I'm sure that ever since the very first person made the very first penny off of a movie that hucksters have been trying to get people into movie theaters by any means necessary. In the beginnings, movies sold themselves due to their sheer novelty. Once television arrived, things like 3D and air-conditioned theaters were used to sell movies. In the 60s, producers like William Castle came up with all sorts of promotional gimmicks to fill the seats. (My favorite was when the double-bill of Women and Bloody Terror/Night of Bloody Horror promised "$2000 cash if you die while watching this film". What am I going to do with $2000 if I'm dead?) In the 80s and 90s, this sort of hard sell diminished, even with the competition from home video. However, things changed in 1999 with The Blair Witch Project, when that film used an online campaign to try and convince the public that the story was true. This basically created internet marketing for movies, something which we still see today. Shadow People took a page from that book, as a promotional video for the film as placed on You Tube, one which was supposed to look real. The movie even opens with a mention of this video. If only as much work had gone into the movie itself.

Shadow People opens with a scene which is set in Cambodia in 1979 which has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. The story then jumps to the U.S. in the 90s. Charlie Crowe (Dallas Roberts) has a late-night radio talk show, in which he invites listeners to talk about a variety of topics. However, he gets few calls and his ratings are on the decline. His homelife is no better, as his ex-wife (Anne Dudek) has married a more successful man, and his son (Mattie Liptak) has no respect for him. Things change when a young man calls Charlie's show, and claims that someone is after him. The man then leaves files at Charlie's house. When the man calls again that night, he is panicked and gunfire is heard. Charlie calls the police, who find the man alive and well. However, he dies a few hours later of unknown causes. Charlie inspects the files left by the man, all of which address something called "shadow people" -- creatures who stalk humans at night, first causing paralysis and then death. When a second, similar death occurs, Dr. Sophie Lacombe (Alison Eastwood) of the CDC comes to town to investigate. Together, she and Charlie try to learn if the phenomenon is real.

Shadow People failed to make me afraid of furniture on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 28 Mbps. The image is sharp and clear, showing only mild grain at times and no defects from the source materials. The colors look fine (although they are muted), and the image is never overly dark or bright. The level of detail is good, but the image is notably flat at times. The Disc carries a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 3.3 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The music mentioned earlier fills the speakers and provide notable subwoofer action. The stereo effects are good, showing nice separation. This some creative use of surround effects at times, especially in the few scenes in which the "shadow people" are in the room.

The lone extra on the Shadow People Blu-ray disc is "Shadow People: More to the Story" (13 minutes) contains additional footage from interviews with two of the "real" people presented in the film, Paul Taitt and Dr. David J. Hufford. An internet search turns up Dr. Hufford as a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, so I guess he's real, but this piece does nothing to truly explore what in the movie was meant to be true.