The Wrong Door — The Wrong Door( Blu Ray)
The Wrong Door is a Super 8 thriller from the early 1990s- regarding a sound designer/recording engineer student who gets wrapped up in mystery, murder, and late-night intrigue. The film is clearly influenced/ inspired by Brian De Palma thrillers of the 80’s- with a fair bit of low-budget passion, which sometimes comes off/ sometimes doesn’t. Here from those resurrectors of low-budget genre fare Visual Vengeance is a Blu-Ray release of the film- and as we’ve come to expect from the label we get a good selection of extras.
The Wrong Door is from the year 1990- it was co-directed/ written by James Groetsch, Shawn Korby & Bill Weiss- this is the trio's one and only feature-length credit. Though each did have a few other film credits- Groetsch was on the editorial dept of two films most notably being Drop Dead Fred (1991). Groetsch has two acting credits one being an extra in The Wrong Door, and a part in The Gale Whitman Show( a Minnesota-based hunting and fishing show). And Weiss had a Cinematographer for the 2014 doc The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code.
The film's lead character is Ted (Matt Felmlee) an early twenties student who is nearing the end of his sound designer/recording engineer course. When we first meet him he has only a day left to get his final project in- which is an audio thriller/ play, with lots of sound effects. He gets back to his shared house- finding all his housemates are going out of town for a cabin party- he’s really gutted he can’t go, but just has to finish his project. Oh & he also has a job- he works a rent-o-gram. He gets a call that he has a job at ten that night- they want him to dress as a jester.
Ted gets working on his final project right up to around 10 pm when he has to head out for his job. He gets to the apartment block where he’s due to do his Jester routine- goes in & knocks on a door- there’s lots of whispering going on behind it- when it finally opens- at the door is a fellow student, he has a crush on- she mouths the words ‘help me’ as a man in the room tells her to shut the door. Just then a man rushes up- informing him that he’s at the wrong door- so he goes and do his rent-o-gram thing at the party
As he finishes the job he decides to head back to the other apartment- inside the lights are out, and lying on the floor is his crush- she has seemingly been stabbed- he rushes back to the other apartment bringing three or four party goers with him- but the body is gone, and from of the mystery of the film unfolds.
The film runs at the seventy-three-minute mark- and clearly, all involved put in their best with the project. On the positive side, there are a few plot twists ‘n’ turns, the largely nighttime setting is effective, and you do wonder how it will all resolve. On the less positive side- there are serious pacing issues, the editing is sometimes a little confused, and the whole thing does play rather safe- largely coming off more like a TV thriller.
I came away from The Wrong Door with rather mixed feelings. I admire the makers' attempts here, and elements of the film are engaging/ well enough done for the very low budget. But boy does it drag in places, and the general filmmaking tropes/ flow are below par.
Moving onto this new Visual Vengeance Blu Ray. It takes in a new 2k scan of the film- this looks as good as you can expect for a Super 8- nothing spectacular, but good enough. We get two commentary tracks- not sure if these are new or not ( as it’s not clear)- One is with directors Bill Weiss and Shawn Korby, and the other with director James Groetsch and producer John Schonebaum.
Going on what I’m certain is new we have Men Make Movie, If Not Million$ (43.29) which is most informative making of-doc, really covering a lot of bases. We get contributions from all three directors, lead actor Felmlee, and the film's producer. We find out the film that influenced them to make the film was Polish Vampire In Burbank (1983) which was a big Super 8 hit. All of the directors were in their twenties when the film was made, and did the casting around the University of Minnesota. We find out they had to use generators for the night shooting, and it was filmed around Saint Paul Minnesota. We hear about the soundtrack's creation, and much more- all in all a very good making of. Next, we get stand-alone filmed interviews with all three directors James Groetsch(29.43), Shawn Korby(20.48) & Bill Weiss(36.24). An interview with lead actor Matt Felmlee(20.41), and producer Chris Gore( 13.33).
On the archive side we have: Alternate Director’s Cut of The Wrong Door (2019), Super 8 short: Raiders of the Lost Bark (1983), Super 8 short: The Pizza Man (1988), TV Episode: The Gale Whitman Show, Original unedited Muther Video VHS intros, Image Gallery, Original Storyboards Gallery, Film Threat Review, Now Hiring Trailer, The Wrong Door Trailer, Visual Vengeance Trailers. With the release itself coming with a Ltd slip. A mini do not disturb card, mini poster, two-sided glossy inlay, Stick Your Own' VHS Sticker Set.
While my feelings on The Wrong Door itself are decidedly mixed. One can’t help but praise Visual Vengeance for tracking down this rare Super 8 film and giving it such an extras-laden release. For those who like the idea of a very low-budget/ film student take on a De Palma thriller.