Death's Door - DVD Review - MVD Entertainment Group

A Killer Party You'll Want to Miss

Released by: MVD Entertainment Group
Release Date: September 29, 2015
Production Year: 2015
Region Code: 0 NTSC 
Running Time: 1:31:44
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1 Aspect Ratio)
Subtitles: None

THE FILM [ 2 / 5 ]:

Tommy "Tiny" Lister ("The Dark Knight") stars with Obba Babatunde ("The Silence of the Lambs") in this suspenseful tale of murder, magic, and revenge. It all begins with an anonymous text inviting a dozen people to a party. The young men and women gather, eat, drink, and have the time of their lives inside the doors of a dilapidated mansion. That is, until it's time to go. The front door doesn't open. The back door doesn't open. Doors that once led to familiar rooms now lead to new ones. Some doors open to yet other doors, and some go straight to dead ends. Only one thing is constant: Every door is a trap, and there's only one way out.

For me, the tagline was appropriate for the film. It indeed was a party I wanted to miss. The premise sounded interesting and gave me hope that this might be a little gem of a film. It was not terrible. It just wasn't very good. I feel that the downfall of the film was the story. People often complain that a movie takes too long to really get going. Good news, "Death's Door" wastes little time jumping in to the action. The problem with that is we know next to nothing about the characters in the film. It's basically, some anonymous men and women trapped inside a house. You might be hard pressed to remember the names of more than two of the characters at the end of the film, unless you really make it a point to focus on memorizing them. We know very little about them and they unfortunately mean nothing to us, so when they die, we don't really care. 

The ending of the movie felt like a move that was made due to the budget being spent. If the eventual plot, when revealed in the film sounds familiar, you'll probably be reminded of "House on Haunted Hill" (1999). The original may have had the exact same plot as the remake but it's been a long time since I watched the original so I can't say for sure. Anyhow, if the film makers had followed suit and killed off more of the characters throughout the film, it would have definitely been an improvement. 

On the plus side, I thought most of the actors in the film did a fine job in their roles. That certainly helped make the film more enjoyable. The effects used in the film looked good as well. There were some nice camera shots used in the film and it also had some effective music. With a better script, this could have been a pretty good film. 

AUDIO [ 4 / 5 ]:

A Dolby Digital 2.0 track is the only option available on the DVD. It does a great job conveying the dialogue, sound effects and score for the film, which were also well balanced. Sound levels seemed to be stable throughout the movie. The dialog could have been a little clearer in a few places but other than that, I thought the audio was fine. 


VIDEO [ 3.5 / 5 ]:

"Death's Door" comes to DVD thanks to MVD Entertainment. The film is presented in Anamorphic Widescreen with a 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. For a low budget independent film, the video quality it pretty good. You can see a fair amount of fine detail in well lit close up shots. The colors in the film had a robust look to them. Black levels looked good and skin tones looked very natural in appearance. I did not notice any problems with the video. The layer change for the DVD seemed to have occurred around the 1:22:12 mark in the film. I like to mention that just in case someone buys the DVD and wonders if theirs is defective as not everyone is aware of layer changes. 

SPECIAL FEATURES [ 1 / 5 ]:

"Shorty Wassup" Music Video (4:12)

Behind the Scenes Featurette (7:17) - This featurette includes brief interviews with director Kennedy Goldsby and several members of the cast. They discuss shooting the film in the house and how uncomfortable they were, feeling that the house was truly haunted. 


IN CONCLUSION:

Even though I did not really enjoy the film all that much, I was never bored by it, which is always a plus and something I can't say for every film that I watch. The DVD sports nice audio and video quality, which is always great since it can be a real chore to sit through anything if it looks and/or sounds bad. If you like supernatural films involving haunted houses or ghosts, you may want to give this one a shot. As of the date of this review, the price below for the DVD is fairly cheap. I'm sure some of you out there will really enjoy the film. That's the beauty of everyone having different opinions.


OVERALL [ 2.5 / 5 ]