DVD Corner

Higanjima: Escape From Vampire Island Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Review

“Higanjima: Escape From Vampire Island” is an overlong bore.

The plot: After learning his missing brother is stranded on an island, Akira, his 5 friends, and a mysterious woman venture to the island to rescue him. Unfortunately, the rescue mission is easier said than done as the island is filled with blood thirsty vampires and other nasty creatures.

After a simple, but attanetion grabbing set-up to the story, ‘Higanjima’ quickly flounders once the main characters arrive on the island. One would think that seeing an island full of vampires would at least be entertaining, but the story quickly wears out its welcome as viewers become assaulted with repetitive story elements, cartoony over-the-top violence, and an unnecessary 122 minute run time. Even worse, the movie also contains random creatures like a winged beast and a giant gargoyle. Why these creatures are in the movie or where they came from, I will never know. They are completely out-of-place and appear as if they came from a bad SyFy channel flick.

Summary: Had “Higanjima” been edited down to 90 minutes, it might have been more palatable. As is, it’s a tedious action-horror flick.

Video/Audio:

The widescreen picture quality on the DVD is solid, but the night scenes look a little too dark at times. Thankfully, the 1080p hi-def transfer on the Blu-ray corrects these issues as all of the colors are crisp and clear.

The DVD sets contains English and Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks. While the action works well on the English track, the English dub is laughable at best. The Japanese track is the only way to go here as it is the original language track. The Blu-ray disc contains English and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1. The above comments apply to the Blu-ray tracks only the TrueHD tracks have more depth than the mere Dolby Digital tracks.

Extras:
* Trailers for “Alien Vs. Ninja,” “Higanjima: Escape From Vampire Island,” “Drop,” “Robogeisha,” “Ghost Train,” “The Sword With No Name,” “Tajomaru,” “Synesthesia,” “Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl,” and “Goemon.”
* “Making Of Higanjima”- A 45 minute featurette complete with set footage, a behind-the-scenes look at scenes being shot, cast/crew interviews, wire work, etc.

October 16, 2011 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | Higanjima: Escape From Vampire Island Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Review