House At The End of Time/LFO (Dark Sky DVDs)/Moebius (Film Movement/RAM Releasing Blu-ray/all 2013)

House At The End of Time

Picture: B- Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: C

Alejandro Hidalgo's The House at the End of Time is a decent Venezuelan horror-suspense film that takes place in 1981 and centers around Dulce (Ruddy Rodríguez) who lived in an old house with her sons Leopoldo (Rosmel Bustamante) and Rodrigo (Hector Mercado), and her husband Juan José (Gonzalo Cubero). What at first is peaceful soon becomes hell on earth as they start to experience multiple cases of strange supernatural phenomena, most notably an elderly woman that continues to warn her that Juan Jose will soon murder their children. Dulce desperately tries to keep this from happening but is not only unsuccessful, but is also shocked when the police arrive and find that Juan Jose has also been killed.

As there are no other people in the house, Dulce is arrested and imprisoned for the murder. Thirty years later an elderly Dulce has been released from jail, but under the requirement that she serve the rest of her sentence under house arrest in the very house where the murders took place! How's that for awkward?

Once settled, Dulce is visited by a local priest (Guillermo Garcia) who wants desperately to get her to turn back to God as Dulce has lost all faith in religion. She successfully manages to enlist his help in discovering what exactly happened in her home thirty years ago.

The film is an average ghost story with an interesting concept. The fact that it is foreign definitely gives it more weight than it would say as an American film. There are some creepy moments and Dark Sky Films did a nice job with this DVD release - aside from the lack of extras.

The transfer on the disc is in standard definition with a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio that could benefit from a Blu-ray upgrade, while sound is a lossy Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 track with available English subtitles.

Only extra on the disc is the Trailer.

LFO

Picture: B Sound: B Extras: C- Film: B-

LFO is an interesting Sci-fi comedy/drama that centers around Robert, an amateur scientist, who spends hours in his basement full of wires and oscillators experimenting with sound waves. After he engineers a frequency that allows him to hypnotize other people, he lures his attractive new neighbors into his house to act as test subjects for his discovery.

Under Robert's control, the oblivious couple are manipulated into increasingly deviant role-playing games that fuel Robert's megalomania and allow him to indulge in his most twisted fantasies, but when investigations into the suspicious death of his wife threaten to bring an end to his demented operation, Robert must use his scientific breakthrough on a much larger scale in order to continue his warped research.

The film is sharply edited and is a good example of how a low budget film with a good script can succeed. The film won many awards too - at Fantastic Fest it was the official selection and also won best feature at the Sci-Fi London Film Fest. Definitely a film that is worthy of your attention if you are a Sci-fi fan.

Sound and Picture on the disc aren't bad for the DVD format sporting a standard definition transfer with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35 X 1. Sound on the disc is a lossy Swedish Dolby Digital 5.1 track with English subtitles. Total run time for the film is 98 minutes.

Only extras on the disc are a Behind The Scenes Featurette and a Trailer.

Moebius

Picture: B+ Sound: C+ Extras: B Film: C+

Moebius is a sick and twisted tale about a woman getting revenge on her cheating husband and her son by chopping off a.. vital organ. Pretty brutal concept but Moebius is insane and brilliant film from South Korean Director Kim Ki-Duk and reminded me of Old Boy in a weird sort of way. Initially, the film was banned in South Korea and had to be cut down to get a passable rating though here in America though it is still considered un-rated by the MPAA.

The husband. The wife. Their son. The atmosphere at home is ice cold - the husband distracted by an affair with a young woman, the wife sick of her husband's debauchery, and the teenage son indifferent to them both. Overwhelmed with hatred, the wife attempts to remove from the husband the organ driving his desires; thwarted, she instead takes out the violent act on the son and then disappears into the night.

At the hospital, the husband is distraught with guilt, severing his own manhood in solidarity and setting out to recover his son's happiness, sacrificed to his parents' conflict. Disfigured in such a radical way, the son slowly deviates from normal life, even falling for the husband's young mistress as the husband discovers strange and severe ways to help his son find pleasure again. With both husband and son damaged and living in grief, the wife returns as the family heads towards destruction even more horrific than before.

Sound and Picture on the disc are exceptional with a 1080p 1.85 X 1 high definition transfer. Sound is a simple, lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track (which could have been better if mastered in DTS) and subtitles. Total run time is 88 mins.

Extras include:

Interviews with Director Kim Ki-Duk and Cast

Interview with actress Lee Eun-Woo

Post Screening Q and A from NYAFF 2014

If you like dysfunctional family tales or films about revenge then this may be a good choice for you. Not at the top of my list but certainly not at the bottom.

- James Harland Lockhart V

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv