A Place Among The Dead Blu-ray Review
“A Place Among The Dead” is an ambitious directorial debut by Juliet Landau.
In the meta “A Place Among The Dead” (which plays like a cross between “Mulholland Drive” and “The Blair Witch Project”), Jules (Juliet Landau) and Dev (Deverill Weekes) are making a documentary film on vampires. For the next part of filming, Jules and Dev venture to Santa Barbara to cover a mysterious vampiric serial killer case. The killer known as Darcel is still on the loose and appears to be targeting women. Jules finds herself getting deeply involved and obsessed with the case to the point where she starts to lose herself. Worse still, Darcel may just be targeting Jules as his next victim.
Clocking in at 75 minutes, “A Place Among The Dead” has enough content for several films at the very least. It’s part found footage movie, part true crime story, part performance art, part experimental art film, part vampire killer movie, and part documentary that blends fact and fiction together all rolled into. It’s a unique mash-up of genres to be sure.
From the opening frames it’s clear that director and star Juliet Landau (who also co-wrote the project with her husband Deverill Weekes) has crafted a deeply personal passion project that draws from her own life experiences and observations. Landau, who is perhaps best known for “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Ed Wood,” does what any good filmmaker would do and uses genre storytelling (in this case vampires) as a way to explore themes of aging, narcissism (and Hollywood narcissism), psychological abuse, toxic behavior, mortality, art, and evil. She also appears to be telling an almost cathartic story about her own past and career (although how much of that is true is an intentional mystery).
It’s not always smooth sailing for this project as it is a bit rough around the edges at times. Sometimes the acting comes across as a bit stiff which can ruin the documentary illusion. The cinematography by Deverill Weekes and Akis Konstantakopoulos is also distracting at points with the clunky framing and poorly lit scenes (see the blinding colors). As mentioned above, there’s a lot of ideas floating around which don’t always gel together narratively. Maybe the script needed more rewrites or maybe there needed to be more scenes to develop ideas further. Whatever the case may be, it feels like material is missing.
As you may have noticed from the credits and the back cover of the Blu-ray, there are a number of celebrities here such as Gary Oldman, Robert Patrick, Ron Perlman, Anne Rice and even Joss Whedon. Their involvement is limited as they are all included in the documentary portion in the film about vampires as each of them has appeared in (or created) a vampire project. They were all undoubtedly cast to help sell “A Place Among The Dead” which is understandable. Juliet Landau is the main star of her own movie which seems only fitting. Although she goes a little too big in a few scenes, she delivers a credible performance.
Overall Thoughts: The artistic “A Place Among The Dead” may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it will reward more open minded viewers. At the end of the day, Juliet Landau deserves credit for making her own movie and exposing her soul instead of waiting for a phone call for a potential gig. That sort of bold move should be applauded in the film world in this day and age.
Video/Audio:
Presentation: 1920 X 1080p. Grade: B+
Audio Track: 5.1 Surround Sound. Grade: B+
Extras:
* A deleted scene of Jules in Darcel’s lair.
* A 55 minute Q&A with Juliet Landau, Deverill Weekes and Gary Oldman that covers the project’s themes, Oldman’s career, vampires, acting, and more.
* “Peace Over Violence Q&A”- A 74 minute post-screening Q&A hosted by Elisa Hansen with Juliet Landau, Janet Chamberlain, Wendy Blanco, and others. There’s a heavy emphasis on talks about mental health, abuse, and trauma.
* “Red/Home Carpet”- A 26 minute collection of interviews with artistic collaborators. Discussions include production stories, film thoughts, and much more.
* “Fan Darcel Videos”- Fan videos showcasing the fictional manhunt for Darcel.
* A 15 minute collection of Juliet Landau’s charming award announcement videos.
* “Unreleased Teaser With Fan Music Inspired By The Film”- A teaser trailer with music by Nick Bridwell
* A 62 minute “Terror Talk” podcast with Dr. Catherine Barrett (Forensic Psychologist and Professor of Psychology at USC) and therapist Shannon Calder and guests Juliet Landau and Deveril Weekes.
“A Place Among The Dead” is now available on Blu-ray through Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers. The title is also available digitally through Amazon, Apple+ and other platforms.
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