Verdict
Summary
The movie has an appeal to it that is almost impossible to describe: it works as a Hitchcockian mystery, but it goes down the proverbial rabbit hole and gets wacky with a surreal touch that it doesn’t really need. There’s a really clever seed of a plot here in the center of the film, and more experienced filmmakers might’ve really ran with the idea a little better, but as it stands, the movie is very interesting, involving, and definitely worth your time if you’re a fan of indie thrillers with a twist.
Plot:
A grad student has his final project due, and on the night before he stumbles onto a possible murder that no one knows about …
Review:
College student Ted (Matt Felmlee) is tasked with a final project where he has to come up with a radio program in the style of the old 1940’s radio shows like The Shadow, but he hasn’t even begun and the project is due the next day. Instead of buckling down and getting to work, he goes to a costume party dressed as a fool / court jester, but when he arrives at the apartment complex, he knocks on the wrong door and a woman in apparent distress answers. She mouths the words, “Help me,” but Ted is befuddled and doesn’t know what to do. The door shuts, he’s led down the hall where the party is, and he sits there in the middle of the revelry, going over what he just saw – or thinks he saw – a woman in need of help. When he returns to the previous apartment a little later, he finds the woman dead, and thus begins a night of nightmarish proportions where he’s pursued and attacked by the woman’s possible killers, and his perceptions are completely screwed around as the dead woman ends up in his car, leading him on a chase around the city, trying to clear his name.
“Lost” for decades in the place where very obscure films hide, The Wrong Door somehow required three directors to make it a reality, but you wouldn’t really know it from watching it. The movie has an appeal to it that is almost impossible to describe: it works as a Hitchcockian mystery, but it goes down the proverbial rabbit hole and gets wacky with a surreal touch that it doesn’t really need. There’s a really clever seed of a plot here in the center of the film, and more experienced filmmakers might’ve really ran with the idea a little better, but as it stands, the movie is very interesting, involving, and definitely worth your time if you’re a fan of indie thrillers with a twist. It’s no classic – or even a cult classic, per se – but it’s a solid little piece of filmmaking that I found myself invested in.
Visual Vengeance has resurrected The Wrong Door from complete obscurity in their typically standout way with tons of bonus content and surprise goodies like a poster, stickers, and a little door hanger that nobody asked for but for goodness sake made me smile. I really dig what Visual Vengeance is doing, and their release of The Wrong Door should finally bring some fresh eyes to a film long forgotten.
Bonus Materials
- Region Free Blu-ray
- Brand new director-supervised 2K HD transfer from the original Super 8mm film elements
- Commentary with directors Bill Weiss and Shawn Korby
- Commentary with director James Groetsch and producer John Schonebaum
- New Documentary: Men Make Movie, If Not Million$
- James Groetsch Interview
- Shawn Korby Interview
- Bill Weiss Interview
- Actor Matt Felmlee Interview
- Distributing The Wrong Door: Chris Gore Interview
- Second feature: 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
- Limited Edition Slipcase – FIRST PRESSING ONLY
- Limited Edition Door Hanger – FIRST PRESSING ONLY
- 2-sided Insert
- Collectible folded poster
- Reversible Sleeve Featuring Original VHS Art
- ‘Stick Your Own’ VHS Sticker Set
- Optional English subtitles
