Vile Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		1.5

Vile Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 23, 2023

There's that famous adage that goes something like "mighty oaks from little acorns grow", and if Taylor Sheridan actually considered Vile to be his first directing effort, that saying might have been slightly tweaked in this particular instance to reference "miniscule acorns". The adage may be poorly applied to this piece in any event since even Sheridan, who went on to considerable success and fame writing Sicario and Hell or High Water, has pretty much gone on record as stating that he was called in by a panicked friend of his (one suspects it may have been co-writer and co-producer Eric Beck) to see if he could help right a project that had evidently already gone seriously awry.

Vile may exploit a certain "truth in advertising" aspect in its very title, but it's another one word horror franchise which obviously helped to spark the idea behind this film, namely Saw. In fact the parallels between the two properties are so frequent I'm kind of surprised that there wasn't some kind of Writers Guild arbitration forced on the production, but much as with Saw, Vile involves a group of folks being held prisoner in an isolated locale, and directed to do absolutely horrifying things to each other, albeit this time by a character who is at least briefly seen. It's all remarkably generic, and while the torture porn aspects are certain to make the more squeamish types squirm more than a little, the film is so relentlessly predictable that even the scares seem ersatz after a while.

Vile Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Vile is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the MVD Marquee Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. I will admit upfront I was actually shocked to see this was (according to the IMDb) a Red capture (typically one of my preferred technologies) with a 4K DI, and if you want to see why I was shocked, take a look at the ninth screenshot I've uploaded to accompany this review for just one example of some rather shoddy looking visuals that I don't think were supposed to be "stylized" this way. The vast majority of this feature plays out in just a couple of locations, and what I'd call the "torture dungeon" is typically graded toward blues and slate grays (echoes of Saw again, believe it or don't), with some of the kitchen material favoring more a jaundiced yellow look. Detail levels definitely perk up in the kitchen scenes, though some of the extreme close-ups of bodily mayhem on the "operating table" can also provide squirm inducing levels of fine detail.

Vile Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Also kind of surprising me on this release was the inclusion of only lossy Dolby Digital for its 5.1 surround track, though there is an adequately forceful LPCM 2.0 option as well. The track is populated with both gruesome sound effects as various immolations take place, and some kind of quasi-punk source cues that I frankly think could have sounded a good deal more head banging had the surround track been offered via a lossless codec. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Vile Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes

  Drug Deal (SD; 2:24)

  
  

  Greg & Lisa (SD; 4:09)

• Director Taylor Sheridan Mops Up the Aftermath (SD; 1:01) offers Sheridan as a veritable janitor, a "credit" for this film he hasn't yet disavowed.


• Trailers includes Vile (HD; 1:25) along with trailers for other releases from MVD.

Packaging features a reversible sleeve and a slipcover.

Vile Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you just can't wait until Saw X arrives on Blu-ray and 4K UHD disc in about a month or so as this review is being written, I guess you can get your fix courtesy of Vile, which is for all intents and purposes a Saw film by any other name. Video has some definite rough spots, and it's a little disappointing that the surround track is lossy, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.