The 27 Club Blu Ray Review (Cleopatra Entertainment)
The 27 Club is a 2019 independent horror film co-written, edited, & directed by Patrick Fogarty (Average Joe , Legion of the Black, & Welcome to Forever). It was written by Joe Flanders (Mid to Late & The Last Summer) & & Michael Lynn (E! True Hollywood Story). Jason (played by: Derrick Denicola from Zipper, Trance, Mutants, & Black and Blue) is a very ambitious student, he is doing his thesis as a documentary film about the myth & curse of “The 27 Club”. So many musicians, artists, & singers have all somehow died during their rise to fame at the very same age. These tragic events came out of no where & there’s been a variety of theories on really happened with them. Did Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse, & Kurt Cobain sell their souls to the devils to achieve their success? or Was it just really bad luck for these creative minds? Professor Crawford (played by: rock legend Todd Rundgren) encourages his student to go further into his research. When musician Quinn Scott (played by: Travis Grant from Halloween II, Zombieland, & Refuge) randomly passes away at 27, Jason becomes obsessed with the phenomenon. He wants to interview & follow around struggling artist Lily (played by: Maddisyn Carter from Pinching Penny, The Devil’s Carnival, Beverly Hills Ghost, & The Joker Blogs) for his project. She rejects him at first but something comes over her. The two strangers end up getting involved & the situation keeps getting weirder as time goes on. Can they survive the 27 curse????
The 27 Club is actually a great concept for an independent horror film but unfortunately it’s poorly executed. The amateur screenplay & bad acting make The 27 Club is a rough watch at times. Maddisyn Carter is the true highlight here, she is really good as the ambitious singer that’s willing to do anything to get fame. Horror veteran Nick Principe (Laid to Rest 1/2, Hatchet II, The Purge: Election Year, Collar, & Tales of Halloween) shows up here also. I will say the actual film looks great for it’s lower budget. I enjoyed the visual & special fx, the kills & gore saved this production a little bit. I wish more of it was featured here because they only pop up every once in awhile. It’s more of a drama for the most part, luckily Maddisyn held it together the best that she could. The 27 Club is obviously influenced by music & that’s one of it’s strengths here. The soundtrack was better than expected & it features some familiar names like Trent Reznor (NIN, The Social Network, Watchmen, & Animal Kingdom) with Atticus Ross (Watchmen, The Book of Eli, Gone Girl, & The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). If you can be very patient, you might enjoy more than most people. It can be slow at times & the gruesome moments are spreaded out in this. I would recommend either renting or streaming this before considering a purchase.
Let’s talk about the high definition presentation from Cleopatra Entertainment! This 1080p (1.78:1) transfer looks good for a lower budget independent feature. It has some cool locations when they exploring the rock scene while making the documentary. It has two audio options which includes English: Dolby Digital 5.1 & English: Dolby Digital 2.0 on this release. The dialogue is very clean & the music sounds awesome here. That’s what this film is about so the score & soundtrack are very important to this project!
Let’s discuss the special features from Cleopatra Entertainment! It has an almost 3 minute “Interview” with lead actress Maddisyn Carter. It has a little over 2 minute “Interview” with lead actor Derrick Denicola. A little over 2 minute “Slideslow”. It has a “Trailer” for The 27 Club. It has a variety of “Trailers” for other movies & releases from Cleopatra Entertainment. The best extra on this release is the full soundtrack 19 track CD that’s included featuring Bestial Mouths, Magic Wands, The Anix, Knox, Geri-X, Jürgen R. Engler, The Duke & The Kaiser, Just Visionz, Otis, Radclyffe Hall, Kiran Gandhi, Eva O, Die Klute, VV & The Void, Todd Rundgren, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross. It also has a slipcover & a DVD copy of the release. It’s available everywhere right now!!!!
