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Owners (The)
R2 - United Kingdom - Signature Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Rick Curzon (20th February 2021). |
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The Film
 Prepare for home invasion thrills and twists galore in THE OWNERS, starring Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams and Doctor Who legend Sylvester McCoy. One night in 1990s rural England, a retired couple finds their isolated house besieged by a gang of young criminals. The thieves think it will be easy to make them give up the secret of their safe. But they have no idea what nightmare they’ve gotten themselves into as they fight to escape the house alive.
Video
Home invasion horror film that has some twists up it's sleeve. It soon becomes pretty obvious where this os going and once I guessed it the film is fairly routine albeit with good performances. Part of the problem is that it's a typically grim and gruesome modern horror without much sense of fun and takes itself all a tad too seriously ... bar the final scene. Sylvester McCoy and Rita Tushingham come off best as the old couple taken hostage; the younger cast are perfectly fine but all they really get to do is swear a lot and be violent. Visually it's a dark film and digitally shot and graded to be thus. Consequently, the standard definition image is adequate without really impressing much. It's been afforded a DVD5 which is single layered; perhaps a dual layered DVD9 would've given the transfer a little more room to breathe. The colour palette is muted but naturalistic with very few primaries on offer; flesh tones are on the cool side. Black levels are decent with some shadow detail coming through and no unintended crush. Contrast is lowkey and supportive but the image lacks punch overall, but I get the impression that is what was intended. Decent image that gets the job done but collectors will vite to import a Blu-ray. PAL / MPEG-2 / 2.4:1 / 88:25
Audio
English Dolby Digital 5.1 English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: None An unremarkable sound field sadly; it gets the hob done and is obviously better in the 5.1 option but it's all mostly front centric. The surrounds are largely left to score and ambiance and I didn't pick up much if any LFE action. The 2.0 track is basic stereo and not encoded for surround unless forced through ProLogic II or a similar sound format. Sadly, no subtitles for the hearing impaired have been provided.
Extras
"The Owners: Behind the Scenes Dur 6'29"" 2020 featurette (6:18) Interviews with the director and cast (22:46) Standard EPK material. Startup Trailers: - Come to Daddy (2:03) - Alone (1:50) Standard promos for other releases from the same company and genre.
Packaging
Standard black DVD Keepcase.
Overall
An unusual but ultimately predictable if well acted home invasion horror flick with a couple of twists gets an adequate DVD release from Signature Entertainment in the UK. Extras are mostly brief EPK level stuff so not up to much. Decent image that gets the job done but collectors will vote to import a Blu-ray. Casuals will appreciate the low price so on that score, recommended.
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