#Horror (Blu-ray Review)
In #Horror, Chloë Sevigny (American Horror Story, American Psycho) leads an ensemble cast that includes Timothy Hutton (American Crime, The Dark Half) and Natasha Lyonne and Taryn Manning of Orange is the New Black. This shocking chiller is written and directed by actress and designer Tara Subkoff (The Cell, The Last Days of Disco). This stylishly dark film makes its Blu-ray and DVD debut April 5th, 2016 from Scream Factory, in conjunction with IFC Midnight. Fans can pre-order their copies now by visiting ShoutFactory.com.
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Film 
You’ve got followers… cyberbullying goes offline during one deadly night. #Horrorfollows a group of preteen girls living in a suburban world of money and privilege. But when their obsession with a disturbing online game goes too far, virtual terror becomes all too real.
#Horror is a film with an important message, but told in such a frantic style with no help into entering this world that a lot of the details get lost along the way. By the time it gets to the end, the film is what you think it is early on (Its theme or point, not the doer of the evil deeds), but getting to there is where you’ll get lost and not understand what’s fully going on.
This misunderstanding may be due to my age and not understanding what exact social media applications and/or programs are being used here. Its being done effectively with graphics and loud intense sound effects, I just am not sure what they all are. At the end of the film, yes, they start making more sense, but I should be given some sort of “in” as a novice to follow it along and know what exactly it means.
A lot of that all doesn’t matter, as the purpose of the film is to show the effects of bullying at a young age. We follow a group of 12 year old girls who are really nasty to each other. Truly, the way the talk to one another and treat one another is the true horror this film is getting at. Yes, there are killings going on in this film, but the film is at its ugliest and most vile when these girls are destroying one another’s well-being with such awful put downs and attacking of character.
Overall, I wanted to really like #Horror a lot, but there are a lot of issues with this films narrative structure and unwillingness to give detail to some of its simplest things. I spent half the time respecting what it was doing and half of it confused, wondering if I was missing something or just not getting it. It really wasn’t a great feeling, but I think this movie is one that people should check out, as its definitely a slasher film with a slightly interesting hook to kinda set it apart.
Video 
Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Clarity/Detail: #Horror’s image looks super crisp, sharp and really clear. Detail is rampant on this very modern HD digital picture that feels full and has those moments that are referred to as “Looking through a window” in terms of clarity.
Depth: Movements are lifelike and smooth. Dimensions are just fine with plenty of good spacing between characters, objects and environments.
Black Levels: Blacks are really deep and inky. They provide some romantic shading and help to add to the sharpness of the picture.
Color Reproduction: Colors are bold and bright, especially in the super social media-esque heightened sequences. Those take things into a vivid place, but a lot of the live action keeps it strong but tame.
Flesh Tones: Skin tones are colder and maintain a consistent appearance throughout the feature’s run time. Facial details are very strong from most distances.
Noise/Artifacts: Clean
Audio
Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD MA, English 2.0 DTS-HD MA
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Dynamics: This is a pretty smooth operating track. Its crisp, clear and well balanced, layered and engaging enough. Its pretty much what you’d expect from a modern film coming to Blu-ray.
Low Frequency Extension: Car engines and a lot of the action gets some help from our subwoofer friend.
Surround Sound Presentation: A lot of ambiance takes to the rear speakers. Front channels accurately portray movements, action and placement.
Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is loud, crisp and clear.
Extras
#Horror comes with a reversible cover insert featuring an alternate poster design.
Trailer (HD, 1:42)
Summary
What a wild, twisted, crazy and confusing ride #Horror is. I don’t know that I’d return to this one and I’m not sure I really grasp everything that happened here…but the film feels like it should be important. There are ideas I have on it, but I’m not sure they are legit or that I’m following. The overall message and point the film is trying to make, I get, its what the straight narrative, characters and plot device details I’m not sure I understand. Whatever the case, the film looks really nice on Blu-ray, but unfortunately has no bonus material (A commentary would have been aces). Definitely worth a look as a rental.
