Anyone looking for a blood spattering good time might find it here, though not in the way they expect.
Which isn´t to say the other two leads, Lloyd-Pack and Fahy, don´t hold up their end of the acting duties. Lloyd-Pack, by virtue of his character, gets more to do than Fahy, his eyes and features conveying every last decision he has had to make leading to the situation the family is in. He is a man utterly without joy, trying to hold everything together with a mix of determination and spit. Not once does a smile come across his face; it´s as if every positive emotion has been sucked out of his body, leaving nothing but despair. His is a quiet performance, the polar opposite of James´ manic ramblings.
VIDEO:
According to online sources, "The Living and the Dead" was originally composed for a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. What we´re given here is a 1.78:1 presentation. I didn´t notice any cropping or misframing of any particular scene to lead me to believe something is wrong with the presentation. The transfer on screen is a wonder to behold. Every nook and cranny of the mansion house comes across in glorious detail, with water spots on every surface and peeling wallpaper around every corner. Blacks are wonderfully deep, allowing us to get lost in the shadows. Along with the 16:9 enhancement, this is a glorious presentation benefiting the story elements.
AUDIO:
Two tracks here, both English, one 5.1 and the other 2.0. I found it impossible to switch between the two using my PlayStation 3 in order to compare their dynamics in the same scene; however, the 2.0 version sounded just a bit more put together and the 5.1. Both are clean, never obscuring the dialogue and allowing Richard Chester´s original score to move from haunting to downright schizophrenic. The surrounds speakers get a decent enough workout, though they truly excel at bringing the bleakness in the score to the forefront. One disappointing aspect to the audio specs is a lack of subtitles or captions.
EXTRAS:
A good suite of special content is available here, headlined by a nearly half hour making of featurette. It seems produced for television exhibition, complete with a monotone narration and very bare cast interviews. Rumley takes center stage most of the time, explaining his motivation for making the film (his mother´s death from cancer) and some of the more technical aspects of filming. It´s better than most featurette material and doesn´t overstay its welcome.
Next on the docket is a short film entitled "Laughter." Mercifully short at just about thirteen minutes, it´s quite obviously an attempt at creating an art house production for Rumley. There´s really no narrative storyline to it, though the reactions of onlookers toward the main (laughing) character are similar to the way people look at James.
The last three features are near-standard for special feature menus: trailers, photos and deleted scenes. The deleted scenes are strung together, mostly consisting of excised portions of existing takes. One in particular, showing Nancy and James removing their hair to reveal scarred scalps, is particularly garish. A series of eleven photos, automatically forwarded, are little more than publicity stills. And a group of trailers for TLA titles is included: the upcoming "Pistoleros" (2:07); and the already released "Rapturious" (1:02), "The Wedding Party" (1:55) and the Danger After Dark boxset (1:18).
PARTING THOUGHTS:
"The Living and the Dead" isn´t a conventional horror film, which both works for and against the finished production. Anyone looking for a blood spattering good time might find it here, though not in the way they expect. The real draw here is the acting, as all the good portions of the film radiate from the characters on screen. Appropriately ghastly and depressing, Rumley´s fourth film never quite delivers the thrills we expect, making the audience sit on pins and needles for 83 minutes.
VIDEO:
According to online sources, "The Living and the Dead" was originally composed for a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. What we´re given here is a 1.78:1 presentation. I didn´t notice any cropping or misframing of any particular scene to lead me to believe something is wrong with the presentation. The transfer on screen is a wonder to behold. Every nook and cranny of the mansion house comes across in glorious detail, with water spots on every surface and peeling wallpaper around every corner. Blacks are wonderfully deep, allowing us to get lost in the shadows. Along with the 16:9 enhancement, this is a glorious presentation benefiting the story elements.
AUDIO:
Two tracks here, both English, one 5.1 and the other 2.0. I found it impossible to switch between the two using my PlayStation 3 in order to compare their dynamics in the same scene; however, the 2.0 version sounded just a bit more put together and the 5.1. Both are clean, never obscuring the dialogue and allowing Richard Chester´s original score to move from haunting to downright schizophrenic. The surrounds speakers get a decent enough workout, though they truly excel at bringing the bleakness in the score to the forefront. One disappointing aspect to the audio specs is a lack of subtitles or captions.
EXTRAS:
A good suite of special content is available here, headlined by a nearly half hour making of featurette. It seems produced for television exhibition, complete with a monotone narration and very bare cast interviews. Rumley takes center stage most of the time, explaining his motivation for making the film (his mother´s death from cancer) and some of the more technical aspects of filming. It´s better than most featurette material and doesn´t overstay its welcome.
Next on the docket is a short film entitled "Laughter." Mercifully short at just about thirteen minutes, it´s quite obviously an attempt at creating an art house production for Rumley. There´s really no narrative storyline to it, though the reactions of onlookers toward the main (laughing) character are similar to the way people look at James.
The last three features are near-standard for special feature menus: trailers, photos and deleted scenes. The deleted scenes are strung together, mostly consisting of excised portions of existing takes. One in particular, showing Nancy and James removing their hair to reveal scarred scalps, is particularly garish. A series of eleven photos, automatically forwarded, are little more than publicity stills. And a group of trailers for TLA titles is included: the upcoming "Pistoleros" (2:07); and the already released "Rapturious" (1:02), "The Wedding Party" (1:55) and the Danger After Dark boxset (1:18).
PARTING THOUGHTS:
"The Living and the Dead" isn´t a conventional horror film, which both works for and against the finished production. Anyone looking for a blood spattering good time might find it here, though not in the way they expect. The real draw here is the acting, as all the good portions of the film radiate from the characters on screen. Appropriately ghastly and depressing, Rumley´s fourth film never quite delivers the thrills we expect, making the audience sit on pins and needles for 83 minutes.
Average user rating (1-5):
Not yet rated.
Not yet rated.