Synopsis:

This film is a remake of Colin Eggelston’s 1978 film also titled Long Weekend. Everett De Roche who wrote the screenplay for this film. Also wrote the screenplay for the original version of Long Weekend.

From the get go this is a movie that doesn’t make it easy to enjoy the journey. First off the film’s two main character’s a husband and wife who are at constant odds with each other. These characters quickly make sympathizing with them and their plight a lost cause. As unlikable as these two main characters get, the performances from  James Caviezel and Claudia Karvan are in line with persona’s they are portraying.

Also there is an abundance of ambiguity in this film which leaves plenty of room for interpolation. This at times heavy handed use of ambiguity does lend itself well to the film’s more supernatural aspects. Which are driven home by the film’s tremendous amount of tension and eerie atmosphere.

As is usually the problem with the majority of remake’s. This remake of A Long Weekend brings little, if anything new to the story. The end result is something that lacks the lasting impact that the original Long Weekend had ample amounts, even though this version tries its hardest to mimic its predecessor.

The DVD:

Showbox Home Entertainment presents Long Weekend in an anamorphic widescreen that preserves the film’s original aspect ratio. This is a strong looking transfers that has lucid looking colors, healthy looking flesh tones and details look crisp throughout.

This release comes with one audio option a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix in English. The audio mix does a good job spreading out the more ambient sounds in the mix with the bulk of the mix coming from the center and front channels. There are no problems with distortion or any other audio defects. dialog is always easy to make out and everything sounds balanced.

Extras for this release are spread over two discs. Extras on disc one include a trailer for the film and trailers for other films also released by Showbox Home Entertainment.

Extras on disc two include a deleted scene, a forty minute segment titled “Director’s Production Dairy”,  a thirty one minute “Making of” documentary, a twenty two minute segment that gives a behind the scene look at Peter’s death scene, an interview gallery with interviews with actress Claudia Karvan, screenwriter Everett De Roche and Toby Eggleston, the son of Colin Eggelston director of the original version of Long Weekend and a ten minute segment titled “Taming the Wild” which is a behind the scenes look at the animals that were featured in this film. Overall Long Weekend gets a first rate DVD release that comes with a wealth of extra content that covers the various stages of this production.