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The Disc

Extra Features


Before you get to the main menu, there are skippable trailers for other releases from Momentum Distribution: Bathory, Age of the Dragons and Barbarossa: Siege Lord.

In the commentary with director Uwe Boll and writer Michael C. Nachoff , Uwe Boll has made some commentary tracks in the past, but this is probably the first where he isn't on his own and is joined by screenwriter Michael Nachoff so they are able to cover more aspects of the production and the shoot with Boll extremely complementary about shooting in Zagreb, which is much cheaper and more accessible to a director than similar locations in Canada which wouldn't allow you to shoot in government buildings, museums or shut down streets with as much ease as he found there. You can say what you like about his merits (or otherwise) as a filmmaker, but there's no denying he can speak at length about his projects with enthusiasm and this is the case here with a fairly lively commentary track.

The Making of Bloodrayne 3 (28:01) spends the first four minutes cutting quickly from actor to actor, crew member to crew member and back again, chopping sentences in half before settling down and featuring short interviews and plenty of clips from the film and some B-roll footage. It appears to be a promotional piece which would have had commercial breaks as the same people have captions telling you who they are and their role in the film. Also, they don't go into much detail about the plot but has actors talking about their characters with Uwe Boll saying how good they were and the advantages of working with a good stunt coordinator. The whole thing is presented in 4:3 (with stereo sound) with just about everything pillarboxed to varying degrees.

Interview with the Writer of Bloodrayne 3: Michael C. Nachoff (6:01) is also presented in 4:3 and pillarboxed as the interviews is 1.78:1 widescreen and the clips from the film are 2.35:1. The interview isn't particularly illuminating which is unsurprising as it is fairly short and shot entirely in what appears to be his office. Unsurprisingly, Nachoff defends Uwe Boll, saying that the criticism is unwarranted and is by people who are upset that his films don't fit into the zeitgeist!

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The Picture


As he discusses at length in the commentary, Uwe Boll shot this entirely digitally despite the rather cumbersome nature of the camera as he found it much easier to evaluate takes and allows the actors to play with their lines, doing several takes before they found their best work without Boll having to worry about film stock or when he would get to see the day's rushes.

The end result is a very clear picture with very good contrast levels so detail remains high in low light situations – of which there are many – and colours are nice and bright, though not overly vivid and out of place. Some of the set decoration is a little unconvincing, as are the costumes, but the production design and locations are pretty good, using Zagreb to good effect.

When it comes to the SFX make-up and occasional CGI for the vampire attacks and bloodletting, these are accomplished fairly well with plenty of fake blood and well designed wounds.

The Sound


You have the choice of Dolby Digital 5.1 surround or 2.0 stereo English, both of which present the dialogue clearly and do a reasonable job with the atmospherics and score. However, due to the numerous action sequences with explosions, gunfights and hand-to-hand combat, the surround track clearly has the edge and uses the front and rear surrounds fairly well although this is basically sound mixing 101 and isn't the most impressive or innovative track you'll ever come across.

The menu has some extremely loud rock music which basically sets the tone for the film as the music, by Boll's composer of choice, Jessica de Rooij, isn't the most nuanced or atmospheric composition you'll ever hear but is one of those that tends to be overly loud in parts and, when it comes to action sequences, makes everything extremely loud.

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Final Thoughts


Bloodrayne: The Third Reich (or, to give it the title on the UK DVD, The Blood Reich: Bloodrayne 3) is unlikely to win Uwe Boll any new fans and those who have despaired at the quality of his previous work will probably give this a wide berth, yet those who like his quickly made and low budget movies will probably quite like this. I don't think anything I say here will affect the film's audience as those who want to watch it, will watch it and those who can't think of many worse ways to spend an evening than watching an Uwe Boll film won't bother with this.

It is an utterly uninspiring and dispiriting experience that does nothing to enhance Boll's reputation, just reaffirming my opinion that quality is not top of his list and, if a film can contain action, blood and nudity, it will. Although the disc contains a commentary, the other extra features are low quality and don't contain much in the way of additional information. The AV quality is better than I expected, but it is far from the most accomplished piece of filmmaking ever released on DVD. If you want a decent vampire action film,, watch one of the Blade films.

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