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Released by: Lurker Films
Released on: 2006.
Director: Aaron Vanek
Cast: Shawna Waldron, Dale Snowberger
Year: 2001
The Movie:
The first volume in what will hopefully be a long running series of independently produced DVDs dedicated to films based on the writings of Robert W. Chambers, The Weird Tale DVD Collection Volume 1 spotlights Aaron Vanek forty-five minute long adaptation of one of the writer's best known works, The Yellow Sign. The some obvious liberties have been taken with this adaptation; it does prove to be quite faithful in spirit and in tone to the story on which it was based.
The story follows Tess Reardon (Shawna Waldron), a young woman who makes her living running an art gallery. Tess' stress level is through the roof, as she hasn't been sleeping since she's started suffering from some horrible recurring nightmares that she can only remember bits and pieces of. The one thing she is always able to remember is a man who turns out to be real, a painter named Aubrey Scott (Dale Snowberger). Tess wants to track him down and meet with him to see if she can figure out how to stop the nightmares, but he hasn't been active in the art community for years and no one seems to know where he went off to.
After a bit of detective work, Tess hunts him down and finds him living in a dingy motel room. It's a strange building and he seems to have the place more or less to himself. Tess talks him into having a showing at her gallery but he insists she pose for him before he'll sign off on the contracts. She agrees and as she sits for him he tells her bizarre stories from his childhood involving mystics and magic and an alternate dimension and a city named Carcosa that exists within that reality.
Tess heads back home only to find that her nightmares have actually gotten worse since meeting up with Scott, and now she keeps seeing visions of a yellow sign which pulls up some obscure memories from her own childhood. When Aubrey gives her a book containing a play called The King In Yellow, she draws some unusual parallels to her life and that of a character in the play. Oddly enough, she also picks up on some similarities between Aubrey Scott and a character in the play. As Scott's painting of Tess comes closer and closer to completion, Tess becomes unsure of what is real and what is happening in her mind and she begins a strange descent into madness.
For a low budget production, The Yellow Sign does a remarkably impressive job of bringing some notoriously difficult material to the screen. Vanek was clever enough to place most of the action in one or two sets that obviously cuts down on costs and the film relies on the performances of its two leads more than anything else. Thankfully, both Waldron and Snowberger are up to the task and they're quite good in their respective parts.
The two sets that the film plays out on are eerie enough that they add plenty of atmosphere to the movie and they just look 'right' for the story. There's an interesting and macabre attention to background detail here and if you pay attention to some of the odd artwork and trinkets lying around in the movie you'll discover some odd hints and bits of foreshadowing and symbolism scattered about. The way that Tess' dreams and her reality intertwine is quite clever, using pieces around her bed as a way to transition from one plane to the other and as such the blend of the real and the unreal becomes quite seamless towards the final third portion of the movie.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Yellow Sign was shot on digital video and it's a bit on the murky side in some spots but for the most part the picture is reproduced faithfully on this transfer save for one flaw - the picture is squeezed. If you tinker with your DVD player settings you can fix the problem and watch the movie in its original unsqueezed aspect ratio and once you've done this, the image isn't bad at all. Lurker issued a press release stating that future pressings of the disc will fix this problem.
The feature has audio options supplied in both Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and this is one of those odd situations where the 2.0 mix trumps the 5.1 track. The clarity and overall quality of the stereo track is better than the 5.1 mix, which spreads things out just a little too much and as such, sounds weaker than it's counterpart. It's a shame that the 5.1 track wasn't of better quality as some better produced surround action would have made certain moments of the movie more fun, but the stereo track sounds quite good and gets things done.
First up, as far as the supplements go, are two audio commentaries for The Yellow Sign, both from director Aaron Vanek and actress Shawna Waldron. The first track is a more serious discussion of the making of the film as Vanek tells us about what influenced his movie and spills his guts about a few of the troubles that they went through getting the movie completed. The second track is a little more humorous and it focuses on some of the strange things that happened during the shoot. Neither track is going to change your opinion of the movie but if you did enjoy the picture then both of these will be well worth sampling as they lend some insight into the history of the movie.
Also included on this disc, in relation to The Yellow Sign, is a selection of deleted scenes and some audition footage clips, as well as a decent sized still gallery of behind the scenes photographs. Up next, and not specifically related to The Yellow Sign, are two short films. The first, Tupilak, is a short 35mm production that runs thirteen minutes and was directed by David Leroy.
The second short, the six-minute The King In Yellow by Emiliano Guarneri, David Fraegle and Leonardo Camastra,
The best of the extra features is a really interesting fifteen-minute biographical documentary on Robert W. Chambers entitled Chambers In Paris. Directed by Christophe Thill and shot on location in Paris, this piece covers Chambers' life and times by examining how various authors who came before him influenced his work and how he started in horror and worked his way into romance where he found a much more lucrative career. Ironic then, that it's the horror and supernatural stories that he wrote for which Chambers has been remembered.
Lurker has also supplied a nice, full color booklet containing notes and essays on each of the films in this set as well as an essay on Robert Chambers himself. Animated menus and chapter stops for the feature presentation round out the supplements for this release.
The Final Word:
Despite the oddity with the transfer, The Weird Tale DVD Collection Volume One - The Yellow Sign is still a release worth looking into for fans of supernatural horror. Lurker has, aside from the video, done their typically solid job on this release and this is one of those times where the extras provide as much value as the feature itself.