Land Of the Dead is the fourth film in
George Romero's historic
Dead films. It came out in theaters in 2005 and was released on DVD later that year, later hitting blu-ray in 2008. So Scream Factory's brand new blu-ray edition, due to be released on Halloween, will actually be the film's second blu-ray release in the United States. In addition to all new special features, they announced that their release will be a new 2k scan of the interpositive. Great, right? Well, the scuttlebutt surrounding this release is that despite being shot on film, it was completed digitally... because, after all, it's full of digital special effects. And the 2008 blu was struck from that digital intermediate. But to play the film in theaters, the DI was struck back to film, creating an IP that was then used to make prints. So if Scream made a new scan of the IP, they'd actually be using a generation further removed and therefore of inherently lesser quality than the 2008 blu, presumably just for the sake of being able to announce "new 2k scan!" to fans who don't know any better.
...But is all of that accurate? The theory sounds right based on what we know, but it still relies on speculation and presumption. Do we know for a fact, for example, that the Universal blu was taken from the DI and not the IP, or are we just assuming? And one interesting detail is that while all of Scream's announcements (on Facebook, their store website, etc) have clearly said "interpositive," the case itself repeatedly says "internegative." But really, the best way to know which blu-ray came out better is to look carefully at both of them and see for ourselves.
Update 10/16/17 - 10/21/24: Scream has given us a fancy, new 3-disc UHD/ BD combo-pack. This time the packaging says it's a "2024 4K Restoration From The Original Camera Negative." Really? So does that mean they scanned the original negatives and then re-finished all the digital effects? You wouldn't think so. Do they mean the "internegative" again, if that wasn't a mistake before? Their listing on their website does correspond with the packaging, unlike last time. I'd love to hear someone from Shout explain what was done, precisely, each time. But in lieu of that, we can at least crack this sucker open and see how these discs look for ourselves.
If you've never even seen
Land Of the Dead, well, I reckon you should if you're a horror fan. Yeah, it's got a decidedly lesser reputation compared to the previous films in the series. But then again,
Day of the Dead enjoyed a pretty similar lesser reputation until being reappraised by fans and critics alike in more recent years. And I think
Land is due for a similar reevaluation; and Scream Factory including it in their collection may be the first sign of that happening. I mean, for all the
Walking Deads and
Zombie Flesh Eaters we've had over the decades, this is the original, core zombie series that started it all, written and directed by the man himself. Then, will we see the same thing happen for Romero's final two films,
Diary and
Survival, a few further years down the road? Well, let's not go crazy. But really, I think
Land deserves more credit than it gets.
Not that I don't get the criticism. First of all, some of the digital effects are shaky. Romero's dead films are famous for having some of the greatest, cutting edge horror effects in the genre. ...Up until this one. There is still a ton of fantastic practical effects, but the digital blood and crazier CGI moments don't entirely blend in with the rest of the film.
And even more critical than the effects, the story is, well, awfully ambitious. I mean, this is the only film set in the series that basically takes place in a sci-fi future. Okay, technically you could say
Day of the Dead has to be set a couple years ahead of the present in order to be able to present half the world as having already been overrun by zombies. But it's basically contemporary people dealing with the situation the way contemporary people would.
Land, however, imagines a whole new, society that's developed after the world as we know it has crumbled. And that's taking a big risk with a series that got most of its strength by tackling a supernatural horror in the most credible, authentic way possible. The original
Night Of the Living Dead was the most powerful "what would it be like if this unnatural horror actually happened to us in the real world right now?" that had ever been made up to that point, and arguably since.
Meanwhile,
Land sets a scene in an underground saloon where
Asia Argento is dressed in black leather wrestling two zombies in a cage match scored with Spanish rap music, while our other heroes have a shootout with a midget pimp dressed in purple shouting "they ruined my suit!" One of the soldiers rides a skateboard in every single scene. At this stage, the tone of the series has veered dangerously close to
Escape From LA; so I can see why fans shunned this entry. But if you can get past the most egregious moments, this film is actually pretty effective, both as a compelling zombie story with good, if not so subtle, social commentary, and in delivering genuinely atmospheric horror that also never skimps on the goods. For the most part, it plays far straighter than
Escape From NY, let alone
LA.
Land's got a pretty great cast, too, including
Dennis Hopper,
Simon Baker The Mentalist,
John Leguizamo who can be quite over the top but here gets it just right, and even
Tom Savini, bringing back his character from
Dawn Of the Dead for a cool cameo. The score's effective, the film's shot really well, and George was finally able to bring his Dead Reckoning dream to life. The story gives us a nice follow-through on the set-up of Bud from
Day Of the Dead, and if you just want to see cool zombie kills,
Greg Nicotero (who also has a cameo... in fact, this film is laden with cameos) and
Howard Berger do their damnedest. I guess this is one of those films like
Halloween 3 or
Hellraiser 3, where you have to let go of your expectations from the previous films in their series to appreciate; but if you can just do that, it's hard to imagine anyone not having a good time with this sequel.
 |
| A shot only in the theatrical cut. |
Now, you may've noticed that Scream's giving us multi-disc sets. That's not just because they're overflowing with extras (although they are), but because they've included two different cuts of the film: the R-rated theatrical version (92.54 minutes long) and the unrated director's cut (96.48 minutes long). You might be wondering why anybody would bother with the shorter cut version. Well, that's because the difference between the two versions amounts to more than just extra CGI blood squirts and extra frames of gut munching. There are substantial changes made between the two edits, and not only does the unrated version also have extra lines of dialogue and a whole, long dramatic scene where Leguizamo fights a zombie in a high-rise, but the theatrical cut also has some alternative shots and tiny pieces not seen in the unrated version. It can be rather confusing, and
movie-censorship.com has even created two distinctly different comparisons of alternate
Land Of the Dead cuts (
here and
here). I carefully checked both, and can say that the latter is the one that accurately reflects the two different cuts on the Scream sets, while the other changes seem to be unique to the old, R-rated DVD. So anyway, certainly the unrated version is the one you want to watch, but there's good reason to preserve both, and credit goes to Scream for doing so.
 |
| A scene only in the unrated cut. |
And alright, now I'll finally stop beating around the bush and get into comparing the blu-ray releases. I've also still got the original, widescreen unrated DVD, so I'll throw that one into the mix, too. So that means we've got Universal's 2005 DVD, their 2008 blu (which also consists of the unrated director's cut) and both versions on Scream Factory's 2017 blu-ray set. Both of Scream's 2017 transfers are taken from their 2k scan; but their unrated cut required HD inserts, because they weren't part of what played in theaters. The shot above this paragraph, of Leguizamo and the butler, is one of those inserts, so you can see how it compares to the bulk of the film in the shots below. Then, of course, we've got the 2024 release, which includes 1080p BD transfers of both cuts and the UHD of the unrated (they didn't put the theatrical cut on UHD), all of which they specify come from the new 4k restoration.
 |
1) 2005 Universal DVD; 2) 2008 Universal BD; 3) 2017 SF theatrical BD;
4) 2017 SF unrated BD; 5) 2024 SF theatrical BD;
6) 2024 SF unrated BD; 7) 2024 SF unrated UHD. |
So, the framing (2.35:1), color timing, etc is pretty much identical across the board. Maybe the newer transfers are a smidgen cooler, and the 2024 scan pulls back to reveal a sliver more image around the edges. Anyway, except for the inserts, addressed above, the two 2017 Scream Factory transfers are taken from the same source; but I threw them both in to be thorough. And the same goes for the 2024s. There are effectively no differences between the uncut and theatrical transfers. Though interestingly, even though the shot appears in both cuts, they seemed to use different sources for the second set of shots above. Watching this on a large (65") TV, though, I didn't notice the "seams" between between the newly scanned footage and the inserts at all. The biggest difference in quality is of course the DVD, which naturally has a blurrier look. Detail was definitely smudged off by the standard definition compression, which the Universal blu did a fine job of restoring, without any noticeable flaws like DNR or artificial edge enhancement. But what about detail between that and the Scream blus? That's what we really care about these days. And, well, especially looking at the second shot there, I have to say the Scream blu looks sharper, with
maybe a little extra detail drawn out of the heavy shadows. Let's zoom in for a close-up.
 |
| Universal blu left; 2017 Scream Factory right. |
Scream's transfer is definitely grainier. But is that because it's a better scan, or just due to the fact that they used a more filmic source? Or a combination of the two? It doesn't appear that we're actually getting any new detail, though the added grain makes it look that way, though we haven't lost any either. So at least it's not the downgrade some of us were fearing. But now let's take a close look into the 2024 UHD.
 |
2024 Scream Factory UHD.
|
Well, bye bye grain. This looks like a return to the 2008 BD. But that's a good thing if that grain was just the remnants of a later generation source, anyway. Again, we don't seem to have had much of a gain or loss in detail. It feels like we've sort of peaked once we jump from SD to HD. But, with that said, the Dolby Vision HDR does give us some legit benefits on the UHD. In fact, it's there in the 1080 BDs, too, just harder to see without bumping up the gamma. There is definitely more detail now in the shadows, like the folds and creases in Baker's coat in that second set of shots, that wasn't there in any of the past releases. And the contrast levels are a little more naturalistic. So by clearing away the "fake" grain (in quotes because SF didn't actually add fake grain, which is a thing some labels have been said to do... it's just grain we probably don't want, as it comes from a lesser source and only interferes with the original image) and re-scanning in 4k, Scream really have given us a legit PQ upgrade, which they arguably failed to do in 2017, and delivered the best version yet. But these are all very slight distinctions casual viewers won't even notice.
By the way, the audio options keep shifting with this flick. The DVD
gave us the choice subtle choice between DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1
audio tracks, with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles. Then
the 2008 blu-ray dropped the Dolby, just giving us the DTS 5.1 in HD,
along with the same subtitles and a Spanish dub. In 2017, Scream Factory
gave us the DTS-HD 5.1 track plus a new DTS-HD 2.0 stereo mix, as well
as English subs. And in 2024, they've carried all of that over, and also thrown in a new Dolby Atmos track. So that's a net positive.
Universal's releases were already pretty swagged out with goodies,
including probably the most important extra, a George Romero audio
commentary (also with producer
Peter Grunwald and editor
Michael Doherty).
There are a few momentary lapses of dead air, but for the most part,
it's everything you want it to be. There are also a whole bunch of
featurettes (
Undead Again: The Making Of Land Of the Dead, A Day With the Living Dead, Bringing the Dead To Life, When Shaun Met George - a fun behind-the-scenes look at a cameo by the stars of
Shaun Of the Dead, which was still pretty new at the time
- Scenes Of Carnage, which is just a skippable montage of gory scenes from the film,
Zombie Effects: From Green Screen To Finished
Scene, Bringing the Storyboards To Life and
Scream Tests: Zombie Casting Call),
that range from fifteen to as short as one minute. There's also a few
brief deleted scenes and bonus trailers, including one for a
Land Of the Dead
video game. The blu-ray converted a couple of those features into
picture-in-picture commentary with their funky U-Control gimmick, which
is slightly annoying, but it's all the same stuff on either release.
The DVD also came in a nice slip cover.
 |
| Road To Fiddler's Green, the Land Of the Dead video game trailer. |
Scream Factory has carried over all of that, even the stupid
Scenes of Carnage
montage (though not the video game trailer). And they've also added
plenty more. There's now an additional audio commentary by four zombie
extras (
Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures, plus
Matt Blazi,
Gleena Chao and
Rob Mayr...
I haven't listened to this one yet; I'll get back to you guys.
It's okay. Very self-indulgent. It would've made a great featurette,
but they don't have enough to say to fill 97 minutes) and the additional
television documentary,
Dream of the Dead, which
Roy Frumkes, director of the original
Document Of the Dead,
shot for the Independent Film Channel to promote the film. This is
apparently a slightly altered "director's cut" of the doc as opposed to
what originally aired on television, that runs about twenty-five minutes
and also includes its own collection of deleted scenes and audio
commentary by Frumkes. It's a great addition that nicely ties
Land to the previous
Dead films.
Then you've got new on-camera interviews with actors John Leguizamo,
Robert Joy who played Charlie,
Pedro Miguel Arce and a featurette that edits together interviews additional cast members
Eugene Clarke,
Jennifer Baxter,
Boyd Banks and
Jasmin Geljo.
Disappointingly, Baker and Argento gave Scream a miss; but Leguizamo
was a good get. Anyway, there's also a new photo gallery, the original
theatrical trailer (surprisingly absent from the Universal discs), and a
cool slip cover. It also came in reversible artwork and
included a poster if you ordered it directly from their site (and it's
rolled; they stopped folding them!).
Scream's 2024 release doesn't have any new extras, but it's hard to complain given how packed their set already was; and they've hung onto all of it. They've also got a better cover and slipcover, returning to the original poster art, which I appreciate. Plus, if you order direct from their site, you can get two exclusive 18"x24" posters (yes, rolled) and a second, exclusive slipcover.
So at the end of the day, yes, Scream Factory's latest
Land Of the Dead
is an upgrade and the definitive edition going. If you're going to pick this movie up, and you should, their new 2024 Collector's Edition is the one to get. That said, if you've already got the 2017 edition... yes, this is still better. Not so much in the resolution, but in the dynamic range. Still, I'd prioritize upgrading other BDs in my collection to UHD before this one, especially since that one already netted you all the latest and legacy extras. I was worried when this I saw this title get announced, but no, they didn't muck it up. And, if anything, maybe they've corrected a slight misstep from their previous version.
