Director: George A. Romero
Screenplay: George A. Romero
Starring: Jason Flemyng, Peter Stormare and Leslie Hope
Country: Canada, France
Running Time: 99 mins
Year: 2000

George A. Romero’s one of my favourite filmmakers. Almost every single film the man made could be argued for as the greatest in his catalogue, whether it’s the influential classics like Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead or his underappreciated efforts like Knightriders, Martin or the recently discovered The Amusement Park, Romero’s filmography is more consistent than one would expect from a man who worked for over 51 years. Over the past few years, I’ve been making my way through the man’s filmography and only had five features left to see from him before writing this review, and thanks to the lovely people at Indicator, I’ve been able to cross one off the list, Bruiser. 

Even in a filmography as varied as Romero’s, Bruiser is a film I knew virtually nothing about going into. I didn’t know what the premise was, I didn’t know much about the cast and crew but after checking it out for the first time, I’m happy to report that it’s another good Romero joint! The film follows Henry (played by Jason Flemyng in a rare leading role), a man who’s faceless, spineless and barely stands out from the average Joe. He works at a fashion magazine called Bruiser, which is run by an outrageously slimy figure called Milo (played in an over-the-top fashion by Peter Stormare) who treats Henry like dirt. The same goes for almost everybody else in his life, including his unfaithful wife and after waking up one morning and realising that his facial features have completely disappeared, leaving him truly faceless, he decides to stand up for himself and confront those who’ve wronged him.

As is the case with many Romero films, Bruiser is far from subtle in the themes it’s trying to present, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s one of Romero’s strongest features as a filmmaker in my opinion, whether it’s the satirical jabs at consumers in Dawn of the Dead or the Reagan Era in Day of the Dead, Romero’s always been a filmmaker with something to say, and Bruiser is no exception. The premise of the film being about a man who’s lost in the crowd, doesn’t stand out and feels like the only way to show the true extent of himself is via rage is a subject that feels totally in Romero’s wheelhouse.

The film isn’t perfect, by any means and I think some of the performances leave a bit to be desired, particularly with Stormare, who’s initially hilarious but becomes more and more one-note as the film progresses, and given that he’s essentially the big bad in the film, I wish I found him a little more interesting instead of just being a man who’s evil to all those around him because he can be. Jason Flemyng is pretty good in the film and it was nice seeing him lead something for a change (I’m so used to his supporting roles, as I’m sure most others are.) The score is pretty jarring, with this almost jazz-like approach to some compositions that didn’t fit the tone whatsoever, but there’s bonus features on the disc that explain why the soundtrack is the way it is. 

As a revenge film, Bruiser doesn’t stand out in Romero’s filmography as much as I was hoping for it to, although it’s always entertaining throughout the 99 minute runtime (with the climax taking place at a Misfits show being the standout sequence for me) and sits at an interesting point in Romero’s career. The film was made after a seven year break (his last feature was The Dark Half) and he’d follow Bruiser up with 2005’s Land of the Dead. Seeing him tackle a low budget feature one last time before returning with a studio feature a few years later was delightful and reminded me why I love the man’s work so much. Even with something like this, that’s largely minor in the grand scheme of his filmography, there’s so much to dive into thematically and as I said towards the start of my review, I could completely understand why somebody would love this and consider it one of his great works. For me, it’s an entertaining time that didn’t completely blow me away, but being able to see another work from the man was a treat in itself. 

Film:

Bruiser releases on Limited Edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray via Indicator on the 22nd of July. I was sent the Blu-ray disc to review. In the booklet provided, it’s mentioned that Bruiser was restored in 4K HDR from the original negative by Studiocanal and it looks absolutely spectacular. There’s no heavy DNR that I could notice and there’s healthy bitrates on the Blu-ray, which, hopefully can also be said for the UHD release. There’s two audio tracks, English 2.0 and 5.1 mixes, I viewed the film in stereo and it sounded great, there’s no complaints there either. All in all, it’s a wonderful A/V package that’ll please fans of the film. The following extras are included:

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES

4K restoration from the original negative

Original 5.1 surround sound and 2.0 stereo audio tracks

Audio commentary with writer-director George A Romero and producer Peter Grunwald (2001)

Archival Interview with George A Romero (2013, 44 mins): previously unheard audio recording of the legendary filmmaker in conversation with disc producer James Blackford

Behind the Mask (2024, 10 mins): actor Jason Flemyng discusses his starring role in Bruiser, and his experiences working with Romero

A Perfect Fit (2024, 9 mins): Dr.Chud, the former Misfits drummer, talks about the band’s appearance in the film and its contribution to the soundtrack

The Worm That Turned (2024, 12 mins): critical appreciation by Kim Newman, author of Nightmare Movies

Introduction by Jean-Baptiste Thoret (2022, 10 mins): the French filmmaker and critic looks at Bruiser in the context of Romero’s wider career

‘Bruiser’ Soundtrack Demo (2024, 2 mins): previously unheard excerpt from Dr.Chud’s unused score

Original theatrical trailers

Image gallery: promotional and publicity materialsNew and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

Limited edition exclusive 80-page book with a new essay by Craig Ian Mann, an extensive archival interview with George A Romero, an in-depth location report, a look at the Misfits’ Romero-directed music video, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits

Limited edition of 7,000 individually numbered units (5,000 4K UHDs and 2,000 Blu-rays) for the UK.

The introduction by Jean-Baptiste Thoret, recorded in 2022 is a great watch, with Thoret diving into where the film placed in Romero’s career at the time, offering some praise to the mostly underseen work and it’s highly worth a watch.

The archival audio commentary with writer-director George A Romero and producer Peter Grunwald opens with the following text:

“The following audio commentary was produced for a previous home video presentation. Unfortunately, the volume levels in the original mix are such that the film audio sometimes obscures the participants’ comments. 

As we have not been able to access the original, unmixed recording, it has not been possible to correct the problem. We hope that this historical problem does not affect your enjoyment of this otherwise informative and insightful commentary track.”

It’s something I wish more boutique labels would highlight, as there’s been a handful of commentary tracks I’ve covered with notable audio issues that made me feel like my sound equipment was messing up. Thankfully, the track is still worth sitting through for Romero’s comments on the shoot, and if you’ve listened to any of his tracks in the past, you know what you’re in for. I was particularly amused during the anecdotes about Peter Stormare, where they highlight that he wasn’t using any prosthetics during an early sequence (if you’ve seen the film, you know what I’m referring to). It’s a great track that’s worth listening to, even with the audio mixing issues. 

The archival interview with George A Romero (conducted by James Blackford) from 2013 is a great listen (it’s audio only) and makes its debut on this release. Running for 44 minutes, the interview goes over Romero’s career as a whole and will absolutely please fans who are curious to hear an unearthed piece of Romero history. The audio quality isn’t amazing, but there’s a brief message at the start of the extra highlighting how this wasn’t intended for commercial distribution, so it makes sense. Highly worth listening to.

Behind the Mask is a brand new interview with Jason Flemyng, exclusive to this release that runs for 9 and a half minutes and it’s a great watch. Flemyng has nothing but great things to say about working with Romero and is honest about how he’s not huge on his performance in the film, which surprised me. Highly worth a watch.

A Perfect Fit is a brand new interview with Misfits drummer Dr. Chud, exclusive to this release and it’s another fun watch. Chud recounts his experiences with Romero fondly and the music he wrote for the film that he was too nervous to share with Romero (which is included on this release as a standalone feature). There’s also some fun anecdotes shared that I won’t spoil. It’s worth checking out for sure.

The Worm That Turned is a brand new appreciation for the film by Kim Newman, conducted exclusively for this release and as is the case with any Newmen adjacent feature, it’s a great watch. Throughout the twelve minutes, Newman compares the film to Carrie, The Mask and Willard in terms of the narrative structure, the satirical aspects of the film and more. A must watch.

The Bruiser soundtrack demo is an interesting inclusion, running for around a minute and a half and judging from the sound of the snippet here, would have completely changed the tone of the film. 

Two original theatrical trailers are included, one for the English release and the other for a French release.

An extensive image gallery is also included.

The limited edition 80-page book is a good read, containing a brand new essay from Craig Ian Mann titled The Face of Business that dives into the anti-capitalist themes of the film. There’s interview Dawn of the Dread by Michael Rowe conducted in 2000, which is another excellent read, as well as Face to Face with Bruiser, also conducted by Rowe, that offers a location report (and interviews with cast members) and finally Misfits, Make-up and Madness, also by Rowe, that discusses the Romero-Misfits collaborations in both this film and the music video for the band’s song Scream. All in all, it’s a great set of essays, interviews and more and will please fans who pick up the physical release. All in all, it’s an excellent extras package.

Bruiser is a surprising Romero film to make the jump to 4K UHD, but it’s a welcome one for sure. With an incredible array of extras, great audio and video quality and a great physical book to boot, Indicator’s release of Bruiser is a must-own and one of the year’s most surprising efforts. Highly recommended.

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