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Released by: MTI Home Video
Released on: 10/3/2006
Director: Ryan Nicholson
Cast: Mike Bennett, Greg Chan, Stephan Chang
Year: 2006
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The Movie:
A group of five teenagers decide to get some rest and relaxation by way of a vacation to Hong Kong (or at least Vancouver doubling for Hong Kong) - or at least that's the plan. What happens is that soon after they arrive a drunken spat in a karaoke bar finds them on the bad side of a local gang boss. An undercover police officer tells them to get out of the bar before they wind up dead, and the wisely oblige him and head back out into the city. On their way back to their hotel, they decide to stop off at a seedy adult theater that is actually a front for some twisted happenings. It seems that the cranky gang boss from the karaoke bar actually runs the place, and that he's into some pretty sick stuff. A hulking scary guy in a sort of PVC-latex butcher's outfit shows up and, for the satisfaction of the mob boss and his pervo pals, starts slicing and dicing his way through the kids while the whole thing is broadcast on a live feed to various monitors throughout this fine establishment.
The obvious comparisons to Eli Roth's Hostel are inevitible (even if the filmmakers claim that this project was underway before Hostel was released) when thinking about this film, particularly when the cover art is obviously intend to make us think that there's a connection between the two films. Roth's film could have been better than it was save for one major problem - the main characters were just not likeable, and because of that, it was really hard to care about what happened to them. If you don't care what happens to the characters, there isn't going to be any suspense and if there isn't any suspense, the movie isn't going to be scary. Unfortunately, Ryan Nicholson's Live Feed suffers from the very same flaw. The five teenagers who find themselves in deep doo-doo are lame characters, and they really only appear to exist in this picture as fodder for the big PVC butcher guy and his boss. When the movie is set up in such a way that you know from the start that these protagonists are more or less dead meat, the story is instantly less engaging than it should be - that's a bad thing. Adding to that is the quality of the acting. Granted, Live Feed is a low budget movie and to a certain extent you have to cut it some slack in the casting department, but even with that said no one in the cast really stands out here at all. The characters, good or bad, are pretty much completely disposable.
So is Live Feed a complete waste of time? No, not at all. It's actually not bad, as long as you go into it with your expectactions firmly in check. Nicholson isn't reinventing the wheel here, instead he's made a splatter film and as a splatter film, this one works. The camera doesn't linger as long as gorehounds might want it to in certain scenes but there are some really creative and genuinely unsettling murder set pieces in this movie that show a knack for framing and for effects (not surprsing given Nicholson's past as an effects technician). The main set, that being the theater, is an interesting place to stage the events that play out and the live feed footage does add an uneasy sense of voyeurism to the movie that works in its favor. Although much of the theater is shrouded in darkness and shadows, we see enough of it to know that it is a pretty seedy place and it does seem an appropriate location for the messed up events that take place in the movie to occur. If more care had been put into some actual character development and a better case been used, Live Feed could have been a whole lot better but as it stands now, even with these obvious flaws, it's worth a look for fans of unflinching indy horror.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen presentation is decent if uneven. The movie bounces back and forth between the professionally shot footage and the 'live feed' footage broadcast throughout the theater which gives it an interesting look. You can't fault the 'live feed' footage for looking a little rough when that was the obvious intent behind the switch, so how does the professionally shot material look? Quite good for a low budget shot on DV production. Black levels show a little bit of compression in spots but by and large the picture is clean and clear and if there's a bit of shimmering here and there, things are otherwise just fine although it does need to be said that the interiors of the movie house are very, very dark in spots. If this was on purpose or not, this reviewer can't rightly say but a little more light in these scenes would have helped with the clarity and probably not hurt the atmosphere much at all.
The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track isn't going to blow your mind but it gets the job done. A true surround sound mix would have added some depth to a few key scenes but the stereo effects and channel separation that this mix provides get the point across easily enough. Unfortunately, there are a few too many scenes where the score does bury the dialogue quite a bit and some mild distortion is present in a couple of spots. Optional subtitles are provided in Spanish.
The biggest and best of the extra features on this disc is a featurette entitled Behind The Blood: The Making of Live Feed. This is a pretty extensive look at how the project was together from start to finish and it covers casting, location scouting and shooting, special effects work and post production sparing no detail. It's interesting to see the stunt men and actors blocking scenes as well as to get a glimpse of the effects technicians doing their thing. It's also interesting to see some of the location scouting footage to get an idea of what the theater looks like. We also see how the snake scene was done (no need to worry, the little guy comes out of it all unscathed). It's done with a sense of humor but at an hour and twenty minutes in length (it's as long as the movie itself) it's a very comprehensive look at how this project was put together from start to finish.
Up next is an engaging commentary from Nicholson and a handful of cast members from the film, who speak about their experiences on the movie and tell some interesting stories from the trenches. While a lot of what's covered in the documentary is also covered here, it's a fairly interesting listen. Everyone involved in the project is obviously quite proud of their work, and there's no shame in that, though discussing some of the more obvious flaws in the film would have leant things a more honest tone. Regardless, Nicholson and company cover the sets, the location shooting, what it was like working with some of the effects props and more. It's pretty in-depth and if you want to learn yet more about the making of Live Feed, this is the way to do it.
"Womb Service" - the movie within the movie (exclusive to "Unrated" version) - is a sixteen minute segment where two blondes meet up in a hotel room and get it on and then party with a nerdy guy. It's faux-porno but it's moderately amusing.
A selection of deleted scenes (a scene in the market where our heroes bicker, a scene where the two male protagonists make racist remarks about some of the locals, a scene with the two girls in a bar, and more), and some alternate scenes (most of which take place in the theater) are also included.
Rounding out the extra features is a trailer fo
r the feature, trailers for three other MTI DVD releases, a promo spot for the market scene in the opening bits of the movie (basically a five and a half minute commercial showing you what it looks like outside of the context of the movie), animated menus and chapter stops.
The Final Word:
Live Feed is far from perfect, but it gets enough right that it's worth a look and it shows a whole lot of promise for Nicholson as a director. A little more polish in the story department and a better team of actors would have done this movie a world of good, but as it stands the picture is an entertaining and well paced little slice of mean-spirited movie making. It's not a modern classic, but it's better than you might expect.