The Hellstrom Chronicle Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

The Hellstrom Chronicle Blu-ray Movie Review

Do mad scientists bug you?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 21, 2012

This is the way the world ends: not with a bang but a. . .buzz?

Well, who’s to say that that wasn’t T.S. Eliot’s first choice? (Luckily Mr. Eliot is no longer around to defend himself from such spurious attempts at humor.) Most people have various levels of annoyance with at least some species of insect, whether it be the high pitched whine of a mosquito closing in on a blood supply in an ear or the uncomfortable prick of a bee’s stinger finding its mark on a sunny summer day. Some may think this is an exaggeration, but I swear it’s the honest truth: one of my sisters had such a fear of bugs (mostly spiders) when we were growing up that she used to carry a can of Raid in her purse and would spray the sidewalk in front of her as she walked, just to make sure she wouldn’t cross paths with any untoward creepy-crawlies. If one were to believe the weird and pretty wacky The Hellstrom Chronicle, one would need a can of Raid the size of Saturn to take care of an incipient population of bugs that literally are out to kill us poor humans. Rather incredibly The Hellstrom Chronicle won the 1971 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The incredulity comes not from any intrinsic excellence (or lack thereof), but from the fact that The Hellstrom Chronicle is about as much of a standard documentary as Milli Vanilli was a splendidly talented duo comprised of Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. That’s right: The Hellstrom Chronicle is, at its core, a hoax. The supposed entomologist at the center of this film, one Nils Hellstrom, is a self- confessed “fanatic” who is convinced bugs are well on their way to supplanting Man as the dominant species on Earth. Hellstrom also happens to be a fictional character, played by character actor Lawrence Pressman, who astute viewers will recognize from everything from Doogie Howser, M.D. to Profiler. Here, sporting what can only be termed “Gene Wilder hair”, Pressman evinces a modern take on the Mad Scientist, a well meaning but obsessive man whose rantings may be based in fact but which nonetheless sound absolutely ludicrous.

Insects’ size relative to Man accounts for the sort of blissfully ignorant “out of sight, out of mind” attitude a lot of people take toward or co-habitants on this planet, and also accounts for many individuals’ over the top reactions (like my sister, for example) when they do come in contact with one of these patently strange creatures. Insects are so alien to us at an almost atavistic level that it’s little wonder so many science fiction special effects designers have tended to base their alien character designs on things like Praying Mantises or other smallish ghoulies. The actual scientific sections of The Hellstrom Chronicle (as opposed to the rather silly bridging segments featuring “Dr. Hellstrom” himself) offer a variety of astounding (especially for early seventies filming) up close and personal looks at various insects going about their daily lives, which often in fact might be better termed as going about their daily deaths. A lot of this footage is squirm worthy and those with squeamish stomachs are well advised to have their hands at the ready to shield their eyes from some of the more gruesome imagery.

That said, there’s no denying the awesome impact that the filmmakers achieved with the actual insect footage. This was sensational stuff back in its day, the likes of which had never really been seen before, and if our modern day eyes have been dazzled more effectively by films such as Microcosmos, that still doesn’t detract from what was in 1971 a rather substantial technical achievement. (The film, aside from its kind of bizarre Oscar win, also took home the Technical Grand Prize at Cannes.) Accompanying the incredible visuals is a rather spritely score by an unexpected source: one Lalo Schifrin, the jazz man who wrote so many spectacular themes in the late sixties for both television (Mission: Impossible, Mannix) and film (The Fox). Schifrin’s score alternates between kind of scary and moody cues that are reminiscent of Dominic Frontiere’s classic work on the old Outer Limits television series, to more fanciful, almost dance like cues for a number of sequences that have little “friends” like ants on the march. The Hellstrom Chronicle also contains a couple of fun clips from some real (meaning completely fictional) insect horror films like Them!. It’s a weird kind of Through the Looking Glass irony that the schlocky snippets seem at least as convincing, if not more so, than the staged human elements in the “documentary” that contains them.

Is The Hellstrom Chronicle better seen in our post-modern, ultra-ironic world as a comedy? A cogent case could be made, especially with regard to Pressman’s wacky yet wonderful take on the Hellstrom character. Intense yet understated, this is a “scientist” one imagines suddenly bursting into a riff on Colin Clive, unexpectedly blurting out, “They’re alive! Alive!!!” And that’s ultimately what defeats The Hellstrom Chronicle’s attempts to be taken seriously as a documentary. Insects may well be about to claim the mantle of Lord and Master on Planet Earth, but the film is so hyperbolic that it often comes off as downright silly. In the early seventies The Hellstrom Chronicle was a surprise box office sensation after it was marketed (rather smartly) as a science fiction horror film. Once audiences had paid their bucks, they were greeted with this filmic bait and switch, but few probably complained. It was a kinder, gentler era, after all. But seen now through the lens of 20/20 hindsight, The Hellstrom Chronicle is a piece of marketing genius that never really delivers on a pure content level.

The Hellstrom Chronicle Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Hellstrom Chronicle is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. I frankly never saw this film in a theatrical exhibition, but my assumption is that the source was probably 1.33:1 and it was masked for a 1.85:1 exhibition ratio, as little if anything about this presentation has the look of having been cropped for a "full frame" home video release. In fact a lot of the insect footage clearly seems to have been shot for a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, unless there is irrelevant material that has been cropped from the sides, something rather unlikely, especially if the theatrical exhibition was "only" at 1.85:1. As with all of the Olive Films Blu-ray releases thus far, this was obviously sourced from a decent enough looking print, so expectations must be set accordingly. The print is relatively damage free, but there are still scratches, white flecks and other minor damage that are quite noticeable throughout the running time. Strangely, the "human" footage has a sort of soft, fuzzy ambience, while a lot of the insect footage pops substantially better, with well above average clarity and fine detail. The bulk of this transfer has the look of having been sourced from 16mm, not 35mm, but that shouldn't scare off trepidatious viewers. While The Hellstrom Chronicle is very much a product of its early seventies era, this Blu-ray presentation, while far from perfect, looks rather good, all things considered.

The Hellstrom Chronicle Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Hellstrom Chronicle's original mono soundtrack is delivered via a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mix, and while the results aren't exactly state of the art, they suffice for this quasi-documentary, which consists largely of Hellstrom's bizarre monologues, voice over narration and Schifrin's rather odd, yet appealing, score. Fidelity is fine, if not superb, though the overall sound of the film is just slightly boxy, with clipped highs and lows. The midrange reproduction is really quite good, and the track has no real egregious damage other than some noticeable hiss. There's obviously no splaying of effects, but a lot of what is presented here is rather artful, if obviously dubbed (the little pit a pat of insect "feet" sounds more like Zulu drums at times). Given the modest ambitions of the original soundtrack, this is probably all that could have been hoped for on a high definition release.

The Hellstrom Chronicle Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements of any kind are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

The Hellstrom Chronicle Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Every year brings its own Oscar controversies (this year there seems to be special umbrage taken at the Music Division's rather odd decision to only nominate two Best Song contenders, though as a lifelong Sergio Mendes fan, I'm thrilled he's one of the nominees this year). In doing research for this review, I wasn't able to dig up much post-Academy Award brouhaha over The Hellstrom Chronicle having won for Best Documentary when it really wasn't a documentary per se. But 1971 was, after all, a different time, post-sixties to be sure but still "innocent' enough to award a prize to a supposed "documentary" that had actually done decent box office (then, as now, a decided oddity). It's somewhat shocking to realize that one of the best known and most iconic of all documentaries, Marcel Ophuls' spectacular The Sorrow and the Pity, was also nominated that year and surely "should" have won. The Hellstrom Chronicle is at best a rather peculiar little film that stands apart from its "documentary" kin for the very reason Milli Vanilli stand apart from their Best New Artist Grammy kin: it's a fake! This isn't to say that the film isn't enjoyable in a bizarre, almost outré, way, but as a documentary? Sorry, using that term for The Hellstrom Chronicle really does bug me.