Offspring DVD Review
Offspring DVD Review
Sprung out of my DVD player, never to return.
|
Based on a novel by Jack Ketchum (and scripted by the author), Offspring follows the fatal clash of cultures between a cavern-dwelling clan of cannibals and the nice, upstanding folk of the small town of Dead River, in Maine. Former Sheriff George Peters (Art Hindle), could have sworn he'd done away with the pesky flesh-munchers years ago, but it seems they have returned and brought their appetites with them. As families flee and fight, law enforcement joins the fray only to get flayed left and right.
Offspring is a brutal, gruesome and sometimes shocking. The death scenes are excellently thought-out… but not well-executed. A huge boo-boo is the fact that film is totally over-lit. With Shamwow! caveman costumes and Halloween-store wigs as cheap as these, the less-seen the better. The cannibalistic crew come off more laughable than laudable, and it's not the actors' fault… they are trying their best (Jessica Butler and Pollyanna McIntosh are good as the ferals) but they just look ridiculous. Pretty much everyone else over-acts (perhaps overcompensating for the over-lighting?), especially the pop-eyed, gape-mouthed, histrionic Hindle.
While much more funny than frightening, at least there's a Ketchum cameo in the film, and the producers did put a lot of thought into the DVD extras. There's a commentary from said writer and producers, as well as a featurette called "Progeny" — which takes us behind the scenes and shows what a bunch of cut-ups cast and crew are. I enjoyed the interplay between director Andrew Van Den Houten star Art Hindle, where they're joking about how everyone else got these massively gory, hemorrhaging wounds in the movie, whereas Hindle only suffered an "abrasion to the forehead". There's also a good behind-the-scenes look at how a sneaky scene ("Bailout") was stolen in the middle of the night on the Q-T.
DVD Features:
- Commentary with Writer Jack Ketchum, Director Andrew van den Houten, and Producer/Cinematographer William M. Miller
- Progeny: The Birth of Offspring documentary
- Bailout
- Printable Script
- Webisodes
- Photo Gallery
= = =
Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson