STUDIO: Image Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: October 14, 2008
STARRING: Stephen Rea and Mena Suvari
WRITTEN BY: John Strysik
DIRECTED BY: Stuart Gordon
FEATURES: Audio Commentary Featuring Director Stuart Gordon, Writer John Strysik And Actress Mena Suvari
Ripped From The Headlines: Behind The Scenes
The Gory Details: Special Effects
Driving Forces: Video Interview
Interviews And Exclusive Footage From The AFI Dallas International Film Festival
Theatrical Trailer

What is Stuck? It's a hard movie to put your finger on. People like to categorize it as a horror movie, largely because of the involvement of director Stuart Gordon but this is FAR from Re-Animator, From Beyond, or the films he made for Masters of Horror. Stuck is an unusual horror movie in that it's about relatable fears that we can all identify with - growing old, getting poor, being forgotten. It's a film about being stuck in society with no way out and no one who cares about your survival. It's part drama, part social satire, and part terrifying vision of a world gone mad. And it's based on a true story. Audiences basically ignored Stuck during its limited run earlier this year but with quotes on the Blu-Ray case from The New York Times, Newsday, and USA Today, people are likely to catch up with Stuck on the home market. They will find a truly unique and masterfully made slice of...well, something interesting.

On paper, Stuck sounds just awful. It's a testament actually to whomever designed the Blu-Ray case front and back that they made it sound intriguing. Personally, when I tell people what it's about and who's in it and even who directed it, they look at me like I'm crazy. Especially when I add "yeah, and it's pretty good." Stuck is based on the true story of a woman who hit a homeless man on her way home from work and left him trapped halfway through her windshield, slowing bleeding to death in her garage. American Beauty's Mena Suvari plays the woman and the always-great Stephen Rea plays the poor victim. And all of it is brought to you by horror icon Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond). A drama from a horror director is a tough-enough sell, but when one of the characters spends most of the film halfway jammed through a shield of glass covered in fake blood, it's pretty difficult to cut a snappy preview together. And yet, Stuck is one of the more original and fascinating dramas of the year, at least for two-thirds of its running time. It falls apart in the end, but it's still worth seeing for the great work by Rea and Suvari and the further proof that Gordon is a masterful storyteller when he's clicking on all cylinders. It's his best film in years.

The social commentary - that homeless men and women are dying while most of us do nothing - is hard to ignore, and Rea and Suvari do an incredible job of making this shocking story feel believable. (However, it's a pretty sad commentary on our times that such a stomach-churning scenario didn't originate in the mind of a horror director, but rather came straight out of the six o'clock news.) Stuck does share one thing in common with the genre that it doesn't really fit neatly into - it misses the ending. The real story ended much differently than the movie version and, while the true tragedy might have left audiences with a non-ending, the over-the-top creation in its place is similarly dissatisfying. It's a minor misstep that keeps the film back from being truly excellent.

The Blu-Ray presentation for Stuck is a bit disappointing. The 1080p high definition widescreen presentation in its original 1.78:1 ratio is very disappointing. The colors are surprisingly flat and there's an unacceptable amount of visual noise and blurring in the blacks and blues for this next generation format. The backgrounds are practically blurry and, as someone who has already seen the film twice, I don't think it's intentional. I think it's a flaw of the transfer. I really like the movie, so I have to recommend that you pick it up, but the video quality is shockingly disappointing. A lot of standard definition DVDs look better than Stuck. The audio track in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is more appropriate for the format, really giving the film the punch that it needs and the special features are fantastic. Stuart Gordon is one of the more interesting speakers in the horror genre and he pops by for a commentary with the writer and Suvari. Fans will also find three above-average featurettes on this above-average and hard-to-categorize flick.