Those Who Deserve to Die Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		3.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		0.5

Those Who Deserve to Die Blu-ray Movie Review

A dead-on-arrival brain fart

Those Who Deserve to Die arrives DOA. A series of horrific murders are occurring all around a quaint, small town. The murders are occurring from a masked vigilante and a young girl, Berenice (Alice Lewis). The murders keep getting worse: even leading to baby killing (in carriage and all). The murdering seems to never end in this tiny town.

Yet the main storyline focuses on the events of a war veteran, Jonathan Wyndham (Joe Sykes) and the steamy romance he begins with the social worker, wide-eyed nerd Margaret Merrill (Rachel Frawley). Could these two hunky-dory love-birds hold the key to the mystery of the murders?

From the acting school of Derek Zoolander.

Edited by Adam K. Thompson, Chris Tsambis, and Bret Wood, it somehow took three editors to work on this cut of the feature-film and still miss the mark horribly. The filmmaking is all over the map. Everything stumbles. There are scenes where actors seem to be struggling to stay awake (most especially for the background actors). Did anyone know how to say cut? (Or fix-it-in-post?)

Written and directed by Bret Wood (The Unwanted), Wood seems to need to learn a few more things about the craft of filmmaking. The story is uninteresting, the horror is forced, and the actors “steamy” sex scene seem out-of-place. The entire production seems like a disaster. Those Who Deserve to Die will challenge audiences... to not fall asleep. (Note: This film might be an actual sleeping aid.)

Those Who Deserve to Die Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, Those Who Deserve to Die has received a 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition presentation in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 widescreen. The film has a generally clean and crisp presentation. The digital aesthetic delivers as much. However, throughout the entire presentation I was struck by how inexpensive and cheap the cinematography seemed to be. Those Who Deserve to Die is a far cry from a visually impressive feature and there certainly are some elements which seem to dampen my enthusiasm for the transfer too: there are sequences where raindrops can be seen dropping on to the camera: causing the footage to become somewhat obscured by the rain. These moments are nonprofessional (and a missed chance for the director to yell "cut!" during filming). There are also several scenes with obnoxious banding to the picture. Lastly, there are multiple times where the weak shadow detail of the photography was a clear detriment to the presentation. These moments seem source-related (and are not the fault of Kino Lorber by any means) but the results are decidedly underwhelming (to say the least).

Those Who Deserve to Die Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release is presented with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 soundtrack. There are some positive things to say about the audio track. For one thing, the score sounded nice and lively throughout the entire sound mix. On the flip-side, most other sound-quality checks fail and are utterly shocking. This is amateur hour, through-and-through: there are countless scenes which seem to have been filmed without proper boom mics.

The sound is often muffled and not as crisp, clear, and dynamic as it should sound. Instead, the audio is thin and grating. The track is severely lacking as a result. The film repeatedly manages to be muffled sounding. The track seems to lack a sense of finesse in the audio department. The end result is that Those Who Deserve to Die sounds like an amateur student film made with a shoe-string budget. (Which, in fairness, might be an accurate description.)

Those Who Deserve to Die Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Deleted Scenes (HD, 32:03)

The release includes a selection of short films: Malice of Alice (a mother/daughter portrait) (HD, 4:24), Security (SD, 6:42), and a promotional short (HD, 4:40).

Those Who Deserve to Die Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1:40)

The release also includes a selection of trailers promoting other releases available from distributor Kino Lorber: The Unwanted (HD, 1:24), The Seventh Daughter (HD, 1:06), and The Control Group (HD, 1:16).

Those Who Deserve to Die Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

No social distancing required. There is only one seat for Those Who Deserve to Die and it is empty. The Blu-ray features a lackluster presentation. Skip it and go watch something else.