Special features include the following featurettes: Pre-Production (eight minutes), Building Barrow (four minutes), The Look (six minutes), Blood, Guts And Nasty #@$&! (six minutes), Stunts (six minutes), The Vampire (five minutes), Night Shoots (five minutes), and Casting (nine minutes); an episode of the anime T.V. series Blood+ (21 minutes); a commentary track by cast and crew; and previews. The Blu-ray Disc also includes a 30 Images Of Night storyboarded slide show.
Story Synopsis:
Located far north of the Arctic Circle, Barrow, Alaska experiences 30 Days Of Night, a natural phenomenon that occurs each winter. From the darkness, across the frozen tundra, an evil will come to Barrow that will bring the town’s residents to their knees. A group of maniacal vampires takes control of the remote Arctic town, feasting at will on the terrified townsfolk. The only hope for Barrow is the sheriff (Hartnett) and his wife, the deputy (George), who are torn between their own survival and saving the town they love. Based on the graphic novel by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. (Stacey Pendry)
DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced 2.40:1 DVD has a cold, desaturated look that matches the storytelling nicely. Resolution is well rendered, with fine textures nicely detailed. Even with the desaturated colors, fleshtones look fairly natural. Black levels aren’t as deep as they should be, causing many of the darker scenes to look flat and hazy. Shadow delineation is still decent, with details in the darker portions of the image still recognizable. Occasional posteration can be recognized. The image can look overly noisy at times, with an inconsistency that makes me believe it isn’t just film grain. Edge enhancement can be noticed on higher contrast transitions, but it is isn’t always a distraction. (Danny Richelieu)
Soundtrack:
The Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel soundtrack features a very low noise floor with very good dynamic range, which allows even the most quiescent effects in the sound design to be discernable throughout. Dialogue generally sounds too forward and bright, and it often can be shrouded with heavy shuffling distortion. The mix favors the front three screen channels for much of the presentation, but there are times when the soundtrack can be very engaging with a good use of each channel. In scenes without much action, though, atmospheric effects are limited to the front stage, which really limits their effectiveness, no matter how natural they sound. The soundtrack features incredibly deep and tight bass delivered through each of the channels, including the LFE channel. While it can be entertaining, the soundtrack has many problems. (Danny Richelieu)
