Spiral Blu-Ray Review
Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 02.04.2010
Adam Green's sophomore effort Spiral hits Blu-Ray and I question if there is any reason to upgrade your DVD this time around.
Directed by Adam Green and Joel David Moore
Writers Jeremy Danial Boreing and Joel Moore
Cinematographer: Will Barratt
Original Music: Todd Caldwell and Michael Herring
Cast
Joel David Moore ... Mason
Amber Tamblyn ... Amber
Zachary Levi ... Berkeley
Tricia Helfer ... Sasha
David Muller ... Will
Annie Neal ... Diana
Runtime: 90 min
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for disturbing behavior, violence, some partial nudity and language. Official Website
The Film
A lot of people were unhappy with the Adam Green directed Spiral because they came in expecting a completely different movie. See, Green earned a legion of fans thanks to his awesome slasher revival film Hatchet. He proved in that movie to have such an eye for his vocation that he took something many people thought was dead and made it feel alive and vibrant again. It was a bloody, wonderful mess of a movie and I mean that in the best way possible.
Part of the reason Spiral is so different is because this is not an Adam Green movie. Spiral is based on a seven page short film that Joel David Moore had written. Moore, who starred in Green’s Hatchet, came to his former director and asked for help in directing the movie. Green accepted the challenge and the movie is actually Moore’s directorial debut, rather than Green’s next film. Green took the lead when filming since Moore was starring in most of the film, and the results prove Green has a amazing eye for filmmaking.
Moore is Mason, a man who from the onset of the film proves to be very mentally imbalanced. When the movie begins, we see Mason standing in the rain, seemingly stalking a blonde waitress. Then we cut to him, sitting on the floor in his kitchen. He calls his only friend Berkeley (Zachary Levi, Chuck) and says he thinks he did something bad. It is also hinted that there might be something very bad in his bathroom. Berkeley seems to be used to these calls and tells him to go to bed.
Moore plays Mason as a very awkward, eccentric individual to put it lightly. He works as a telemarketer and no one at his work speaks to him, treating him like a pariah most of the time. He walks with his head down, always nervously looking around. He is easily startled and has no idea what to do when engaged in conversation. Berkeley is not just his only friend but also his boss and keeps the other workers from giving him too much trouble. The two have been friends for more than twenty years and Berkeley, an arrogant womanizer, seems to have a soft spot for this strange man.
Things seem to become slightly more normal when Mason meets a bubbly, overly friendly girl named Amber (Amber Tamblyn) who strikes up a conversation one day at lunch. She helps him start to lead a more normal life, or what passes off as normal for a guy who has no social skills and spends all his time painting portraits of the girls he knows. When he starts to paint portraits of Amber, it seems like his life might be turning around. That is until visions from the past start up again, driving him back to the edge.
Moore is terrific and both Tamblyn and Levi are solid in their supporting roles. This is important because Spiral, more than anything, is a slow burning, suspenseful movie that trades blood and guts for tension that makes your blood scream for more. When the end finally comes, and the entire story comes to a head, you are paid off for your patience with a quiet, disturbing movie of a man on the edge of decay. It is one of the more underrated and lesser seen movies out there that deserves a much bigger audience.
The Video
The audio is average at best. It looks slightly better than the DVD but you can still see a lot of grain in some scenes, specifically in Mason’s apartment. That might be the purpose but it didn’t look very good at various times in the movie. The video is the only thing that makes this Blu-Ray worth buying though because it is in true 1080p.
The Audio
The sound is good, thanks to the wonderful jazz score. However, it is not in HD or lossless. The 5.1 Dolby sounds good enough and both the music and the creepy sound effects stand out. There are also no subtitles.
The Packaging
This is where things really start to spiral downhill. The cover art is decent but not as good as the DVD’s cover. There is no menu when you put in the Blu-Ray and the movie just starts up. I found out the hard way that if you use the menu button, it will just start the movie over. This is a horribly designed Blu-Ray, regardless of the price tag.
The Extras
Amazon advertised this Blu-Ray as having commentary and a making of featurette but it has neither. This is apparently something Anchor Bay is doing with recent Blu-Rays and it sucks. Why not just add the DVD special features to the Blu-Ray? It can’t cost that much.
The Film: 8.0/10.0 The Video: 5.0/10.0 The Audio: 7.0/10.0 The Packaging: 2.0/10.0 The Extras: 0.0/10.0
The 411: If you own this on DVD do not, I repeat, do not give up your DVD for this Blu-Ray version. The price is amazing at around $10 but the Blu-Ray drops the commentary and features of the DVD in the cost cut. The picture is better but it is still nothing to write home about and the audio is not HD, although it is decent. Now, for the movie. A lot of people watched this movie thinking of Hatchet and might have been sorely disappointed. I was not. This movie was as tense as any I have seen in a long time and the slow burn made the end even better. Come into the movie expecting a dramatic thriller but don’t expect lots of action or thrilling twists and turns. The entire sell of this movie is one man’s disintegrating mental state and works beautifully in that arena.
