30 Days of Night Blu-ray Review

30 Days of Night is well worth a look on Blu-ray disc.

I, for the most part, enjoyed 30 Days of Night when I saw it in theatres back in October. I'm a huge survival-horror fan and with vampires thrown into the mix it was hard for me not to be attracted to the film. However, the movie is far from perfect. The setup isn't that strong and a lot of the dialogue is too loaded to be taken seriously. I was entertained by 30 Days of Night but was disappointed it wasn't able to introduce anything new to the now-stagnant vampire genre. Regardless, I like the flick and made sure to pick it up on Blu-ray on Tuesday. Keep reading for a full review of what's on the disc.

PICTURE: 30 Days of Night has a very distinct visual style that looks amazing on Blu-ray disc. The transfer is nearly perfect and really shows off the film's desaturated imagery along with the vibrant red splashes of blood. The picture's detail is simply amazing as you can see every bump on someone's face or count every stitch in their uniform. If you thought the gore looked gruesome before wait until you see it in full detail on Blu-ray disc.



However, the picture does have a few problems. There is a slight halo effect due to edge enhancement in some scenes causing a thin white outline visible around some characters. It doesn't plague the entire film but is noticeable in some of the wide angle shots. There is also quite a bit of grain during some of the darker scenes but that isn't necessarily the fault of the transfer. Don't let these minor complaints fool you, 30 Days of Night looks breathtaking on Blu-ray and is one of the best looking HD transfers I've seen.

AUDIO: The audio quality of the disc is simply astounding. The audio is delivered in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround Sound which chills you to the bone. The dynamic range of the film's audio is expansive and as clear as can be. The movie's score sounds amazing here and really sets the mood and never dips too high or too low as to overwhelm the experience. A poor audio performance would ruin this movie before the opening titles were shown but 30 Days of Night sounds amazing.



DVD EXTRAS: 30 Days of Night has a few bonus features on the disc but I would have liked to see more. There's an awkward commentary track featuring Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, and producer Rob Tapert but it isn't that great and doesn't warrant a listen. I would have loved to hear director David Slade's thoughts on his film but we're unable to with this disc. The Blu-ray also features eight HD behind-the-scenes featurettes which provide a decent peek into the production of the film. They are pretty interesting and well worth a look but not as effective as they could have been.

One bonus feature on the disc that is pretty cool is a graphic novel-to-film slideshow comparison. Here you can flip through images from the film and see the original Ben Templesmith art that inspired it. It's interesting to see where the film copied Templesmith's layout exactly and where they changed things up.

FINAL THOUGHTS: If you're a fan of survival horror or just a casual vampire fan 30 Days of Night is a must watch on Blu-ray disc. The Blu-ray transfer is almost perfect and really showcases what the HD format can do.

Click HERE to buy 30 Days of Night over at Amazon.

Cheers.

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