Dawn Of The Dead
Arrow Video
Director: George A. Romero
Cast: David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger, Gaylen Ross
Review by Brian M. Sammons
You know, if I wasn’t getting these BDs from across the pond to review, I would have a jealous hatred of Brits for all the kick ass discs they get as opposed to the BDs and DVDs we get here in North America. While that is common for many titles and companies, Arrow Video from the UK seems to take some sick pride in outshining the discs Hollywood puts out. Take this one for example. American based Anchor Bay has a great little Blu-ray of this, the best zombie movie ever made, the original Dawn Of The Dead. As far as looks and sounds, this one from Arrow matches but doesn’t best it. Where this Arrow Video release does excel is in the area of extras and special features.
All the usual Arrow goodies are once again present. Double-sided sleeve art which gives you four options for BD cover. A double-sided wall poster and a 15 page collector’s booklet round out the non-disc extras. As for the discs, they are region free so they can play on any player in the world, and this time around there’s three Blu-rays to choose from, each containing a different cut of the film. There’s the original theatrical cut, the director’s cut, and the Italian Argent cut. Not enough for you yet? Well there’s the usual commentary with Romero and special effects guru Tom Savini, a second commentary with the film’s producer, trailers, TV and radio spots. What is far than usual is the feature length documentary “Document of the Dead” that even has its own extras like interviews and deleted scenes that didn’t make it into the doc. And as if THAT wasn’t enough, there’s yet one more featurette, “Fan of the Dead”. So with all that, it looks pretty obvious that those devious Brits are trying their best to make this the One Disc to Rule Them All when it comes to Dawn Of The Dead.
As for the movie, as I’ve done with other must see horror classics, I’m not going to get into it here. Come one, it’s Dawn Of The Dead, I know you’ve had to have see this. But just in case you haven’t, it’s got zombies, a shopping mall, clever social satire, groovy seventies fashion, some early but still wicked gore effects, and an admittedly silly ending. If you look up “horror classic” in the dictionary, this movie will be staring back up at you.
Sure this luxury import will cost you more than the perfectly good domestic Blu-ray, so you’ve got to ask yourself is all the extra content and goodies worth it? Well only you know the answer to that, but as for me, I highly recommend them.
