APT PUPIL (1998)
Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: MA 15+
Duration: 111 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video:1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Bryan Singer
Cast: Brad Renfro, Ian McKellen, Joshua Jackson, David Schwimmer, Bruce Davison, Ann Dowd, James Karen, Elias Koteas
Following The Usual Suspects (1995) I was very excited to see what newcomer director Bryan Singer would do next, when it was announced it would be an adaptation of Stephen King's Nazi next door novel Apt Pupil I was very excited. Set 1984 the film stars Brad Renfro (Ghost World) as high schooler Todd Bowden who is a bit too curious about Nazi culture. So much so that he is able to identify his elderly neighbor Arthur Denker (Ian McKellan, Lord of the Rings) as fugitive Nazi war criminal Kurt Dussander, an officer in the ranks of the SS, who oversaw an extermination camp where atrocities were committed against the Jews.
The first sign that the kid is not your average teen is when he doesn't report the criminal to the authorities, instead he approaches the elderly man and informs him after some polite conversation that he knows who he is and what he has done, calling him by his true name and indicating the camp he oversaw. He uses this leverage to ply the man for detailed information about how it felt to do the things he did, going into great detail about the atrocities he committed. These morbid tales ignite a growing darkness within the teen, at one point purchasing a Nazi officer uniform which he demands the elderly Nazi wear while he puts him through his paces, it's a disturbing scene.
The increased time spent together reliving Nazi atrocities has an effect on both individuals, the old Nazi's sadistic tendencies are seemingly re-awakened, while Todd's growing darkness continues to consume him, with his academic studies suffering, while growing apart from his best friend Joey (Joshua Jackson, TV's Fringe). Both men begin to dabble in animal cruelty, the old man attempts to roast a stray cat in his oven while Todd needlessly kills a pigeon at school. The old man's blood lust eventually leads to him luring a homeless gigolo (Elias Koteas) into his home with the intent to kill him with a knife, but a heart attack requires him to bring in Todd to finish the job, with a bit of black mail of his own leveraged over the teen.
Eventually a chance encounter at the hospital has the Nazi being recognized by an elderly death camp survivor which puts Nazi-hunters n the trail of Denker, threatening to expose not just him but the teen's complicit nature in the whole ordeal.
I've always found this film compelling, how it begins to explore the dark nature of the boy's disturbing fascination with Nazi culture, but it never really nails it down to a satisfying degree. Singer's adaptation also explores homosexuality and homophobia as well as the holocaust, but that too doesn't really have a satisfying message to convey, it's a film that has a lot of ingredients but they don't all come together in a way that I feel it should, it lacks depth.
The late Brad Renfro turns in a nicely dark performance here, he was a talented guy and he portrays the kid's sickening curiosity with good intensity. He plays well off of the chilling turn from McKellan, with the pair entangled in a wicked cat and mouse game of blackmail and leverage, with increasingly dire results for both individuals. Watch for appearances from Bruce Davison (Willard) as Todd's dad, plus James Karen (Return of the Living Dead), Elias Koteas (Let Me In) and TV's Friends star David Schwimmer as Todd's guidance counselor with a hideously bad moustache.
Audio/Video: Apt Pupil (1998) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment presented in 1080p HD and framed in 2.35:1 widescreen. The image looks solid throughout. There's no mention of a new scan for this release, so this is probably the same HD master used by Image for their out-of-print Blu-ray, it looks solid, the colors are strong and the black levels are decent throughout. The film has a bit of haziness to it because of some soft focus cinematography, so it's not a super sharp and crisp looking presentation, butt overall this is a solid looking presentation, a nice upgrade over the DVD.
Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles, it's a healthy sounding stereo presentation with no issues with distortion that I could discern. The score from John Ottman (Lake Placid) holds up nicely, it gets some nice life in the mix, too bad we don't get a 5.1 audio track for this one, I am fairly certain all previous home video releases had one.
Extras are slim, we get a 7-min vintage making of featurette with interviews from Bryan Singer, Brad Renfro, Ian McKellan, with loads of behind-the-scenes footage. We also get a theatrical trailer for the film and some TV spots.
The single-disc release comes housed in an oversized Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork, both sides featuring the same image, what looks to be a collage of a pair of original movie posters for the film, with one side not having the unsightly ratings logo on the cover. Like the other Stephen King adaptations released by Umbrella the sleeve has the worn, dog-eared look of a paperback which gives the collection of Blu-rays a nice symmetry on the shelf when placed next to each other. The disc has an excerpt from the same key art.
Obviously I would have loved some new extras for this title, it's controversial for several reasons, especially some behind-the-scenes stuff involving director Bryan Singer and some lawsuits filed against him by some young men who felt that some shower scenes, but that's not usually the sort of thing you find on an extra for a film, particularly about a still working director. That said, some new interviews would have been appreciated.
Special Features:
- Behind-The-Scenes (7 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (3 min)
- TV Spots (2 min)
Apt Pupil (1998) is an underrated gem of Stephen King adaptation, it lacks depth and doesn't fully explore the themes it sets up, but I still find it a compelling Nazi-next-door film. Kudos to Umbrella Entertainment for making this release available again on Blu-ray, the out-of-print Image release has been fetching some steep prices on the secondary market, so this is a welcome release, and it's region-free!
