Studio: Arrow Video
Release Date: September 28th, 1999 (video) / March 12th, 2019 (blu-ray)
Run Time: 84 mins
Region Code: FREE
Picture: 1080p (1.85:1 aspect ratio)
Sound: English LPCM 2.0, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Slipcover: No
Digital Copy: No
Starring: Amy Weber, Nichole Pelerine, Ilia Volok, Kim Simms Thomas, and Linnea Quigley
Written by Nne Ebong, Daniel Liatowitsch, and David Todd Ocvirk
Directed by Daniel Liatowitsch and David Todd Ocvirk
Rating: R (strong horror violence and gore, and for some language and sexuality)
THE FILM ⭐
Night. Rain splatters the city. A young couple out for a drive take a shortcut through a deserted alley and makes a gruesome discovery: a girl, savagely slashed and battered, lies in a pool of her own blood. As the girl loses consciousness, she utters one word of explanation - 'Kolobos'. Flash back to 36 hours earlier. Down-on-her-luck artist Kyra Mitchell has just landed a dream job - a 3-month gig as a lab rat in an anthropology-related experimental film. In exchange, she gets free food and lodging in a fully-furnished mountain resort. Her new roommates, wise-cracking Tom, struggling actress Erica, college drop-out Gary and fast-food engineer Tina know little about Kyra's past. She allows them to see her artwork - dark, disturbing pieces - but tells them nothing about her inspiration - a faceless man who haunts her in nightmares and waking dreams. Still, happiness and camaraderie prevail - until night falls. On her way to grab a soda in the kitchen, Tina walks into a deadly booby trap. When her horrified roommates try to get help, the house locks down, trapping them inside. The surviving roommates race against time to find a way out, all the while being stalked by a faceless killer who Kyra fears may have been more than just a figment of her imagination.
I always go into any film that I watch with optimism. I want every film that I watch to be good. No one wants to sit through a bad film. Bad films can be the worst thing to sit through. So I went into Kolobos with the most positive attitude. I really wanted this film to be good. It had a good premise and promised to be very gory. The film is gory alright with some very impressive setpieces. Where the film falls apart is almost everywhere else. The acting is pretty bad, the direction is lazy and uninspired, and the editing is all over the place. I was actually bored with this film and really wanted to take the blu-ray out of the player and throw it away. While I applaud the effects, the film is a chore to get through and I can not recommend this to anyone.
THE PICTURE AND THE SOUND ⭐⭐⭐1/2 / ⭐⭐⭐
Kolobos is a grainy film and this transfer gives us all the grain we need. Many will complain about how heavy the grain is here, but I love it. If this is how the film is supposed to look then present it that way. The grain reminds us that we are watching something that was actually shot on film and it leads to some great detail. The other thing about the film is the colors and this transfer presents these colors extremely well. Skin tones are good but not great as they look a bit washed out at times.
There are two sound options: a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track and a 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio. I chose the listen to the 2.0 track as that is the original track and it sounds better. The 5.1 track spreads everything out a bit too thinly for my taste. The 2.0 track is a more balanced track.
English subs are here as well.
THE PACKAGING N/A
I was sent a review disc and therefore can not talk about the packaging. However, I did find this pic of the packaging over on Arrow's Facebook page:
THE FEATURES ⭐⭐1/2
Real World Massacre: The Making of Kolobos (22m 10s, HD) Directors David Liatowitsch and David Todd Ocvirk and producer Nne Ebong talk about the trials and tribulations they faced when making Kolobos in the late 90s.
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Face to Faceless (9m 44s, HD) Here we have an interview with actor Ilia Volok. He talks about his acting, bringing humanity to monsters and the hurdles he faces being an actor from the Ukraine.
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Slice and Dice: The Music of Kolobos (8m 37s, HD) Composer William Kidd sits down to talk about his score for Kolobos. He talks about how he scored this film, the animated King and I Warner Brothers film, and a theme park all around the same time. Throughout the entire interview, Kidd never brings up Goblin, who scored a lot of Argento films, even though the theme to Kolobos is HEAVILY inspired by the work of Goblin. It is a shame because I would have loved to hear him talk about it.
Behind the Scenes Image Gallery (31 images)
“Superhelden”- Short Film by Daniel Liatowitsch (10m 6s, HD, 1.33:1) This is a Super 8 short film made by Kolobos co-writer/co-director Daniel Liatowitsch at the age of 12. Presented in German with English subtitles.
Rediscovering Kolobos (5m 52s, HD) Here we have a short featurette on the 2018 UK premiere of the restored version of Kolobos.
Original Trailer (1m 14s, HD)
15th Anniversary Trailer (2m 9s, HD)
Audio Commentary with Daniel Liatowitsch and David Todd Ocvirk
OVERALL ⭐⭐
Kolobos is not a good film. It has so much going against it that the little good it has can not save it. This is a film that proves that gore can not save a film. The blu-ray is really good though. Both the picture and sound are top notch and there are some very good features from the folks over at Ballyhoo Motion Pictures. I can not recommend the film, but if you do want to watch it, do so with this blu-ray and make sure you take in the features.
MORE SCREENSHOTS:
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