Every once and awhile Shout! Factory and Scream Factory will put out a lesser-known independent film. We had The Battery, a slow burn zombie film; Fender Bender, an effective slasher; Bite, a gross-out chiller; and The Squad, an engaging psychological thriller. The next lesser-known film to come out is I’ll Take Your Dead, a horror film directed by Bite director Chad Archibald. How does it stack up against the other films I mentioned? Read on to find out.
I’ll Take Your Dead already has two positives going for it, as the film is directed by a Canadian and is filmed in Canada. As we already know, Canada is marvelous and full of talented people (I mean, have you read my reviews? That’s talent in your face!). All kidding (kind of) aside, I’ll Take Your Dead offers up an intriguing premise. Aidan Devine plays William, aka the Candy Butcher, a widowed father who takes in dead bodies from gang-related crimes and disposes of the corpses. When one of the female bodies ends up being alive, it places William in a sticky situation. If the gangsters find out she is alive, it could put his daughter, Gloria (Ava Preston), at risk. What is a kind-hearted butcher to do?
I’ll Take Your Dead’s story encompasses a few different genres when it tells its tale. We have the thriller side of the story, with the gang members wreaking havoc on William’s life and home. Next, we have the horror side, with Gloria seeing the ghosts of the dead her father has made disappear. I’ll admit, the horror parts feel shoehorned in, especially when the film ends without any proper explanation as to why these ghosts are hanging around the farm. Are we to assume they have become trapped in purgatory due to the violent nature of their deaths? Finally, we have a bit of drama when it comes to the relationship between William, his daughter Gloria, and the new girl Jackie (Jess Salgueiro). There are moments where the pace slows down to try to build a connection between the characters, yet it never quite hits the mark, which results in a conclusion that feels lacklustre.
It’s these little things that bring down I’ll Take Your Dead. If director Chad Archibald decided to go straight horror with the film, the results might have been better. There are definite hints of a great horror idea tangled up in the drama, but the pacing issues and unexplained horror elements leave the viewer frustrated.
Blu-ray
Scream Factory has released I’ll Take Your Dead on Blu-ray, with solid video and two audio choices of DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0. I listened to the film in 2.0 (being forced upstairs to watch movies sucks), and I have hardly any complaints. There were moments where the volume needs to be turned up to hear the dialogue, and then seconds later turned down because a loud jumpscare rears its ugly head.
Extra features included on the disc range from a short 9-minute Making-of, which shows us the lovely unpredictability of Canadian weather. Other extras include deleted scenes (11-minutes), script-to-screen comparisons (4-minutes) and finally trailers.
Verdict
I’ll Take Your Dead is frustrating as it only manages to be just alright in all the different genres it skips through. If the story could have stuck with one genre, mainly horror, the results would have been much better. Nevertheless, if you enjoy the film or are interested in checking it out, Scream Factory has you covered with an all-around solid Blu-ray.