The Ugly Blu-ray Review

Unearthed Films

Blu-ray Release: April 21, 2026

Video: 1.78:1/1080p/Color

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 and LPCM 2.0 stereo

Subtitles: English, English SDH

Run Time: 93:22

Director: Scott Reynolds

A female psychologist wants to understand the mind of a confessed serial killer, who spent the last five years in a mental hospital. Confined to a mental institution, disturbed young serial killer Simon (Paolo Rotondo) is tormented by cruel orderlies and his own personal demons including 'The Ugly,' which compels him to kill. Now, at his request, Dr. Karen Schumaker (Rebecca Hobbs) arrives to discover whether Simon is fit to be released back into society. As the terrifying secrets within Simon's mind are revealed, no one will be left unscathed by the horrors about to be unleashed. (From Unearthed’s official synopsis)

After Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs (1991) took home the Big Five Oscar awards, the film world contracted serial killer fever. Throughout the rest of the decade and into the early 2000s, the genre helped studios put a classy sheen on an established slasher model. These were prestige products called ‘psychological thrillers,’ not dirty ‘horror movies.’ But serial killer movies didn’t require big budgets, so the bandwagon was easy for independent filmmakers to jump onto. Eventually, the theatrical and the home video markets were saturated with product of wildly varying budgets, tone, and quality, from David Fincher’s Seven (1995) and Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel & Benoît Poelvoorde’s Man Bites Dog (1992) to Tarsem Singh’s The Cell (2000) and Jon Amiel’s Copycat (1995).

Among the forgotten gems of the era was The Ugly (1997), a stylish little New Zealand variation on the theme from first-time feature director Scott Reynolds that enjoyed a surprisingly wide home video release in the US. Indebted to the success and basic premise of Silence of the Lambs, the modestly budgeted film doesn’t try to compete with the Hollywood-backed production, instead opting to draw focus to specific aspects of Thomas Harris’ original novel – a corrupt mental health institution, interest in the psychology of mass murder, and the central relationship between the killer and the woman interviewing him. 

At first, the script feels overly derivative and doesn’t have much new to say about mental illness, but The Ugly quickly reveals itself as something more esoteric than Silence of the Lambs or Seven, anyway. The interview structure allows Reynolds to jump in and out of time and screw with perspective and most of what we see is filtered through the memories of a disturbed mind and untrustworthy narrator, though the possibility of a supernatural interpretation is left to the audience. The structural playfulness is sometimes undermined by the film’s frothy sense of drama, but the thought process behind it is appreciated.

The Ugly is a thoroughly late-’90s production in a way that might’ve been embarrassing in 2010, but is charming in 2026. Simon has a Gavin Rossdale haircut, the cruel orderlies have tribal tattoos and nu metal hairstyles – there’s even a noisy dotmatrix printer and a Fanta Batman Forever promotional sticker glued to a locker in the background at one point. The Oliver Stone style quick cuts and flash frames feel especially dated, though, again, not in an entirely bad way. If anything, the combination of music video and indie drama techniques actually seems a bit ahead of its time.

New Zealand is a small place, so The Ugly’s one degree of separation from Peter Jackson isn’t a big surprise. Specifically, Wētā Workshop, which had been founded by Richard Taylor & Tania Rodger to make effects for Jackson’s X-rated puppet movie Meet the Feebles (1989), created the gore effects, which are otherwise notable because all of the blood and viscera is black, instead of red. Several cast members were also farmed from the Hercules and Xena television series. Actress Darien Takle was a double-threat in this regard, having been on multiple episodes of Xena and Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures (1994).

Video

The Ugly made its US home video debut on VHS from Trimark in 1996 and both R-rated and unrated DVDs through Lionsgate in 1998. Unearthed Films’ Blu-ray debut (the first in any country) utilizes a new 4K scan of the 35mm interpositive. The print source seems to have limited textures a bit, but The Ugly is such a slick-looking movie that the occasional softness isn’t really a problem. Simon Raby’s crisp cinematography is neat and tidy, grain structure appears natural, the cool palette is consistent, and the red highlight hues are rich. Black levels are deep without overcrushing the delicate fluorescent lighting schemes.

Audio

The Ugly is presented with DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 and LPCM 2.0 stereo audio options. I opted for the 4.0 track. The spartan sound design is more interested in maintaining atmosphere and prodding us with dynamic range than engaging in directional effects, but the overall effect is still better with a discrete center channel for the dialogue. Composer Victoria Kelly’s score sets the mood with an effective mix of electronic ambience and mournful chamber music. The music is so good, in fact, that Unearthed Films has included an additional isolated score track, also in DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0.

Extras

• Commentary with actors Paolo Rotondo and Rebecca Hobbs – Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson moderates this discussion with the film’s stars. Subject matter includes Rotondo & Hobbs’ larger careers, the film & television industry of 1990s New Zealand (Rotondo claims to still name-drop working with effects artist Richard Taylor to this day), working with Reynolds and the rest of the cast, overcoming technical challenges, the larger ‘90s serial killer trend, haunted locations, and the ambiguity of the story’s possible supernatural slant. According to Rotondo, Reynolds told him that the blood was black to represent the artificiality of memories.

• 8/19/1997 New Zealand Radio interview with Scott Reynolds (18:03, HD, audio only) – The director speaks with host Jonathan Dennis about his childhood love of cinema, his favorite movies, conceptualizing The Ugly, the importance of gore, sympathetic villains, trying to avoid overexplaining the killer’s motivations, the film’s cold color palette, and the possibility of making movies outside of New Zealand.

• Scott Reynolds short films:

  • The M1nute (8:40, HD, 1992) – A man imagines what horrible surprises might await him inside a mysterious package he receives for his birthday. It features a young Marton Csokas (his first leading performance), Alan Brough, and Susannah Devereux.

  • A Game with No Rules (16:54, 1994) – An homage to hardboiled noir that crams an incredible number of backstabbing twists into a very short runtime. Super stylish, colorful, and includes some extremely creative scene transitions. Sort of like an EC crime comic made through the lens of a ‘90s music video. Also featuring Csokas, Ugly actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand, and Danielle Cormack.

• Getting to Know You: Dialogues with the Devil in The Ugly and Serial Killer Cinema (19:22, HD) – Critic and filmmaker Howard S. Berger explores serial killers throughout movie history, the psychology of psychopathy, the real life inspirations behind movie murderers, important films and filmmakers, and how all of this connects to Reynolds’ film.

• Theatrical trailer with 4.0 and 2.0 audio options

• Photo gallery

The images on this page are taken from the BDs and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.