Row 19 - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Row 19



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


​

Movie
Ironically, Russia is most notable for their war movies like T-34, or their bizarre sci-fi movies rather than their horrors or thrillers, but I’m willing to give anything a shot once. Despite there being some conflicts over on that side of the world, I’m still a huge proponent of other non “traditional” counties breaking into the niche that Hollywood, Korea, and China have pretty much dominated for the last 50-100 years. Horror is something the Russians have tried a few times (Mermaid was a CREEPY little flick), but generally they’ve stayed out of that arena for the most part. Row 19 is one of those films that tries its best, but the lackluster writing really keeps it from flying off the ground.

You’re going to get distinct The Twilight Zone vibes off of Row 19, as time and time again I got the distinct impression that there was a slight homage to the William Shatner’s infamous “There’s...something on the...wing!!” episode, but I digress. The film starts out showing us how a young Katerina (Svetlana Ivanova as an adult, Vitaliva Komienko as a chid) is the lone survivor of an incredible plane wreck 20 years ago. However, after 20 years she has gotten over her childhood trauma, and had a child of her own. But now she’s about to put her newfound grit and fortitude to the test as she and her daughter travel back home via a red eye flight.

The rest of the notably brief film (78 minutes for a live action movie is rather surprising) but has us constantly guessing what’s going on. Soon after takeoff things start to fall apart, with passengers dying and strange visions out of the corner of Katerina’s eye. AS the flight continues on the tragedy survivor finds out that she may not have left her past in the past, as more and more of it creeps into her reality.

Row 19 starts off with promise, of a psychological thriller that turns progressively more and more supernatural. But no matter how much promise it starts out with, the movie just ends up a near train wreck as the writing gets progressively worse over the run time. The entire film can be summed up as a “lifetime in an instant”, or simply a bait and switch, as the ending pulls the rug out from under the viewer, leaving you to wonder what just happened. I liked some of the elements that it hinted at throughout, but that ending just sucks the wind out of the sails in terms of intensity and buildup. Instead of making it clever it’s simply a voice over that makes the audience go “really?!” and then “woosh”, we’re back to reality and left with an anti climactic ending sequence that feels unnecessary, nor even remotely scary.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

shot digitally, Row 19 is provided to use with a rather nice 2.39:1 AVC encode that is decidedly green and blue tinged throughout. There’s some mild banding in the night sky, and some digital noise spikes (again, in the night sky), but overall this is a very impressive transfer. The modern day scene with Katerina and her daughter getting interviewed is incredibly detailed and vibrant, with the plane sequences having a more subdued look with more amber lighting. Detail levels are generally strong, though the CG heavy portions are decidedly more awkward looking due to the low budget of the film. Black levels are strong and inky, but as I said above, banding and some noise does come into play during the darkest bits.







Audio:

Giving us both a Russian and English lossless 5.1 track and a 2.0 dolby digital lossy track for night listening, I’m going to give my nod to the Russian track. The English track is good, but never really great, and the voice acting is kind of mediocre. There’s a lot more nuance to the original language track when it comes to dialog. Both mixes are otherwise fairly identical. Dialog is crisp and clean like you would expect, with some nice bassy moments during the plane’s turbulence. Surrounds are a bit soft and the bass doesn’t come into play QUITE as much as I would like, but otherwise it’s a technically well done mix.












Extras:

• Well Go USA Trailers
• Row 19 Preview

Final Score: ​

Row 19 is decently acted, but suffers from a few pacing issues, horrible writing, and simply not enough time to fully flesh it out. The whole thing does feel like it could fit in in a Russian The Twilight Zone episode, but is incredibly wasted in a feature film. Blu-ray looks and sounds good as expected, next to no extras and a weak story leaves this one a firm “Skip it” from me


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Svetlana Ivanova, Wolfgang Cerny, Marta Kessler, Ekaterina Vilkova, Anatoly Kot, Vitaliva Kornienko
Directed by: Alexander Babaev, Samantha A. Morrison (English Language direction)
Written by: James Rabb
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Russian DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, Russian DD 2.0
Subtitles: English
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 78 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: May 31st, 2022

Recommendation: Skip It.