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Released by: Olive Films
Released on: August 25th, 2015.
Director: Roger Christian
Cast: Zeljko Ivanek, Kathryn Harrold, Shirley Knight, Paul Freeman
Year: 1982
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The Movie:
An unjustly maligned thriller from the early 1980s, Roger Christian's The Sender arrives on Blu-ray thanks to Olive Films.
When the film begins, an unnamed man (Zelko Ivanek) walks out of the woods onto a beach full of vacationers who watch in terror as, with his pockets full of rocks, he walks into the nearby lake and attempts to drown himself. Shortly after this failed suicide attempt he wakes up in a mental institution where the hospital staff dubs him John Doe #83. He has no recollection of what happened to him, why he tried to kill himself, or even what his own name is.
The doctor assigned to take care of John Doe, Gail Farmer (Kathryn Harrold), isn't especially interested in his case right off the bat but she soon starts to genuinely care for the young man and as she does, she starts to notice unusual things happening around the hospital. The longer John Doe spends in the institute, the more frequent and aggressive these events become, and before you know it Dr. Farmer believes herself to be seeing John outside of the hospital while he's sleeping soundly in his room. When what appear to be psychic attacks are linked to John Doe, the staff members have to decide what to do about it. Complicating matters further is the arrival of a strange woman claiming but unable to prove that she's John's mother. She disappears almost as quickly and suddenly as she shows up in the first place and soon the hospital director decides John should undergo some shock treatment… and that's when it all hits the fan.
While this one might move a little slowly for some tastes, particularly during the first half of the film, The Sender builds very nicely to a genuinely unique, unnerving and unexpected climax. Christian builds the plot very deliberately and spends enough time building up the characters that we really do start to feel for both John Doe and Dr. Farmer, though for fairly different reasons. John, obviously, has lost his memory and is struggling with that and with the strange psychic phenomena surrounding him while Dr. Farmer is sincerely trying to abide by the Hippocratic Oath and give her patient the best possible care that she can. This very human element gives The Sender a lot more clout and impact than it would have otherwise brought to the table and the well written and interesting characters are largely responsible for much of the picture's success.
If the character development doesn't pull you in, however, wait until the last half hour of the picture where everything starts to come to a violent boil. Once the psychic episodes begin to increase in frequency and intensity, the picture really picks up and becomes quite tense and fairly disturbing. The plot throws in some interesting and unpredictable theological twists to explain John's case that help edge this one into supernatural territory while the more scientific aspects of the picture ground it firmly in what was, at the time it was made, the real world. There are some loose ends and plot points that are hinted at but not fully explained, but that would seem to be intentional on the part of scriptwriter Thomas Baum, who proves that a little bit of mystery can go a long way and that sometimes movies are better if they don't spoon-feed the audience every last detail.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Sender debuts on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.78.1 widescreen and it looks quite good. The mild coat of grain is never distracting and there isn't any real print damage to complain about save for some small specks here and there. The color reproduction looks very lifelike and natural and often times quite impressive. There's a bit of wear and tear in some spots but for the most part this is a nice presentation with strong detail and texture. Skin tones look good and black levels are fine. There aren't any compression artifacts to complain about nor is there any obvious edge enhancement or noise reduction to note.
The sole audio option on this disc is an English language DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track that doesn't contain any noticeable background hiss but does contain a few clicks and pops in the mix. Otherwise this track is perfectly serviceable. The score sounds pretty good here and the dialogue is clean and clear.
Save for a static menu and chapter selection this Blu-ray is, unfortunately, completely devoid of any extra features whatsoever.
The Final Word:
Olive Films gives a truly underappreciated horror film a very respectable Blu-ray debut. Despite the lack of extras the movie looks and sounds very good and the film itself holds up quite well.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
