The
Device
(2014/Image DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: D
The
DVD cover to The
Device
is quite misleading. Are you expecting a cross between The
Matrix
and Hellraiser
with grotesque special effects? Look elsewhere because that is not
what you are getting here. Instead you are getting a film that seems
to have spent a majority of its special effects budget on the DVD
slipcase art.
Abby
and Rebecca Powell haven't seen each other since a traumatic event in
their youth ripped them apart. Reunited for the first time in over a
decade, the sisters take a trip to spread their mother's ashes at a
secluded lake. As the sisters reconnect and try to heal old wounds,
something waits in the nearby woods.
A
strange object, made not by the hands of man, beckons them to it. As
they begin to try and unlock its secrets, Abby is plagued by
nightmares of an alien presence that seem all too real. Little do
the sisters realize that this object is actually a device, one with a
purpose too horrible to comprehend. As the events of the past and
the present begin to merge, new discoveries will threaten to tear
apart their newly reformed family, and the inhuman creators of the
device will attempt to finish a terrible experiment begun years
before.
Sound
and Picture on the disc are average for the DVD format and nothing to
write home about. The transfer is in standard definition with a
2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio that is soft and a lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1 track.
What
this film really lacks is a good alien. The costume represents an
alien grey with an all white body that is a pretty uninspired design.
We see him for mere seconds in flashes and awkward poses that seem
to mostly be B-roll moments spliced together. The best moment of the
film is the last scene where the alien presumably impregnates a
character using the device. Though just like the story of the film,
just as it starts to get cool.. the film ends.
Extras
include Commentary tracks by the filmmakers, cast, and Tracy Torme
who wrote the scripts for Fire in the Sky and Intruders...
but not this film. If you were expecting a Behind the Scenes look or
trailers... then you are in for disappointment.
All
in all, The
Device
is a weak direct to video sci-fi entry that could have been so much
more than what it became. Too much dialogue, too many mediocre
actors attempting to carry heavy moments and an uninspired alien.
-
James Harland Lockhart V
www.facebook.com/jhl5films
