what it’s worth. The dialogue (if you can call it that) and supposed shock sequences simply are too laughable to ever amount to anything much more than camp.

Stag Night does share one (relatively) positive trait with Psych: 9, and that is its almost palpable recreation of a spooky locale. In this case, we get the dark and dank confines of an abandoned section of the New York subway system, and though the image itself is woefully inadequate a lot of the time (as discussed below), when you can see at least a little of what’s going on, the production design helps to give Stag Night a suitably antediluvian feel that helps to at least partially offset the outright absurdity of the screenplay.

It’s too bad that new (or newish) filmmakers seem so intent on traveling these well worn paths, as if they’re some sort of initiation ceremony they need to make it through before they’ll be accepted as bona fide “masters” of their craft. Why it’s the horror genre that seems to invite this trend perhaps more than any other is anyone’s guess, but it makes for some awfully tired viewing experiences. Stag Night is yet another example of a really sad lack of ingenuity or innovation, and that’s the real horror story here.

Stag Night Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

What the frell is going on with Stag Night? This is one of the most bizarrely schizoid transfers in recent memory, one obviously culled from different source elements. The AVC encoded 1080p image in 1.78:1 is alternately sharp as a tack and then just fuzzy as all get out with overwhelming grain which approaches digital noise levels. This does not seem to be a case of post-processing and the changes come willy-nilly through the film, almost as if two different units were utilizing different film stocks. The good parts of Stag Night bristle nicely with detail, well saturated color, and a pleasingly sharp and well defined image. The bad parts of Stag Night are murky, low contrast with a completely lack of detail, and just completely overrun with grain. I've frankly never seen anything quite like it, at least in recent memory, and if it this was an intentional choice, it backfires in a very big way.

Stag Night Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Somewhat better (how in fact could it be worse?) is the lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix offered on this Blu-ray. While there are some nice moements of immersion, including things like pans for the subway train noise and some nice discrete channel utilization for some of the foley effects like dripping water in the cavernous subway tunnels, this is really a pretty surprisingly front heavy mix for a horror film. Dialogue and effects are reasonably well mixed here, and the film has the requisite supply of startling LFE. The claustrophobic confines of the tunnels may have precluded a really impressive use of surrounds here, but this is not an overly aggressive cinema track, perhaps the result of the film's probably miniscule budget. Fidelity is very good, but there's just not anything very remarkable here.

Stag Night Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Stag Night (SD; 34:48). Don't want to sit through this film? Still a little interested in what it has to offer? Simply watch this featurette, which details virtually all of the supposed plot twists. There, you just saved a valuable hour or so of your life. Don't say I never did anything for you.
• Trailer

Stag Night Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

To say Stag Night is déjà vu all over again does a disservice to anyone suffering from déjà vu. This is simply too derivative, too formulaic and too ridiculous to ever provide anything other than rote chills.