The special edition Blu-ray for the alien invasion flick is ready for your collection.
The film itself is good, although a number of the performances leave something to be desired. However, the effects are nice, and the world-building is fantastic.
The aliens and their weaponry are unique and compelling, while the science behind the methodology of human self-defense is not completely ridiculous – as is often par for the course in such films.
In addition, although Darkest Hour was marketed as a sort of horror film – and it does contain some elements thereof – it’s not really meant to be scary or startling, just suspenseful, which is pulled off rather well.
The film is well-paced, well produced, well shot, and is a great little sci-fi adventure overall, especially considering the budget. But, if you’re in the market for the Blu-ray, you probably already know that.
The special features on the Special Edition disk are mostly what you would expect. There are some deleted scenes with commentary and a short featurette on how the effects were chosen and shot on such a small budget, which is impressive, but the real gem here is the short film included on the disk, The Darkest Hour: Survivors.
The few characters who survive the film’s story mention, at the end, that there is a resistance forming, and that fighting back has begun in earnest against the invaders. This is, of course, the expected ending, but Survivors takes us into that resistance.
The short film follows three groups of survivors, as they work together by radio to discover the weaknesses of the invaders.
I was expecting some slip-shod post-production goof-off, but this was very well done, and with the same production values as the film itself. It serves to develop the alien menace further, and screens a bit of background that the film was too busy to show. If you enjoyed The Darkest Hour, this bonus short film alone is worth picking up the Blu-ray for. I hope the practice of including cool, well-produced epilogues like this for the Blu-rays catches on.
The Darkest Hour Special Edition Blu-ray is available now.
