THE EPITAPH VOL. 41
THE NIGHT (2021) - MORTAL KOMBAT (2021) - STAR TREK DISCOVERY: SEASON THREE (2020-2021) - TEN MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT (2020) - THE RINGMASTER (2018) - INCARNATION (2018)
THE NIGHT (2021)
Label: Scream Factory / IFC Midnight
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 105 Minutes
Audio: Farsi DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.40:1)
Director: Kourosh Ahari
Director: Kourosh Ahari
Cast: Shahab Hosseini, Niousha Noor, George Maguire, Michael Graham, Elester Latham, Armin Amiri, Steph Martinez, Kathreen Khavari
The Night (2021) is a supernatural chiller along the lines of The Shining but on a smaller more psychological scale, telling the tale of a married Iranian couple living in the U.S., Babak (Shahab Hosseini) and Neda (Niousha Noor), and their infant child. They find themselves making an impromptu stay at the grand Hotel Normandie after visiting out-of-town friends and being too exhausted to drive on through the night. The couple are tired and harboring secrets from each other, and what was supposed to be a restful one-night stay turns into a seemingly endless night of eerie disturbances that threaten to drive them both apart and insane. A very cool indie haunter with some tasty psychological
The Night (2021) is a supernatural chiller along the lines of The Shining but on a smaller more psychological scale, telling the tale of a married Iranian couple living in the U.S., Babak (Shahab Hosseini) and Neda (Niousha Noor), and their infant child. They find themselves making an impromptu stay at the grand Hotel Normandie after visiting out-of-town friends and being too exhausted to drive on through the night. The couple are tired and harboring secrets from each other, and what was supposed to be a restful one-night stay turns into a seemingly endless night of eerie disturbances that threaten to drive them both apart and insane. A very cool indie haunter with some tasty psychological
underpinning. The mood and atmosphere are terrific, the ghostly happenings are effective, and the location is perfect, but it's a bit long. I thought that they did good work ratcheting up the creepy WTF-ery, and it looks like a million dollars onscreen with some great cinematography, but the ending didn't stick the landing for me, but it's still a terrific supernatural thriller that's a bit deeper than your average scare-maker. Sadly no extras on the Blu-ray but we do get a reversible sleeve of artwork and slipcover.
MORTAL KOMBAT (2021)
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 110 Minutes
Audio: Atmos, Dolby TrueHD with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD & 2160p UHD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Director: Simon McQuaid
Cast: Lewis Tan, Chin Han, Joe Taslim, Jessica McNamee, Mehcad Brooks, Tadanobu Asano, Ludi Lin, Max Huang, Josh Lawson
I am gloriously unburdened with any knowledge of the Mortal Kombat games, a long-running videogame franchise that has entertained generations of kids from the arcade on through to whatever version of console we currently have on the market. It's not one I found myself playing much until recently with my son, and even then I don't do story mode, I just mash a bunch of buttons together on the controller and hope for the best! That said, I also have not watched either of the films nor the animated film, so I am more or less coming into this with zero expectations. Mortal Kombat delivers exactly what I was expecting, lots of actions, some worldbuilding and a ton of probably well-establish game characters I barely know the name of. This reboot tells the story of a down on his luck MMA fighter named Cole Young (Lewis Tan) who is unaware of the "Outworld" or what goes on there, so that makes two of us! His eyes are opened however when the Sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Han) sends his best warriors, Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) and Cryomancer, to hunt Young down. This triggers the fighter's initiation into the world of the Outworld's Mortal Kombat tournament, finding himself teamed-up with the more experienced warriors Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Kung Lao (Max Huang) and rogue mercenary Kano (Josh Lawson) as he prepares for the tournament with the fate of the Universe hanging in the balance. Action-packed and loaded with eye-candy visuals I had a lot of fun with Mortal Kombat. It looks rather stunning in 4K UHD with a impactful Atmos surround design that should give your system a workout. The 2-disc Blu-ray and UHD combo includes a digital copy of the film and a slipcover,
Special Features:
- Deleted Scenes From Game to Screen: The Making of Mortal Kombat (22 min) HD
- Mortal Kombat: Fan Favorite Characters (17 min) HD
- Fight Koreography (9 min) HD
- Into the Krypt: Easter Eggs of Mortal Kombat (4 min) HD
- Anatomy of a Scene (12 min) HD
Label: Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 666 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Cast: Sonequa Martin-Green, David Ajala, Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz, Mary Wiseman, Doug Jones, Blu del Barrio
After following Commander Michael Burnham into a wormhole at the end of the last season, the U.S.S. Discovery lands in an unrecognizable world 1,000 years in the future. Starfleet and the Federation are but a fraction of what they once were due to a catastrophic event known as "The Burn" that destroyed nearly every Federation ship. Now Burnham and the crew team up with new characters Book (David Ajala) and Adira (Blu del Barrio), to find out what caused The Burn and restore hope to the galaxy. This third season had me worried, it started off a bit lopsided with seemingly one-off episodes that made me think the story-arc would not pan out in a satisfying way, but credit to the STD team, they pulled it off more or less. This is my least favorite of the three seasons so far, hopefully season four will be an improvement. I see this show get a lot of hate, and I am not one of the groaners, it feels fresh and different but still has the heart of the original series, and the special effects and world building are top-notch. It's not a perfect show, but I dig it and will keep returning for new seasons. The 4-disc DVD set looks solid for standard-def with a pleasing 5.1 Dolby Digital audio, plus we get over two hours of extras and a slipcover,
Special Features:
- Deleted Scenes (16 min)
- Writer’s Log: Michelle Paradise (14 min)
- Star Trek: Discovery: The Voyage of Season 3 (28 min)
- Stunted (15 min)
- Being Michael Burnham (24 min)
- Kenneth Mitchell: To Boldly Go (18 min)
- Bridge Building (26 min)
- Gag Reel (5 min)
- Easter Egg
TEN MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT (2020)
Label: Jinga Films Ltd
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 73 Minutes
Audio: English PCM 2.0 Stereo and DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Erik Bloomquist
Cast: Caroline Williams Nicole Kang, Nicholas Tucci, William Youmans, Adam Weppler, Alice Kremelberg, Martin Sola
Caroline Williams (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) returns once again to the DJ booth in the indie vampire flick 10 Minutes To Midnight (2020), starring as veteran punk rock disc jockey named Amy Marlowe who after thirty-years on the radio is getting the unceremonious boot. Marlowe is unaware of this, and on her way into the station she is bitten by a rabid bat, but is now trapped in the studio during a raging storm, As the night wears on Amy vents her anger at her younger replacement, (Nicole Kang, Batwoman), literally taking a bite out of her hand! Tensions continue rise inside the station and Amy's behavior becomes more erratic and vampiric in nature. This is fun low-budget throwback to 80's horror and it is a delight to see Williams in a starring role, and still looking damn hot if I may say so. The flick is well-paced and delivers the gory goods, and at 72-minutes it never overstays it's welcome and left me wanting more. I definitely want to see more of Caroline Williams upfront in films, and I am anxious to see what's next for director Erik Bloomquist. A solid Blu-ray from Jinga Films Ltd with loads of extras.
Special Features:
- Behind The Scenes: Take One
- Audio Commentary: Erik & Carson Bloomquist + Caroline Williams
- Caroline Williams Featurettes: Immortality, Love Story, Memory Play
- Interviews: CTV (5 min), Grimmfest (29 min)
- Intros: Grimmoire Academy (1 min), Popcorn Frights (1 min)
- Behind-the-Scenes (6 min)
- Festival Teaser (1 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
THE RINGMASTER (2018)
Label: Jinga Films Ltd
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 99 Minutes
Audio: English, Danish and German 2.0 and 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Soren Juul Petersen
Cast: Anne Bergfeld, Karin Michelsen, Damon Younger, Kristoffer Fabricus, Mads Koudal, Kim Sonderholm, Gustav Scavenius, Lars Knutzon, Freya Moller-Sorensen
In the Danish import The Ringmaster (2018) a.k.a. Finale two unfortunate young women who work the late shift at an out of the way gas station are held captive and become unwitting reality stars in a terrifying live-torture show being streamed on the web. Their captor is a sadistic ringmaster and a group of like-minded sidekicks who get off on sadism. Not my cup o' tea but this Danish indie is very well-made and executed, with a non-linear narrative that delivers both extreme violence and some back story for the protagonists who have some fun, antagonistic co-worker banter. The first half is superior to the last, but I give a thumbs up to this Hostile and Saw influenced bit of Danish torture terror. No extras on this one aside from a few trailers, but the Blu-ray from Jinga Films Ltd. delivers a solid image and uncompressed audio.
Label: Jinga Films Ltd
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 82 Minutes
Audio: Serbian Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Filip Kovacevic
Cast: Stojan Djordjevic, Dacha Vidosavljevic, Sten Zendor, Dejan Cicmilovic, Tihomir Stanic, Zarko Stepanov
In the Serbian time-loop entry Incarnation (2016) a man wakes up on a bench in the middle of a city square without any memory of who he. He finds himself being stalked by four assassins in white masks who shoot him dead. He respawns like a video game back to the same bench and the four masked assassins again come for him, with each death he finds himself stuck in a Groundhog Day styled time loop, learning a little bit with each new death as he attempts to escape the cycle of live-die-repeat. This indie from Serbia is well-made and delivers some Bourne Identity styled action alongside the puzzle-box narrative. If you're a fan of time-loop stuff along the lines of Triangle, Happy Death Day and Looper there is a lot here to love, so give it a watch. It's currently streaming on Amazon Prime and Tubi if you wanna check it out before purchasing.
