6.2 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.6 |
Years ago, young Robbie Mueller left his small home town under a cloud of suspicion. Now, teenage Robbie has returned – and he’s set his sights on Heather, the daughter of local police detective John Elliott. When the town is swept by a series of gruesome killings, a mysterious priest seems to be the only one who can help protect them.
Starring: Christian Slater, Vinnie Jones, Emily Tennant, Jake Croker, Matthew Robert KellyThriller | 100% |
Supernatural | 56% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 1.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Director Kevin Carraway is back with another direct-to-video horror film, and the best I can say is that it's just slightly better than Carraway's last effort, 7 Below, to which I gave half a star. Carraway co-wrote that incoherent tale, but this time he's working from a script by actor and producer Matt Kelly, who has been involved in the film industry long enough to tell a story that makes at least superficial sense. (Kelly's credits as a producer include We Are Marshall and Barry Sonnenfeld's comedy RV.) Unfortunately, Kelly's script is so lazily derivative that no director could save it. It's one thing to borrow from Richard Donner's 1976 shocker, The Omen, which was itself an obvious attempt to cash in on the blockbuster success of The Exorcist three years earlier. But Kelly steals so blatantly that, at one point, he has one character ask another whether they're dealing with "some kind of an Omen kid"; then he squanders the one potentially interesting twist in a scenario that places that kid in a high school setting, where emotions run high and hormones are raging. Carraway does what he can with the script he has, but he has too little to work with. Not even Richard Donner could have held an audience's attention with Kelly's story. (Then again, Donner would have known enough to demand rewrites.)
According to the best information I could find, Way of the Wicked was shot digitally on a Red One camera and finished on a digital intermediate. The cinematographer was Curtis Petersen, who has been a cinematographer, camera operator and second unit director since 1979, often shooting sequels like Death Wish V: The Face of Death . Image/RLJ's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably sourced from digital files and presents all the typical virtues of a contemporary production originated on Red: a sharp and detailed image, solid blacks, an absence of video noise and a rich but generally naturalistic palette that emphasizes the green of the Pacific Northwest countryside (or, in this case, British Columbia, where the film was shot). Nighttime settings own feature light from unidentifiable sources, perhaps to suggest an other worldly presence. Given the absence of any analog stage in the chain from capture to Blu-ray, none of the issues we look for in film-originated productions were in evidence. The average bitrate of 24.99 Mbps would be respectable for a filmed feature and is more than adequate for one that was digitally shot.
The film's 5.1 track is presented in lossless DTS-HD MA, and it features the kind of wide dynamic range and solid (though not exceptional) bass extension that one would expect from a contemporary sound mix. The big moments when supernatural forces manifest their presence (I don't want to be more specific about how, to avoid spoilers) are loud and effective, though not especially inventive or new. Classically atmospheric effects such as rain make good use of the surround array, as do the demonic whisperings that occasionally pop up in the mix. The dialogue is always clear, and the score for chorus and orchestra by Chris Petersen, who did the orchestrations for A Lonely Place to Die, does as much as it can to supply the suspense that the story itself hasn't earned.
The disc contains no extras. At startup, it plays trailers for Odd Thomas, The Colony, Stranded and Evidence, which can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are otherwise unavailable once the disc loads.
One never knows what to expect from Image Entertainment. Their original film releases range from beloved cult classics like Lightning Bug to worthy but orphaned projects like Odd Thomas to intriguing arthouse fair like Last Love to bargain-basement dreck like Way of the Wicked. I would be glad to explain in greater detail why this film isn't worth your time, but I cannot do so without spoiling what little plot it has to offer. I'm pretty sure that most viewers will see every story point coming well in advance, but if you want to discover them for yourself, be my guest. You have been warned.
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