Something else The Ice Harvest definitely has working in its corner: the jokes are actually funny. Some of the laughs are dark — very dark — but the genuine humor is a much needed and appreciated opposing force to the grisly details of much of the film's events. The Ice Harvest walks a fine line between comedy and horror with remarkable skill.

The DVD treatment of the film sports three short documentaries, Ramis' commentary, two alternate endings and a rather useless outtake where Thornton plays Vic as if he were his character from Sling Blade. One beef I have with the DVD presentation is that there's a montage of snippets from the film that play before the main DVD menu (and cannot be skipped!) which pull from several important scenes in the film, including the end!

With more and more consumers waiting until a movie arrives on DVD to see it for the first time, this feels like a bad move implemented only to refresh the memories of the few who originally saw The Ice Harvest in a theater and are now buying it to own. It's a needless addition that I've sadly seen more and more on DVDs lately and nearly enough to make me nostalgic for the early days of DVDs with static, boring menus. We really don't need all these extra "bells and whistles" on our DVDs, especially if there's a chance they'll spoil or skew our enjoyment of the film itself. For a movie that revels in the slow, methodical revealing of its secrets, and is sure to be more enjoyable the less one knows about it beforehand, the DVD treatment itself seems to be working at a cross-purpose.