I'LL TAKE YOUR DEAD (2018) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

I'LL TAKE YOUR DEAD (2018) 

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 83 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0, 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Chad Archibald
Cast: Aidan Devine, Ava Preston, Jess Salgueiro, Ari Millen, Brandon McKnight, Michael Reventar, Adam Christie, Raffaele Brereton, Tavaree Daniel-Simms, Moe Jeudy-Lamou

Director Chad Archibald and Black Fawn Films have been toiling away making some quality indie horror films the past few years, first coming to my attention via the Wes Craven-ish bogeyman film The Drownsman (2014) and the extra-terrestrial thriller Ejecta (2015) - both of which I liked but didn't exactly love. However, it was his next film Bite (2015) that I straight-up loved, a body horror entry with some really gross special effects, it was an overall tighter and more well-crafted film all around. This brings us to his latest film, I'll Take Your Dead (2018), starring Aidan Devine (Wolf Cop) as a rural farmer named William who lives on an isolated parcel of land with his precocious twelve-year old daughter Gloria (Ava Preston, TV's The Strain). William has a macabre side business her operates out of his basement, criminals bring him dead bodies and pay him money to make them go away. Using a bathtub full of acid and variety of knives and bone-saws he hacks up the corpses and makes them disappear, never to be seen again. 

His daughter is aware of what's happening down in the basement, she even helps out a bit, but she loves her father and thinks of him as a good man who happens to do bad things, and sure enough he does seem to be a good father. He's caring and considerate but also strict, and in that strange line of work I guess you would have to have clear boundaries, which is kind of were William screws up later. With such gruesome things happening in the home the young girl's been touched by the macabre herself, seeing ghosts of those who have been dismembered in the home, and at first it's sort of implied these could just be manifestations of her mind, not necessarily a real sixth sense sort of thing.  

We learn that William has developed a bit of a reputation among the local criminal community, they've dubbed him the "candy butcher", with wild rumors of cannibalism and bathing in a tub full of human blood.
These rumors are discussed by a local crew of hoods led by Reggie (Ari Millen, Orphan Black) who show up at William's farm  with a trio of bodies to dispose of. Things start-off on a bad note, one of the dead is a teen, which violates William's personal code of conduct - no kids. But when they throw money and a veiled threat aimed at his daughter he reluctantly accepts the disposal contract. Preparing the bodies down in the basement a young woman among the corpses, Jackie (Jess Salgueiro, Channel Zero), springs to life, not quite as dead as she at first seemed. This puts William in a weird position, he's not a killer, he's a disposer, and it's this conflict that leads into a messy unraveling of things. 

I'll Take Your Dead is a film with rich characters and drama that really hook you right from the get-go, but it's also macabre and gruesome, infused with an intriguing
supernatural element, and well-shot with moody cinematography. The main cast is solid through and through, there's not a weak link in the bunch, the human drama highlighted not just by the warm but strange father and daughter relationship, but also with the daughter reaching out for a female role model in an unlikely place. Then we have Ari Millen as the big bad, playing a low-life criminal to the hilt, it's all good stuff. 

Audio/Video: I'll Take Your Dead arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory presenting the film in 1080p HD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen. The image of this digitally shot film is sharp and crisp looking throughout, but the colors here are a bit cold and muted by design, the disc backs that up with solid black levels. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 and 5.1 with optional English subtitles. Everything is well-balanced with good fidelity, no issues with distortion or wonkiness to be found, a solid presentation.

Extras include a 8-min making of featurette, 11-min of deleted scenes, a 4-min script-to-screen comparison, and a pair of trailers for the film. The single-disc release comes in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork and a slipcase. The reversible artwork is alright looking, but I do think it's a bit of a shame that Scream didn't commission an new illustrated artwork for this in-house indie.

Special Features:
- Behind-The-Scenes Featurette (9 min) HD 
 - Deleted Scenes (11 min) HD 
- Script-To-Screen Comparison (4 min) HD 
- Trailers (4 min) HD 

I'll Take Your Dead (2018) is the best-directed film yet from director Chad Archibald, though the gooey Cronenberg-ian body-horror film Bite is still my personal favorite, that's just my sweet-spot.I'll be keen to see what's comes next for Archibald, till then I give this Blu-ray from Scream Factory a solid recommend for those looking for a macabre supernatural thriller. 

BITE ( 2015) (Blu-ray Review)

BITE ( 2015) 

Label: Scream Factory 
Release Date: August 2nd 2015 
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 89 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Chad Archibald
Cast: Denise Yuen, Elma Begovic, Jordan Gray, Lawrene Denkers, Annette Wozniak

Synopsis: While on her bacherlorette party getaway, bride-to be Casey (Elma Begovic) gets a seemingly harmless bite from an unknown insect. After returning home with cold feet, Casey tries to call off her wedding… but before she's able to, she starts exhibiting insect-like traits. Brought to the breaking point by both her ongoing physical transformation and her wedding anxiety, Casey succumbs to her horrifying new instincts. As her metamorphosis becomes complete, the bugged bride and all who cross her path discover that everything can change with a single bite. Directed by Chad Archibald, Bite is an altogether new breed of terror. A disturbing and intense film that has caused an international sensation at top genre film festivals, this is one movie that horror fans can really sink their teeth into.

This slice of body-horror opens in Costa Rica where young bride-to be Casey (Elma Begovic) and her gal pals Kristen (Denise Yuen) and Jill (Annette Wozniak) are on a bacherlorette getaway, they're partying and having a good time> When a local tells them of a nearby hot springs they take a detour and Casey takes a dip only to be bitten by some unseen creature beneath the surface of the tranquil waters. The wound is small but proves to be transformative in the worst sort of way for the young woman who quickly begins to change into a bug-queen.

This is a fun slice of Cronenbergian body horror, one swollen with gooey special effects and some awkward sex, which is an element that brought to mind the recent body horror entry Contracted (2013), which this shares a vibe with. When Casey comes back to her life in the U.S. we get the distinct vibe that she has cold feet about the impending wedding with her fiance Jared (Jordan Gray). A lot of her doubt seems to be centered around the fact that she does not want to have children, and Jared makes it crystal clear that he does want kids when he brings home an antique baby chair - which is none to subtle. Also adding strain to the relationship is that Jared's cold shrew of a mom (Lawrene Denkers) makes no attempt to mask her hatred of Casey, the old crow is dripping with acidic-venom, both figuratively and literally in this particular movie. 

Casey's transformation begins with a horrible skin condition that increasingly worsens, there's also some augmented hearing which begins to drive her a bit buggy. As the transformation progresses she becomes a little more  twitchy in her movements, craning her neck like an insect, her movements a little bit jerky. That nasty bite on her leg begins to get infected and swell with puss, during a brief sexual encounter with Jared it erupts in a geyser of creamy fluid, really gross stuff that should please fans of those pimple-popper videos that are so popular on YouTube, this movie is definitely not for squeamish.

Director Chad Archibald also directed nightmare-man movie The Drownsman (2014) and the alien-abduction movie Ejecta (2014) neither of which I loved, in fact when I reviewed Ejecta I wrote "save your hard-earned cash for something with a bit more bite"... well here you go! Bite is a tightly knit and well-crafted slice of body horror with top-notch special effects and a near perfect execution with an effective horror score from composer Steph Copeland (Ejects, Antisocial) - there's nothing I did not love about this movie. 

Bite arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory looking solid, framed in scope 2.35 widescreen the colors are vivid and the image has some nice depth and clarity about it. The English DTS-HD MA 5.1 is crisp, immersive and well balanced. Extras on the disc included a audio commentary with Writer/Director/Producer Chad Archibald plus, five mini making-of docs, a theatrical trailer and a sleeve of reversible artwork and a slipcover. 

Special Features
- Audio Commentary From Writer/Director/Producer Chad Archibald
- Behind-The-Scenes Documentary: Make-Up (6 Mins) HD 
- Behind-The-Scenes Documentary: On Set (6 Mins) HD 
- Behind-The-Scenes Documentary: Fantasia Film Festival (6 Mins) HD 
- Behind-The-Scenes Documentary: Chad's Wedding (5 Min) HD 
- Behind-The-Scenes Documentary: Dominican (6 Mins) HD 
- Theatrical Trailer (1 Min) HD 
- Reversible Sleeve f Artwork 

Bite (2015) is an engaging horror story with some awesome and unnerving transformative practical special effects work . Actress Elma Begovic does good work as the party girl turned bug queen, her character has way more depth than I would have anticipated, which serves pulls you further into her gooey and transformative story, one loaded with enough gooey visual special effects to please even the hardened horror fans. Bite comes highly recommended, one of my favorite watches of the year so far. 

EJECTA (2015)

EJECTA (2015)

Label: Scream Factory I IFC Midnight

Release Date: August 18th 2015

Region: A

Duration: 82 Minutes

Rating: Unrated

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.00:1) 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles

Director: Matt Wielle, Chad Archibald

Cast: Lisa Houle, Julian Richings, Justin Darmanin, Adam Seybold, Mark Gibson

Synopsis: A horrific alien invasion forces two men to fight for their lives during one universe-altering night of terror. This nerve-shredding film stars Julian Richings (Cube, X-Men: The Last Stand) in a tour-de-force performance as William Cassidy, a man who, following decades of frightening extraterrestrial encounters, is now trapped in a living hell of fear and paranoia. On the evening of a massive solar flare, Cassidy invites paranormal researcher Joe Sullivan (Adam Seybold, Exit Humanity) to his secluded home in the woods. What occurs there will change both men — and possibly the Earth — forever. Lisa Houle (Pontypool) and Dee Wallace (The Howling) also star.

This low-budget sci-fi thriller centers around a strange individual named William Cassidy (Julian Richings), whom has been subjected to some form of alien abduction for the past 40 years. Cassidy is a paranoid recluse who lives off the grid away from the prying eyes of the government - spending his many sleepless nights blogging about his traumatic experiences at the hands of his alien tormentors. On the eve of a massive solar event Cassidy contacts alien-conspiracy blogger Joe Sullivan (Adam Seybold) and invites him to his home. Sullivan is beyond thrilled that the reclusive blogger has reached out to him, and sure enough this clandestine meeting with will not disappoint, but it probably won't end well for anyone. That night while interviewing Cassify a solar flare knocks an unidentified flying object out of the sky, the space ship crashes nearby and we now have an toothsome alien menace running around the woods causing quite a panic, but even worse are the covert military black ops who arrive on scene. What's worse, the ferocious alien prowling the woods or the secretive government agency trying to cover it up? 

Going into this I wasn't expecting a found-footage movie and that is indeed what we have here, a hybrid movie whose storyline is made up of three points-of-view, we have Sullivan's video footage of his meeting with Cassidy and the ensuing pursuit, footage from the black ops helmet cam and then some non found-footage of Dr. Tobin  (Lisa Houle) interrogating Cassidy, the sinister doc subjecting him to some brutal alien-tech that the government have acquired through the years, they're not quite sure how it works but the doc seems to revel in the pain that it inflicts. 

The found-footage assembly can be a bit jarring to say the least as we bounce around through time and different video feeds, with the first half of this movie being a bit of drag to be honest. Once things start to pick up there's some fun to be had but this was not the most compelling watch. The Scream Factory and IFC Midnight partnership brought us the far superior alien outing Extraterrestrial (2014) earlier this year and this is just not up to par with that one, this is more along the lines of Alien Outpost (2015). There have just been numerous bigger, badder and more enjoyable alien entries recently and this one is pretty faceless among the crowd, though I did like the concept and the cast, who all did pretty great in their respective roles, particularly Julian Richings as the paranoid and tormented Cassidy. Adam Seybold also brought some appreciated humor to the role of conspiracy blogger Joe Sullivan.

My favorite aspect of the movie was the inclusion of the fact-based Carrington Event of 1859, a massive solar flare event that would cause widespread havoc on the Earth today in the modern age, reading about that on Wikipedia was ten fold more fascinating than this movie. If the film had focused a bit more on the modern-day massive solar flare instead of making it just a footnote of the story I think this could have been something a bit more satisfying, maybe. I wasn't a fan of the trio of narrative threads and how they were assembled, it made for a very jarring viewing experience. Also working against it is that the alien menace is only glimpsed few and far between, most of the time I am alright with the less is more approach but given the jarring assembly of the film I think I just wanted to see some alien awesomeness and I was let down. 

The disc looks fantastic, for a modern low-budget sci-fi film this looks solid from start to finish, the special effects look decent - some more impressive than others, and the surround sound mix does the movie justice, the score from Stephanie Copeland sounds great. The only special feature is a trailer for the film. This release stand-out from the previous Scream Factory/IFC Midnight productions in that it includes both a Blu-ray and DVD, the others were Blu-ray only, but it doesn't come with a slipcase, which the others did. Ejecta might make for a decent rental on a slow night but this doesn't come recommended save your hard-earned cash for something with a bit more bite. 2.5/5 

THE DROWNSMAN (2014)

THE DROWNSMAN (2014) 

Label: Anchor Bay Entertainment 
Region Code: A
Duration: 86 Minutes 
Rating: Unrated
Audio: English DolbyTrue HD 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Chad Archibald
Cast: Michelle Mylett, Caroline Palmer, Gemma Bird Matheson, Sydney Kondruss, Clare Bastable, Ry Barrett, Joann Nordstrom, Samuel Borstein 

Madison (Michelle Mylett) is partying with her girlfriends one night when she nearly dies after falling into the lake, while unconscious she has a vision of a dark, menacing figure who is out to get her. She is revived but is psychologically traumatized by the near-death experience. Flash forward a year and she is suffering from an extreme form of hydrophobia, a fear of water. The fear is so extreme that she won't venture outside when it's raining or even drink water from a glass, she takes her fluids intravenously. Her friends have about had it with her irrational fear of water, drawing the line when Madison misses the wedding of her best friend Hannah (Caroline Korycki). Her friends organize an intervention with the help of a psychic medium named Claire (Clare Bastable) with the group forcing Madison into the bathtub where she is forced to face her fears head-on. Not unexpectedly this goes horribly wrong when it becomes clear that something supernatural is out to get her and she nearly drowns

That supernatural something is a man named Sebastian Donner (Ry Barrett), a serial killer who abducted women and drowned them while he listened to their dying heartbeats, which is a pretty novel trademark for a killer. At the start of the film we see how Sebastian was killed by one of his would-be victims, only now he's a water-logged bogeyman who lurks in the shadows, waiting to reach out from any puddle of water to pull victims into his nightmare world and drown them. 

Apparently Sebastian, or The Drownsman, only stalks you once you becomes aware of his existence, once you know of his existence he is empowered to stalk you, any source of water is a conduit from his nightmare world into yours. We see him reach out through a washing machine, a small puddle of water and so on, at times it was cool but then some of them just made me laugh, sorta of silly. As the story progresses there are revelations about possible offspring, a crazy woman in an asylum and so on, it get convoluted pretty quickly, they had a good idea, they should have just kept it simple. As for the kills, not much gore to speak of, drowning is not the most blood-soaked form of murder, this one relies more on atmosphere, suspense and psychological terror to get the job done, and in my opinion does it just okay, not great. 

The design of the Drownsman is a bit of ambiguous, a dark water-logged shape that's a bit slimy and undefined, with very limited dialogue. We just don't get a lot to chew on, he's glimpsed briefly in more detail and what I could see I liked but as a character he wasn't very fleshed-out or interesting outside of the concept. Not that Madison is developed any deeper, she is actually sort of annoying and I found it hard to root for her or her friends. 

Advertised as a throwback to 80s slashers I would agree with that assessment somewhat. It wears it's Wes Craven influence on it's sleeve, unfortunately it feels less like A Nightmare on Elm Street and more akin to Shocker. The Drownsman is not an awful film, it has some cool ideas floating around and a retro vibe with some cool atmosphere, but the baddie and the cast are hollow creations without much substance. I can see them angling for a Freddy Krueger versus Nancy scenario, with the bogeyman haunting his victim and her friends, but this is pretty forgettable stuff. You probably won't hate yourself for renting this one but I certainly won't be revisiting it anytime soon, this is a classic one and done. ** 2/5.