The 27 Club Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

The 27 Club Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 22, 2019

Luckily, legendary musician Todd Rundgren is not a member of the so-called “27 Club”, an aggregation of less fortunate icons who all perished (frequently due to their own bad behaviors) at that age. Among the members of this maybe, maybe not august group are Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain. Rundgren has thankfully survived to the ripe (old?) age of 70, something that allows him now to appear in The 27 Club in what is (if the IMDb is to be believed) his first big screen acting appearance. What amounts to a glorified cameo, however, may not be enough to encourage even Rundgren fans (of which I number I myself) to check out this middling horror film, which kind of plies the same quasi-Faustian ambience that Phantom of the Paradise did decades ago, albeit without that film’s sometimes kind of cheeky sense of humor.

A rocker named Quinn Scott (Travis Grant), who kind of resembles a wiry Boy George, “joins” the 27 Club as the film opens, though a number of his acolytes are in the room when he expires, something that plays at least tangentially into the “plot” as things develop. It’s shown overtly in the film’s opening sequence that there is a demonic presence at work in the deaths of icons at this age, even if the film “cheats” a little by suggesting it may all be a hallucination Quinn is experiencing. Absolutely no doubt remains as the story unfolds, though, with an enterprising documentary filmmaker (guess what his subject is?) named Jason (Derrick Denicola) starts investigating the phenomenon. Rundgren is on hand as a kind of college mentor and/or adviser, though there may be a bit of subterfuge involved.

The 27 Club never really manages to whip up much energy, despite a soundtrack filled with some great music (including one tune by Rundgren, co-written with Trent Reznor). There are too many illogical aspects to the narrative to even detail here, and the film often comes off as a well meaning and at least intermittently effective student attempt. As such, it may be smart to keep an eye on co-writer and director Patrick Fogarty. Despite some kind of unnecessary and even hackneyed elements here (as in little appearances by actors made up to look like famous members of the 27 Club), he crafts some good moments, even if the overall effort is a bit too haphazard to ever fully register.

The 27 Club Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The 27 Club is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual and Cleopatra Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Shot with Red Dragon cameras (and presumably finished at a 2K DI), this is by and large a very winning looking presentation, despite what I assume was a low budget, and some at times slightly goofy looking CGI. A lot of the film has been tweaked, with several sequences looking slightly blanched or even desaturated, and with some scenes offering a kind of cool blue undertone. There are also what amount to "found footage" moments where detail levels are understandably not as precise looking as in the bulk of the presentation. There is some very minor banding noticeable in a couple of the interstitial vignettes offering "members" of the 27 Club.

The 27 Club Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This is another Cleopatra Blu-ray release that kind of surprisingly does not offer any lossless audio, something that's especially disappointing given this film's emphasis on music. Though there's no indication courtesy of any submenu, there are two lossy tracks here, Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 (accessible via the Audio button on your remote), and the surround track does do a creditable job of creating a fairly wide soundstage, with good support for effects, music and dialogue. But I couldn't help but wonder how much more power in the midrange and especially lower registers might have been gained with lossless audio. (It actually almost sounds like the amplitude has been boosted on the 5.1 track, as is noticeable in the difference in volume between the main Cleopatra masthead and the film's opening masthead.) What's here is fine, and has no real issues to report, but as I've stated repeatedly now, a label with the supposed built in audiophile "cred" of Cleopatra should really be offering lossless audio on its Blu-ray releases.

The 27 Club Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Maddisyn Carter - Lily (1080i; 2:45)


• Interview with Derrick Denicola - Jason (1080i; 2:01)


• Slideshow (1080i; 2:15)


• Trailer (1080i; 1:18)

Additionally, trailers for several other releases from Cleopatra Entertainment are offered on the Blu-ray disc, and a Bonus CD of the soundtrack is included in the package as well.

The 27 Club Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The 27 Club has some interesting elements, but unfortunately nothing really holds together very well here, and I personally found the moments with the supposed "members" of the titular group to be most definitely on the hokey side. While Todd Rundgren shouldn't give up his day job in any case (for any number of reasons, this Rundgren fan will hasten to add), it's definitely fun to see him in a role like this. While it's disappointing this doesn't feature lossless audio, the video side of things is generally very sharp looking, for those considering a purchase.