On DVD: 'Nightcrawler,' 'The Saint' with Simon Dutton, more

Jake Gyllenhaal, who usually exudes an assured, thoughtful, suave aura, emanates creepy, oily, scheming menace as a newbie TV cameraman in

Nightcrawler

, a savage satire about the news media from

Bourne Legacy

screenwriter-turned-director Dan Gilroy. The DVD is due Tuesday from Universal Studios.

Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, an off-kilter if not downright unbalanced petty criminal with violent tendencies who sees the world through the prism of self-help books. (One imagines he spent years in a jail cell reading them.)

Lou, who is out of work - and out of cash - is cruising around Los Angeles freeways when he makes a discovery that changes his life. After pulling over to check out a particularly bloody car crash, he notices that while cops keep onlookers far away from the spectacle, they allow one man through - a TV news cameraman armed with impressive-looking gear. The newsman (Bill Paxton) tells Lou all he needs is a good camera and a police scanner and he can set himself up as a freelance cameraman.

Lou is off and running. He begins trolling around for criminal acts, fires, and accidents and sells his footage to the highest bidder.

The story takes a terrifying turn when Lou is told by a TV news producer (Rene Russo) that she wants him to get exclusive first coverage of the grisliest scenes he can find.

Fortified with great writing and acting, Nightcrawler is an intelligent take on media culture that is as funny as it is horrifying.

(www.universalstudiosentertainment.com; $29.98 DVD; $34.98 Blu-ray/DVD Combo; rated R)

The Saint: Set 2. Roger Moore wasn't the only actor who assayed the juicy role of the suave rogue and sometime detective Simon Templar. The character, created by novelist Leslie Charteris in 1928, has been on the big screen since 1938. And two decades after Moore played him on TV, fellow Brit Simon Dutton picked up the baton in a series of lavish TV films beginning in 1989. This new set features three new entries, including a droll story about Templar's work with an international spy agency that has the Brits, Yanks, and Soviets working on the same side. (www.acornonline.com; $49.99; not rated)

White Bird in a Blizzard. A fascinating and strange cross between a Douglas Sirk-esque suburban family melodrama, a coming of age story about a teenage girl's discovery of her sexuality, and a murder mystery, cult director Greg Araki's latest feature also is his most accessible. Shailene Woodley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) is stunning as a teenager who has had a deeply contentious relationship with her mother (Eva Green), a deeply disturbed and bored suburban housewife.

So threatened is the mom by the girl's burgeoning sexuality that she begins drinking heavily and flirting with teenage boys. She also becomes increasingly abusive toward her milquetoast husband (Christopher Meloni).

Then one day the mother disappears.

Is she dead? Did she run off with a younger man? (http://www.magpictures.com/; $26.98 DVD; $29.98 Blu-ray; rated R)

Viktor. French megastar Gérard Depardieu (Cyrano de Bergerac) goes all Rambo in this European entry co-starring Elizabeth Hurley. Depardieu plays an art thief who gets out of prison to find his son has been murdered. Burning with vengeance, he tracks down the evildoers to Moscow. (http://inceptionmediagroup.com/; $26.98; not rated)

VHS: Viral. The third installment in the found-videotape anthology series features short films by some of the most innovative directors working in horror, including Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes), Marcel Sarmiento (Deadgirl), and Gregg Bishop (Dance of the Dead).

Due Feb. 17 from Magnolia. (http://www.magpictures.com/; $26.98 DVD; $29.98 Blu-ray; rated R)