Despiser (2003) (Blu-ray Review)
DIRECTED BY: Philip J. Cook
STARRING: Mark Redfield, Enrique Castillo, Philip J. Cook
RATED: UR/Region: O/1:33/1080P/NUMBER OF DISCS 1 (BD-r)
AVAILABLE FROM Acid Leomark Studios
Despiser is the kind of movie that reminds me why I love low-budget genre filmmaking. Not because it’s perfect. Not because it’s polished. But because every once in a while some filmmaker decides that budgetary limitations are merely suggestions and attempts something so ridiculously ambitious that you can’t help but admire the effort.
Released in 2003 and directed by Philip J. Cook, Despiser feels like somebody took a direct-to-video sci-fi movie, an apocalyptic Christian fantasy epic, a comic book, and a PlayStation 2 game cut-scene and threw them all into a blender. The result is a movie that probably shouldn’t work as well as it does.
The story follows a man who finds himself trapped in a bizarre purgatory-like dimension after his death, where he encounters monsters, demons, bizarre creatures, and enough theological weirdness to make your average Sunday school teacher call for backup. The plot gets increasingly wild as it goes along, and honestly, the less you know going in, the better.
Now let’s address the giant CGI elephant in the room.
The entire movie looks like a computer game cut-scene.
Not a modern one, either. This thing often resembles the kind of cinematic sequence you’d unlock after beating a late-90s PC game that came bundled with a graphics card. Characters walk through digital environments, battle computer-generated monsters, and interact with effects that look simultaneously dated and incredibly impressive considering the resources available.
And here’s the thing: I mean that as a compliment.
Sure, the effects have aged. Of course they have. But the sheer amount of visual effects work on display is staggering for a film operating on this level. Every few minutes the movie introduces some new creature, environment, or visual concept that makes you wonder how many sleepless nights the effects team endured. The filmmakers were clearly aiming for something far larger than their budget should have allowed, and somehow they pulled it off through sheer determination and what I can only assume was industrial-strength caffeine.
The cast does a respectable job navigating all of this madness, treating the material seriously enough that the audience can buy into the insanity. That’s important because if everyone involved had played it for laughs, the whole thing would have collapsed. Instead, the movie commits completely to its bizarre vision.
Which brings me to this particular release.
Honestly, I’m confused.
Not confused by Despiser. I’ve made peace with the fact that it’s a movie where giant CGI monsters battle across what looks like a lost level from a forgotten video game. No, I’m confused by why this release exists when Visual Vengeance already gave the film such a fantastic release. That edition was loaded with extras, gave the movie the boutique treatment, and felt like a genuine celebration of this cult oddity.
This newer release doesn’t appear to offer a noticeable visual upgrade by comparison. The movie still looks like Despiser, which is exactly how it should look. The source limitations are the source limitations. If you already own the Visual Vengeance edition, you’re probably going to spend a lot of time comparing the two and wondering what exactly justified a second trip to the checkout line.
Thankfully, the movie itself remains as entertaining as ever.
Despiser is one of those rare low-budget films where the ambition is impossible to ignore. It reaches for the stars, occasionally falls through a few clouds, crashes into a mountain, and somehow still manages to arrive at its destination. The visual effects may be dated, the story may be bizarre, and the whole thing may resemble an extended video game cinematic, but that’s a huge part of its charm.
It’s weird. It’s ambitious. It’s fascinating. And twenty years later, it’s still one of the most impressive examples of filmmakers refusing to let a lack of money interfere with a gigantic imagination.
