Review | Buck Wild (Blu-ray) | Blu-ray Authority

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Plot: What’s it about?Video: How’s it look?Audio: How’s it sound?Supplements: What are the extras?

Plot: What’s it about?

I admit that I’ve yet to jump on the zombie bandwagon so to speak. It’s not that I don’t enjoy films featuring zombies (I quite enjoyed last summer’s World War Z), but I think it’s more an issue with overkill, if you can pardon the pun. I’ve simply grown tired of the genre and it does little for me more often than not. Films featuring zombies have been around for a long time now, but they seem to have made something of a comeback lately. I’ve yet to watch an episode of The Walking Dead, but I realize it has a pretty large fan-base. Buck Wild certainly doesn’t reinvent the genre, but at least it tries something a bit different. It also has a level of fun to it that’s often missing from these films. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and that works in its favor. There’s also more than enough zombie madness to please fans of the genre. For a low budget film, it’s surprisingly well shot. I’m also thankful that it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s a relatively quick 90 minutes or so.

Things get Buck Wild for four friends who go on a hunting trip, only to find the residents have turned into the undead. It doesn’t help that one of them shoots the land owner either. The premise itself is nothing new. You have four friends staying taking a trip they probably shouldn’t be taking, doing things they shouldn’t be doing and well… you get the idea. But the film takes a more tongue-in-cheek approach than you might initially expect. Truth be told, there might be some that wish it had gone the more serious route. I found it a bit refreshing most likely because I’ve seen more horror films than one man probably should. We get little in terms of actual character development here outside of one of the friends cheating with another one’s fiancee. There are a few references to some older films, including the Godfather trilogy and even Pulp Fiction of all things. If this sounds like your thing then by all means check it out. I enjoyed it for what it is – a low budget, comedy-horror hybrid. I did get a bit annoyed with some of the characters after a while, but there are more than enough funny moments to help elevate the material. There are plenty of amusing asides that acts as a nice contrast to the more serious nature of the zombie attacks as well.

Video: How’s it look?

For a low budget film, this looks pretty darn good in HD. The print is pristine with really no flaws to speak of. Colors (while not overly flashy) are strong and rich with nice details throughout. There are a lot of darker scenes in the film, but things are still comprehensible. There are also some nice wide shots that feature the sunny, isolated setting in the background. I couldn’t detect any softness or other flaws, this transfer satisfies. The image is AVC encoded with what appears to be a 2.40:1 ratio (it’s not specified on the case).

Audio: How’s it sound?

The Dolby True HD track also serves the film nicely. Vocals were always clear and clean sounding and when the mayhem starts, the rear channels are put to good use. This won’t blow you away, but for a smaller scaled film of this nature, it’s more than adequate. The music also comes through nicely and the scenes with shots being fired display strong range. This track will please fans.