Blu-Ray Review: Plague Town (2008)

DECEMBER 6, 2020

GENRE: BREAKDOWN, KILLER KID
SOURCE: BLU-RAY (OWN COLLECTION)

"Since the audio was a bit blown out, I may rent the DVD just to hear the music again, [and] it’s also on Blu-ray, so I may check it out just to see what a Super 16 movie looks like on the format."

That's from my 2009 review of Plague Town, and if you're a longtime reader of my stuff you'd know that anything I say I'll do soon in a review is something I won't do for years, if ever. So it shouldn't be a surprise that by the time I did watch the film on Blu-ray I no longer remembered much about it at all, let alone whatever audio issues it had when I saw it. The film (slightly retitled to A Slaughter in Plague Town) has been re-released on Blu courtesy of Severin (director David Gregory's company; it was originally issued via Dark Sky), carrying over all the old supplements as well as premiering a new retrospective documentary that runs a couple minutes longer than the film itself.

It was something of a scary revisit for me, because I included the film in my book without seeing it a second time, so I was worried it didn't hold up (I've certainly been "off" in my initial assessments of many films) and people have been spending their hard earned money to get a book where I tell them to spend more hard earned money to check it out. Luckily, I agree with 2009 me: this is a solid little creeper, and in one way it actually holds up better than I remembered, since it was shot on film at a time when low budget films of this sort were always digital. As anyone who watches a lot of movies can attest, digital technology continues to improve, so older stuff shot on the format tends to look uglier and uglier as time goes on, so other movies from that year would not be very pleasing to the eye now, over a decade later (in my opinion they looked bad then too, but that's a matter of opinion). Now that even major films are also pretty much all shot digitally, it was wonderful to see a relatively modern film in glorious Super 16, presented in a solid transfer here. Also, I was amused to see comedian Erica Rhodes as the brattier of the two daughters, as I would have had no idea who she was when I first saw it (this was her first film) and usually when a comedian is in a movie they're not far removed from their stage persona, but her character is a total 180 from her standup work.

But beyond all that time capsule-y stuff it's just a really well done little chiller for the most part (the abrupt ending still irks me; I DID remember that much), proving Gregory is just as adept at making scary movies as he is making documentaries about their production (if you haven't seen Lost Soul yet, about the ill-fated 1996 Dr. Moreau, get on that). His simple tale of a family (plus one hanger-on) getting lost in the Irish countryside and running afoul of a group of murderous children doesn't skimp on the scary stuff (there's one moment that's downright hard to watch, in fact. It involves a hubcap) but is also drenched with atmosphere, and I remain impressed that they shot the film in Connecticut, not Ireland - it is a much more than adequate fascimile. Someone get David Gregory to reshoot Jason Takes Manhattan! He can pull it off! And the idea of a town trying to breed out a curse is the right kind of icky, where their intention is more or less understandable but they're going about it in the worst way possible.

And it's all even more impressive when you watch the supplements, which prove that this was a far from easy shoot. The location, while they pulled it off just fine, was not always well suited for their needs, and the budget was (as always) very tight for what they wanted. Makeup issues kept cropping up throughout the shoot due in part to inexperience and optimism on the part of the designer (there's a painful bit in the longer documentary where you see Gregory's heart just fall when he sees the first appliance being done), who in turn would get frustrated when he'd be told to apply makeup on the children by a certain time and it would be falling off their faces by the time they were finally needed on camera, 7-8 hours later. Even the older, shorter doc showcased a few of the various production issues, but the newer one (which, again, runs longer than the film) really gets into it, with plenty of candid interviews from both the original production and newly shot ones.

I should note that the new footage is mostly via Zoom and Facetime type applications (yay, Covid!), except for Gregory who utilizes his professional setup. Just about everyone from the movie is around to share their memories, but the technical qualities (which are addressed straight away via text disclaimer) can be a little rough on your ear muscles, particularly for producer Derek Curl who not only shot himself portrait mode (!) but is out of sync as well. He's a pretty fun guy to listen to, as the commentary can attest (he's possibly the MOST candid of the lot, including about his own shortcomings) so it's a bummer that I got the idea he probably would have been featured more often if the quality was better. The only ones you don't hear anything from are the Dark Sky guys, who apparently had no faith in the film and put no effort into helping it get into festivals and the like. With that in mind, I assume the team is very relieved that they were able to get the film back and give it a fresh coat of paint.

This sort of thing is why I hate that supplements are becoming extinct. I got a new genre film the other day, relatively high profile and from a studio whose name any genre fan would recognize, and the only bonus feature on the disc is a (sigh) Zoom Q&A with two of the actors, which naturally didn't explain much about this or that confusing story point or why all the digital blood in the movie looked so terrible. We can give the benefit of the doubt, sure, but this movie has actual production footage showing exactly why this or that thing in the movie that didn't quite work, so there's no reason whatsoever to just assume they're bad filmmakers. A little honesty goes a long way, and even in technically flawless movies it's always interesting (to me, anyway) to hear someone defend and explain their creative choices. As time goes on, we're less and less likely to get this glimpse behind the curtain, making me appreciate discs like this all the more.

Also Rosemary is still creepy AF and should be a common Halloween costume.

What say you?

P.S. The Severin version of the disc was a Black Friday exclusive, and I'm not sure if it will be available again. Keep an eye on their site HERE for a hopeful re-release (perhaps without the soundtrack, which was included on a separate CD). The below link is for the older release.

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