Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

The Being Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 21, 2022

Jackie Kong's "The Being" (1981) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Code Red. The supplemental features on the release exclusive audio commentary by the director; archival audio commentary by actor Johnny Dark; and vintage trailer for the film. In English, without optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

In an exclusive audio commentary, Jackie Kong says a lot of bad things about Bill Osco, who played the suspicious police chief Mortimer Lutz in her directorial debut, The Being. She describes him as a talentless actor and an awful producer that could not get anything right and essentially destroyed The Being.

What Kong says is not true -- or at least most of it is not true. I watched the The Being the other night, very late, for the first time ever, and Osco is not the talentless actor Kong describes. Considering what is expected of him, he is quite good, occasionally even great, and pretty much the only actor with a meaningful part in The Being that looks like someone that could have been a local resident. The Being was shot around the small town of Meridian, Idaho, which gives it its atmosphere, so this is an important detail. Martin Landau, who is the biggest star of The Being, is just a famous Hollywood actor that somehow ended up working with Kong, and the same can be said about Jose Ferrer. I am sorry, but they are just not right for The Being, and this is a very polite way of describing their involvement with it.

So, why is Kong so harsh on Osco? Well, at least she is honest and reveals the real reason in the audio commentary -- the two were once married. Kong obviously has some bad memories of their past relationship, but this is something that should not have even emerged in the audio commentary because it is too personal and instantly taints her deconstruction and evaluation of The Being. If Osco was so clearly destructive, why did Kong finish The Being with him? Because he was also its producer and Kong had already secured the services of Landau and Ferrer? Or did Kong discover Osco’s destructiveness much later? (By the way, Kong shares a pretty strange story about her initial encounter with Landau and what she did to get him interested in The Being).

I think that all of the problems in The Being, and there are not that many, are traceable back to Kong’s direction, but before I highlight them for you, here’s a summation of its story:

Pottsville, Idaho. After he is attacked by a strange creature, police chief Lutz contacts Garson Jones (Landau), a prominent scientist employed by the government to monitor Idaho’s toxic graveyards and suppress any negative data he sees, and asks him to help him rationalize his experience. But by the time Jones arrives in Pottsville, collects samples from the graveyard, and combines them with other data, the creature kills numerous residents and provides Lutz with all the evidence he needs that he is facing some sort of supernatural monster. Armed with guns and data, Lutz and Jones then go on the warpath to stop the supernatural monster.

The biggest problem of The Being is the mismanagement of its atmosphere, which is directly related to Kong’s inability to take full advantage of the wonderful rural landscape. There are a few sequences that show great potential, but Kong points The Being in multiple directions at the same time, and as a result the Americana atmosphere that could have made it very special does not materialize.

Another significant problem is the obvious disconnect between the budget and the story. The Being was shot with a very small budget but it looks like it was expected to thrill in much the same way John Carpenter’s The Fog did just a year earlier. If you remove the supernatural monster from The Being, the mayhem in the second half begins to look a lot like the one from The Fog, but without all kinds of different things that usually make Carpenter an effective storyteller, including Carpenter himself.

The remaining smaller problems, like the underdeveloped sense of humor that lingers along the action, quite easily could have been negated with that classic trick that transforms a film’s obvious negatives into positives. Sadly, Kong was not fond of it.

The Being Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Being arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Code Red.

The Being first appeared on Blu-ray in 2017, after it was exclusively remastered, but was sold only via online retailer Ronin Flix. (You can see our listing of the first release here). This recent release is sourced from the same master.

The bulk of the film looks quite good. The biggest strength of the current master is the lack of any digital corrections, which is why the visuals have a pleasing organic appearance. They are just a tad softer than I would have liked them, but this is an inherited limitation from the element that was used to prepare the master, not a byproduct of unnecessary tinkering. Generally speaking, delineation, clarity, and depth are pretty good, but in some darker areas small ranges of nuances struggle to appear as they should. The color balance is good. However, some primaries could be better saturated and certain ranges of nuances should be bigger. I noticed a few frame jumps. Also, there is minor to moderate surface wear in some areas that could have been addressed with digital tools. All in all, The Being has a fine organic appearance, but the current master has a few rough spots. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

The Being Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are not provided for the main feature.

The dialog is easy to follow. However, it is pretty easy to tell that the original audio was simply transferred and left as is because from time to time there are uneven spots and minor dynamic fluctuations. Now, The Being was shot with a small budget so the original audio isn't overly impressive, but a proper remastering job would have made it more attractive.

The Being Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary One - this exclusive audio commentary was recorded by director Jackie Kong. I thought that the commentary was quite amusing, even a bit embarrassing because Mrs. Kong used her past with Bill Osco to explain why The Being did not turn out a special film. I actually agree with some of her points about what did and did not work in The Being, but ultimately her analysis avoids the obvious point that she could have had a pretty dramatic impact on its final appearance. For what it's worth, I don't think that The Being is a horrible film either. I would have liked it a lot if it was a low-budget piece of Americana first and then everything else -- and this is a point that is addressed by Mrs. Kong -- since it was done at a very interesting location in Idaho, but it still has a certain late-night charm.

• Commentary Two - this vintage audio commentary was recorded by Johnny Dark, who has a small part in The Being. Mr. Dark discusses his friendship with Bill Osco and Jackie Kong as well as his involvement with The Being and its genre thrills.

• Trailer - a vintage trailer for The Being, sourced from a VHS. In English, not subtitled. (1 min).

The Being Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Bill Osco isn't the reason The Being did not turn out a better film. He is actually the one actor in it that looks like someone that had spent quite a bit of time in Idaho and is entitled to call the small town where the drama unfolds home. Also, this fictional better film should have been something different. It should have been a twisted piece of Americana with a few loons and a wicked sense of humor like the one that permeates Blood Simple. I had a decent time viewing The Being a few nights ago, but it very quickly became obvious to me that Jackie Kong would simply rehash various genre cliches without producing any memorable thrills. If you decide to pick up Code Red's release for your collection, do so only when it goes on sale.