Jug Face (Blu-ray) (2013) |
BUY IT |
General | Extras | ||
Category | Horror |
Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Accent Entertainment x 4 |
|
Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 2013 | ||
Running Time | 77:58 (Case: 85) | ||
RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Ads Then Menu | ||
Region Coding | 1,4 | Directed By | Chad Crawford Kinkle |
Studio
Distributor |
Accent Film Entertainment | Starring |
Lauren Ashley Cooper Sean Bridges Larry Fessenden Sean Young |
Case | Standard Blu-ray | ||
RPI | ? | Music | Sean Spillane |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/s) |
|
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
|
||
Video Format | 1080i | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles | None | Smoking | Yes |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
When families first settled in this area of the remote backwoods of Tennessee, The Pit cured them of the pox and so they have worshipped The Pit ever since and it has continued to healed their illnesses. In return, the families have provided a blood sacrifice of one of their own to The Pit when required. The identity of the person to be sacrificed is revealed when a potter, in a trance, moulds a jug with the face of the victim.
Teenaged girl Ada (Lauren Ashley Cooper) is pregnant with her brother’s child when she finds a jug which has her face that Dawai, the potter (Sean Bridges) has made, so she knows she is to be the next sacrifice. Terrified, she takes the jug and hides it. But The Pit wants its sacrifice and others in the community start to die in horrible ways. Ada must make a choice to flee and let others die or to face her fate head on.
In Jug Face first time writer / director Chad Crawford Kinkle has created a slice of independent horror filmmaking that is certainly different. He avoids in your face shocks and instead delivers a film that creates foreboding and tension though a clear and concise storyline and interesting, but not clichéd, characters. Ada’s parents Sustin and Loriss (Larry Fessenden, Sean Young) are loving parents who care for their daughter, and are horrified when the truth is revealed, while the others in the community are doing what needs to be done, including willingly sacrificing their family members, for the communal good. Indeed, in almost all areas Jug Face avoids resorting to the clichés of the supernatural / horror genre. The music, for example, is atmospheric but not “hillbilly”, the events mostly occur in bright sunshine, not in darkness, and there are no evil villains. And the ending is unsettling, and certainly not conventional Hollywood.
Jug Face is creepy, powerful and chilling. It does not resort to cliché’s or stereotypes to deliver its horror, and the acting is uniformly good with Lauren Ashley Cooper, Sean Bridges, Larry Fessenden and Sean Young all giving nuanced performances that never degenerate into hillbilly stereotypes. The conclusion is powerful and unsettling making Jug Face one of the better low budget supernatural / horror films I have watched this year.
Jug Face is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, the original ratio, in 1080i using MPEG-4 AVC code.
Jug Face is a low budget film shot using Arri Alexa digital cameras. On the whole it is a good looking print with sharp detail and nice natural colours showing the greens of the woodlands to good effect. Blacks are excellent, shadow detail fine and skin tones natural without that yellowish look that digital filming often creates.
The print shows occasional motion blur but there are no marks. Contrast and brightness does vary as a number of scenes with the source of light behind the actor are glary and soft; see 22:22 for one example. However I do not believe this softness is a result of the authoring of the Blu-ray, but rather the way the film was shot.
There are no subtitles.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain/Pixelization | |
Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
Audio is a choice of English Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 Kbps or English Dolby Digital 2.0 at 256 Kbps; i.e., there is no lossless audio.
Dialogue is mostly clear although a couple of sentences by Sean Bridges were a bit difficult to hear. As a supernatural / horror film, the surrounds and rears delivered the required aural soundstage providing the sounds of wind and insects in the quieter moments and the heightened music and ambient noise when required. The sub-woofer added bass to the music and rumbles to the sections involving The Pit.
The score by Sean Spillane generally avoided obvious cues and added atmosphere and tension to the visuals. There were also some songs by Spillane on the soundtrack that were to my mind slightly less effective.
Lip synchronisation is fine.
The audio track did what was required.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
On start-up there were trailers for It’s a Disaster, Stuck, Computer Chess and The Amityville Asylum. These trailers, plus one for Jug Face can also be selected from the menu (total running time 10:48).
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region A US release of Jug Face adds as extras a making of (24 min approx.) that is supposed to be reasonable and Organ Grinder a short film (6 min) by Chad Crawford Kinkle. There is not currently a Region B UK release listed. A win for Region A.
Jug Face is a creepy and chilling supernatural / horror film that does not resort to cliché’s or stereotypes to deliver its atmosphere of foreboding and horror. The acting is excellent, the ending unsettling. This one is quite different, and certainly worth seeking out for fans of the genre.
The video and audio are acceptable. There are only trailers as extras as we miss out again on the extras available in Region A.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Sony BDP-S580, using HDMI output |
Display | LG 55inch HD LCD. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p. |
Audio Decoder | NAD T737. This audio decoder/receiver has not been calibrated. |
Amplification | NAD T737 |
Speakers | Studio Acoustics 5.1 |