Synopsis:

Lately film’s featuring the living dead are a dime a dozen. Most of them retread territory that has been covered too death. And far to often most films about the living dead don’t aspire to be more than gory exorcises that quickly get boring due to their predictability.

This brings us to Make-Out with Violence, an inventive take on the living dead that puts the focus on its characters and their motivations. Via a ‘voice over’ the film quickly establishes who everyone is and how a recent tragedy (the disappearance of a young woman named Wendy) has affected them. Even though the central focus of the film is Patrick’s growing obsession with taking care of ‘the living dead girl’ named Wendy. The supporting characters are all given an ample amount of screen time and their own journey’s play an integral part to the story at hand. The scenes in which Patrick’s twin brother Carol in which he interacts with his own unrequited love a girl named Addy are easily the most engaging moments in the film.

From a production stand point Make-Out with Violence far exceeds its limited budget and it is arguably one of the better ‘home grown’ horror films that I have seen in recent memory. The direction does a good job letting the performances evolve and guide the story at hand. The only time the visuals ever get overly stylish are during the scenes involving Wendy, who often contorts her body in unusual ways. Reportedly the film was longer than its current 105 minute version. Some of the excised moments can be seen on the extras. In its current form the film’s pacing holds up well and it almost starts to lag near the end. This film’s most surprising asset is its soundtrack which was performed by the cast. Another area where this film holds up really are the performances from the entire cast, especially Shellie Marie Shartzer in the role of Wendy.

The DVD:

Factory 25 presents Make-Out with Violence in an anamorphic widescreen that preserves this film’s original aspect ratio. This is a solid transfer that boasts nicely saturated colors, flesh tones look accurate, black levels look strong, details look crisp and the image remains stable throughout.

This release comes with one audio option, a Dolby Digital stereo mix in English. The audio is always clear and balanced throughout.

Extras for this release include radio spots, deleted scenes with intros for each scene from cast members, alternate score / songs, live performances with The Non Commissioned Officers performing music that they composed for the film, a interview with Ed O’Brien a graphic designer who was hired to design the poster art for the film, a thirty four minute featurette titled ‘Fugitive Brain’ that discusses various projects that the ‘Deagol Brothers’ (Andy Duensing and Chris Doyle) have worked together on and an audio commentary with Zach Duensing and Kevin Doyle, the younger brothers of the directors. The featurette ‘Fugitive Brain’ is a compelling piece that covers the various aspects of this production and various other productions that those involved with this production have worked on. The audio commentary is a detailed track that contains a wealth of information about this production. Overall Make-Out with Violence gets a first rate DVD release from Factory 25.