Kristy Blu-ray Review

Kristy Blu-ray Review

Released on August 7, 2014 by Tiberius Film

Movie: 3/5

Kristy (a.k.a Random, a.k.a. Satanic) gets its first home video release thanks to the German distributor Tiberius Film. The movie was released on blu-ray, blu-ray 3D, and DVD. This blu-ray is region B locked (as confirmed by my playability tests).

The slasher genre has been pretty much dead for the past decade. While there has been some releases of slasher movies in the past few years, decent or even good slashers have made their appearance in very rare occasions, with most of these being of foreign origins. For a person like me who years ago spent so much time enjoying the old ones (and I am including the 90’s slashers in this category also), finding a recent slasher that is actually enjoyable is bizarre. And to find such a film one has to practically hunt them down, traveling great internet distances through many web sites to find one that has potential, with many just ending in disappointment. 

So, how does Kristy hold up? In a phrase, slightly above mediocre. But, please, allow yourself to read an explanation for this, as I did find some pretty decent slasher elements in the movie, and you might find that these elements actually suit you better. 

The film opens with a website which hosts many different videos of a group of four young adults that stalk girls close to their age. In all the videos the group eventually kills each of the girls, calling them Kristy and using a razor to mark their cheek with a “K”. Then we get to meet Justine for the first time (our protagonist) with her boyfriend inside her college dorm. We then learn that it is thanksgiving break and most of the dorms will be unoccupied during it. Justine ends up being the only student left on campus, along with a couple of security guards and a groundskeeper. She decides to treat herself and goes to the nearest gas station to buy junk food and a cheap thanksgiving dinner. In the store she has a menacing and creepy encounter with the girl of the homicidal group. After being harassed in the car she manages to go back to campus, and this is where the stalking and slashing for Justine begins.

One thing the film gets right is with providing us, the audience, with a sense of isolation which Justine is experiencing. Even though the guards and groundskeeper stay, she is practically alone in the hall where her dorm is. The groundskeeper has his own cottage on the edge of the campus, and one of the security guards is always at the gate. The remaining guard is the only company close to Justine. The group manages to get inside the campus, lock the guard out of Justine’s hall, and stalk her in and around her dorm. This is when Justine realizes she is in mortal danger, and it is when the suspense begins. 

Instead of trying to be extreme, the film goes for stealthy thrills, with most of the movie having Justine trying to evade them and trying her hardest to avoid a face-to-face encounter with them. Think of it as a survival-horror video-game in which the main character has very, very few weapons within her reach, and various devices to distract and escape the killers. Of course she eventually does come to face them, but the way these encounters develop are not like the encounters between the protagonist and killer(s) in most slashers where the victim is forced to face the killer(s). Instead, Justine reaches a point where she decides (rather than being forced) to pluck up the courage to survive not by escaping, but my eliminating her stalkers. 

Mild spoilers ahead…

One flaw that might turn-off some people is the way the movie climaxes. In slashers such as I Know What You Did Last Summer and Halloween the protagonist has a big showdown with the killer. The killer chases her and holds nothing back to try and kill her. Again, in these films the protagonist is suddenly forced to face the killer. In Kristy Justine becomes the hunter. She consciously decides to go after the killers and take them down one by one. She becomes the stalker. Personally, this takes some of the suspense away because, even though we are still rooting for her to survive, her vulnerability level goes down, shrinking the feeling that she might still die (consciously deciding to face a killer is of course still very life-threatening, but I am referring to the emotional rather than logical impact on the viewer). This instead provides with character development as we see Justine change before our eyes when she encounters an almost survival-is-impossible situation. Since I am a suspense lover, this took some of my personal enjoyment of the movie away, but I know that others might find this evolution of character more interesting and exciting, rather than seeing another slasher take the same sort of direction for the finale. 

Picture Quality: 4.5/5

Kristy appears to have been filmed digitally rather than on film as the transfer is devoid of any natural grain (which film transfers give to movies) but still retains a good amount of detail. The film is presented in its original wide aspect ratio (2.40:1). Colors remain very accurate with the cinematography’s cool tones and flesh tones of the actors. Shadow detail is nicely rendered without having bad or unnatural fluctuations in contrast. Black levels are very deep and inky (as they should be) except that there are a few instances where mild digital noise is present in them. The other only fault I found in the transfer was some slight color banding when, for example, a light’s brightness diminishes with distance on the wall of a hallway, gradually changing the tones of the wall’s color from bright to dark. This kind of banding is sort of common with movies that contain contrasting levels of brightness within the same shot, and it is not too noticeable. So overall a very solid transfer. 

I was not able to see the movie in 3D (or at least sample it) as I was missing my 3D player at the time of the viewing, but once I sample it I will comment about it. The 2D version played fine without requiring a 3D player (so this blu ray carries both the 2D and 3D versions).

Sound Quality: 4.5/5

Kristy  contains two audio options: 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio in both English and German, with optional German subtitles (there are a few instances where forced German subtitles appear, for example when a text message from a cellphone is shown, but it does not happen regularly, only on these instances of visual text). I did not bother listening to the German audio option because, why would I? I do not know any German, plus the film was filmed in English, and the grand majority of times dubs are pretty bad. I doubt the film’s native mix was in 7.1, considering it was a low-budget production, and seeing plenty of German blu-ray releases that have audio that has been re-mixed to include the two extra channels of surround effects. The mix seems to have had its range of volume expanded as loud sounds were a bit louder and this made it seem a little unbalanced. However this was the only anomaly, and the rest sounded very good. The mix is aggressive when it calls for it. Surround activity is good also. For a good portion of the film there is rain present, and the front and surrounds give off the effect very realistically; this and other atmospheric effects were included well. There are instances of footsteps from the killers coming off from behind and next to the listener, providing good support to the suspense and creepiness of the film. The low end was a little aggressive (a tiny bit unnatural to my ears; probably due to the amped range of volume) but it did not sound exaggerated or distorted. Voices were clear most of the time, save for a couple of instances where characters were whispering. A good surround mix that nicely compliments the genre of the movie. 

Special Features: 0.5/5

The only special features are the trailer for the film, along with trailers of a few other movies that are being released by Tiberius Film. 

Overall: 3.5/5

Kristy is a good movie to watch on a boring night when there is not much to do. It is a suspenseful movie for most of its running time with a little nice action towards the climax (between our hero and villains) but nothing like the intensity of slasher action from say Scream or The Purge. Like implied above, the violence is not strong (I would say it would receive a hard PG-13 or a soft R rating). Those people who are fine with the movie’s “stealthy” approach to suspense will find more here than just an okay movie. The video and audio transfer is of very good quality so no worries there. For those who still think they might enjoy the movie (with these adjusted expectations) this comes very recommended. For the rest who have doubts about it, this still comes recommended, but in the form of a rental or a buy for a cheap price.  

Note: the screen captures of the blu-ray above should not be taken to be good representatives of the quality of the transfer as they have a lower resolution than the blu-ray, they are compressed, and in motion it may look different.