Rating summary

Movie		0.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		1.0

The Seasoning House Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 4, 2013

When the news is already full of disturbing stories of various people being held captive against their will—sometimes for decades—do we really need a horror film exploiting this same premise, especially when it’s graphically violent and some at least would probably argue patently misogynistic (albeit within an ironic story of supposed ultimate female empowerment)? The Seasoning House created considerable controversy in Britain when it was released last year, and it’s not hard to see why. The Seasoning House pretends to be a devastating exposé of the horrors visited on various women in The Balkans of the late nineties, offering a group of kidnapped women who are held captive and forced into (usually brutal) acts of prostitution. What this film really is is nothing other than standard exploitation fare, for better or (in my not so humble opinion) worse.

The ostensible story here deals with a deaf mute named Angel (Rosie Day) who is kidnapped and made part of a ramshackle brothel in an abandoned, boarded up building. There she comes into contact with a variety of other girls who have been similarly abducted, all of whom are now kept high on drugs and forced to participate in disgusting sexual acts for the nearby military. It’s all patently offensive, disgusting material, given a routine treatment and a supposedly “moral” compass due to the fact that Angel fights back and manages to wreak vengeance on her captors. If you’re into this kind of sordid material, you may get some “entertainment” value out of this film, but it’s hard to find much of anything to really like here.

The Seasoning House Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Seasoning House is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. This digitally shot feature looks decently sharp, but the bulk of the film takes place in very dimly lit surroundings, giving the film a kind of murky, undefined quality. Colors are fairly muted and desaturated, but there are pops of color—usually the red of blood or the purple of bruises.

The Seasoning House Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Seasoning House's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is well done and consistently immersive, offering both the claustrophobic ambience of Angel's treks through the house's ventilation system as well as the more boisterous sounds of violence that fill up the film.

The Seasoning House Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (1080i; 15:53)


• Trailer (1080i; 2:02)

The Seasoning House Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm aware that there are people who actually go for this sort of film. I'm not one of them. Even those who don't mind nonstop violence against women may find this a pretty rote, uninspired entry in the torture porn subgenre.