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Stars:
Stephen Watell, Paula Ficara, Andrew Quintero, Louis Pepe, Keith Fulton, Robert
Lane, and Maureen Davis
Writer:
Stefan Avalos
Director:
Stefan Avalos
Feature
length: 90 minutes
Extras:
Director and Producer Commentary, Discrete Music Track With Composer Commentary,
Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary, Featurettes, Trailer
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 26
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year
of DVD Release: 2004
Home
Video Distributor: Lightyear Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
I
loved “The Last Broadcast.” It is in many ways a film that one might suggest
inspired the filmmaker’s who produced “The Blair Witch Project” though I
am not saying one film had anything to do with the other. I’m just noting that
they are somewhat similar. In particular the pseudo documentary “The Curse Of
The Blair Witch Project,” which some people actually thought was a real
documentary is somewhat reminiscent of “The Last Broadcast.” Now Writer and
Director Stefan Avalos delivers a new chilling story of the supernatural with
the DVD release of “The Ghosts Of Edendale.” After a young couple moves to
Los Angeles to pursue a career in screenwriting, the woman begins to witness
ghostly apparitions that become increasingly frequent and deadly. She had been
hospitalized at one time because she had startling visions so of course no one
really believes her until it’s too late.
“The
Ghosts Of Edendale” is appropriately creepy and somewhat scary, but my problem
with this film is that since it was shot on digital video, certain effects just
don’t look real to me and at times the video quality itself just pulls me out
of the film when I should be drawn in. While I can understand that this low
budget feature does not afford the kind of funds that enables the filmmakers to
utilize the top of the line high definition video cameras George Lucas has been
using on his latest “Star Wars” films, I almost feel that if you can’t
make the video look like film then you are probably better off shooting it on
film. At least then the picture will feel more like a movie and not like a
student video project. Presented in a matted widescreen format, “The Ghost Of
Edendale” at times purposely looks murky so I really can’t argue about the
picture quality so long as the outcome was what the filmmaker intended. The
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is quite jarring at times with
loud screams erupting from moments where one could almost hear a pin drop
before. Director Stefan Avalos provides a screen specific and thoughtful feature
length audio commentary for the film along with Producer Marianne Connor. He
also provides optional commentary for seven deleted scenes that can be viewed
individually or as one reel (16:50). In addition there is a discrete isolated
score soundtrack with audio comments by Composer Vincent Gilloz. English
Captions for the hearing impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles are
also encoded as options on to the dual layered DVD.
Some
behind the scenes footage (25:46), a special effects featurette (10:09), and a
look at how a scene from the film was redone (5:54) are also included along with
a gallery of concept art and a trailer for the film (2:14). Though the index on
the interactive menus as well as the chapter listing inside delineates that
there are 24 scene selections, my DVD player actually counted 26. I’m not sure
why. The interactive menus feature animated transitions and full motion scene
selection screens and all are easy to navigate.
“The
Ghosts Of Edendale” is available on DVD-Video now at retailers on and offline
courtesy of Lightyear Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2004 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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