Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Hellacious Acres: The Case Of John Glass

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Hellacious Acres: The Case Of John Glass



    Released by: Bloody Disgusting Selects
    Released on: April 3, 2012.
    Director: Pat Tremblay
    Cast: Navin Pratap, Jamie Abrams, Laurent Lecompte, Paula J. Davis
    Year: 2011
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Movie:

    Written, directed and edited by Pat Tremblay, 2011's Hellacious Acres: The Case Of John Glass is an odd film that tells an odd story in an odd way. The narrative introduces us to, as the title implies, a man named John Glass (Navin Pratap) who wakes up in a cryogenic freezer stashed away in a barn in the middle of nowhere. He wakes up with no memory and, obviously suffering from amnesia, starts to wander around only to quickly realize that things are not at all as they were left - the Earth has been ruined by a massive world war that's left pretty much the entire planet a post apocalyptic wasteland.

    From here, he wanders the area seeing what is left, what he can make use of and what he can scavenge - but he's being followed by strange alien beings that look for all the world like weird jellyfish floating through the air. Eventually he's recruited to help out on a mission that, if successful, could mean the possibility of hope for mankind but those aliens and a fairly insane local population aren't going to make it easy.

    Short on dialogue and heavy on long, wide angle shots of John wandering around barren, empty fields and digging through the remnants of old barns and structures, this one moves at a very strange pace. In fact, strange is the right way to describe pretty much every aspect of this low budget production. Tremblay gets bonus points for crafting a film of fairly marked originality and for not playing to genre stereotypes but on the flip side of that coin is the fact that a lot of people aren't going to necessarily get their heads around what he's trying to do here. A lot of black comedy is infused into the picture, which helps keep it interesting, and the compositions are always very cool looking but a bit more character development and a little more relatable aspects would have gone a long way towards letting the audience care more about the movie's outcome.

    As such, it's hard to specifically recommended this movie, even if at the same time it's easy to say that it's one worth seeing. The caveat there is that it's a fairly experimental movie and more of a periodically surreal and pensive movie than the horror tinged sci-fi movie that the packaging makes it out to be. Those expecting a post apocalyptic film like the ones made by Enzo Castellari are going to be very disappointed but if you're okay with a stylish slow burn and don't mind having to figure things out on your own and draw your own conclusions as to where certain aspects of the movie are going, give this one a look.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    The 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer on the DVD is fine. Detail is pretty good, color reproduction is nice and accurate looking and skin tones look natural enough. There are some very minor compression artifacts noticeable in a couple of the darker scenes but otherwise, the movie looks good on DVD.

    The only audio option on the disc is an English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track, no alternate language options are provided. Clarity is good throughout and the track is properly balanced.

    Extras are limited to a handful of deleted and extended scenes, menus and chapter stops.

    The Final Word:

    Hellacious Acres: The Case Of John Glass is pretty weird stuff. You've got to give Tremblay credit for doing a lot on a limited budget and for creating some pretty interesting visuals, but it's not a particularly accessible picture in a lot of ways. There are problems with the pacing and the plot and the slow nature of a lot of the movie will probably put some off - but there's a lot of creativity here that is definitely going to appeal to a certain segment of the cult movie demographic.

















      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Satan War (AGFA) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: AGFA
      Released on: January 28th, 2025.
      Director: Bart La Rue
      Cast: Sally Schermerhorn, Jimmy Drankovitch, Jane August
      Year: 1979
      Purchase From Amazon

      Satan War – Movie Review:

      Written and directed by Texas actor Bart La Rue, 1979’s Satan War is a movie. Yes indeed, it’s a movie. One opens with some psychedelic swirling effects that then follows a newlywed couple, Bill Foster (Jimmy Drankovitch) and his blushing
      ...
      01-31-2025, 05:33 PM
    • Asylum Of Terror (VHSHitfest) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: VHSHitfest
      Released on: October 29th, 2024.
      Director: George Demick
      Cast: Jason Petty, Melissa Young, Kerry Wade
      Year: 1998
      Purchase From Amazon

      Asylum Of Terror – Movie Review:

      Teenaged dudes Dean (Jason Petty), Mark (Sixx Williams) and a few of their less memorable pals set out to visit Death Row, a one-time prison facility for the criminally insane that has been converted into a haunted house attraction. When they
      ...
      01-30-2025, 06:40 PM
    • Disembodied (Bleeding Skull) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Bleeding Skull
      Released on: February 24th, 2025.
      Director: William Kersten
      Cast: Anastasia Woolverton, Hannah Nease
      Year: 1998
      Purchase From Amazon

      Disembodied – Movie Review:

      Written and directed by William Kersten in 1998, Disembodied, also known as Aberration (which is what is on the title card used for the feature presentation version of the movie on this release) opens with a scene where a man wanders into the
      ...
      01-29-2025, 06:53 PM
    • We Live In Time (A24) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: A24
      Released on: January 7th, 2025.
      Director: John Crowley
      Cast: Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield
      Year: 2024
      Purchase From Amazon

      We Live In Time – Movie Review:

      John Crowley’s 2024 film, We Live In Time, is, at its core, an overly sentimental romantic tearjerker but it’s also a showcase for leads Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield to really sink their teeth into their respective roles and deliver some first class
      ...
      01-24-2025, 04:45 PM
    • Inglorious Basterds (Arrow Video) UHD Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Arrow Video
      Released on: January 14th, 2025.
      Director: Quentin Tarantino
      Cast: Christoph Waltz, Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Eli Roth, Sylvester Groth, Til Schweiger, B.J. Novak
      Year: 2009
      Purchase From Amazon

      Inglorious Basterds – Movie Review:

      Quentin Tartantino's Inglourious Basterds has very little to do with Enzo G. Casterllari's Inglorious Bastards, a war film that starred Bo Svenson and Fred ‘The Hammer’
      ...
      01-24-2025, 04:35 PM
    • The Canyons (IFC Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Film Movement
      Released on: February 25th, 2025.
      Director: Paul Schrader
      Cast: Lindsay Lohan, James Deen
      Year: 2013
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Movie:

      Tara (Lindsay Lohan) and her boyfriend Christian (James Deen) are an actress and filmmaker respectively, but they've both had better days than those they're living when we meet them at a bar on Sunset Strip in Hollywood. Christian is in the process of appeasing his father
      ...
      01-24-2025, 04:32 PM
    Working...
    X