Directors: Troy Nixey
Starring: Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce, Bailee Madison, Bruce Gleeson, Eddie Ritchard
MPAA Rated: R
Distributed: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Running Time: 99 minutes
Film Score: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 2.5 out of 5 stars
When you have a horror film, or any film, that is written and produced by Guillermo del Toro, you set your expectations very high. This film unfortunately disappoints and fails to delivers his usual charm. The film is a remake of the 1973 horror film of the same title but it doesn’t capture the same spark that the first film did. One of the film’s faults is that it is an R-rated film that plays like a PG-13 rated film.
The film follows a young girl, Sally, who moves to live with her father and his new girlfriend in a 19th-century mansion, that her father is restoring. During Sally’s exploration of the old mansion, she starts to finds out that creatures are living in the basement. Her curiosity ends up releasing them loose in the house and she finds out that they have a lust for little children.
I actually really enjoyed the performances from Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce and specifically Bailee Madison. They all gave decent performances, especially for a horror film. I wish that they also didn’t show the creatures as much as they did. It could have been a lot more successfully if we didn’t have a close up on them each scene. The Blu-ray looks clear and definitely uses the dark scenes to deliver great picture. The sound also is great but I wish the film was more suspenseful because it could have benefited more.
The special features are slim but decent overall. There is a behind the scenes featurette, which consists of three parts. The first focuses on “The Story”, the second focuses on “Blackwood’s Mansion” and the last focuses on “The Creatures”. I feel that it covers all the proper grounds and gives decent insight into the films story and production. There is also a Conceptual Art Gallery included and it is actually decent, especially since it feels like it comes from Guillermo del Toro’s mind. Lastly, the film comes with the new instant streaming using UltraViolet digital copy.
