LIVING AND THE DEAD, THE - DVD review

Don't let the back cover copy fool you: "The Living and the Dead" is not the typical horror film. The film, the fourth by British director Simon Rumley, uses nearly clichéd conventions of the genre, though, to craft a picture in which we sit on the edge of our seats, waiting for what we think will happen to happen. Instead, the story takes a decidedly left turn away from our expectations to engage us in a wholly thrilling direction we never see coming.

In a ill-maintained manor house in Britain, the Brocklebank family is down to its last penny. Father Donald (Roger Lloyd-Pack) is the only functioning member of the household, while his only son James (a superb Leo Bill)-mentally handicapped with a touch of Attention Deficit Disorder and autism-and his terminally ill wife Nancy (Kate Fahy) are helpless as their belongings have been sold to stave off bankruptcy. When Donald leaves on a trip in hopes of securing funding, James takes it upon himself to care for Nancy, locking the doors to keep the nurse out while he becomes the man of the house. But, as Donald tries to reason with him, if James is watching over Nancy, who will watch over him?

Initially, I was angry with the broken social contract I felt Rumley had made with me. After all, "The Living and the Dead" contains all the hallmarks of a conventional psychological horror film: nightmare sequences, dizzying filming techniques, a calculated visual style, multiple time frames and, most importantly, a setting which screams isolation, desperation and, perhaps, uneasiness, to say the least. We cringe when James is late bringing breakfast to his mother only to learn she has defecated in bed. However, a moment later, as he helps her to the bathroom and then into the bathtub, we allow ourselves to think the outcome may not be so bad. Maybe, just maybe, the horror here is these three people watching their home fall apart around them.

Then something snaps in James, prompting him to lock his mother in her room. Forcing pills down her throat and finally dragging her throughout the mansion, we realize the thriller aspect of the film is two fold: the aforementioned destitution around the family, but also each person's inability to be what they want to be. Donald is the last in a long time of aristocrats while Nancy has always taken care of James. And all James really wants is to be treated as a person. (We are told early in the film James is looked down upon by nearly everyone; thus, he does not answer the door or the phone.) But in those moments after Nancy is forced to take more medication than prescribed-based on the logic more medicine will make her get better faster-we fear the worst. There is no overt indication James is going to hurt his mother in any intentional way; rather, Rumley allows us to do the work and imagine the worst James could do to Nancy.

It is precisely this perceived terror which carries the first half of "The Living and the Dead." We constantly wait for something to happen in the plot worthy of our worst fears. That ubiquitous event never comes. In its place is a fleshing out of the story involving a series of flashbacks, flashforwards and nightmare sequences. Rumley claims there is only the present, flashbacks and flash-flashbacks, with each "color coded" differently. The flash-flashbacks, as he calls them, are warm and deeply "constrasty," conveying a sense of family. The future is covered in blue, suggesting isolation, loneliness and sadness-a cliché, though effective, choice based on the material presented. And the last time period, what can be argued as the present, is grimy and dingy. All obvious ways to reinforce the underlying emotions, but effective.

I am loathe to bring up the nightmare time period because, quite frankly, I don't completely understand it. What is the man with dreadlocks supposed to represent? Death, possibly? In a film grounded in a version of reality, even the rationalization this is a nightmare-a representation in James' mind-doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It's one aspect to the story I wish Rumley would have clarified just a bit more. Otherwise, this is a tight, engaging plot.

Special mention has to be made of the cast, specifically Leo Bill. Not only is he being asked to carry the movie from an action standpoint, the character of James is also the emotional center of the film. The way he treats his mother could be seen as hurtful if there was not an underlying charm Bill brings to James. We never truly believe he wants to hurt anyone, even in the finale. He has been put into a situation where people have catered to him his entire life because of his disability. There hasn't been a compelling reason for James to be anything besides a child. It's a tour de force role for Bill, one to hang his hat on.

Which isn't to say the other two leads, Lloyd-Pack and Fahy, don't hold up their end of the acting duties. Lloyd-Pack, by virtue of his character, gets more to do than Fahy, his eyes and features conveying every last decision he has had to make leading to the situation the family is in. He is a man utterly without joy, trying to hold everything together with a mix of determination and spit. Not once does a smile come across his face; it's as if every positive emotion has been sucked out of his body, leaving nothing but despair. His is a quiet performance, the polar opposite of James' manic ramblings.

VIDEO:
According to online sources, "The Living and the Dead" was originally composed for a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. What we're given here is a 1.78:1 presentation. I didn't notice any cropping or misframing of any particular scene to lead me to believe something is wrong with the presentation. The transfer on screen is a wonder to behold. Every nook and cranny of the mansion house comes across in glorious detail, with water spots on every surface and peeling wallpaper around every corner. Blacks are wonderfully deep, allowing us to get lost in the shadows. Along with the 16:9 enhancement, this is a glorious presentation benefiting the story elements.

AUDIO:
Two tracks here, both English, one 5.1 and the other 2.0. I found it impossible to switch between the two using my PlayStation 3 in order to compare their dynamics in the same scene; however, the 2.0 version sounded just a bit more put together and the 5.1. Both are clean, never obscuring the dialogue and allowing Richard Chester's original score to move from haunting to downright schizophrenic. The surrounds speakers get a decent enough workout, though they truly excel at bringing the bleakness in the score to the forefront. One disappointing aspect to the audio specs is a lack of subtitles or captions.

EXTRAS:
A good suite of special content is available here, headlined by a nearly half hour making of featurette. It seems produced for television exhibition, complete with a monotone narration and very bare cast interviews. Rumley takes center stage most of the time, explaining his motivation for making the film (his mother's death from cancer) and some of the more technical aspects of filming. It's better than most featurette material and doesn't overstay its welcome.

Next on the docket is a short film entitled "Laughter." Mercifully short at just about thirteen minutes, it's quite obviously an attempt at creating an art house production for Rumley. There's really no narrative storyline to it, though the reactions of onlookers toward the main (laughing) character are similar to the way people look at James.

The last three features are near-standard for special feature menus: trailers, photos and deleted scenes. The deleted scenes are strung together, mostly consisting of excised portions of existing takes. One in particular, showing Nancy and James removing their hair to reveal scarred scalps, is particularly garish. A series of eleven photos, automatically forwarded, are little more than publicity stills. And a group of trailers for TLA titles is included: the upcoming "Pistoleros" (2:07); and the already released "Rapturious" (1:02), "The Wedding Party" (1:55) and the Danger After Dark boxset (1:18).

PARTING THOUGHTS:
"The Living and the Dead" isn't a conventional horror film, which both works for and against the finished production. Anyone looking for a blood spattering good time might find it here, though not in the way they expect. The real draw here is the acting, as all the good portions of the film radiate from the characters on screen. Appropriately ghastly and depressing, Rumley's fourth film never quite delivers the thrills we expect, making the audience sit on pins and needles for 83 minutes.