First things first, I want to apologise to any of the film crew who have worked hard on this movie in some form or another. What I have to say is in no way a reflection of your overall talent or skills. This is merely a review of a movie that tried and failed. It tried to be a gory, slasher flick and it only ended up being a mean, bloody mess of a film. With its crass death metal soundtrack and anti-religious message (that part doesn’t bother me as much), The Orphan Killer is a flick that does gore for gore’s sake and not much else.
Of course, we all know that opinions are different for everyone, so what I have to say might not reflect other people’s views on the movie. Some may love it, but I personally couldn’t tolerate it. Nevertheless, whatever way you look at it, Reel Gore Releasing wants to give everybody a chance to watch it in the best possible way, hence a pretty wonderful Blu-ray release, which I will delve into later. For now, let’s see what bothered me about this movie…
PRODUCT INFORMATION
DISCS: 2 (1 Blu-ray, 1 DVD)
RUN-TIME: 83 min
ASPECT RATIO: 2.35:1
RESOLUTION: 1080p
AUDIO: DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround/Dolby Digital 2.0
LANGUAGE: English
SUBTITLES: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese
REGION: A
RATING: NR
PRODUCTION DATE: 2011
RELEASE DATE: Dec 13, 2016
PLOT SUMMARY
The Orphan Killer is a tour de force murder flick that defies classification. It goes far beyond current trends in gore and breaks open a new suffering genre of horror. Marcus Miller is a serial murderer hell-bent on teaching his estranged sister Audrey what it means to have family loyalty. His lessons are taught in massive doses of vulgar and unimaginable pain. Throughout her brutal torture we learn that Marcus is not the only Miller with Killer in the bloodline as Audrey proves to be a formidable adversary.
MOVIE REVIEW
How did I know that The Orphan Killer was going to be a bad movie? Honestly, it was super easy to figure it out. If you thought the cover of Cry Little Sister in the awful The Lost Boys sequel was terrible, just wait until you hear the death metal covered version in The Orphan Killer. That, my folks, is how you know a movie is going to be bad.
Okay, all kidding aside (not really kidding), The Orphan Killer feels like a film that is trying its darndest to be ultra edgy and over the top in its gore. Yes, the practical effects are something to behold, but the scenes that take place to show that gore can be tough to swallow, even for this hardened horror fan. Do we need to see an axe being driven into a nun’s neck over and over again? Okay, granted, the actress who played the nun was god-awful, much like everyone else in this movie, but once was probably enough. Hmm, maybe I’m becoming too damn old for these types of movies?
No, no I can’t think like that. You have to accept that the movie is just not that good. The story is paper thin, with shades of Rob Zombie’s Halloween (yes, The Orphan Killer tries to copy Rob Zombie’s Halloween. Let that sink in for a sec. Rob. Zombie’s. Halloween. Oh boy.) Really, the “story” is just an excuse to transition the scenes from one over the top violent death to another. Maybe you’ll like the senseless violence and nothing else, but I crave a little bit more on my horror sandwich.
Have I managed to make my point? The Orphan Killer is a storyless, terribly acted gorefest. Some may like that, but most will see the film as a waste of time.
BLU-RAY OPINION
All that negativity aside, the Reel Gore Releasing of The Orphan Killer is really well done Blu-ray. Fair warning, though, the first 300 copies of the Blu-ray have some glitches appearing early in the film. All future copies (back in stock Jan 25th) have been fixed, but if you were an early adopter, you might want to contact them for a replacement.
The Orphan Killer is a newish movie (originally shot in 2011), so the audio and visual quality on the Blu-ray is perfectly acceptable. That is if you like that modern, cheesy looking low-budget look that most horror films have nowadays. As for the special features, you have some trailers, a music video and a whopping 90 minute Behind the scenes featurette. The feature is longer than the damn movie! Fans will definitely love that one, but even if you’re not a fan, you might get a kick out of seeing the process of making a film, even if it the end product wasn’t that great.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Collectible Blu-ray/DVD O-Card and Sleeve
- Behind The Murder – Exclusive Video Diary
- Trailer
- Teaser
- Music Clip
- Slideshow
- Collectible O-Card
VERDICT
Once again, I apologise for expressing my opinion the way I did, but I did not like The Orphan Killer. It’s a violent mess of a flick, that decides to murder the story and leave it in a gutter somewhere. It’s loud, rude and feels like something Rob Zombie would masturbate to. Hey, maybe that’s an endorsement? Either way, the Reel Gore Releasing Blu-ray is rather good, bearing in mind you get the fixed version of the disc.