Thursday, October 22, 2015

The Death of April - DVD Review - MVD Entertainment

The Past is Coming to Haunt Her


The Death of April DVD cover


Released by: MVD Entertainment
Release Date: October 27, 2015
Production Year: 2012
Region Code: 0
Running Time: 1:26:04
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0
Video: NTSC (1.78:1 Aspect Ratio)
Subtitles: None


THE FILM - [ 2 / 5 ]:

19-year-old college sophomore Meagan Mullen (Katarina Hughes) moves into a townhouse and keeps in touch with her friends and family through a video blog. As her entries (and her life) become more complex, dark and emotional, unexplained paranormal occurrences begin to happen in her room: and the camera captures it all. Told primarily from the point of view of an ordinary wireless webcam, "The Death of April" documents the unsettling activity in an otherwise average girl's bedroom - and the mysteries that surround it.
The film was written and directed by Ruben Rodriguez. "The Death of April" stars Katarina Hughes, Stephanie Domini, Amy Rutledge, Chelsea Clark, Adam Lowder and RayMartell Moore.

"The Death of April" is akin to the found footage style of films, with the film primarily being seen through the video camera of Meagan. There are interviews with family members and others sprinkled throughout. The film showed potential however it did not fully deliver. If I had to compare it to another film it would be "Paranormal Activity" but with less activity. I thought Katarina Hughes did a good job as Meagan, considering most of the scenes in the film revolved solely around her.


Katarina Hughes and RayMartell Moore in The Death of April


AUDIO - [ 3.5 / 5 ]:

The DVD comes with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track. I thought the audio quality was fairly good considering the video quality portion of "Meagan's camera" did not come off looking particularly good. So that was a pleasant surprise. I did not notice any issues with the sound other than a few moments where the noises were intentional as a result of the way it was recorded.


Adam Lowder in The Death of April


VIDEO - [ 3 / 5 ]:

"The Death of April" comes to DVD thanks to ITN Distribution and MVD Entertainment. The film is in NTSC widescreen with a 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. The video portion of the film has two distinct levels of quality. The portion viewed through Meagan's camera is clearly inferior to the interview scenes as you can see if you compare the first two screenshots above. In the interviews, there is a fair amount of detail present and the image looks quite good. The colors look good for the most part and skin tones look fine. 


Katarina Hughes in The Death of April


SPECIAL FEATURES - [ 0.5 / 5]:

The only extra included on the DVD is a trailer for the film.

Trailer (0:59)


IN CONCLUSION:

"The Death of April" showed potential but was unfortunately, disappointing. The DVD does feature good audio and video quality. 


OVERALL: [ 2 / 5 ]