{"id":14150,"date":"2016-08-30T22:38:44","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T02:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=14150"},"modified":"2016-08-30T22:38:44","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T02:38:44","slug":"dvd-interior-the-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=14150","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Interior, The (2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Interior2015_s\"Film<\/strong>:\u00a0Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>:\u00a0Good<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Syndicado<\/a><\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a00 (NTSC)<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 August 30, 2016<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Thriller \/ Horror<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0A burnt-out ad man escapes to the B.C. interior and is taunted by strangers real or imagined.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Audio Commentary #1: director Trevor Juras and actor Patrick McFadden \/\u00a0Audio Commentary #2: director Trevor Juras, actors Patrick McFadden & Ryan Austin, and cinematographer Othello J. Ubalde \/ Deteled Scene (1:14) with optional director commentary \/ Trailer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trevor Juras\u2019 feature film debut borrows a bit from The Blair Witch Project<\/strong> (1999) in being a compact, simple story with surrounding natural elements to tease and built tension, ultimately giving audiences more than a fair share of scares before a finale that more or less brings the fate of former ad agency burnout James (Patrick McFadden) full circle.<\/p>\n

The first 25 mins. focus on a mass of stressors that ultimately push James to walk away from society, including his puzzled girlfriend and any chance at restarting life with a new career in Toronto. Actual (and imagined) health issues are immaterial \u2013 he\u2019s exhausted,\u00a0and wants to flee \u2013 so he smash-cuts from life in a typical downtown glass condo with a skyline view to trekking the wilds of Salt Spring Island, B.C., gradually moving deeper into the bush until there\u2019s no human, animal, or trace of civilization in sight or sound.<\/p>\n

Juras often sticks to poised wide shots or eerie tracking movements, allowing the splendor of forest mist, overcast skies and a continuous peppering of rain to dominate the soundtrack, immersing the audience into James\u2019 remote world. Once in a while a classical piano cue gives momentum to the drama as James is intensely focused on the minutia of being alone \u2013 sitting, sleeping, cooking gruel over a tiny gas stove, and relieving himself in the bush \u2013 which makes any sudden encounter with a passing stranger deeply unsettling.<\/p>\n

From sounds to missing and moved objects, and little midnight nudges, James is clearly not alone. Juras contrasts staid natural sounds or lengthy piano-scored montages with sudden synth cues by Tomas Jirku or sound effects like the loud cracking of wood, and when a figure appears, it\u2019s suitably weird and surreal, but Juras\u2019 script is both threadbare and loose, making James\u2019 wandering montages sometimes feeling like slight narrative padding to push\u00a0the film\u2019s brief running time towards the 80\u00a0min. mark.<\/p>\n

The conceit for all that movement is James striking camp and resettling elsewhere after near-miss or direct taunts, but why he insists on staying in the bush is presumably rooted in a primal urge to defend territory; this is his land, and whomever\u2019s trying to scare him away should just fuck off.<\/p>\n

How long he\u2019s in the woods stays vague \u2013 the emerging beard and a frosty morning infers maybe a month \u2013 and he\u2019s apparently well-stocked on morning gruel for his walkabout in B.C.\u2019s interior, but Juras\u2019 film rests somewhere between an expanded short and a loose feature.<\/p>\n

What helps sustain most of the drama is the impressionable pre-credit Toronto scenes which are low-key and packed with dry humour, making sure James’ predicament is very clear. The horror elements in the final section recall Everett De Roche\u2019s eco-thriller Long Weekend<\/strong> (1978), where odd things happen, people go mad, and Nature just continues as the cadavers are claimed by the environs in a similarly loose and ambiguous story.<\/p>\n

Syndicado’s\u00a0MOD DVD spots a deleted scene (with optional director commentary) that was wisely excised, given it shatters the illusion of James\u2019 self-directed seclusion, whereas the dual commentary tracks tend to repeat details, and really don\u2019t elaborate on the project\u2019s genesis, production, shaping, and reception; instead of genuine insight, it\u2019s basically friends hanging out and recording chatter in two rounds with spurts of silence.<\/p>\n

The disc offers a very sharp transfer that flatters Othello J. Ubalde\u2019s fine cinematography, and the sound mix is deceptively subtle until some genuine shocks give the viewer solid jolts. Juras, a former casting director for an ad agency, worked with a strong set of actors, many of whom appear in his prior short films.<\/p>\n

The Interior is available in multiple digital and physical formats via the filmmaker\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2016 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trevor Juras\u2019 feature film debut borrows a bit from The Blair Witch Project (1999) in being a compact, simple story with basic surrounding natural elements to tease and built tension, ultimately giving audiences more than a fair share of scares…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[4605,4603,4606,4604],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-3Ge","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14150"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14159,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14150\/revisions\/14159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}