Sublime (Unrated/Horror)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Feature: C-
So many
bad films have set in hospitals, with the recent twist that the hospital is
itself evil that it has rendered the idea generic. Director Tony Krantz and writer Erik
Jendresen have created a lightly ambitious Horror thriller called Sublime that had the potential to work
if it had at least tried to be a step ahead of the audience, but it just goes
on and on thinking it is smarter than it really is.
The
acting is not bad, but what they get to work with is lame and obvious. Good father and husband George Grieves (Tom
Cavanagh) checks into a hospital, but soon everything goes wrong, he is sicker
than he should be, has unnecessary surgery and he is trapped. The script plays with the idea of his being
betrayed somehow during his stay and it is immediately obvious that it is not a
sick patient in a healthy hospital, not knowing where it wants to end and what
to settle on. Rod Serling did this kind
of thing much better about 50 years ago.
Most of
the cast are unknowns, but Welcome Back
Kotter’s Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs is a bad guy and is actually not bad
here. That makes it a novelty for those
in the know, though this quickly becomes satirical despite Jacob’s efforts
because the
Racial
politics of this piece are absurd beyond belief when all is said and done. Too bad, because if this had a point, it
would be a surprise. Instead, it is a
hack job disaster and we don’t mean any of the butchery in the narrative.
The anamorphically
enhanced 2.35 X 1 looks generic despite being shot in Fuji film stocks, but who
knows what was done to manipulate the negative.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix has surprising limited dialogue and surrounds,
which feel also generic. Extras include
feature length audio commentary by Krantz & Jendresen, separate interviews
with Krantz & Jendresen, Surgical
Exorcism: cultural anthropologist Dr. Falk's webcast of a live surgical
exorcism in the mountains of Peru and a trailer gallery.
If you
want to see a good thriller in a revolving around a hospital, Warner has Desperate Measures, which we strongly
recommend instead.
- Nicholas Sheffo
