Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman star in this supernatural action adventure about a heroic crusader and his closest friend who return home after decades of fierce fighting, only to find their world destroyed by the Plague. The church elders, convinced that a girl accused of being a witch is responsible for the devastation, command the two to transport the strange girl to a remote monastery where monks will perform an ancient ritual to rid the land of her curse. They embark on a harrowing, action-filled journey that will test their strength and courage as they discover the girl's dark secret and find themselves battling a terrifyingly powerful force that will determine the fate of the world.

Fox delivers a great looking HD transfer for this stinker. This is a transfer rich in contrast with great shadow detail and delineation. Fine object detail is about as good as I’ve seen on the format and the rich blacks really help with the dimensionality of the film. This is a strictly bi-tonal film with only two colors to choose from: teal and gold. Every scene is bathed in one of them, or if you’re lucky, both. Normally I would say that this is an exaggeration, but in this case it actually isn’t! Okay, there might be some red in there occasionally. The soundtrack is powerful enough with some great use of the surround soundstage, but the sound design is a bit unimaginative given the genre. Sure there are plenty of discrete surround cues and decent low bass, but it feels a bit by the numbers (like the predictable story).

Fox includes a digital copy for this Blu-ray release plus a decent assortment of supplements on the Blu-ray. There are some deleted scenes and a production feature along with a feature commentary with the film’s director.

I don’t know if this is a cursed title or what. When Halloween 3 included it things didn’t go well for it either. They certainly didn’t get the tone right here and instead of a period piece with decent chills you get a polished turd that never scares or entertains. Despite an excellent presentation, this is a dud that you should steer clear of.