Dead Air (2009) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror/Sci-Fi	Audio Commentary-Director Corbin Bernsen, stars Bill Moseley & Pat Tallman Featurette-Behind The Scenes Featurette-Fly on the Wall Featurette-Behind the Shot Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2009
Running Time	89:52
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Corbin Bernsen
Studio Distributor	Gryphon Entertainment	Starring	David Moscow Corbin Bernsen Bill Moseley Dan Lauria Jeanne Cooper Navid Negahban
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Mike Post Brandon McCormick

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Logan Burnhardt (Bill Moseley) is a late night radio shock-jock, rude and obnoxious to callers to his high rating radio program. On one Friday night he is on the studio with his offsider Gil (David Moscow), panel operator Burt (Joshua Feinman) and producer Lucy (Patricia Tallman), who also happens to be his ex-wife. His subject for discussion this night is paranoia, and they start taking calls.

     During the film’s opening credits we see what appears to be a biological weapons attack upon a basketball game by a group of men speaking Arabic. As Logan commences his program, his callers get increasingly scared and incoherent, talking about riots in the streets; turning on the TV in their radio studio, Logan and his team see that there have been biological attacks all across America. The thousands of people who are affected become zombies; they cannot be killed and in turn infect anyone they bite in their frenzied attacks. It is not safe on the streets, so Logan and the others barricade themselves inside their studio and continue broadcasting, unaware that two of the terrorists who unleashed the biological attack in their city are in their building. Perhaps worse, zombies have also entered the building and it becomes a matter of survival.

     Dead Air is a low budget independent film that makes a virtue of its limited budget. It is set almost exclusively within the radio studio and the station building, only occasionally venturing out onto the dark streets. This gives the film an edgy claustrophobic feel, with the spread and effects of the virus unfolding primarily via TV news broadcasts watched by the radio crew in their studio. When the film does venture outside it does not overdo the zombie make-up effects as the crowd is often shown in shadows; there is certainly blood and gore, but as the attacks are shown in unsteady cam it is all frenetic, which works OK in this instance. There are also some effective scares, and good escalating tension as Logan worries about his wife and daughter at home. If there is something that does not work it is the addition of the terrorist Abir (Navid Negahban) in the building who takes Logan and Lucy hostage. This subplot has been clearly included for exposition purposes, because Abir explains both the motivation of the terrorists and also makes the revelation that the virus had, in fact, been created and manufactured by the U.S., but it tends to release the tension that the film has been creating.

     Bill Moseley is an experienced actor with a bit of a speciality in horror films, appearing in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1987), Night of the Living Dead (1990) and Halloween (2007) among others. Here he puts his experience to good use and anchors the film with an effective and believable performance, playing it absolutely straight. Patricia Tallman is another very experienced mainly TV actor who is less effective, although she does not have a lot to work with, while Joshua Feinman is quite impressive, making the most of what he has to do. Director Corbin Bernsen is also an experienced actor with over 180 TV and feature bit parts to his credit. As a director, Dead Air was his third feature, and although his direction is nothing innovative or special, it is workmanlike and effective.

     When it remains within the confines of the radio studio, and concentrates upon the escalating tension and terror of the zombie infestation, Dead Air is a surprisingly effective and watchable thriller that makes the most of what it has. The characters are interesting, the attacks sudden; throw in a few scares and a bit of frenzied blood and gore and you have the recipe for an entertaining 90 minutes. There are far bigger budget horror / zombie films around that don’t deliver as well as does Dead Air.

Video

     Dead Air is a NTSC print that is not 16x9 enhanced. It is presented in an aspect ratio of about 1.73:1, which looks to be a 1.78:1 widescreen ratio squeezed into a 4x3 frame. The IMDb does not give the original ratio, but I would suspect it is 1.85:1.

     Close-ups of faces and interiors are sharp enough, but for wider shots and when the camera is moving detail is lost. In most dark scenes, and exteriors are almost all night shots, shadow detail is quite indistinct and grain and noise reduction evident. Colours and skin tones are natural, blacks OK if not totally solid. Brightness and contrast also varied occasionally, especially where the light source was behind the actor, but not seriously.

     Other than some very slight ghosting and aliasing around curtains, artefacts were absent. There were no marks.

     There are no subtitles except where burnt in white subtitles translated the sections of Arabic dialogue.

     The print was not technically too impressive, but nothing really effected the enjoyment of the film.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The only audio choice is English Dolby Digital 2.0 at a low 192 Kbps. It was in stereo but not surround encoded.

     The audio was better than the specification suggests. Dialogue was mostly clear but could be indistinct on occasion due to mumbled delivery or the music being rather too loud in the mix. Otherwise, effects were quite sharp and loud, with some good cues as the zombies frenzied or during the motorcycle action. Obviously some surround action would have helped but the audio did work in an acceptable manner. No subwoofer, of course.

    Lip synchronisation was good.

     The original score by Mike Post and Brandon McCormick worked fine, helping to create tension without signalling the scares.

     The audio track got the job done reasonably well.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Trailer (1:54)

Behind the Scenes (11:23)

     A featurette with film and on set footage plus interview sections with producer / director Corbin Bernsen, actors Bill Moseley, Pat Tallman and Navid Negahban and producer Jessie Lawler. Mostly an EPK with some stuff on plot points, character and stunts.

Fly on the Wall (1:36)

     Video of actors Bill Moseley and Pat Tallman talking on set about acting as the next shot is set up.

Behind the Shot (2:37)

     Behind the scenes showing how they shot the scene of Logan returning home, with the finished edit of the sequence showing PIP. Short and interesting

Audio Commentary

     Director Corbin Bernsen and actors Bill Moseley and Pat Tallman sit together and watch the film. Sadly, that is pretty much what they do, sit and watch, and this is not a good commentary. There are long silences, made more obvious by the fact that the film’s soundtrack does not play under the commentary, and when they do talk it is often inane chatter, laughs, comments about how good someone or something looks, and only a bit about plot points, intentions and locations.

     The Region 1 US version seems identical to our Region free NSTC release (we also get the FBI warning), and is similarly not 16x9 enhanced. Amazon.com.uk lists a Region 2 UK PAL release without further information. Draw.

     Dead Air is a low budget independent film with a tense, edgy claustrophobic feel, an effective and watchable thriller that was far more entertaining than I had expected. There is far larger budget horror / zombie films around that don’t deliver as well as it does.

     The video and audio are not technically of high standard but get the job done and there does not seem to be anything better in other regions. There are extras that are of some interest.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall