• Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
  
• Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
• Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
• Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit)
  
• Subtitles: English SDH, French
  
• Subtitles Color: White
  
• Region: A (Region-Locked)
• Rating: PG-13
  
• Run Time: 109 Mins.
  
• Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
• Digital Copies: N/A
  
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
  
• Blu-ray Release Date: September 11, 2012
• List Price: $39.99

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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:2/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

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The Film

[Rating:2/5]

Contemporary Christian music video directors the Erwin Brothers, Andrew and Jon, bring their musical collage style to a feature-length film in October Baby. The story of Hannah (Rachel Hendrix) a young woman whose growing health problems are all connected to a traumatic experience during her birth. She finds out that she is in fact the survivor of a failed abortion and that she is adopted. With her life thrown into turmoil, Hannah hits the road with a group of friends, including best friend Jason (Jason Burkey) on their spring break trip to New Orleans. Hoping to stop-off in Alabama and find her birth mother where she can find answers, Hannah only finds more questions about her past.

October Baby is a virtual public service announcement, complete with actual PSA’s in the supplementary section on this disc, that unfolds with all the visual style of a country music video and the subtlety of a tonne of bricks. Heart strings are tugged at constantly, from an opening scene of Hannah curled up on her bed in the fetal position to a close-up on a notebook with the writing “the truth will make you free.” The real truth is that the film is aimed straight at the heart of a certain market that will eat it up unquestionably, for everyone else, there’s not much here to see.

Video Quality

[Rating:4/5]

Shot on the Red One, October Baby looks fine in this AVC/MPEG-4 1080p encodement from Fox, although contrast isn’t quite as strong as one would like and there are some occasional instances of color banding in the digital source.

Audio Quality

[Rating:4/5]

There’s not much going on here with the soundtrack. It offers clean dialogue and a decent amount of dynamic range with very subtle low frequencies, but the surround channels carry a very low level of atmospheric effects.

Supplemental Materials

[Rating:2.5/5]

If you want to sit through a half-hour of the cast and crew telling you how powerful this film is and a few PSAs, then have at it.

The supplements:

• Audio commentary by the Erwin Brothers and the October Baby family
• October Bloopers (1080p/24; 00:05:00)
• Deleted Scenes (1080p/24; 00:15:43)
• Finding Hannah (1080p/24; 00:04:46) – The filmmakers discuss the casting of the lead for October Baby.
• Shari’s Story (1080p/24; 00:04:55) – Casting the role of the birth mother in October Baby.
• Gianna Jessen: The Inspiration (1080p/24; 00:05:08) – The real-life “abortion survivor” that inspired the story speaks.
• Singing the Praises of October Baby (1080p/24; 00:03:32)
• Facebook Q&A with Rachael and Jason (1.78:1; 00:06:24)
• Every Life is Beautiful:
  • Jon Erwin
  • Gianna Jessen
  • Andy Erwin
  • Mark Hall
  • Pat Layton
  • Ken Bevel
  • Dan Atchison
• The Afters “Life is Beautiful” Music Video

The Definitive Word

Overall:

[Rating:3.5/5]

October Baby is all sheen and thinly veiled messaging with glossy music video imagery that hardly digs down very deeply into circumstances of any of the characters involved in the story. Aimed squarely at the Christian market, most everyone else need not apply.

Additional Screen Captures

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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:2/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]

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