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Wreckage
R2 - United Kingdom - Chelsea Films Review written by and copyright: Neil Bray (23rd August 2011). |
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The Film
 From the press release: “When their car’s fan belt snaps during a drag race on a country road several miles outside their home town, best friends Jared, Kate, Rick, and Jessica find themselves stranded with two options: walk all the way back home or try their luck on finding a spare belt at a nearby scrap yard.” What these kids don’t know is that there is an escaped serial killer hiding out in the scrap yard and he doesn’t want any witnesses. The press release describes this film as “a nail-biting slasher”, which, for me, means I sat down expecting a horror film with some crazed killer in a mask hacking up unsuspecting teens. Well, with the exception of the word ‘horror’ that is pretty much what I got. I enjoyed this film; but, I don’t think it really knows what it wants to be: a horror or a thriller. Yes, there are quite a lot of killings, and the killer does wander around in a mask (a welding mask in this case), but the actual deaths are pretty tame and mostly shown off-screen or edited to reduce the impact. Also, as the story progresses it becomes attempts to be much more of a suspenseful whodunit. This mix of genres means the film doesn’t entirely succeed: it’s not suspenseful enough to appeal to the thriller crowd and nowhere near scary enough for horror fans. So, while I found the twist to be satisfactory and the film as a whole enjoyable, I would definitely describe this as a middle-of-the-road film that will probably only appeal to avid film fans who will be able to get something out of it; but for casual viewers I think this would be a big disappointment. One of the major problems is that the characters are never developed enough, there are long periods where all the characters are doing is wandering around the scrap yard searching for the killer (and these scenes are totally lacking in suspense) or they are stood around talking and deciding what to do. It isn’t until the last twenty minutes when the film’s ‘secrets’ are revealed that it really becomes interesting. But, having said all that, the film kept me interested and I wanted to see how everything turned out; so it can’t be too bad.
Video
Presented anamorphically in 1.78:1. There isn’t much I can say about this film’s picture quality. The first three minutes had me really worried until I realised it was a flashback and therefore filmed in a stylised way. Once in the present the picture quality is of very good DVD standard. Colours are solid and the dark scenes aren’t too dark.
Audio
There are two audio tracks available here. An English 2.0 stereo Dolby Digital track and an English 5.1 Dolby Digital track. I watched the film with the 5.1 track and found that the sound levels faded in and out throughout the course of the film. To me I got the impression that the boom man had moved too far away from the actors and the dialogue wasn’t being picked up correctly. No subtitles are included.
Extras
Trailer (1.09)
Overall
All round a pretty decent thriller with a couple of good twists. Not overly suspenseful or scary but definitely worth a watch.
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