Friday, September 21, 2012

The Revenant (DVD REVIEW)




The Revenant
DVD Review by Kam Williams

Deceased Vet Revived as Vigilante Vampire in Campy Horror Comedy

            Second Lieutenant Bart Gregory (David Anders) was so full of life that it’s hard for his loved ones to believe that he actually died while serving his country over in Iraq. Even after his body arrives back in the States, his girlfriend, Janet (Louise Griffith), still states that, “None of this seems real.”
            At least the grieving gal found a shoulder to cry on in the dearly departed’s pal, Joey (Chris Wylde). And it’s not long after the two start sleeping together that they get the surprise of their lives when they learn that Bart has miraculously risen from the grave.
            He shows up in town where a nurse named Mathilda (Jacy King) snap-diagnoses that he must be a revenant, meaning a person who returns from the dead in corporeal form. She suggests that Joey and Janet chop off his head as the only way to put the zombie’s soul to rest permanently.
            But they’re too stupefied to finish him off. Instead, against his better judgment, Joey takes his rejuvenated buddy in as a roommate.
            However, Bart soon begins feeling a ghoulish urge to drain humans of blood, since he’d otherwise decompose and quickly rot away. Joey tries to suppress that evil impulse by holding up a crucifix and throwing holy water at him, but none of those traditional measures seem to work.
            Given that the guy is going to sink his fangs into somebody’s neck anyway, the two eventually strike a compromise whereby Bart is allowed to roam around at night as a crime-fighting vigilante vampire. The rationale is that he can satiate his bloodlust while simultaneously cleaning the city’s streets of violent vermin.
            Thus unfolds The Revenant, a campy horror comedy resting on a cleverly executed premise. Well-written with a talented cast operating on a modest budget, the entertaining picture’s primary flaw is that it drags on for about a half-hour past a perfectly plausible ending.
            The scary movie that refused to die!

Very Good (3 stars)
Rated R for graphic violence, pervasive profanity, drug use, sexuality and graphic nudity.
Running time: 117 minutes
Studio: Putrefactory Limited
Distributor: Lionsgate Home Entertainment
DVD Extras: Director’s audio commentary; cast audio commentary; deleted scenes; “The Making of” featurette photo gallery; and a theatrical trailer.

To see a trailer for The Revenant, visit: 

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