Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		1.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.0

Wicked World Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 28, 2019

The fact that Wicked World offers a virtually Hamlet sized array of carnage before the opening credits even get started, and then moves on after those credits to a more or less immediate reveal of who’s doing all the killing may indicate that this film is probably never going to enter the annals of subtlest cinematic experiences. Wicked World was the brainchild of Barry J. Gillis, who both wrote and directed, and whose name may be familiar to certain devotees of grindhouse horror fare from his association with the kind of entertainingly gonzo effort Things. Wicked World sees Gillis as a kind of low rent auteur offering a deconstructed, probably intentionally psychedelic, take on a traditional revenge plot, with Gillis himself co-starring as the guy out for vengeance.

The killer in the film is named Harold (Eddie Platt) and it's revealed that he's been institutionalized after a killing spree which has also personally involved a cop named Grant Eckland (Barry J. Gillis). The film is refracted through Harold's probably schizophrenic mind, though, and so is told in a nonlinear fashion, which means it's up to the viewer to correctly place events in the timeline. The film has a number of gruesome if lo-fi kill scenes, and it has an unabashedly sleazy ambience which may appeal to some fans.

Wicked World Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots 1 through 5 are from the 2019 Director's Cut. Screenshots 6 through 9 are from the Original Version. I've attempted to come close to reproducing individual frames, but there are some slight variances.

Wicked World is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of American Genre Film Archive with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.35:1. The back cover of this release rather prominently states:

Notice! This move was shot on 16mm film and edited on tape. The transfer is taken from the original 3/4" master tapes.

While not optimal, a tape interstitial might have been okay had it preserved the original look of the film source, but somewhere along the way it seems like someone has given the grain field a lobotomy (if I may mix metaphors, if appropriately given a subplot of the film). This is a pretty waxy and rubbery looking presentation in either version, though the original version has something akin to a bit of a grain field, however slight. I'd argue that densities and detail levels are marginally better in the original version as well, but that may be a case of damning with faint praise. The 2019 Director's Cut is a smeary presentation a lot of the time, though, with minimal detail levels at times.

Wicked World Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Quite often on these niche releases of cult material the audio presentation can vastly outpace the limits of the video presentation, but unfortunately that's largely not the case with the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks provided to the two cuts of the film. Kind of surprisingly, the raucous music makes it through the gauntlet at least passably well, but dialogue in both versions is really thin and brittle sounding, boxy and reverberant to the point that it's actually hard to make out what people are saying at times.

Wicked World Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• 2019 Director's Cut (1080p; 1:40:52) and Original Version (1080p; 1:41:55) are available under the Start the Rampage menu.


• Reality: Behind the Scenes of Wicked World (480p; 1:00:02) is a long form piece by Barry J. Gillis that has a lot of production background and interviews.


• Marshall Law Video (480p; 5:18) is a music video directed by Gillis. This comes with a rolling text preview that details how this came to be.


• Original Trailer (480p; 1:58) is kind of hilariously advertised as not having been seen since 2006.


• Tribute to Eddie Platt (1080p; 2:20) is a sweet reminiscence featuring Platt's son Stuart.


• Tomorrow's Dream (1080p; 23:50) focuses on the "legacy" of Barry J. Gillis, with none other than Gillis himself providing information about various projects.

Wicked World Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

AGFA specializes in this kind of Grade Z entertainment, and fans of this very peculiar nook and/or cranny of filmmaking may find this odd film kind of interesting, if obviously on the lo-fi side of things. Technical merits are pretty poor on this release, but as usual AGFA has assembled some interesting supplements, for those who are considering a purchase.