Death's
Door (2015/MVD Visual DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C Film: C-
Kennedy
Goldsby's Death's Door (2015) is a low budget mystery/horror
film set (and apparently filmed) in a real haunted house to which
there is no escape for our protagonists. In the 1930s, a magician
and his assistant met a terrible fate in the house and now haunt a
dozen or so teens who are crash the place to have a calm and cool
party. Of course soon, strange things start happening (like finding
severed legs in a bathtub) and they start to travel further through
the house and finding things that unlock the mystery of the deceased.
Shot
nicely with a cast of unknowns with the exception of Tommy ''Tiny''
Lister (The Dark Knight, Fifth Element) and Obba Babatundle
(Silence of the Lambs) who star as the leads, the rest of the
actors are hit or miss. There are several scenes where people scream
at each other that grows tiresome where the plot points grow a bit
thin. The film has its moments, but ultimately feels staged with the
characters essentially trapped in a game of Clue (or Cluedo
if your British).
I
have to admit, judging from the cover I was expecting a worse film.
It has some interesting ideas and some of the flashback stuff with
the magicians is cool. It reminds me a little bit of Saw,
only without the raw hopelessness for the characters that it needs in
extreme situations. At the end of the film, too many characters are
still alive and the film just kind of ends with humorous anecdotes
over the fates of the characters, which makes you wonder if they ran
out money. Another strike against the film is the score, which is
synth-y (which is fine), but too cheesy and unoriginal to instill
much fear.
Presented
in standard definition with an anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of
1.85:1 and a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track, the film looks and
sounds fine for the format. Extras include a Haunted Film Set
featurette and Music Video for ''Shorty Wassup''.
-
James Harland Lockhart V
www.facebook.com/jhl5films
