The Tank is a New Zealand monster picture set mostly on the Oregon coast in 1978. A young family inherit a mysterious abandoned coastal property from the husband’s departed mother. Upon arriving they soon discover a very good reason for why the husband’s mother never told him about the property and why it has long been abandoned to ancient beliefs that the area is cursed. Depending on the definition of cursed you could state whether by divine, natural or unnatural causes, which are never made clear, there is a curse and it has stealth, predatory intelligence, primeval nature and it’s hungry.
Watching The Tank I found myself thinking of another monster picture I reviewed years ago entitled The Monster (2016) released by A24. If you have seen that film, that gives you a slight taste, (no pun intended), for what you can expect from The Tank, though the similarities end there. The Tank is a bit grounded and works particularly well because Writer and Director Scott Walker knows instinctually to show as little of the creature as possible and uses fantastic sound design to match the shadows of it’s partial subterranean setting, which to be clear is not just a threat from below. It comes from all around. The story kind of plays it by the numbers that broadcast after the opening prologue exactly what to expect. Richard Taylor and the artisans of WETA Workshop manage to create practical effects that look real though slightly derivative of other screen monsters. It did have me wondering Aliens might have been like if WETA did all the practical creature effects for that. The acting by Luciane Buchanan and Matthew Whelan as the parents faced with the horror along with Zara Nausbaum are well suited given what they have to deal with in script. Regina Hegemann does an amiable job as the creature, but I don’t want to go farther than that because a movie like this should be watched on the best screen possible, OLED preferably because of the inky blacks and the lights should turned down while the audio is turned up.
Both the English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and English Dolby Digital Stereo Soundtracks are terrific on this Blu-ray Disc. When you couple that with the pristine 1080p Full HD picture quality, The Tank is a home theater treat. English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired are also encoded as an option on this disc. Extra value features will run one into the other regardless of what you choose without a “Play All” feature in the standard interactive menus that are easy to navigate. There is a featurette that feels a little bit like an EPK covering how the idea came to the Director during the CoVid pandemic (3:28) and another focusing on the creature effects by WETA used in the film (6:21). The theatrical trailer (2:19) and bonus trailers for other films coming from Well Go USA Entertainment that include Bone Cold (1:58), Forgotten Experiment (2:28) and The Siege (1:43) wrap up the extra value content on this Blu-ray Disc.
Within the blue BD case there is an insert detailing other titles available on Blu-ray Disc from Well Go USA Entertainment as well as a streaming service called HiYAHTV.com with apps available for most streaming platforms. The Tank will debut on Blu-ray Disc and DVD, but sold separately on June 27, 2023 at retailers on and offline courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment.
(C) Copyright 2023 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
