Mulberry Street ended up not only being the best film in the Horrorfest but one of the better horror films I’ve seen in years.
Video:
"Mulberry Street" is a very low-budget film, and the lack of funds shows in its visuals. The widescreen presentation, featuring a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, is grainy, and a majority of the film is poorly lit. That being said, all of the film´s video problems do nothing but help solidify the film. Its gritty visuals, combined with the handheld filming technique, put a sense of urgency into the movie and places viewers into the middle of the chaos.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track muffles some of the dialogue in favor of the great soundtrack. It´s almost excusable given the use of the infectious Walkmen song "The Rat," whose placement in the film was nothing short of ingenious.
Extras:
"Mulberry Street" is one of the few After Dark Horrorfest DVDs to boast any real special features, and while they´re nothing special, they´re better than nothing. "Early Director´s Sketches" is a minute and a half of rat-people sketches, which are cool but not necessary viewing. In the same lackluster boat as the sketches is the non-audio, nine-minute "Storyboards" slide show that I doubt many viewers will sit through the first minute of.
A tad bit more enjoyable are the three-and-a-half-minute "Makeup Test," which takes viewers through the evolution of the rat makeup, and the two minutes of "Deleted Scenes," where various tenants speculate on the reason for the outbreak. Also included are three minutes of "Outtakes" and a two-minute featurette, "Behind the Scenes: The Rats," that takes an intimate look at the scenes using real live rats. They also included the stupid "Miss Horrorfest" webisodes on the disc, in case you didn´t pick up one of the seven other films in the set that feature the exact same lame footage. All of these "extras" are nice (except the Miss Horrorfest junk, of course), but I would have happily traded them all for a director´s commentary.
Film Value:
"Mulberry Street" is unapologetically low budget and may put off some audience members looking for the "razzle-dazzle" displayed by major studio efforts. I hesitate to agree with other critics who say that "Mulberry Street" is the American answer to "28 Days Later," but both their filmmaking styles and themes are too similar not to make the connection. It´s an apt comparison, but at the same time one could also make a more convincing argument linking it to the recently released "Cloverfield," which focused on a New Yorker whose trip out of the city gets stalled due to a giant monster attack. "Mulberry Street," on the other hand, is a more intimate film about a New Yorker returning to the city amidst more localized chaos. Both utilize a guerilla filmmaking approach to showcase an attack on one of the greatest cities in the world, but frankly "Mulberry Street" does a better and more convincing job, and I can´t wait to see what it´s creator, Jim Mickle, does next.
"Mulberry Street" is a very low-budget film, and the lack of funds shows in its visuals. The widescreen presentation, featuring a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, is grainy, and a majority of the film is poorly lit. That being said, all of the film´s video problems do nothing but help solidify the film. Its gritty visuals, combined with the handheld filming technique, put a sense of urgency into the movie and places viewers into the middle of the chaos.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track muffles some of the dialogue in favor of the great soundtrack. It´s almost excusable given the use of the infectious Walkmen song "The Rat," whose placement in the film was nothing short of ingenious.
Extras:
"Mulberry Street" is one of the few After Dark Horrorfest DVDs to boast any real special features, and while they´re nothing special, they´re better than nothing. "Early Director´s Sketches" is a minute and a half of rat-people sketches, which are cool but not necessary viewing. In the same lackluster boat as the sketches is the non-audio, nine-minute "Storyboards" slide show that I doubt many viewers will sit through the first minute of.
A tad bit more enjoyable are the three-and-a-half-minute "Makeup Test," which takes viewers through the evolution of the rat makeup, and the two minutes of "Deleted Scenes," where various tenants speculate on the reason for the outbreak. Also included are three minutes of "Outtakes" and a two-minute featurette, "Behind the Scenes: The Rats," that takes an intimate look at the scenes using real live rats. They also included the stupid "Miss Horrorfest" webisodes on the disc, in case you didn´t pick up one of the seven other films in the set that feature the exact same lame footage. All of these "extras" are nice (except the Miss Horrorfest junk, of course), but I would have happily traded them all for a director´s commentary.
Film Value:
"Mulberry Street" is unapologetically low budget and may put off some audience members looking for the "razzle-dazzle" displayed by major studio efforts. I hesitate to agree with other critics who say that "Mulberry Street" is the American answer to "28 Days Later," but both their filmmaking styles and themes are too similar not to make the connection. It´s an apt comparison, but at the same time one could also make a more convincing argument linking it to the recently released "Cloverfield," which focused on a New Yorker whose trip out of the city gets stalled due to a giant monster attack. "Mulberry Street," on the other hand, is a more intimate film about a New Yorker returning to the city amidst more localized chaos. Both utilize a guerilla filmmaking approach to showcase an attack on one of the greatest cities in the world, but frankly "Mulberry Street" does a better and more convincing job, and I can´t wait to see what it´s creator, Jim Mickle, does next.
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