Paranormal, The (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Todd NorrisRelease Date(s)
1998 (April 7, 2026)Studio(s)
Pipedream (Visual Vengeance/Wild Eye Releasing)- Film/Program Grade: A
- Video Grade: B-
- Audio Grade: B-
- Extras Grade: A
Review
The Paranormal is one of the best made micro-budget straight to video films I have ever seen and I’m surprised I’ve never heard of it, quite frankly. Co-written (with C. Wayne Owens) and directed by Todd Norris, the film follows Kyle Jennings (Norris), a university researcher who specializes in the paranormal, much to the chagrin of his science department betters. After pitching his theory proving the existence of paranormal events, a major event occurs in Independence, Missouri’s Englewood Arts District that could very well validate everything Jennings believes. Because this event happens to be in his hometown, Jennings is hesitant to go into the field but is tough loved into it by his colleague McCall (Owens) whom Jennings will communicate with via hand-held recorder a la Dale Cooper and his assistant Diane. We learn that the epicenter of the event is the Englewood Theater, a legendary movie theater that happens to be run by Jennings’ high school “friend” Lynne (Audrey Crabtree) and the two restart the chemistry they left off with back in high school. Joining Jennings is his hard-headed department head Cass (Lisa Winegar Cole) who has a see-it-to-believe-it attitude about Jennings’ theories. Once the players are in place, the real action starts and what unspools is a very smart and true movie going experience filled with good acting (aside from the filmmakers playing roles, most everyone else is a seasoned theater actor and everyone can act), well written dialogue and some twists and turns that will have you wondering why this film hasn’t been remade yet. Considering its status as a relatively “lost” film (having just an initial VHS release ages ago), maybe this release will bring some more eyes to it and a legit fandom will grow.
Visual Vengeance (VV) is a great smaller boutique label that’s bringing some great made for video films to market and I’m very much enjoying the work Wild Eye is putting into these VV releases. They aren’t made to be video and sound reviewed by the likes of The Digital Bits, so if you’re looking for reference quality, look elsewhere. What you get here is a very good VHS style presentation in fullscreen 1.33:1 with strong stereo sound and optional English subs. It is highly watchable and does its job very well. Extras are where VV gets their high marks.
Let’s start with the top-notch packaging: inside the designer slip (limited to the first pressing and featuring art by Ilan “Uncle Frank” Sheady, which gets the somewhat animated treatment on the menus), you’ll find a folded mini-poster with art by Giorgio Credaro, a reversible sleeve with art by Thomas “The Dude” Hodge on one side and the original VHS art on the other, the standard “Stick Your Own” VHS sticker and a nifty limited edition “Ghost Finder” viewer (only available in the first pressing). There’s also a promo flyer for the film within the film “Z Is for Zombie.” On the disc, after the auto play VV trailers for The Screaming, Scream Dream and Splatter Theater, you get a running commentary by director Todd Norris, a second commentary with Norris joined by composer Paul Roberts, The Paranormal Interviews (2023) are current day interviews of Norris, Lisa Winegar Cole (Cass), Davide Baldin who played the main character of the movie in the movie and Jeff Sisson who acted and provided make-up effects for the film. There’s an endearing featurette entitled The Two Todds where Missouri filmmakers Todd Norris and Todd Sheets discuss being confused with each other by actors in their region and how their working relationship helped them both out (this film features some b-roll from one of Sheets’ zombie films). There are also archival Channel 5 bumps from the film’s regional television debut on the Short Film Showcase, a blooper reel/outtakes, some deleted scenes, excerpts from the shooting script, storyboards, the VV trailer and a collection of Todd Norris short films that are honestly pretty good: the creepy “I have a meeting in the morning” anxiety piece The Closet (2001), a French joke set-up short L... (1997), the bare cupboard during a snowstorm nightmare Night of the Growling (2000) and the what the huh? Parallax (2000) co-directed with John McGrath. Lots of good stuff for a film I hope finds a wider audience, highly recommended.
- Todd Doogan