The Dead Center Blu-ray delivers stunning video and reference-quality audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
A hospital psychiatrist's own sanity is pushed to the edge when a frightened amnesiac patient insists that he has died and brought something terrible back from the other side.
For more about The Dead Center and the The Dead Center Blu-ray release, see the The Dead Center Blu-ray Review published by Jeffrey Kauffman on October 23, 2019 where this Blu-ray release scored 4.0 out of 5.
It's kind of interesting in a way that The Dead Center is the brainchild of Billy Senese, and yet the cover art of this release rather weirdly
touts both Primer and Upstream Color, albeit as creations of this film's star, Shane Carruth. Still, isn't it just slightly odd to so
prominently feature a star's efforts as an auteur as what might be thought of as a "calling card" for this film? In another way, though, it's
completely understandable, since those acquainted with the two aforementioned Shane Carruth outings may be better prepared than the "uninitiated"
public at large for some of the more, um, opaque aspects of The Dead Center. That said, the basic narrative that Senese offers
here is probably clearer than the stories in Carruth's own films, and there's a palpably creepy mood at play in The Dead Center which may
make it perfect for the Hallowe'en season.
A John Doe, apparently a suicide victim, is delivered to a hospital morgue, where he's tagged and put in a body bag. With a start, the body comes
to
life, gets himself out of his confinement, and stumbles through some corridors before collapsing in a nearby bed. That sets up two competing
storylines that The Dead Center continues to ping pong between. The first is the "awakening" of John Doe (Jeremy Childs), who is
catatonic
at first, but who slowly becomes at least slightly more verbal, even if he's still suffering from complete amnesia. A psychiatrist named Daniel
Forrester
(Shane Carruth) begins to try to make contact with John. The other tack the film takes is actually quite ingenious in terms of developing John's
backstory, as the hospital's medical examiner,
Edward Graham (Bill Feehely), unaware that John has stumbled off into another part of the hospital, tries to figure out what has happened to the
missing "body" from the morgue.
The first thing that struck me about The Dead Center is its almost frighteningly realistic recreation of an institutional setting like the
hospital in general, and the psych ward in particular. Workers are stressed, there are manifest issues that repeatedly come up, and no one seems
completely in control, despite best efforts. As Forrester attempts to completely engage with John, he seems to become almost obsessive about the
case, and that soon plays into a whole subplot dealing with Forrester's backstory that also involves his boss, Sarah Grey (Poorna
Jagannathan). Part of what ends up happening is that as weirder and weirder things keep occurring around the hospital, and John's few excursions
into relative rationality include his insistence to Forrester that he's "brought something back" from his death, Sarah suspects that Forrester is
experiencing a meltdown. I think this part of the film probably might have worked better if other parts weren't so clearly unambiguous about
what's going on, since it's obvious something has possessed John.
Still, The Dead Center is incredibly creepy at times, aided by an almost psychedelic sound design that includes whispered voices, weird
ambient noises and what may be some electronic tweaking of various effects. Performances are top notch all around, especially Jeremy Childs as
the hulking John Doe at the center of both tales this often intriguing film tells.
The Dead Center is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The IMDb discloses that this
was finished at a 4K DI, but has no mention of a camera. One of the photo galleries has copious pictures of Arri digital cameras (I couldn't make out
which model), however, and so I'm assuming those were used at least in part, though as you may be able to make out in the screenshots with lighter
backgrounds, there appears to have been digital grain added to give this a more traditionally film like appearance. Despite some intentional stylistic
flourishes that Senese and cinematographer Andy Duensing employ, this is an often impressively sharp and well detailed looking presentation. There's
nothing really eye popping about the production design, one which tends to offer only neutral tones like beiges and yellows* in the hospital scenes
(along with a fair amount of cooler blues, especially in the morgue), but
which offers really great looking fine detail in the many close-ups that are offered. Intentional softness can intrude during some effects sequences,
where point of view shots can be tweaked. A couple of CGI moments aren't overly detailed, but a rather gruesome climax offers one of this film's rare
excursions into "gross out" territory (there's a brief early scene involving the autopsy of a corpse which may make more squeamish viewers squirm).
*Jeremy Childs offers a rather memorable description of what some of the yellows look like in a supplement included on this disc.
The Dead Center offers a really immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, one which gets off to a weird and intentionally
schizophrenic start with a glut of whispered voices surrounding the listener. The film has a very evocative sound design, as mentioned above in the
main body of the review, and some unsettling effects can waft and pan through the side and rear channels at various moments, helping to really
establish an almost "haunted" ambience. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free and neatly designed track.
Director and Cast Commentary features Billy Senese, Shane Carruth and Jeremy Childs.
Director and Crew Commentary features Billy Senese, producers Denis Deck and Jonathan Rogers (who also co-edited with Senese)
and cinematographer Andy
Duensing.
A Walk Through The Dead Center (1080p; 38:27) is a well done making of documentary featuring Senese, Carruth and
several others, and includes background information as well as a look at some of the locations.
Deleted and Alternate Scenes (1080p; 6:49)
Cast Interviews
Shane Carruth (funny) (1080p; 3:00)
Shane Carruth (serious) (1080p; 3:50)
Poorna Jagannathan (1080p; 3:24)
Head Casting with Jeremy Childs (1080p; 1:43) is a fun piece showing the molding process to create a prop head for Childs.
Short Films
Intruder (1080p; 19:58)
The Suicide Tapes (1080p; 24:52)
Midnight Radio Theater offers several "radio plays" which are branded as "a late night listening experience":
Insomnia (26:00)
The Long Weekend (23:01)
Disposable Life (31:29)
The Suicide Tapes (26:14)
The Woman in the Basement (32:55)
Blood Oath (36:39)
Flu (40:23)
Note: While all of these are essentially audio supplements, the first minute of each offers a poster of sorts for the episode, which then fades
to a black screen in order to avoid "screen burn", according to a bit of warning text.
Trailers and Teasers
Teaser 1 (1080p; 1:05)
Teaser 2 (1080p; 1:03)
Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:30)
Image Galleries
Production Stills (1080p; 1:02:33)
Behind the Scenes (1080p; 34:22)
Poster Art (1080p; 00:30)
Additionally Arrow has provided a typically well appointed insert booklet.
There are a couple of unanswered questions some may feel are still lingering by the time The Dead Center gets to its arguably predictable last
shot, but the film has an undeniable mood and some impressive performances, and the way the story is structured, while occasionally frustrating, is
ultimately quite effective. This should be an interesting release for horror fans looking for something that may in fact be somewhat derivative, and
perhaps a little less than completely successful, but which is still distinctive and, best of all (for horror fans, anyway), scary. Technical merits are solid,
and the supplementary package is really well done. Recommended.
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Blu-ray.com and Arrow Video are offering members a chance to win copies of The Dead Center, the latest film starring Shane Carruth, who both astounded and confounded audiences a few years ago with Upstream Color.
The Dead Center is available on Blu-ray October ...
Arrow Video has provided us with an official trailer for its upcoming Blu-ray release of Billy Senese's film The Dead Center (2018), starring Shane Carruth, Poorna Jagannathan, Jeremy Childs, Bill Feehely, and J. Thomas Bailey. The release will be available for ...