Day Of The Dead (1985/Anchor Bay DiviMax Edition DVD Set)
Picture:
B+ Sound: B Extras: A-
Film: B+
PLEASE NOTE: Since we reviewed this DVD set
upon its original release, two Blu-ray editions have surfaced, which you can
read more about at these links:
Australian Umbrella Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10388/Night+Of+The+Living+Dead+(1968)
U.S. Anchor Bay Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6152/Day+Of+The+Dead+(1985/Blu-ray)
Now, the
original review…
All films
depict a particular period in time, whether it is past, present or
future. No matter what period the film is in, it always reflects the
period from which it is released. This is something that is still grossly
overlooked when people rewatch older films. George A. Romero’s zombie
films reflect the time in which they were made as well, with the original Night of the Living Dead being a
reflection of the 1960s, original Dawn
of the Dead (yes, they have remade that one too) on the 1970s, and the last
film Day of the Dead (1985) stuck in
the middle of the Reagan administration. The more observant have already
noticed.
How many
horror films actually take place during the day? Not many. There is
something about the nighttime that is always more eerie in the horror
genre. Darkness is the mystery, but going against this is daylight where
things ‘seem’ safe, yet when they are not, they become even more
frightening. We have become accustomed to movies that show dark scenes
and then we expect something scary, but when we have a lit room, or a bright
sunny day we are not expecting anything bad to happen. That tends to be
par for the course in the look (semantics) of these films.
What is
particularly odd about this third (another trilogy by Romero surfaced since we
first posted this review!) installment to the series is the fact that some fans
love it, while others do not. Some feel it is equally as powerful to the
previous two, while some might debate that it lacks all the muster of its
predecessors. One fair argument might be to say that this film works
altogether differently. At this point the humans have a full
understanding of the zombie species. We have become smarter – the few
that have survived that is. Now humans have become the minority and there
is something interesting that Romero is working with here. In fact even a
more recent attempt at this was Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2003. see Blu-ray review elsewhere on this site)
which treaded much of the same territory as this film. Normal human
beings now are subject to being hunted or sought after by a larger
populous.
Anchor Bay has revisited Day of the Dead an upgraded the film in
just about every aspect imaginable. This new edition features a better
transfer, which is framed at an anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 and looks
decent, but still gives a dated look to the film. Although whites and
blacks are improved here and other colors seem rendered much better.
Detail and depth is lacking in certain areas with an overall softness
throughout, but still not bad. Anchor
Bay’s first release of
this film only featured a mono soundtrack, which has since been replaced by
this new discs stunning DTS-ES Discrete audio track. Stunning is to say
that it is far superior to that previous disc, but still lacks some of the
punch of more modern films that have bigger budgets and better
technology. This film never offered a state-of-the-art sound design to
begin with, but this new multi-channel mix gives a nice approximation as to
what capabilities it does have.
What I
like about the DTS-ES mix is the fact that it smoothes out the film with a
comfortable sound mix that never seems harsh. There is a foreboding sense
that is created with certain sound effects and music cues that have never been
there before, or at least not to the same degree. The ES channel is
reserved mostly for leftover music coming from the surrounds or some
directional effects like gunshots, which ricochet in and out of the
surrounds.
The film
also has a Dolby Digital 5.1 EX encoded mix as well for those without DTS
decoders, but it cuts out much of the fidelity that the DTS mix offers.
Not only that, but it also makes the mix much flatter and far more
shallow. The other two audio options are both commentaries from special
effects artist Tom Savini, George A. Romero, and Roger Avery. They are
not all on the same track, but what makes their commentary special is the fact
that the talk about just about every aspect of the film. From production
to the various versions of the film, they hardly leave out much.
What they
are not able to cover is made up in the behind-the-scenes portion or the new
documentary made just for this issue. There are some various other little
supplements that have been thrown together to give this film all its weight,
which is sure to make any fan drool.
However,
there is more here than a zombie film strictly for fans of this type of more
graphic filmmaking and its many supplements. Romero’s nightmares have
vital points to make. It is also a film that marked the end of a run of
bold filmmaking that was more possible before the era of cineplexes kicked
in. After the NC-17 succeeded the X rating (sometime after Paul
Verhoeven’s Robocop in 1987), a
brief attempt for a mature cinema came and went. It was doomed by the
mainstream studios. That makes films from a filmmaker like Romero all the
more vital.
Romero
could have more money, but choose severe creative control instead, which is how
this was issued in an uncompromised cut to begin with. Though the film
looks stressed in some ways as a result of less money available, the content of
the screenplay and the action on screen (in true Rock N Roll spirit)
triumph. Like the underrated third parts of other film series (George
Miller’s Mad Max – Beyond Thunderdome
(1985), David Fincher’s Alien 3
(1992, especially the longer cut), and Jonathan Mostow’s Terminator 3 – Rise of the Machines (2003) for example), Day of the
Dead takes its story forward more than anyone had a right to expect.
Romero
has been trying to do a fourth installment, but nothing has caught on, despite
the ever-increasing significance of this trilogy. He scored another
artistic triumph a few years later, despite clashes with the now-defunct Orion
Pictures, on Monkey Shines – An
Experiment in Fear (1988, soundtrack reviewed elsewhere eon this site) and
almost helmed the Resident Evil
films [four now and counting]. Whatever his next move, this recent
viewing of Day of the Dead convinces
than ever its points and more than enough has happened in our world since to
make another sequel very viable. You can
read about the follow-up trilogy films (Land
Of The Dead, Diary Of The Dead, Survival Of The Dead) elsewhere on this
site and check out the originals on Blu-ray starting with the links above.
-
Nate Goss & Nicholas Sheffo
