One Thousand Blackouts

Surprisingly, Larry Fessenden's latest horror masterpiece, Blackout, is only available via a Dark Sky webstore exclusive blu-ray, limited to just 1,000 copies.  And this after a long, elusive theatrical run where you could only catch it as part of a roadshow or something.  They've really made us wait.  And now I don't know, hopefully this "limited edition" business is just referring to this as a first run, to be followed by a standard edition, sans the booklet and slipcover, ideally with a wider release.  But who knows?  Dark Sky isn't saying.  It would be a shame if this is the whole story, although - and I'm probably playing into some stupid FOMO marketing ploy here - it's a very satisfying release if you're one of the lucky thousand.

Following his (second) Frankenstein film, Blackout is Fessenden's werewolf entry into his budding monsterverse.  I was surprised to learn in the extras that this was inspired by Marvel Comics' Werewolf By Night, and that Blackout comes at the heels of him trying unsuccessfully to pitch a WBN film at Marvel.  I think you can say I'm a genuine Fessenden fan at this point, so I hate to root against him, but I'm actually kinda glad he didn't get it and things shook out as they did.  I can't imagine the MCU releasing anything this dark or grown up, and marvel wound up making their own, weird little Werewolf By Night TV special thing.

Now, I have read a bunch of people on letterboxd knocking the acting, and I get it.  Fessenden recruits some non-professionals for the bit parts, which can sometimes net an authenticity an actor could never capture, but sometimes just fills your production with awkward Nail Gun Massacre moments.  This film gets a little of both, but it's your loss if you let it trip you up, especially since the main cast is actually quite excellent.  Nepo-baby Alex Hurt goes beyond proving himself as performer to watch for, fleshing out a layered and captivating leading role.  And we've got some great supporting players, including a nearly unrecognizable James Le Gros (Safe, Phantasm 2, Lovely & Amazing and of course The Last Winter), Kevin Corrigan, Addison Timlin from Depraved, Joe Swanberg and Barbara Crampton.  I can't blame anyone who finds they can't get into it, but this is a a goddamn actor's movie.

Not that it's just that.  There's plenty of long dialogue scenes and character set pieces, but Blackout also looks great, has another fantastic score including a killer theme, the werewolf makeup is perfect, has a lot to say about class, and as always Fessenden throws in some distinct creative flourishes.  This time, it's justified by the fact that our protagonist is a painter, so we've got some wild animation sequences done in acrylics.  But at its heart, it's just a classic werewolf story, perfectly told.

2024 Dark Sky BD.

There is some fake grain added to this digital photography, but Larry fesses up in the special features that this is a choice he made in the filmmaking process, not any futzing around done on the home video back end.  Indeed, Dark Sky presents the film in its OAR of 1.85:1 on a healthily encoded dual-layered pressed disc (I specify the latter, because there was some initial speculation that this might be a BDR since it was a slightly mysterious Dark Sky webstore exclusive).  This film was photographed with some rich, layered shadows and fine detail, all of which is nicely captured here.  As is the fake grain.  We're given our choice of a lossless 5.1 (DTS-HD) or stereo (PCM) mix with optional English subtitles.  Outside of them going full UHD, you couldn't ask for a better film presentation.

And that absolutely goes for the special features, too.  If you know Fessenden, you know he can be relied on for excellent commentary tracks and personally crafted feature length 'making of' docs.  Again, I was a little worried initially that this might be some quickie barebones BDR webstore thing, but no, they haven't let us down; the goods are all here.  The doc is terrific as always, with tons of on-set footage and interviews with the cast and crew, covering everything from pre-production to its festival premiere.  Before making the film, Fessenden produced this story as an audio drama, and that's on here as well.  It's just under half an hour.  And there are a couple more minor features: a photo gallery of the make-up process, the trailer, a teaser, "Larry Fessenden's Monsterverse," which is sort of an extended mash-up trailer for Addiction, Depraved and Blackout.

This limited collector's edition comes in a slipcover and includes a 12-page booklet, which consists of mostly glossy color photos, with an intro by Fangoria's Phil Nobile Jr.  I don't know what happens after that 1,000 are out the door (VinSyn sold 12,000 copies of The Keep in two days; I'm surprised this single 1,000 is lasting this long), but I wasn't about to find out the hard way.