Day of the Dead (Blu-ray) (1985) |
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Day of the Dead (Blu-ray) (1985) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Horror |
Audio Commentary-George A Romero, Tom Savini, Cletus Anderson & Lori Cardille Audio Commentary-Greg Nicotero, Howard Berger, Everett Burrell & Mike Deak Featurette-Reflections of the Living Dead (78:44) Featurette-Behind The Scenes-On-set featurette (20:22) Theatrical Trailer-Three trailers TV Spots-Three TV Spots Gallery-Photo-Extensive stills galleries Trailer-Four Umbrella trailers |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1985 | ||
| Running Time | 100:55 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Programme | ||
| Region Coding | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Directed By | George A. Romero |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Umbrella Entertainment |
Starring |
Lori Cardille Terry Alexander Joe Pilato Jarlath Conroy Anthony Dileo Jr. Richard Liberty Sherman Howard Gary Howard Klar Ralph Marrero John Amplas Phillip G. Kellams Taso N. Stavrakis Gregory Nicotero |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
| RPI | $39.95 | Music | John Harrison |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Unknown |
English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 1080p | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | None | Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Usually the third instalment of a trilogy of films is the weakest. Who can forget Godfather 3, X-Men: The Last Stand, Spiderman 3, Jurassic Park 3 or Rush Hour 3 just to name a few examples. Rarely, you may find the third film of a trilogy is the best of the series. Think of Return of the King, The Bourne Ultimatum, Toy Story 3 and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (only if you accept the 'man with no name' Sergio Leone films as a 'loose' trilogy). Day of the Dead, in my opinion, would not satisfy either category.
Film critics and fans have argued that Day of the Dead is the weakest film in the 'Dead' trilogy (including the original 1968 feature Night of the Living Dead and its 1978 follow-up, Dawn of the Dead). Day of the Dead was meant to be George A. Romero's epic zombie movie, his 'Gone with the Wind'. It was budgeted for $US7 million. If you compare Night of the Living Dead's meagre $US114000 budget (gross $US42 million) and Dawn of the Dead's $US500000 budget (gross $US55 million), then this 1985 sequel to the series was going to be huge. Instead, the budget was cut in half when Romero could not guarantee an R rating due to the blood and gore effects. As a result, the film was released unrated but the script was changed significantly, especially the ending which was never shot as originally intended. Perhaps this is why Day of the Dead ends so suddenly. Director George A. Romero considers this film his favourite of the original trilogy, and despite grossing less than the previous two films ($US34 million), if you believe the hype regarding the original script then this could truly have been an epic. As it stands, when the budget was cut Romero still allocated funds for effects; where the cost-cutting came in was in the cutting of big scenes, shooting scenes underground without elaborate lighting effects and changing the script so that characters and storylines were left out. For you die-hard fans, you can read and compare the original script to the film here.
The main plot leaves behind the isolated farmhouse of Night of the Living Dead and the shopping mall of Dawn of the Dead; survivors have now gathered in a bunker in Florida where they co-habitat with military personnel. The lack of resources and diminishing supplies causes morale to drop. The military leader, Captain Rhodes (Joe Pilato), is impatient with Dr. Logan (Matthew Liberty) in his conducting of experiments on zombies. He introduces a specimen to Rhodes which he has been working on, Bub, but things go wrong. This causes Rhodes and his soldiers to eventually turn on the scientific team in the bunker. Sarah (Lori Cardille), John (Terry Alexander) and Bill (Jarlath Conroy), who had originally planned to leave the bunker are forced to abandon their friend Miguel when he sacrifices himself by opening the front gate to the compound and lets zombies in, who through sheer numbers overpower Rhodes and his soldiers. Sarah, John and Bill are then forced to escape to the helicopter.
This Blu-ray All Umbrella Entertainment Australian release of Day of the Dead is the third Blu-ray after the Region All Anchor Bay American release and the Region B Arrow United Kingdom release. So how does it stack up to those two releases?
DVD releases of Day of the Dead all contained some element of film grain. This release on Blu-ray is remarkably sharp and free of film artefacts, perhaps due to digital noise reduction.
The aspect ratio is 1:78:1, 16 x9 enhanced, is very close to the original 1:85:1 aspect ratio. The main feature is presented on a single-sided Blu-ray disc (a BD25) with an average bitrate of 24.35 m/b per sec. It uses a 1080p 24fps AVC MPEG-4 codec for its video transfer. Colour and contrast is appropriate for the era of the film (mid-eighties).
As stated, the film is relatively free from film artefacts, but there is some edge enhancement and some film grain in darker scenes.
There are unfortunately no subtitles provided.
There is no RSDL change due to the single-sided Blu-ray disc authoring.
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There has been some controversy over original dialogue being substituted for the Region 1 Anchor Bay - Divimax Special Edition on DVD. The American Region All Anchor Bay Blu-ray release apparently also contains these substitutions. The Australian Region All Blu-ray contains the original dialogue without changes.
There is one main soundtrack, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track encoded at 1746 kbps. Unfortunately, the original mono soundtrack is not offered here unlike the other Regional Blu-ray releases.
Music by John Harrison utilises synth sounds common to films from the 1980s as well as military effects and Caribbean music.
Surround channel usage is mostly contained among the front speakers, although there are instances of ambient noise and directional sounds from the rear speakers. The subwoofer bass track is okay for an up-mixed mono track.
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This audio commentary is similar to the 'chatty' cast commentary from Dawn of the Dead. Again, Romero dominates with his discussion on the film's budget, the shooting and the story.
This audio commentary is more screen-specific. The effects crew basically reminisce in regards to their experiences in making the movie. There is a lot of joviality and light-hearted banter here.
This featurette was included on Umbrella's previous release of Night of the Living Dead on DVD in 2006 and their 2010 Blu-ray release. Why it's included here on the Day of the Dead Blu-ray is a mystery to me. The 38-minute The Many Days of Day of the Dead documentary, found on both the Anchor Bay and Arrow Blu-ray releases would have been a better documentary to include with this Blu-ray release. This documentary was directed by Thomas Brown. It centres on conversations between four of the main players behind the film - George A. Romero, the co-writer and director; John A. Russo, the co-writer; Russell W. Streiner, the producer and actor playing "Johnny"; and Karl Hardman, the producer, makeup, sound and actor playing "Harry Cooper". Commentary on the film is also given in interviews with noted horror directors such as Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream), Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and Sam Raini (Evil Dead) and others (mainly directors, science-fiction experts and cinema magazine editors). This extra is similar to the One For The Fire: The Legacy of Night of the Living Dead documentary found on the Beyond Home Entertainment 40th Anniversary DVD release and the Region B United Kingdom Optimum Blu-ray release.
This is a behind-the-scenes look at the special effects and gore and make-up used in the film. Presented in a very basic video transfer which is not 16x9 enhanced, I thought this featurette was originally on the previous release of the film on DVD by Umbrella in 2006, although it was 10 minutes longer.
Three theatrical trailers averaging two minutes in length each are presented here.
Three original 30 second TV Spots advertising the film are also included.
There are many stills to view here. They are basically production stills, behind-the-scenes shots, posters, memorabilia, zombie make-up shots and continuity stills.
Trailers are provided for Day of the Dead: Contagium, The Crazies, The Hills Have Eyes and Suspiria.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Day of the Dead has been released previously by Anchor Bay in the United States and Arrow in the United Kingdom. These releases differ in audio options and extras.
The Region All Anchor Bay US release has the following features:
There are three audio options available: an English PCM 5.1 track (4.6 Mbps), an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track (640 Kbps) and the original English Dolby Digital mono soundtrack (192 Kbps). Subtitles are available in English.
The Region B Arrow UK release has the following features:
There are two audio options available: a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and the original mono soundtrack encoded in DTS-HD 2.0. There are no subtitles included with this release.
In my opinion, the Region All Anchor Bay US release, with its uncompressed PCM soundtrack, two audio commentaries, trivia track and original mono mix is slightly better than the UK Arrow Blu-ray release.
Ironically, George A. Romero's collaborator on Night of the Living Dead, John Russo may have stolen Romero's thunder in 1985 when he released his zombie comedy film, Return of the Living Dead, detracting critics and audiences away from the merits of the film in much the same way that Oliver Stone's Platoon was compared to Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket in 1987 and Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan was compared to Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line in 1998.
It may not be as thematically strong as Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, however Day of the Dead can still stand on its own as a legitimate member of the classic horror movie genre. The Region All Umbrella Blu-ray release betters all previous versions of the film released in Region 4 on DVD.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Sony BDP-S550 (Firmware updated Version 020), using HDMI output |
| Display | Samsung LA46A650 46 Inch LCD TV Series 6 FullHD 1080P 100Hz. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Sony STR-K1000P. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. |
| Amplification | Sony HTDDW1000 |
| Speakers | Sony 6.2 Surround (Left, Front, Right, Surround Left, Surround Back, Surround Right, 2 subwoofers) |