Hurt

Released by: Redemption Films
Released on: October 1, 2007.
Director: Scott A Martin
Cast: Scott A. Martin, Ron Burgher, Greg Mason
Year: 2006

The Movie:

The basic premise of Hurt is that a vicious serial killer named Michael makes his presence known to a reporter in order to get his side of the story told. The film then cuts back and forth between that interview that takes place between Michael and the reporter, the reporter's attempts to get the story out there, and Michael's supposed 'home movies' in which we are treated to videotaped documents of his dirty deeds.

Sort of a cross between Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer and August Underground (though not nearly as good as either of those two films) Hurt doesn't really bring anything new to the table. The idea of the killer coming to the press is one that could have been better exploited than it is here and instead of a take on the media's infatuation and willingness to cash in on human suffering it instead plays out as little more than a fairly standard confession.

Using the 'home movie' technique used so brilliantly and effectively in Henry and then basically swiped and padded out to feature length and taken to the next disturbing level by Toetag's now notorious trilogy of faux snuff films, Hurt tries to show us reality through the eyes of Michael's camera. There's a problem with some of this footage, however - it doesn't look like reality. Angles have been obviously set up and staged, there are cuts and edits made where there couldn't possibly have been cuts and edits made had this been shot in real time and on top of that, much of it is in scope! As such, this doesn't feel like a serial killer's home movie collection at all - it feels like a bad, poorly planned horror film. This material carries no weight and has no impact, and it is quite simply far too easy to see through the illusion. Couple that with the uninspired acting and a pedestrian script that, at times, tries to build character but fails at even this and you've got a fairly useless movie.

The cover art would lead us to believe that this is a video nasty for the new decade but the truth is that the film is actually pretty tame in terms of what we actually see. Director Scott A. Martin chose to imply more than show what happens to Michael's victims and while this can obviously be a very effective way of buidling suspense and disturbing the viewer, here it feels more like a way of scrimping on effects costs. Given that the film is almost two hours in length, there are too many spots that drag and that ultimately feel like padding as they don't serve to further the thin plot or build character.

So, with that said, let it suffice to say that Hurt is a serial killer film with little serial killing and an unimaginitive premise. There isn't enough gore to make this one work as a splatter picture nor is there anything remarkable about the look of the film, the sound design, or the production values. It doesn't look good. It isn't entertaining. It isn't even interesting. Hurt is a good title for this one, as that's exactly how you're going to feel after sitting through two hours of pointless cheapjack moviemaking.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Hurt flip flops between a few different aspect ratios, none of which are anamorphic. The film was shot on video (looks like a mix of DV and VHS) and so the image is fairly soft but on top of that, the encoding here isn't really up to par. The picture hasn't been flagged for progressive scan playback and sometimes the picture is very soft. It's all watchable but this is a weaker than average effort and the film, unfortunately, doesn't look very good on DVD. Granted, some of this was done on purpose to give the movie a sort of amateur snuff look, but that doesn't change the fact that there are compression artifacts and sawtooth artifacts all over the place.

The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track isn't bad but there are a few scenes where you may find yourself reaching for the remote to turn things up as the levels fluctuate in a couple of spots. Aside from that, there are no problems with hiss or distortion and the dialogue remains pretty clear.

The only substantial supplement on this disc is a commentary track from writer/director Scott A. Martin and despite the problems with the film, it is actually worth a listen. Martin talks about the problems he ran into on the project and how he tried to work around them and he provides some interesting stories from the trenches of the low budget filmmaking world in addition to covering the standard topics such as casting, effects and camerawork.
Rounding out the extra features are a trailer for Hurt, trailers for a few other Redemption DVD releases, a promos spot for a book titled Blood And Honor, a still gallery, menus and chapter stops.

The Final Word:

Hurt has some interesting ideas but ultimately it just isn't that interesting or well made. Hampered by an unimpressive release of Redemption, the film isn't done any favors by the poor transfer.