‘Cherry Tree’ Blu-ray Review

David Keating‘s film, Cherry Tree, is several types of horror genres rolled into one. It’s gory and it’s disturbing; there’s creatures, neo-monsters, torture, witches and demons. The one thing that’s it’s missing is the true scare factor. I’ll touch more on this later but first, let me explain the plot.

Faith (Naomi Battrick) finds out that her father is dying and around that same time, her hockey team receives a new mysterious hockey coach, Sissy Young (Anna Walton). What Faith doesn’t know is that Sissy is actually the head of a coven that has resided in her hometown for centuries. The coven has the power to bring the dead back to life by using the fruit of an ancient cherry tree with a bloody ritual. Sissy offers to help Faith and her father but it comes with a price. Faith doesn’t know that she’s about to be led into an horrific deal.

Film Review

Let me start with the positives of this film.

CherryTreeWhat I really liked and respected about this film is the use of practical effects. About 80 percent (estimate) of the effects in this film were practical effects. There are times were the practical effects looked completely fake but on most occasions it looked pretty real. You don’t see practical effects used much these days and though cgi looks really easy on the eyes but my 80’s heart still enjoys the real deal.

Another positive in the film was the acting, main characters in particular. Both Naomi Battrick and Anna Walton were quite convincing in their roles. Anna Walton really fits the mysterious roles, just go back to Hellboy II if you need to be reminded. Battrick and Walton played off of each other well.

Now here are the negatives.

After praising the use of the film using practical effects for most of the film, it’s time to talk about the mediocre cgi. When there was cgi used, i’m not sure if it was the Blu-ray that made the cgi look pretty bad or if it was just that the cgi was actually bad. The good part is that it’s hardly used in this film.

Here’s a pretty important negative and it’s about the plot. As I was watching the film, I knew pretty much what was going on plot wasn’t too complexed even with a couple of twists but I felt like I was missing something. I can’t quite explain it but it felt like there was something missing or lacking. And once it came to the final “twist,” it was hardly a twist because it was so predictable.

If anything, I think that fans that enjoy gore or disturbing films will like Cherry Tree because there are quite a few scenes that could give someone nightmares just because of how disturbing they are. If you are looking for scare factor, there are only a couple of jump-scares but not enough to really classify this film as a “scary” film. Even the director David Keating explained that it wasn’t a scary film but more of a disturbing film.

Bonus Features

I had no clue that this Blu-ray release had any bonus features, that was up until the main menu came on the screen, since there’s no mention of any bonus features on the packaging. But the Blu-ray does have a couple of bonus features included. There’s a “Making of” feature and the trailer for the film, included. The “making of” feature goes into the writing of the film, directing, acting and even the special effects. This was all interesting but it’s a bit short.

Quality

The Blu-ray is 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1. Pretty decent quality in both visual and audio.

Verdict

Like the film, I just felt like something was missing from this Blu-ray as a whole. It has retail price of $29.98 (Blu-ray), which is quite pricey, and for that price, I think there should have been more bonus features or maybe the “Making of” feature could have been longer in length.

I give this Blu-ray 4 out of 10.

Cherry Tree is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.

About Chris Salce

I'm a pop culture fanatic based out of Southern California. My collection of comics and pop culture memorabilia would even impress The Collector. When I'm not busy writing about pop culture news, doing film reviews or interviewing celebs, my brother and I work on a comic book called Blood-RED (And yes, that was a cheap plug). I have a certificate of completion for a children’s storybook writing program.

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