Review by Gary Tooze

 

Production:

Theatrical: American Zoetrope

Video: 20th Century Fox

 

Disc:

Region: 'A' (as verified by the Oppo Blu-ray player)

Runtime: 1:28:03.486

Disc Size: 40,368,806,092 bytes

Feature Size: 27,317,919,744 bytes

Video Bitrate: 35.47 Mbps

Chapters: 24

Case: Standard Blu-ray case

Release date: July 23rd, 2013

 

Video:

Aspect ratio: 2.00:1

Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps

Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Audio:

DTS-HD Master Audio English 3728 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3728 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)

 

Subtitles:

English (SDH), French, Spanish, none

 

Extras:

• Twixt - a Documentary by Gia Coppola (37:42)

• Previews

 

Bitrate:

 

 

Description: Val Kilmer and Elle Fanning star in this terrifying horror film written and directed by Academy Awardr Winner Francis Ford Coppola.* Kilmer plays Hall Baltimore, a writer on a book tour who uncovers a disturbing murder that could be source material for his next novel. But as Hall investigates the killing, he finds himself confronted by chilling nightmares, including the ghost of a young girl (Fanning). As he uncovers more horrifying revelations, Hall will discover that the story has more to do with his own life than he could ever have imagined.

 

 

The Film:

Francis Ford Coppola's gothic horror film Twixt stars Val Kilmer as Hall Baltimore, a semi-successful, alcoholic horror novelist who has been reduced to performing a book signing in the small town of Swan Valley. The local sheriff (Bruce Dern) tells him about a mysterious massacre in the town's history, and suggest that the two of them write a book about it. While at first Hall blows off the suggestion, he has a series of disturbing dreams -- often involving Edgar Allan Poe (Ben Chaplin) -- about the town and its history that prompt him to dig further into the truth. Co-starring Elle Fanning, Twixt screened at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

Excerpt from MRQE located HERE

By his own admission, Francis Ford Coppola is having fun, and who can blame him? At 73, his place in film history as one of the great directors secure, he's just kicking back. He's got money and is willing to spend a little of it to make his own films.

"Twixt" is an old-school horror film, only his third trip into the genre (he made "Dementia 13" for Roger Corman in 1963, and "Bram Stoker's Dracula" in 1992). It's a ghost story, which Coppola claims to have dreamed up after getting drunk in Istanbul on raki, a Turkish liquor.

And so we have Val Kilmer as a boozing has-been author on a book tour that has a stop in an extremely small, and weird, town. At a hotel where Edgar Allan Poe supposedly once stayed, he sees a vision of a ghostly 12-year-old girl (Elle Fanning), one of several children murdered in the 1800s. The author investigates, with the help of the local sheriff (Bruce Dern at his Bruce Derniest), and Poe himself (Ben Chaplin), appearing in a series of dreams.

Excerpt from SFGate located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Twixt appears pristine on Blu-ray from Fox.  The 1080P image quality is without flaws and supports the diverse cinematography and effects.  This is dual-layered with a max'ed out bitrate. Daylight scene colors seem brighter and truer than SD could relate. Contrast exhibits healthy, rich black levels supporting some strong detail in the close-ups. The effects are imperfect but the higher resolution doesn't make them overly transparent. This Blu-ray has smooth, sleek, sharp feel with plenty of depth and no noise.  The dream sequences are black and white with flares of colors and they look... dreamy. This Blu-ray probably looks like the film Twixt and it gave me a great visual presentation.

 

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio :

Audio is exported via a DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround track at 3728 kbps. It handles Twixt's sound stage with relative ease - there are some subtle effects sneaking, surprisingly to the rear speakers. It is very atmospheric in the first half of the film. There is an original score by Dan Deacon and Osvaldo Golijov (Coppola's Tetro) which is supported perfectly sounding quite clear and crisp with some underused bass. There are optional subtitles and my Oppo has identified it as being a region FREE disc playable on Blu-ray machines worldwide.

 

Extras :

Only one supplement - an interesting documentary on the making of Twixt by Gia Coppola (Granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor Coppola.) It runs shy of 40-minutes and has a lot with the director and examines aspects of the production.

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
Twixt has many good parts but the sum does not add up to a solid film, in my opinion. I thoroughly enjoyed the old-school horror attributes (small town, horror author, Ouija board, secret past etc.) although the black + white dream sequences may have been overdone. Kilmer may be paunchy but he is damn good. It just doesn't seem to come together the way I was anticipating. The Blu-ray is solid supporting the film's diverse cinematography and effects quite adeptly. I love Coppola but I don't see even horror aficionados getting enough out of this. Pass. 

Gary Tooze

July 16th, 2013