6.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Four strangers are recruited as volunteers in a scientific research study. But they soon find that they are pawns in a classified government program to determine the breaking point of the human mind. As the experiments are conducted with each unwilling participant, the sterile white room becomes a horrible nightmare where the endgame is survival itself.
Starring: Nick Cannon, Clea DuVall, Chloë Sevigny, Timothy Hutton, Peter StormareThriller | 100% |
Drama | 57% |
Mystery | 40% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
When then-First Lady Nancy Reagan launched her famous “Just say no!” campaign against drugs in the 1980’s, she may have conveniently forgotten (or, indeed, never really have known) that the U.S. Government had itself been a “pusher” of sorts, proffering illicit substances to various unsuspecting folk and then gathering supposedly “scientific” data on how they reacted to taking an unexpected “trip.” The most famous of these efforts was the covert operation known as MK-ULTRA, which became momentarily notorious in the mid-1970’s when Congress attempted to investigate it, only to find out that then-CIA Director Richard Helms had destroyed all documentation about the program the year before the investigation began. The CIA insisted later that MK-ULTRA had been abandoned, though stories continued to leak out about both the devastating effects of its prior use (one famous incident involved a CIA agent leaping to his death from a skyscraper, which his family insists to this day was done under the influence of LSD secretly administered to him by his bosses), as well as it supposed continuation within the secretive bowels of the CIA hierarchy. The Killing Room starts with a textual precursor about MK-ULTRA, and then takes off on a chilling little detour that may not involve actual drug use, but which plays on theories of Skinner Boxes and radical behavior modification, as well as analogs to cellular extinction, all wrapped up in a denouement which paints the horror in the larger picture of the War on Terror and how exactly we in the West are going to deal with the irrationalities of the Jihadists.
Dr. Phillips explains to his subjects that they'll be paid $250. Of course he leaves out the part about them being killed one by one.
The Killing Room was obviously shot on a miniscule budget, and director Liebesman is going for a low-fi verité look here, so expecting this Blu-ray's AVC encoded 1080p image (in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio) to have the pristine digital beauty of a summer blockbuster is unfair and unwise. The Killing Room features a lot of fluorescently lit footage, which gives the film a blown out, low contrast look that can make the image appear softer than it actually is. Colors here also tend to be muted, with the exception of the sprays of blood, which contrast brilliantly against the cold, hard whiteness of the room where the experiment subjects find themselves held captive. In fact in terms of the pure contrast between these whites and the surrounding blacks of the observation room, contrast is really quite excellent, once it's removed from the garish lighting scheme employed to deliberate purpose. If you give in to The Killing Room's "you are there" ethos, which is certainly what Liebesman is aiming for, this Blu-ray reproduces the claustrophobic, ugly world of the white "jail" with devastating accuracy.
While The Killing Room's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is fine in and of itself, it has a couple of distressing elements, not the least of which is Storamire's absolutely indecipherable accent in the early scenes, and the echoey ambience of the experiment room itself, which leaves the subjects' panicked whispers awash in muddiness. This normally wouldn't be a problem, except that this Blu-ray offers no subtitles to help the audience get through the morass. The fault here can't be lain entirely at the actual soundtrack's feet, but in the recording and mixing process, not to mention the evident lack of looping, which could have helped to clear up some of these issues. All of this said, for the most part the track is clear and crisp, with some excellent use of sound effects which help to heighten the claustrophobic terror of being locked in a room. Surround channels are well utilized for the techno-babble which spills from unseen observers throughout the film, though that babble itself may annoy some listeners after a while.
There are no supplements on this Blu-ray. A documentary on MK-ULTRA and other mind control techniques would have been illuminating.
The Killing Room may play out as a "very special Twilight Zone," but its political edge, delivered in its final moments, at least proves that its makers weren't taking any of the horror lightly. One way or the other, this is a disturbing little thriller which gets under the skin and festers uneasily. If the denouement is both shocking and frankly silly, getting there is a nightmare journey that isn't quickly forgotten. Recommended.
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