Collecting Physical Media Can Be Annoying Sometimes
There are a handful of movies I will buy every time the technology advances, and Day of the Dead is one of them. When they come up with a way to implant this into my brain so that I can be part of the movie, I will buy it day one. Until then, this new 4K is my latest option. I was planning on doing the normal write-up for this, and I’ll still do that, but first I have to address a bunch of shit that’s been coming across my social media feeds concerning this release.
Since I had been Googling stuff related to this release, my algorithm started suggesting articles and posts about the new 4K on my feed. Nearly every one of them was a variation of “Scream Factory Shits the Bed Again!!!” And there would be an accompanying article or video claiming this is the worst release the film has ever had, and Second Sight is supposed to be doing a version soon, anyway, so just wait on that, and all the usual hyperbolic shit you’ve become accustomed to in this exhausting era of humanity.
I didn’t dig too deeply into much of it once I learned the biggest complaint was the audio track they used. Apparently, it’s a “censored” track with some slight changes. I’m not going to add to the discourse because I didn’t notice anything when I watched it. But more particular people have apparently noticed the difference, and they’re fucking mad. For the record, plenty of people in the comments pointed out that the Laserdisc audio option uses the “good” track. And I guess I’ll watch it with that the next time just to see if I notice something, but I’m not too concerned.
But once that audio issue was brought up, it opened the floodgates. “It doesn’t look any better than the blu-ray.” “The new interviews are mostly on Zoom.” “The cover art is terrible; that gun isn’t film accurate.”
A small part of me gets it and even agrees with all of this. But you could make these claims about almost any 4K release of an older film. And while I have a few nitpicks of my own with physical media, this constant dogpile on certain releases is exhausting.
Yes, this is an expensive new set. But I’ve made my peace with this world. New releases like this are going to run you $40+ if you pre-order them. And yeah, they’re not going to make the movie look like it was filmed yesterday with the new scan. And yeah, they’re going to do some new artwork that you might not like. And yeah, they’re going to take the easier route with some interviews and do them over Zoom instead of flying a crew out to Pittsburgh. In the words of Miguel: “So what? So fucking what?”
I don’t like being this guy, but just don’t fucking buy it if you’re that particular. I feel confident in saying this is the best this movie has ever looked. That written, I don’t know for sure. I’m still getting used to the idea that 4Ks don’t necessarily mean everything is crystal clear. It just means they’ve restored the film to its source material as much as possible, cleaning it up and whatnot. Blu-ray was the era of smoothing things out, and 4K is the era of “this is what it looked like in theaters.” But yeah, it’s not a huge step up from the blu-ray. Not many 4Ks are. But if one of my favorite films of all time gets a 4K release, I’m going to buy it.
I’m clearly easy to please with this stuff, but that doesn’t mean I’m against people pointing out issues with these expensive releases. I am against click-bait blanket statements referring to the entire release as “unwatchable” or “trash” when your issue concerns an audio track that only the geekiest of fans will even notice. Shit like this makes me hate physical media collecting. I’m passionate about this stuff, but I like to find the positive before I point out the negative.
And with that, I’ll get into my thoughts on this new release.
Transfer and Special Features
I already covered this, but I think this looks fine. It’s not as crisp as some might hope for, but the softness serves it well.
There are a lot of archival special features from previous releases included, with the feature-length doc being the best inclusion.
The aforementioned interviews done largely on Zoom are fine, though a lot of this stuff is starting to feel a bit familiar because all these people have talked about all these things so many times already. I did enjoy the little tidbit from Lori Cardille about how they were all friends from Pittsburgh to the point that she ran into Tom Savini at Target recently.
John Harrison points out the Romero zombie cameo (it’s a zombie with a scarf hanging down that pushes a cart during the feast scene). I’m sure that’s been confirmed elsewhere before, but this is the first time I have come across that.
The archival commentary is included, though you’ll need to hang onto your Anchor Bay release if you want the Roger Avary track. There’s a new commentary with Drew McWeeny (who wrote on Masters of Horror) and author (and recent Pulitzer Prize winner) Daniel Kraus, who finished George Romero’s zombie book The Living Dead. These two certainly have a Romero connection, but they didn’t have anything to do with Day of the Dead, so this felt more like just two fans enjoying the movie. And that’s fine, but I’m getting a little tired of these tacked on commentaries that could be done by any regular-ass fan. But look at me nit-picking now. As with everything, you always have the option to be a normal person and listen to the commentary.
Probably the most important inclusion is the behind-the-scenes featurette on the restoration. I enjoyed it for a couple reasons. First, they were sent the negatives of the abysmal 2008 “remake” by mistake, which I find hilarious. Second, I read about restorations and shit all the time, and I don’t know exactly what that means, so this gave me more of an idea of what goes on with these releases. It’s also nice to watch it with all this nerd-hate going on as proof that Scream Factory did indeed work on the film whether they like the end result or not.
There are also some collectible lobby cards that I just kept banded together because I never know what to do with stuff like this anyway.