Observance

Released by: Artsploitation Films
Released on: August 2nd, 2016.
Director: Joseph Sims-Dennett
Cast: Lindsay Farris, Stephanie King, Brendan Cowell, John Jarratt, Benedict Hardie
Year: 2015
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The Movie:

Joseph Sims-Dennett's 2015 picture Observance introduces us to a man named Parker (Lindsay Farris). He was once in business for himself as a private detective but after his son passed away and his marriage fell apart, he's been in a slump. Things get… weird when he's hired to keep tabs on a pretty woman named Tenneal (Stephanie King). To do this he sets himself up in a rundown apartment and proceeds to get all of his gear in order - camera, recording equipment, all the typical P.I. stuff you'd expect him to have.

But Parker never met the guy who hired him to spend a week doing this. He gets the odd phone call with direction but that's it. It's all very mysterious and strange and the more time he spends on this stakeout, the more it seems to take its toll on him. When he falls asleep and wakes up with a lesion on his back and an uncontrollable urge to vomit, it's clear that something has gone horribly wrong here.

Observance leaves a whole lot up to the viewer to decide in terms of its resolution, but that's not necessarily a bad thing given how formulaic a lot of horror pictures can be. Pulling obvious influence from the likes of Polanski and Lynch and throwing in some Hitchcockian Rear Window style voyeuristic tropes, Sims-Dennett has crafted a pretty interesting picture. It's not always pretty, mind you - the apartment where Parker bases his operation is squalid, it looks as if it is rotting from the inside and there's a very putrid vibe to it. This makes what he does feel unseemly right from the start, and of course as things proceed and the plot becomes increasingly more bizarre, that unseemliness ramps up to a pretty strong degree.

The performances are interesting. Lindsay Farris is really solid in the lead. He makes Parker an interesting character. We know he's been through a lot leading up to the events that take place in the movie and we feel for the guy. Without spoiling how things wind up playing out, his character arc is fairly extreme but Farris handles both the physical demands and the dramatic aspects of the part quite well. Our other lead, Stephanie King, also does fine work here. She doesn't have a whole lot of dialogue and much of what we see her do we see from Parker's point of view, but she uses her body language to convey everything that she needs to. As Parker spends more time observing her and in turn, slowly but surely becomes obsessed with her, we do at least understand why this would happen. She's very attractive and her character is intriguing.

The movie is well put together on a technical level. This wasn't made with a massive budget but it doesn't need loads of fancy effects work to tell its story. The squalid apartment set is perfect for Parker's side of the story, it seems to constrict around him at times and its filth in turn seems to infect him. The cinematography enhances this, there are some clever camera setups here. The use of sound in the film is also very effective. This doesn't move at a hundred miles an hour, but if you appreciate ambiguously weird, slow burns then this should work for you. It's quite well done!

Video/Audio/Extras:

The AVC encoded 2.35.1 widescreen 1080p high definition picture on this disc is quite good. Detail is strong and colors are reproduced really well (although this is hardly a colorful film, it's pretty heavy on earth tones and darker colors). Black levels are nice and deep throughout the presentation. Generally the transfer excels in areas of both detail and texture. As this was shot digitally there are no issues at all with dirt, debris or visual detriments of any kind and the disc is well authored, showing no noise reduction or heavy edge enhancement. Outside of some slight shimmer here and there, the movie looks excellent in high definition.

The only audio option on the disc is an English language track provided in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio with removable subtitles available in English. The lossless 5.1 track here is a good one, with a lot of impressive channel separation throughout the movie. The score is spread around perfectly with some nice pans thrown in for dramatic effect while bass response is consistent tight and strong.

Extras are slim. We get a three minute introduction to the film from Farris and King, trailers for a few other Artsploitation Films properties, menus and chapter selection.

The Final Word:

Observance is a well done, it's a thought provoking picture that rewards attentive viewing (and at the same time is sure to alienate those who want things tied up nicely with a bow) and offers some solid thrills at the same time. Artsploitation's Blu-ray release is short on supplements but it looks and sounds quite good. This is definitely worth checking out, so long as you're down with ambiguity!

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!