The following movie flew completely under my radar, having only found out about it through a Horror Blu-ray forum that I’m part of on Facebook. After reading a bit about it, I decided I needed to get my hands on it for review and thankfully the fine folks at VVS Films were kind enough to send a copy my way. Visions is presented to us as a typical haunted house horror film, but it isn’t exactly what you think it is and if I said any more about the plot, it would ruin the experience, an experience, mind you, that turned out to be quite delightful.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
DISCS: 2 (1 Blu-ray, 1 DVD)
RUN-TIME: 87 min
ASPECT RATIO: 1.85:1
RESOLUTION: 1080p (Blu-ray), 480i (DVD)
AUDIO: Dolby True HD 5.1
SUBTITLES: English, French
REGION: A
RATING: R
PRODUCTION DATE: 2015
RELEASE DATE: Oct 27, 2015
PLOT SUMMARY
After moving to her vineyard to be with her husband, a pregnant woman begins to experience terrifying visions.
MOVIE
Visions starts off like your typical horror film, with Eveleigh (Isla Fisher) getting in an accident and killing one of the passengers in the other vehicle. Cut to a year later and she and her husband David (Anson Mount) have moved to wine country to start a new life, with a baby on the way. She isn’t long staying at the house before strange noises start happening and objects start moving. Her husband thinks it’s because she is off the meds and should go back on them, but Eveleigh thinks the house is haunted. Who is right? I can’t tell you, but don’t expect a simple answer (useless side note: IMDb message boards are full of reports of this movie being a copy of other movies, but what movie isn’t nowadays and if you let that stop you from watching a movie, you would be staring at a blank TV).
I’m sorry that I have to keep the breakdown of the movie so short, but I really don’t want to spoil the film. I got great enjoyment out of this flick by going in completely blind. I initially expected it was going to be a been there done that horror movie, but as the minutes rolled on, I slowly started moving to the edge of my seat, thrilled to see what was going to happen next.
The movie isn’t completely without faults, but the ones that are present are pretty small. Some scenes aren’t explained fully, becoming muddled or not needed and the ending kind of leaves things up to the viewer to figure out. The character of David also got on my nerves, as he didn’t seem to care much for his wife, automatically assuming she’s crazy and needs to be on meds. Every time he showed up on screen, I wanted to punch him for being such a dickhead. Also, was Eva Longoria’s character even needed in this movie? She’s scarcely in it to begin with and adds nothing to the plot. Anywho, besides the small nitpicks, there wasn’t much that bothered me about the movie and like I’ve already mentioned, the story really kicks into overdrive come the latter half, making up for any issues I had.
BLU-RAY
The Blu-ray is looking sharp and clear on the video side of things, but the audio is a bit hit or miss at times. Often the sound levels will be super low when dialogue is happening, but whenever loud noises show up, your speakers almost blow up cause you had to previously turn the volume up to hear the people talk. It’s all over the place and pretty damn annoying. You’ve been warned.
As for any special features, you’re out of luck this time around, as the disc is lacking even a trailer. There are a few trailers for other movies (there’s a sequel to Olympus Has Fallen coming soon?!?), but nothing to write home about. Tis a shame.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES
- Nothing!
VERDICT
Visions was a fun surprise with a plot that kept me glued to the screen. Some people are going to call it a copy cat or even cliché, but for me, it was a fun time and I loved the second half of the flick, even if things got a little muddled. The Blu-ray, despite lacking features and some sketchy audio issues, is worth picking up.
RATING
