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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Day of the Dead (Force) (1985)

Day of the Dead (Force) (1985)

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Released 12-Nov-2001

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Horror Menu Animation & Audio
Featurette-Behind The Scenes
Gallery-Photo
Biographies-Crew
Teaser Trailer
Trailer-Night Of The Living Dead; Dawn Of The Dead
Rating Rated R
Year Of Production 1985
Running Time 100:44 (Case: 102)
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (78:02) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By George A. Romero
Studio
Distributor
United Film Distrib
Beyond Home Entertainment
Starring Lori Cardille
Terry Alexander
Joseph Pilato
Richard Liberty
Howard Sherman
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI $32.95 Music John Harrison


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Not 16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement Yes, mildly
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Sometimes, the last sequel in a series will be the most poorly received, usually due to bad publicity, the general public tiring of the concept, or the budget not being big enough to sustain the director's vision. George A. Romero's final episode in the Dead trilogy, interestingly titled Day Of The Dead, is no exception to this rule, and it is often said that he is less than happy with the ending the film had because he'd run out of money before shooting the one he really wanted. Nonetheless, this film is worth a look just to see how revolting it is on more than just one level.

    Day Of The Dead picks up an unspecified time after Dawn Of The Dead, and things have definitely changed for the worse, with one character estimating that for every living person there is left on the planet, there are four hundred thousand walking dead. Sarah (Lori Cardille), John (Terry Alexander), William McDermott (Jarlath Conroy), Dr. Logan (Richard Liberty), and Dr. Ted Fisher (John Amplas) are scientists or similar personnel engaged in studying the dead in order to find a way of dealing with them. They are not helped in their situation by the military personnel that are stuck in a bomb shelter with them, led by the rude and antagonistic Captain Rhodes (Joseph Pilato). As the militia trap zombies for the scientists to experiment on, Dr. Logan has "domesticated" one of them, whom he calls Bub (Sherman Howard).

    With the living dead edging closer to the compound, it isn't long before the tensions between the scientists and the militia explode into serious internal conflict, and faster than you can say "guts sandwich", the dead are invading. As the scientists and their helicopter pilots struggle against the militia to escape with their lives, and vice versa, some of the most grisly deaths I have yet seen in a horror film take place. I won't spoil any of them, but there is more than just a hint of irony in what becomes of Captain Rhodes and Bub the Zombie. The use of some clever set designs to make civilised societies seem truly abandoned works well here, too, with the opening scenes being truly creepy despite the silly concept. The only thing that drags this film down is that the militia are really horrible people, and it amazes me that the scientists didn't use their knowledge to work out some way to feed them to the zombies.

    Fans of Night Of The Living Dead will need no further encouragement to indulge in this effort, although it is somewhat interesting that we are getting this film before Dawn Of The Dead. The ending of Day Of The Dead will leave some feeling a little cheated, because it is so abrupt that it wouldn't surprise me to learn that George A. Romero ran out of money before he finished the film. Still, if a really grisly horror film is what your heart desires, then this is the disc to look at.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and it is not 16x9 Enhanced.

    The transfer is acceptably sharp, with foreground details being clear and easy to make out while the backgrounds, particularly in the underground research complex, are blurred and indistinct. The shadow detail is generally poor, with any scene that doesn't have at least some lighting being a murky black mess with the occasional hint of small detail. Thankfully, there is no low-level noise.

    The colours of this film are somewhat muted and dull, with most of the film being set underground. Dark sequences in particular had some problems with colour, as the colours that were discernable in the blackness had a tendency to bleed into each other. Aside from these problems, the colours were rendered acceptably, with no evidence of composite artefacts.

    MPEG artefacts consisted of some subtle posterization in skin tones that came and went throughout the film. Film-to-video artefacts were hard to discern, mainly due to the lack of resolution in this transfer. Interlacing effects, however, were occasionally noticeable, with blurred motion at 42:12 and 84:24, just for example, making me question whether we have received yet another NTSC to PAL conversion. Film artefacts were frequently evident, especially during the opening credits, where numerous sizeable black spots on the picture were noted. Reel-change markings were noted at 21:09, 42:13, 63:18, and 84:25.

    There are no subtitles on this disc, so viewers with hearing impairments are sadly out of luck.

    This disc is RSDL formatted, with the layer change taking place between Chapters 16 and 17, at 78:02. This is just as one of the soldiers finishes riding the elevator up to the surface, and it is noticeable without interrupting the flow of the film too much.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only the one soundtrack on this disc: the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 2.0, with a bitrate of 224 kilobits per second.

    The dialogue is usually clear and easy to understand, but some words tended to sound a little recessed at times. It is pretty easy to understand what the zombies are talking about, considering most of their speech consists of groaning. I detected no discernable problems with audio sync. A pop that sounded somewhat like one you'd heard from an old seventy-eight or forty-five was heard at 74:01.

    The score music in this film is credited to John Harrison, and it is much the same as the score in all the other zombie films that have come after this one. There are some moments when the score becomes rather haunting and atmospheric, but these are infrequent. Overall, the music of this film left little impression upon me.

    The surround channels were not used by this soundtrack, and thus a lot of opportunities to send the groaning zombies into the rear channels were passed on. The soundtrack often sounds almost monaural at times, but it gets the job done.

    The subwoofer was similarly unengaged throughout the film, with only the most minor of redirected signals getting to it. I could have turned it off and the feature would have sounded pretty much the same.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menu

    The menu is heavily animated with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, and is not 16x9 Enhanced.

Featurette - Behind The Scenes

    Presented Full Frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, this twenty minute and eighteen second featurette looks as though it has been shot on a 1980-generation camcorder.

Photo Gallery

    A collection of stills from the film with no real annotation.

Crew Biographies

    Biographies and filmographies for George A. Romero and makeup effects artist Tom Savini are included here. They are of moderate interest.

Teaser Trailer

    This fifty-four second trailer does not contain any footage from the film, and it is of limited value. The trailer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Trailer - Dawn Of The Dead

   This two minute and thirty-eight second trailer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, and it is not 16x9 Enhanced.

Trailer - Night Of The Living Dead

   This two minute trailer is actually for the thirtieth anniversary monstrosity with new footage and music commissioned by the writer wedged into the film with little rhyme, continuity, or reason. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The only version of this disc in Region 1 that I could find reviews of was the Anchor Bay Entertainment edition, which according to Widescreen Review, leaves a fair bit to be desired. I was unable to locate any definitive information about the extras, but this will hardly matter for reasons you can see below:

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

    Both of these discs miss out on 16x9 Enhancement, but our local disc has the advantage of being RSDL formatted (essential when dealing with this kind of source material) and a higher bitrate soundtrack (ditto). Widescreen Review describe the video transfer as inconsistent and poor, and they describe the audio transfer as being "undistinguished, compressed and distorted". Note that Widescreen Review's assessment of the Region 1 disc is misleading in its implication that it is a flipper (it is instead formatted with the bonus material on the other side of the disc), but the extra space serves the local disc well.

Summary

    Day Of The Dead, like its predecessors, is a study in how the failure to band together can doom us all. One cannot help but feel that Romero really wanted to make something a bit more out of this episode once it ends, but it is still worth a look if extreme horror delights you.

    The video transfer is acceptable, but a 16x9 Enhanced version from an interpositive source would have been nice.

    The audio transfer is rendered in unspectacular, uninspiring Dolby Digital 2.0, although it is quite good considering the age of the film.

    The extras are limited, but quite reasonable.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Dean McIntosh (Don't talk about my bio. We don't wanna know.)
Thursday, November 15, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDToshiba 2109, using S-Video output
DisplaySamsung CS-823AMF (80cm). Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL).
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationSony STR DE-835
SpeakersYamaha NS-45 Front Speakers, Yamaha NS-90 Rear Speakers, Yamaha NSC-120 Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Active Subwoofer

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