Given its title, one might expect 2011’s Carnage to offer a horror flick or a violent thriller. Instead, it brings a small, focused character drama.

In a New York park, 11-year-old Zachary Cowen (Elvis Polanski) hits Ethan Longstreet (Eliot Berger) in the face with a stick and causes dental damage. This leads to discussions of the event between Zachary’s parents Alan (Christoph Waltz) and Nancy (Kate Winslet) and Ethan’s parents Michael (John C. Reilly) and Penelope (Jodie Foster) about how to deal with repercussions.

While these conversations start in a civil manner, disagreements lead them downhill. This means increasing conflict among the upper-middle-class families.

Adapted from a French play by Yasmina Reza, Carnage definitely shows its stage-based roots. After a quick view of the inciting incident and a return to that venue for the coda, the entire story takes place in one apartment location.

With noted director Roman Polanski behind the wheel, though, Carnage never feels like a filmed stage production. While it doesn’t rely on showy cinematic tricks, it nonetheless manages to come across like a movie.

That said, Carnage does remain a modest production, and given its intense focus on the four main characters, it benefits from an excellent cast. Three of those performers won acting Oscars – twice each for Foster and Waltz – and Reilly got nominated once as well.

The presence of so much talent elevates Carnage. A somewhat slight black comedy of manners at its core, the actors and Polanski help ensure that the project punches above its weight.

Essentially a “sitting room drama” in the same vein as 1966’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - another adaptation of a stage production - Carnage focuses on deception and appearances. Loyalties shift and positions change as the story progresses.

This creates an entertaining look at the subject, especially given the way matters unravel. We do get too many revelations along the way, and that makes matters unrealistic at times.

Still, Carnage creates a pretty involving 80 minutes of character drama, albeit one with an abrupt ending that brings no real resolution. Although the movie never really excels, it remains engaging.

Carnage appears in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a fairly good image.

Overall sharpness worked fine, though the picture could become a bit on the soft side. This seemed like an outgrowth of the cinematography, though, and not an issue.

The image lacked jaggies or moiré effects, and it also showed no edge haloes. Print flaws remained absent.

Colors leaned toward an amber tone along with some teal as well. The hues seemed appropriate for the material.

Blacks felt deep and dense, while shadows seemed smooth and clear. This wound up as a more than watchable presentation.

Don’t expect sonic fireworks from the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.0 soundtrack. The absence of a dedicated LFE channel initially surprised me, but as I watched, I realized the restrictions of the mix left no need for a subwoofer.

That’s because we came with an extremely limited soundscape. Dialogue heavily dominated, and effects played a minor role.

Those elements did little to flesh out the surroundings. Music also seemed nearly non-existent, as only snatches of score ever appeared.

At least the dialogue sounded fine, with lines that seemed natural and concise. What we heard in terms of effects and music showed positive reproduction. The movie delivered a perfectly adequate soundtrack for a character-oriented film.

Three featurettes appear, and Actors’ Notes runs 10 minutes, 38 seconds. It brings notes from actors Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly, and Christoph Waltz.

“Notes” examines the source play, story/characters, themes, cast and performances, and production domains. We get a decent view of these topics, though it leans a bit toward fluff.

An Evening With John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz goes for 38 minutes, three seconds. It presents a live panel that features Reilly and Waltz.

They tell us how they came to the project, cast and performances, sets and production design, aspects of the shoot and thoughts about their careers. We find an enjoyable chat.

Finally, On the Red Carpet spans three minutes, 30 seconds and shows Waltz, Reilly, production designer Dean Tavouloris, producer Said Ben Said, and actor Eric Metheny at the premiere. We find a couple useful comments but mostly find fluff.

The disc opens with ads for A Separation, A Dangerous Method, The Skin I Live In, In Darkness and Footnote. We also get the trailer for Carnage.

Thanks to an excellent cast, Carnage offers a more than watchable affair. It just doesn’t ever really zing as a character drama. The Blu-ray delivers generally positive picture and audio along with a smattering of bonus materials. Nothing here dazzles but Carnage brings a fairly involving tale.