Otis Blu-ray features poor video and decent audio in this poor Blu-ray release
The authorities are baffled. A half-a-dozen strikingly beautiful teenage girls have disappeared,
only to be discovered a month later — murdered and mutilated almost beyond recognition.
When a new victim, 16-year-old high school cheerleader Riley Lawson, finds
herself trapped and tortured in a basement prison by the psychopath Otis,
she resolves to do WHATEVER she has to in order to stay alive. By chance she escapes and
Riley informs her relieved parents (Daniel Stern and Illeana Douglas) and younger brother where she was held. Bypassing the FBI agent assigned to the
case, the Lawson’s conspire to take their revenge and kill the madman who kidnapped their
daughter… but circumstances begin to spin beyond their control when Otis's brother arrives on the scene.
For more about Otis and the Otis Blu-ray release, see the Otis Blu-ray Review
The Dark Comedy has always been a prism through which filmmakers convey social angst, the
darkest depths of man, or political satire framed in the context of comedy. American Psycho and
Heathers are the
genre's shining lights, films that embody the Dark Comedy to its core. Heathers is a film
of teenage
rebellion, acceptance, conformity, and hate. It offers a grisly, disturbing, poignant, and satirical
look at high school in the 1980s, the stereotypes and cliques of the generation, and the isolation
and despair of those left to sit at the corner table of the cafeteria to mull over the lifestyle from
which they've been shunned or have chosen to shun, for whatever reason -- as they plot an end
to conformity, vanity, and acceptance into the upper echelons of high school society with nothing
other than good looks, the right clothes, or a starting position on the football team. Otis
is also a dark comedy, but it lacks the depth and meaning of the best films of its kind. It's
superficial, tries too hard to play on the high school angst angle, and morphs into an odd kind of
revenge film that does send a clear message about the importance of levelheadedness in a time
of crisis, but for the most part, the film fails to engender any emotional or intellectual response
from the viewer. Nevertheless, Otis is a fun and interesting watch in context, taking it
completely superficially and ignoring any of the jaunts the film tries to take into meaningful
satire, but even then, the movie doesn't deliver on what seems to be the promise of gore, if one
were to look at the various power tools and the "uncut" label attached to the Blu-ray release of
the picture.
Get out of my dreams, get into my car!
Otis Broth (Bostin Christopher) is an unassuming pizza delivery boy by night (and a particularly
bad
one at that) and a psychotic kidnapper and molester by day. Hiding in his basement where he
maintains a tortuous bedroom for his prey, replete with a filthy cot, sunlamps, electrified grates,
an
old telephone, spy cameras, and an industrial-strength chain to keep his victims at bay, Otis'
young
victims become his makeshift girlfriends in a bizarre routine where the couple reenact clichéd
high
school boyfriend-girlfriend dating activities. His latest victim, Riley Lawson (Ashley Johnson),
plays the
peppy cheerleader to Otis' fantasy as a Varsity football jock. She will share car rides in his
stationary Trans-Am with a projection of a road behind, cheer for him, and attend the prom with
him, while Otis acts out the role of the boyfriend, calling her on the telephone and even placing
calls to her parents, Will and Kate (Daniel Stern, Home Alone, and
Illeana Douglas, Stir of Echoes,
respectively), asking for permission to keep Riley (or Kim, as he prefers to call her), out past
curfew. When Riley's parents and her brother Reed (Jared Kusnitz) catch wind of where Otis
lives, they decide to exact revenge, Lawson-family style. Only one man stands between them
and Otis -- Otis' brother, Elmo (Kevin Pollack, End of Days).
Otis would perhaps be better served were it called: Otis: A Love Story. Otis does
not love the girls he kidnaps. He doesn't love the thrill of the hunt. He doesn't even seem to
relish having to hack them to pieces when he is finished with them. All he loves is a time and
place and a set of experiences he never had. Otis is a man lost in self doubt, self-loathing for
opportunities missed, and depression. He tries to overcome it, criminally, by forcing others into a
fantasy that never played out for him in reality. Yes, the attraction to the girl must be there, but
it's not about her -- its about fulfilling his dreams and rectifying his past, a past that never plays
out during the movie. The audience never becomes privy to much of the
backstory that set the character and his motivations up. One can easily surmise that Otis' high
school years were met with embarrassment,
shame, verbal and psychological torture and abuse, and humiliation. As a child, he was probably
always the reluctant final pick for a game of touch football or basketball and slowly began living a
life of seclusion. Nevertheless, his character is painted in such a way through the run-down
home; the minimum-wage job; the filthy, sweat- and food-stained clothes; the scorn of his
brother; and the lack of a social life to clue audiences in on the "whys" of his actions. What we
have in Otis is a film that offers a second and third act, but no establishing first. There is
little context in which to frame his actions. He's clearly crazy, and his appearance and odd
fantasies spell out his motivations, but then again, when dealing with "crazy," there isn't always
a "first act" or a rhyme or reason behind the insanity, which is part of the definition of the word
to begin with.
If one is familiar with the Dark Comedy, and the two aforementioned films in particular,
comparisons become inevitable. Otis works -- a little -- as a repressed anger, post-teen
angst movie, which comprises the film's first half, but doesn't work so well as a satire on revenge
or the human condition, which is what the film offers in is second half. One area where the film
tries to mimic American Psycho is through its use of popular music set to various scenes
of the film. American Psycho proved brilliant in its integration of music into its story line,
but with
Otis, the results are hit-and-miss. The film begins by playing Venus
(the version by Shocking Blue, not Bananarama's famous version) and it sets a great tone to the
scene and is a wonderful start to what looks like will be a great movie. American Psycho
set such a lofty standard -- playing Hip to be Square as Patrick Bateman, portrayed by
Christian Bale, hacks Paul Allen, portrayed by Jared Leto, to pieces, blood splattering everywhere
and covering his face, a psychotic rage in his eyes so natural, so deep, so frightening, one
wonders how Bale achieved such a wicked countenance in the first place. In Otis,
however, the music has no powerful, emotionally disturbing visuals to back it up. There is
practically no gore in the movie, no scenes of maniacal torture, abuse, or murder. All of the
elements are in place, but there is no payoff. The music fits, but the story doesn't. This is why
the first song, Venus, works. We have no basis for comparison, having not seen the rest
of the picture, and to start the movie it
creates an atmosphere that clues in more astute and cinematically in-tune audiences that they
may be in for another American Psycho. Sadly, such is not the case.
The characters and the acting found in Otis make the movie, even if the acting leaves a
bit to be desired. The actors do all they can with a script that is devoid of any real horror
elements,
and only approaches the periphery of dark satire, poking about the issue and superficially
succeeding but failing to dive in and completely embrace the concept. Otis is an interesting
character, played rather well by Bostin Christopher, and may remind audience of the character
"Martha Dumptruck" from Heathers, the outcast, overweight girl who is the object of
ridicule by her peers. One can easily see Otis in that role, and in such a context as described
above, living out his high school years that resemble Martha's, his motivations become clearer.
The entire Lawson family is intriguing, but the movie never builds on their sudden desire to slice
and dice Otis for their own brand of twisted revenge-pleasure. A few moments of hesitation and
unconvincing speech later, and daddy Lawson is suddenly ready to stick a hot curling iron down
someone's throat. Like the rest of the movie, there is plenty of good potential here, but all of it is
wasted and never gels. The worst character of the film is the halfwit detective that comes
in to try and solve the case, but is capable of nothing more than aiming a laser pointer at people.
He and his fellow officers have no tact when it comes to comforting the grieving family, going into
detail about the
various body parts of previous victims, and it's no wonder the family decides to bypass him and
the law and
seek their own justice. It's a necessarily bad character in the grand scheme of things, but the
level of annoyance here supersedes any needed plot device. Kevin Pollack is a saving grace. He's
always good and always reliable, and he plays Otis' hateful brother perfectly, scolding him to the
point that Otis cannot even look him in the eye, playing in nice contrast to his mostly
authoritarian stance with the various girls he encounters.
Otis delivers an unimpressive visual experience. Presented in 1080p and framed at 2.35:1,
the transfer is one of the lesser ones on the market. The film was shot on video, and it definitely
looks it, coming off as a cheap made for TV movie. The image is smooth and offers a bright sheen
over many shots with noise permeating the picture every now and again. Many shots are incredibly
hazy with little resolution, clarity, or detail (a scene in chapter 11 featuring dialogue between Otis
and Elmo is a fine example). Colors are moderately vibrant, only in places, but the movie never
looks real. Very processed in appearance, flat, and completely uninteresting, nothing stands out
and visually exciting. Black levels and flesh tones are questionable. Otis is a boring movie
from a visual perspective and one of the lesser discs on the market in terms of video quality.
Otis comes to Blu-ray with a lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack. Dialogue is a bit low in
volume, but generally clear. Music is clear with decent fidelity and spread nicely across the front
soundstage. The rear speakers get a good workout with some nice discrete effects in the form of
gunfire heard over the opening news footage-inspired credits. There is a bit of rattling and rumbling
from the subwoofer as Otis' junk mobile huffs and puffs its way out of frame after he kidnaps
Riley in chapter 6. It also pans nicely across the soundstage with a solid rear presence. Like its
video quality, Otis is completely uninteresting from a sonic perspective. It fares a little
better than the video, however, and is a decent enough, if not forgettable, soundtrack.
Otis is a movie that lost its way somewhere between development and final product. The
groundwork has been laid for a phenomenal Dark Comedy, a satiric look at the world of the lives of
those shunned and ignored growing up, and of revenge, middle-class suburbia style. Neither
element works all that well, particularly the latter. What's missing is a slightly harsher edge, the
gore, and intensity. It does have the easygoing, free-spirited, independent feel, and the movie isn't
a bad effort, just one that feels terribly incomplete. As it stands, Otis is watchable, in a
3:00 AM triple feature schlock drive-in sort of way. Warner Brothers and Raw Feed present
Otis on Blu-ray as a completely bare-bones package, lacking even a main menu. The
picture quality is subpar and the lossless soundtrack is nothing to brag about. Worth a rental for
the curious.
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Immediately following the premier of 'Otis', it was announced that Warner Home Video would release the Raw Feed film for Blu-ray on June 10th, day-and-date with the DVD release. This is the second Raw Feed film to be released on Blu-ray, the first being the April ...
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