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30 Days of Night (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - United Kingdom - Icon Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Samuel Scott (12th October 2013). |
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The Film
 ***This is a technical review only. For reviews on the movie from various critics, we recommend visiting HERE.*** Barrow, Alaska; A remote, isolated town that is plunged into a state of complete darkness for 30 days every winter. It is here that a group of marauding, merciless and bloodthirsty vampires, led by Marlow (Danny Huston), are coming. Their intention? A month long, uninterrupted feast of its helpless residents. It is up to Sheriff Eben (Josh Hartnett), his estranged wife, Stella (Melissa George), and an ever-shrinking group of survivors to do anything and everything they can to last till daylight.
Video
Icon Home Entertainment release 30 Days of Night onto Blu-ray for the United Kingdom audience in the original aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The transfer is 1080p and uses an AVC MPEG-4 codec. Although not quite perfect, I would be happy to call this a reference quality transfer. As usual with horror movies, there are a lot of dark scenes, and with this one taking part in Alaska during a time where there are, you guessed it, 30 days without daylight, this movie has a lot of dark scenes, handled beautifully. Detail is always high, from the threads and fur in the character's clothing, to every blemish on the faces of cast members. Of particular note, is how detailed basic elements such as snow is. Often, you can expect just a sea of white, but here, all the detail of the snow in such simple things such as vehicle tracks, is sublime. Amidst all the blacks and whites, is of course, plenty of blood red, which pops nicely, with plenty of clarity and tone. There is no sign of damage to the print in any way shape or form. No edge enhancement, no aliasing, no dirt - no nothing. A little grain appears every now and then, but it doesn't have any affect on the viewing experience. The disc is region free, and the feature runs 113:03.
Audio
There are two audio options available here: - English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 - English Dolby Digital 5.1 Rather annoyingly, the Dolby Digital track plays by default, so be sure to change to the lossless audio option before you start the movie (or via remote control). Much like the transfer, the audio is exceptionally good. The surrounds are used to great effect, especially as the vampires stalk their prey, and the score is well balanced throughout. Directionality is very good, with the subtle sounds of the surrounding environments adding to the extremely tense and sometimes claustrophobic feel of the feature. Dialogue is clear at all times, and there are no scratches, dropouts or signs of background hiss. Excellent stuff. Optional subtitles are available in English.
Extras
First up, we have an audio commentary with co-producer Robert G. Tapert, and actors Josh Hartnett and Melissa George. It's a steady track that covers most aspects of the filming process, along with little tidbits of information about cast members and things that happened on set. Melissa George tells us that every time you see somebody breathe outside in the cold, the effect is done by CGI and isn't real, and that there are two flavours of fake blood corn syrup; strawberry and peppermint. I never really noticed the product placement of Pepsi during one scene, but there is a fun little discussion about how Pepsi wanted a scene digitally changed so the sign was for regular Pepsi rather than Pepsi Max. It could've been better had director David Slade been present to inform us more about some of the direction decisions, but this is certainly worth a listen as it is, and producer Tapert even tells us that Slade has told him there is nothing he wishes he had done differently, so this is effectively the director's cut. Next up are a series of featurettes: - Play All (50:28) - "Pre-production" (7:36) - "Building Barrow" (4:24) - "The Look" (5:57) - "Blood, Guts, & Nasty #@$&!" (6:34) - "Stunts" (6:24) - "The Vampire" (5:07) - "Night Shoots" (5:09) - "Casting" (9:04) These are well made featurettes which cover as much ground as you could hope, in quite a relaxed manner. One thing I do like about these, are that they are in-depth enough to hold the interest of those who want to explore the more technical details, without getting so in-depth as to put the average viewer off from watching. There are plenty of great moments here, with my personal favourite showing everyone smiling as they started the first day of night shooting, then again a few days later when their body clocks still haven't shifted fully (they were finishing at 6am each day). They believe that the whole cast and crew drank over 20,000 cups of coffee during filming! "30 Images of Night" Stills Gallery holds several stills, a slideshow and the digital comic.
Overall
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