Day Of The Dead DVD Review
Posted by Ryan Keefer on 08.30.2003
Divimax, a film transfer process that provides…wait, why is that blue?
The Film
Despite owning some films from the horror genre-basically restricted to the classics, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist and others, I’m not an aficionado of horror films. Though when I saw George Romero's 1968 benchmark film Night of the Living Dead, that had me hooked. Romero's movie was something that no one had seen before, and not many people have duplicated successfully in the last 35 years either (note to Anchor Bay: it's been over a year since the last DVD release of NotLD, maybe you'd want to add to the confusion with yet ANOTHER anniversary edition of this too?). Romero's zombie movie trilogy continued with Dawn of the Dead in 1978, and wrapped things up with Day of the Dead, which came out in 1985.
In Day of the Dead, this time Romero puts some scientists and "soldiers" in a underground bunker, as the earth is overrun by flesh eating zombies, and the bunker is used for both shelter and experimentation, as the scientists poke and prod captured zombies to find out ways to curb their zombie tendencies and domesticate them. The ranks start to thin though, and both groups clash at their breaking point. Sounds like it was good the first time, when it was John Carpenter's The Thing, but the psychological focus quickly disappears just like various members of the cast of Day of the Dead.
For more discerning fans of horror/zombie movies, they view this concluding part of Romero's trilogy as forgettable, and it pretty much lives up to that aspect. With laughable and unbelievable acting and casting (one of the soldiers looked like Dom DeLuise, for God's sake!), and the Kmart type 80's soundtrack,
where you can recognize the song, but it's not the actual song, or the rights would've had to have been paid for, it's really nothing more than a popcorn movie. However it does showcase the talents of Tom Savini, the make-up artist for Romero's films and well-renowned for his work. Anchor Bay decided to give this film some 2-disc love, including it in their Divimax line of films, to go with a DTS soundtrack and a bunch of other goodies.
The Video
Anchor Bay touts Divimax as "a High Definition (HD) film transfer process that provides state-of-the-art picture quality, and can be viewed on any home entertainment system." And for the most part, the transfer does live up to the explanation. The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen is presented very well, in almost pristine condition, and I was surprised to discover so much detail in this film that was made for under $5 million. However I discovered in this (and in AB's recent re-re-re-release of Halloween), that with scenes set in the dark, that there's a predominant blue hue throughout the scene. There wasn't much that turned out blue, but after seeing Halloween (don't worry, you'll see a review on it soon), it's clear to me that Anchor Bay needs to do something about this aspect of their transfers to ensure complete satisfaction. They've got their hands on good cult classic films, if they can tweak this part of their process, things will look perfect. As it stands, the blue scenes do distract from what is an outstanding picture.
The Audio
I'm still surprised by the inclusion of DTS for a DVD release of Day of the Dead, but I'll credit Anchor Bay for going the extra mile in terms of giving those who pick this up the best possible product. And the DTS does help to emphasize the song that sounds like "She Blinded Me With Science" on your surround speakers, but the music sounded a bit too loud. Conversely, dialogue needed to be turned up more than expected, resulting in numerous sonic surprises through the film. Maybe they decided to mix it that way,
but I doubt it. I would have been happier with a more balanced 5.1 track, this did take away from the film a little bit for me.
The Extras
For Anchor Bay, here's where the rubber meets the road. The first disc contains two new commentary tracks, the first from Romero, Savini, production designer Cletus Anderson and Lori Cardille, who played Sarah. The group has a lot of fun in reflecting on the film, and the conversations between Romero and Savini are interesting. Savini even discusses the weapons master’s function on a set, and talk about some prop related death in recent years (including Brandon Lee’s). Savini also discussed some of the latex effects and appliances used for some scenes as well. Cardille, however, seems a bit too serious for the room. While she does reflect on how her father played a role in Romero’s first zombie film, she doesn’t seem to have enjoyed it as much as the other parties did. The second track is film producer/director Roger Avary (The Rules of Attraction). Avary is a huge fan of the film (despite periodically taking shots at “fanboys”). He even describes some shots as “Kubrickian.” He doesn’t really contribute anything to the film, aside from his enthusiasm. He played (and designed his own) Day of the Dead board game. What does that tell you? But he helped write Pulp Fiction, True Romance and Reservoir Dogs with Quentin Tarentino, so he must know something that I don’t. But then again I don’t have “dreams about this movie,” like Avary does. He does compare it to more recent zombie films, specifically 28 Days Later, and provides some thoughts on it. It’s pretty much fluff, but it’s enthusiastic fluff if that helps.
Disc 2’s features start with an new 39 minute documentary entitled The Many Days of Day of the Dead. The feature contains new interviews with those in the commentary track, as well as Producer David Ball, Makeup Effect Artist Greg Nicotero, Assistant Director Chris Romero and actors Joe Pilato (who played Rhodes) and Howard Sherman (the lovable undead zombie named Bub). The feature is fairly comprehensive, as Romero talks about how he scaled his screenplay back to preserve the kind of vision he wanted, and Savini talked about how the first draft resembled a “Ben-Hur with zombies” feel to it. Thoughts on Bub are shared, along with some stories on Savini’s effects, and the overall desire for those in Romero’s hometown of Pittsburgh to be zombies in a Romero film. The feature does start with a 10 second title card warning of spoilers, which is nice, but if you’ve listened to the commentary first (which I did), there wasn’t too much new information to be gained. The second feature is a Behind the Scenes look at the film, which runs for 31 minutes, and is solely production footage from Savini and his work. From the bullet hits to the prosthetics, to testing the bullet hits to the finished effect, it’s all here. It’s pretty cool to see the before and after shots of the prosthetics/zombie transformation, and fans of Savini’s work will enjoy this inclusion to the DVD. There is an audio interview with the late Richard Liberty which is about 16 minutes where he is asked about the film and working with Romero. Recorded in March of 2000, the interviewer sounds like a bit of a fanboy, asking about questions which only devotees of the film would ask, but it’s a harmless extra which, for nostalgia’s sake, was nice to put on the disc. The underground bunker which was used in the film is actually a storage facility for records, film, what have you, and the promotional piece for the facility is included here. At just over 8 minutes, it’s probably a couple minutes too long, and anyone who’s had to sit through training tapes for work or something pretty much knows how cheesy these things are, but it’s a pretty unique choice to put in the set, so I’ve gotta give them credit there. The still gallery section is broken down into 7 parts; Production Stills, Behind the Scenes Part 1 and Part 2, Memorabilia, Zombie Make-Up and Continuity Stills. The total amount of stills here is about 475, so there is plenty of material here for the slightest fan of the film. There is a text bio of Romero which is 24 pages (along with 2 pages for the filmography) which is one of the more detailed things you’ll find. Trailers and TV Spots, 3 of each, round out the extras in the set. The packaging is good also, the extra touch being a miniaturized "bloodstained legal pad" to resemble Dr. Logan's log, with liner notes included. The first draft of the screenplay and production memos are the DVD-ROM material included also.
The Film: 5.5
The Video: 7.5
The Audio: 7.0
The Extras: 8.5
The 411: A mixed bag. Despite my complaints about the inconsistent audio and disappointing video effort in some scenes, fans of Romero's work will still be pleased to see the hard work put in by Anchor Bay. It's still a 2 disc set of full of extras, two commentary tracks and better than expected audio and video quality at a
