After the shocking death of a small-town reverend, insurance investigator Leo Hobbins (Bill Sage) arrives at Emmaus Holy and interviews the church secretary, Darlene Halsey (Ismenia Mendes). Against his better judgment, Hobbins agrees to help Darlene find the actual cause of the reverend’s death. Hobbins proceeds to interview all the congregation members, sifting through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies. Over the next 24 hours, Hobbins interviews six suspects and seeks to solve the case overflowing with duplicity, greed, drugs, and corruption.

For in-depth thoughts on Hayseed, please see my colleague Phil Walsh’s review from its original theatrical release here.

Video Quality

Good Deed Entertainment brings Hayseed to MOD Blu-Ray with a lovely 1080p video presentation. The presentation allows for the frame to provide a significant amount of depth, especially when traversing the town outside. The low-key production design and the clothing consistently serve up clear textural details. The image is crisp and clean with the rich landscapes emanating off the screen. Flesh tones are natural with a notable amount of detail present in close-ups. The subtle makeup blends in well and never becomes a distraction in close-ups. Black levels are deep with no egregious instances of digital noise. There is some light banding and other fleeting digital hiccups that pop up in the transfer. Overall this is a welcome release from the label.

Audio Quality

This Blu-Ray comes with a perfectly good DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that showcases the narrative intentions of this film wonderfully. Dialogue is the primary element of the film, and it always comes through crisp and clear without being overwhelmed by any competing sounds. The score flows through the speakers with crisp fidelity. There are a few odd moments in the film that add texture to the low end, but this is not a kinetic movie by any means. Environmental sounds of the world wake up the surround speakers in a nice manner. Ambient sounds are deliberately placed in the rear channels for a fully three-dimensional experience. The audio track accomplishes precisely what it needs to. There are optional English SDH subtitles provided.

Special Features

Trailer: The minute-and-a-half-long trailer is provided.

Final Thoughts

Hayseed is a great entry in the whodunnit genre that has been gaining steam in the last half-decade or so. As with all great examples of the genre, the importance is placed on the characters, and there are many unique townspeople that you enjoy getting to know here. The movie strikes a decent balance between the offbeat humor and the mystery at hand. This is definitely one you should not let slip by you. Good Deed Entertainment has released a Blu-Ray featuring a pretty strong A/V presentation and next to no supplemental features. Hopefully this one will find the life it deserves at home. Recommended

Hayseed can be purchased directly through MovieZyng or various other online retailers.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Good Deed Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.