The Film:
If somebody were to do a survey on horror websites for people to write down the name of the first director of zombie movies that popped into their head, I'm pretty sure George A. Romero would be the answer nine out of ten times. I mean, he has pretty much ruled the genre since his first zombie film in the much acclaimed "Of The Dead" series "Night Of The Living Dead" back in 1968, right up to his more recent and successful "Land Of The Dead". With the new splurge of successful horror films (with thanks to British rom-zom-com Shaun Of The Dead), Arrow Films have figured it would be a good idea to update their previous "Day Of The Dead" release with the special edition it deserves.
In Day Of The Dead, we learn that the zombies have now finally taken out nearly all human life (they outnumber the humans 400,000:1) and the only humans that are left are in small pockets of isolation. We are thrown into one of these small pockets straight from the off (it may even be the only pocket of resistence left) and quickly learn there is a divide: Half of the people are military, whilst the other half scientists looking at a way to make the zombies turn back into humans. Soon enough, their divide turns things into disaster as the vicious Captain Rhodes (Joseph Pilato - Pulp Fiction, Wishmaster) gets nastier and nastier towards the scientists, seemingly led buy Sarah (Lori Cardille - Dead And Alive, No Pets). The zombies soon manage to break into the compound and with only one helicopter, and two groups of people, it is a race between life and death.
OK, so as a whole, the plot line is a small bit weak, but this is a zombie film. It's not meant to have the strongest of plots. It's supposed to deliver gutwrenchingly horrible zombies and great special effects. The good thing is, the zombies are horrible and special effects nothing short of fantastic. No CGI here to turn your stomach, just good old proper blood and guts that is probably made from a mix of paint, wax and food. The acting is pretty good aswell, apart from the 'foreign' characters where the accents sound forced. All in all, this is a must for all horror fans alike and it simply shouldn't be missed.
Picture:
Arrow Films have provided us with an anamorphic transfer of 1.78:1 and what a fine transfer it is. The image is well detailed with the viewer being able to see all the blood and guts very clearly. The only problem I did encounter was a small amount of edge enhancement but thankfully it isn't to noticeable. Arrow have also not included subtitles, which is a big mistake these days as a larger percentage of people in the UK are deaf or hard of hearing than you think.
Audio:
For the sound we have been given a remixed English Dolby Digital 5.1 track as well as the original English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track. The sound is above average but not excellent. I found it a bit lacking on surround and LFE during some scenes where I would've liked the atmosphere to come across better. All in all though, it is more than adequate and I'm not complaining. Please note, that the audio is identical to the Anchor Bay SE which contains a few dubs.
Extras:
For the extras, the commentary is on disc one whilst everything else is on disc two.
Audio Commentary - There have been a couple of varying commentaries for Day Of The Dead already featuring many different speakers including director George A Romero. However, this release bears a new one featuring four members of the special effects team: Greg Nicotero; Howard Berger; Everett Burrell and Mike Deak. There are next to no 'dead' spots with the commentary flowing nicely with a good mixture of technical info and anecdotes from the set. They seem to remain good friends to this day and they even talk a little about the previous Romero zombie films and their enjoyment of Shaun Of The Dead. Excellent and truthful.
The Many Days Of The Dead documentary - This long documentary is actually mainly interviews with various people including George A. Romero, Tom Savini, Cletus Anderson, Greg Nicotero, David Ball, Chris Romero, Lori Cardille, Joe Pilato and Howard Sherman in amongst some clips from the film. The interviews are well put together and enjoyable to listen to, but I think I would've preferred some information about the films impact on the genre and how it is perceived today. Still worth a watch though.
Behind The Scenes featurette - This is mainly footage of some of the cast and crew larking about behind the scenes and has some funny moments as well as informative moments. Good to see this footage survive over twenty years so it could be seen today.
The Rest - To round off the extras we have the usually light reading with a two page biography/filmography for director George A. Romero, some easy viewing with 8 pages of photos and a couple of bonus trailers for Night Of The Living Dead and Dawn Of The Dead not to forget the theatrical trailer.
