Painter Charley Barrett (Alex Hurt) has been having these blackouts lately and waking up in the woods covered in blood. It’s just one more thing to worry about in addition to his father having recently died. Plus the town he grew up in is being bought out by a greedy capitalist who thinks he owns everyone including the police and mayor. Meanwhile a string of savage animalistic attacks have been occurring lately with the latest being blamed on a migrant worker named Luis who happened to be unfortunate enough to have been a witness to the murders. As the town grows more and more restless as the bodies begin to pile up, Charley begins to suspect that he himself may well be the cause of the violence sweeping the area. The only thing to do is to end things once and for all. But how can he get the evidence needed to ensure that Luis is cleared of all charges and doesn’t end up on the wrong end of a lynch mob’s gun barrel?

Larry Fessenden has been a pillar of the indie horror community for over 40 years, both as a director of such films as Habit and The Wendigo, which paved the way for more slow burn indie horror that studios like A24 and Neon, and as an influential producer, founding Glass Eye Pix, who championed some of the finest minds in the indie horror community such as Ti West (The Roost, House of the Devil, The Innkeepers), Jim Mickle (Stakeland), Mickey Keating (Darling, Psychopaths) and even non-horror indie talent like Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy, Certain Women). 2024 finds Fessenden in fine form with Blackout, the second is what he’s referring to as his own MonsterVerse after his Frankenstein riff Deranged from a few years ago. Fessenden very much puts the focus on the humanity of being trapped in a deadly wolf man scenario, drawing parallels between Charley’s grief at losing his father with the embodiment of his anger being unleashed as the wolf. Alex Hurt (son of William Hurt) does a great job at conveying the inner conflict of being caught in such a situation, knowing the misery he is causing and wanting to protect those around him. It is significant that Charley’s transformation is specifically into a wolf man, still upright with a semblance of the humanity within him, rather than a bestial werewolf on all fours, rampaging through the woods in savage fury. With the humanity still in there, so is the culpability. It also gives Fessenden a chance to show off the delightfully old school makeup effects. As Fessenden notes in one of the extras, the wolf man here was modeled after the Marvel comic Werewolf by Night from the ’70s, a design which itself was inspired by the classic Universal monster played by Lon Chaney Jr. Fessenden directs the picture like he has many of his films, more as an indie drama that happens to have a monster at its core rather than as a jump scare or blood ‘n’ guts horror film as one might expect. That’s not to say that the film isn’t without its share of exciting sequences. The car crash scene and the climax are examples of where Fessenden can get kinetic when he wants to. But the film at its heart wants to explore ideas of sadness and conflicting inner emotions that may turn off the average horror fan. Including abstract animated segments (beautifully illustrated by the way) helps to drive home the more artistic direction Fessenden wanted to take this film in.

Dark Sky Selects has delivered a very impressive transfer here. Blackout is a film with a lot of night scenes and the black levels are deep and well-balanced. The film has a nice naturalistic color palette that is represented really well, and the animated sequences in particular pop beautifully. The audio provided comes in both 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo tracks. The 5.1 track in particular has a nice sense of immersion, particularly in scenes like the car crash. Fessenden has always been generous with extras on his releases, and this one is no different. First we have an audio commentary with Fessenden that is full of useful information about the making of the film, its themes and its origins. We also get a feature-length Blackout Behind the Scenes documentary that is full of fly-on-the-wall footage, interviews and in-depth info of every step of the process, from the casting to the making of the animation to the editing. We also get a clip show highlight reel of Fessenden’s MonsterVerse so far as well as time lapse footage of a photoshoot during the filming. Another cool addition is the “Blackout” episode of Fessenden’s audio drama series Tales from Beyond the Pale. I really dig audio dramas and have even been involved in recordings of some myself, so this was a special delight for me personally.

Between the Hatchet steelbook and this release of Blackout with a nice slipcover featuring artwork from the animation in the film, Dark Sky Selects is a very cool boutique label to watch. With Blackout, Fessenden has given us a well made hybrid of more thoughtful indie horror combined with the spirit of the classic monster mash films, and Dark Sky has presented it in a great package with a nice technical presentation and a healthy bounty of extras. This release comes highly recommended!