Messiah

Image quality on this Region Two DVD from Mosaic is good - as it should be - while sound is acceptable though, inevitably, nothing fancy.

Interestingly the DVD divides Messiah into two distinct parts, representing the two TV installments. Part two starts with a brief prelude, explaining all that matters from part one, so lazy viewers might want to skip straight to it, while repeat viewers might find it preferable to have had the option of playing both parts straight through, without the "previously on Messiah" bit.

This aside, the DVD has one of the more logical, non-arbitrary uses of chapters I have seen: excepting the opening and closing credits, the other nine chapters are dated, each referring to the date of one of the murders within the film.

Given that the Messiah already feels too long, its fortunate that the two deleted scenes were not included, although they total a scant two minutes screen time.

The 28-minute "making of" features segments from Messiah, accompanied by interviews with just about everyone connected with the production, in front of, or behind the camera. There are a few gems of information in here for those interested in the role of the fly wrangler, but otherwise it's pretty much self-congratulatory back-slapping.

The cast and crew notes - 15 screens in total, one per person - and 12 stills in the photo gallery add nothing that viewers couldn't gain from their TV guides.

Mosaic have clearly done their best with this DVD, though this doesn't compensate for the shortcomings of the film itself. With Se7en being a better film, and a better extras package, it's hard to see why anyone would want the rip-off unless they already have the original.