Let's talk
Return Of the Living Dead. There are a bunch of
Return of the Living Dead DVDs out there, but you can really boil it down to just a pair of essential discs. Even if you're serious about owning all of the special features and alternate versions, these are the only two releases you'll ever need. That exact pair has changed since wrote the first version of this post, but it still comes down to two releases.
Update: 3/29/16 - 6/24/16: Wow, Scream Factory has just released their fully loaded 2-blu-ray... definitive(?) release of
Return Of the Living Dead,
with all new features, a new transfer and more! And just to make things
that little much more interesting, I've also gone back and added the
original 2002 MGM DVD, which is interesting because it has an open matte
fullscreen version. But mostly the big new thing is comparing Scream
Factory's and Second Sight's blus.
Update 11/22/22: It's a new era, and 2k scans ain't gonna cut it anymore. At least not when we're putting them on UHD discs. So Scream is back with an all new, 3-disc 4k Ultra HD/ BD set in 2022. But it's still imperfect.
Return Of the Living Dead is definitely in the running for best zombie film of all time.
Dan O'Bannon brings a ton of wit and humor to the
Romero-style zombie film, but it still works on a completely earnest, genuine horror level as well. In
Return, the original
Night Of the Living Dead film was based on a true story, and a pair of night shift employees at a medical supply warehouse have a couple of the zombie corpses in barrelled up in the basement. Of course, they wind up setting them loose, as well as reanimating all the bodies in a nearby cemetery where a gang of punk rockers - including
Linnea Quigley in the role of a lifetime - are partying down.
This is just one of those situations where everything clicks. It's got a great cast, diverse cast headed by
Clu Gulager which clearly benefited from an extended period of rehearsal before filming. Of course there's O'Bannon's clever writing, and thankfully this is one of his films where he really had the budget to see his vision all the way through (as opposed to
Bleeders, where you really have to struggle to find the qualities of his material). It's got a great 80s rock soundtrack and top of the line special effects. It's a blast.
So
Return Of the Living Dead's been released on DVD several times, including as part of a recalled 4-film set, because of some copyright issue with the movie
Frogs. But that's a superfluous release anyway. MGM first put
Return out on DVD in 2002, on a pretty respectable special edition flipper disc. It was widescreen on side A, had a director's commentary and a cool making of featurette, and even threw in an open-matte fullscreen version on the B-side. The only bummer of it was that a lot of the audio had been changed compared to the old Image laserdisc, from the effects on zombie voices (yes, they speak here;
Return is the film that started the notion that zombies call out for "braaaaiiinnnss") to songs that couldn't be cleared. They released it again 2007, with the same transfer but all new extras, which they updated to HD as a DVD/ BD combo pack in 2010, and repackaged as a single blu in 2011. But that was replaced as the definitive presentation of the film by Second Sight's 2012 blu-ray, which among good other things, finally reinstates the original audio track!
Then came Scream's 2016 blu-ray. I remember before Scream even announced this disc, and people were just discussing the possibility of them putting out
RotLD in the USA, saying that after Second Sight's definitive release with the original audio and all, Scream wouldn't be left with anything to add to the discussion unless they somehow dug up the old workprint version of the film. Well, Scream dug up the old workprint version of the film. Check out
movie-censorship.com for a detailed breakdown, but in short it has many instances of additional dialogue, alternate takes and even a different ending. Furthermore, they also created an all-new transfer with a fresh 2k scan of the interpositive. And they've... mostly restored the original audio like Second Sight did. They couldn't clear one song ("Dead Beat Dance"), so like Second Sight, they have both audio tracks - the original and the revised - but Scream's original track isn't 100% restored, just mostly.
And now in 2022, Scream is back. This time they've scanned the
original camera negative in 4k, so it's not just a higher res scan but a
better source element. And besides the upgraded BD, they've also
included a 3rd disc, a full-on UHD. Also, yes, they still have the workprint version, and yes, it's still in SD. But as far as the theatrical cut goes, they've really come to win, at least in terms of PQ. It's not the fairy tale happy ending fans were hoping
for, though, because they still weren't able to clear that song. You still have to import for that, and even then you wouldn't get the new 4k scan, or even the previous 2k scan SF made. So what to do? Well, okay,
let's starting by checking how all these varying transfers stack up.
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1) MGM 2002 widescreen DVD; 2) MGM 2002 fullscreen DVD; 3) MGM 2007 DVD;
4) Second Sight 2012 BD; 5) Scream Factory 2016 2k BD; 6) Scream Factory 2016 workprint BD;
7) Scream Factory 2022 4k BD; 8) Scream Factory 2022 4k UHD.
|
[Note: there's no #6 in this first set of screenshots, because the
workprint doesn't include the close-up shots of the canister zombie.]
So you'll see there's not a vast difference between the Second Sight and all the MGMs.
Return's
always had roughly the same HD master since MGM's initial DVD, so in
terms of transfer, it barely matters which edition you get. They're all
sightly letterboxed to 1.85:1, anamorphic, non-interlaced, good looking
editions, although the 2002 DVD's a bit more saturated and framed a
sliver lower. Well, Second Sight's blu also has a super skinny sliver of
extra vertical information on the top and bottom. The only really
important distinction, of course, is that the blu-rays are in high
definition, so they have better compression and clarity. You do get
that nice HD bump with the blus, there's absolutely no question of
upscaling or anything like that, but otherwise, just in terms of what
you see as the film plays, it doesn't matter which of the older editions
you get.
But Scream's 2016 blu does look noticeably different. The colors are deeper, while the picture's a bit darker in
some scenes and brighter in others... generally I'd describe it as a bit
more intense and vibrant. And yes, the new 2k scan does yield a little
more clarity. Grain really stands out where it got a little lost on the Second
Sight blu. But more importantly, lines are more clearly defined and
subtle detail is picked up.
Oh and meanwhile, both the 2002 DVD and the 2016 workprint are
fullscreen. The 2002 DVD is open matte, so while it's in the incorrect
aspect ratio, at least it's only guilty of showing you extra picture on
the top and bottom, rather than losing anything on the sides. The same
can't be said for the workprint, which is missing picture on all four
sides. But you
don't watch the workprint version for the picture quality - it's also
clearly duped from video tape, super soft and saturated, missing detail
(the checkers have been erased off Chuck's jacket!) and I could go on.
It's an Nth generation videotape dub that's just included for archival
purposes, so we can see all the differences between it and the final
edit.
If you're in it for the PQ, the 2022 release is the obvious way to go. Actually, though, just comparing the two 1080p BDs, the difference isn't as strong as I would've expected, considering we're not just jumping from 2 to 4k, but from the interpositive to the OCN. But it does have stronger colors, finer grain, and corrects a slight pinch, yielding extras slivers of picture along the top and bottom in the process. And of course the UHD with Dolby Vision HDR is even stronger, looking more lifelike with the increased color range and of course less pixelated with the higher resolution.
RotLD has never
looked better.
What you hear, on the other hand, is a different story. Now, the DVDs
just have your standard 2.0 stereo and mono tracks (plus French and
Spanish dubs and optional English and Spanish subtitles), but Second
Sight's blu-ray has a DTS 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 of the revised audio, and of
course, it has an LPCM 2.0 track of the original, unedited audio as
well. Disappointingly, however, it doesn't have subtitles. Scream
Factory's about the same - on both the 2016 and 2022 sets - with a DTS 5.1 and DTS 2.0 of the revised
track, plus a DTS 2.0 of the
mostly original audio. Scream Factory does also bring back English subtitles.
So, Second Sight's and Scream Factory's (2016) blu-rays were competing to be the
definitive release of the film, with Second Sight still ahead in the
audio department, and Scream leading in picture quality... especially now in 2022. But there are
also a ton of great extras now that need to be taken into account. Now,
the great thing about the 2007 DVD (and the 2010 blu-ray) from MGM, is
that it includes all the extras from the original special edition as
well as adding a bunch of new stuff. And the original extras are some of
the most essential, because they were made while Dan O'Bannon could
still participate. So he provides a solid, informative audio commentary
track with production designer
William Stout, and they both also appear on-camera in a good (and not too repetitive) featurette called
Designing the Dead. These are great to have, and can never be replicated, so we want to hang on to those.
Then, MGM added a bunch of new stuff to their later editions, some of
which is kind of silly and disposable. But there's some really good,
value-adding content as well, so it only makes sense to go for the 2007
instead of the 2002. Firstly, there's the slightly controversial audio
commentary. Stout returns, this time with cast members
Don Calfa, Linnea Quigley,
Brian Peck,
Beverly Randolph and
Allan Trautman,
who played the infamous Tarman. There's a weird little gimmick, where
the sound of zombies enters the track, to supposedly remove cast members
from the commentary when their characters are killed off on-screen,
which the cast doesn't really cooperate with. You can't be mad at MGM
for trying to add some fun to the proceedings, but it is kind of a dopey
idea. Overall, it group is feels a little low on enthusiasm, but it's
still worth the listen.
 |
| Still glowing nicely in 2016. |
MGM also adds some other silly stuff, like an additional subtitle track
that adds commentary by the zombie characters, and an easter egg for a
second subtitle track, that supposedly shows their real thoughts. Again,
it's not really giving you much, but it's at least nice to see someone
at MGM trying to get into the spirit of things. More worthwhile, though,
is a new featurette called
Return of the Living Dead: The Dead Have Risen,
which is an excellent and upbeat 20 minute piece with the cast giving
on-camera interviews about their experiences on the film. And there's
another featurette which comes from further out of left field, called
The Decade of Darkness. It isn't really about
Return Of the Living Dead, but just 80s horror in general. But it has some fun interviews with people like
Stuart Gordon,
John Landis,
Joe Dante and
Elvira,
so you won't want to pass over it. It includes two trailers as well,
and comes with a fold-out insert with detailed notes and a
glow-in-the-dark slip cover, which is probably the neatest of this DVD's
gimmicks.
Unfortunately, the Second Sight blu-ray doesn't have any of that. It
doesn't have the original O'Bannon and Stout extras or the newer MGM
ones. None of it. Well, except for the trailers. It has those. But it
also has a nice collection of other stuff, that both rivals and
compliments even the fuller MGM collection.
It's biggest weak point is that it doesn't feature any audio
commentaries. That does make it feel a little incomplete. But on the
other hand, it has the most comprehensive look at the film yet, the
feature length (2-hour) documentary
More Brains. This doc
interviews everybody minus O'Bannon (except for a little vintage
footage, which was nice) and covers everything about this film. Now,
More Brains had already been released on a United States DVD as a stand-alone film in 2011, and that DVD had a lot of extras. Like with
Best Worst Movie,
I was initially worried those extras - essentially special features for
a special feature - might be left out, but no, they're all here. And
they're excellent, so that was really important. For one thing, it
included 30-minute additional documentaries about
Return Of the Living Dead 2 and
Return of the Living Dead 3.
There's a substantial, nearly 30-minute vintage interview with Dan
O'Bannon, 15 minutes worth of additional interview footage/ deleted
scenes from the doc, a cool feature visiting
Return's original filming locations and extended interviews from the doc, with more anecdotes. Plus there's a silly
Return Of the Living Dead in 3 Minutes piece and a newly filmed music video for one of the songs, which are more forgettable, but what the heck.
And Second Sight also put together some cool new stuff of their own.
They've created three new featurettes, roughly 20 minutes each. One is
an interview with
John Russo about the original
Night Of the Living Dead and the legacy of "Living Dead" films including
Return.
The second is about the film's soundtrack, including the head of the
label and lead singer of one of the bands. That might be the only thing
More Brains barely touched on, so it's a great inclusion. And finally, the third one is on the special effects, talking to
Bill Munns, William Stout and
Tony Gardner,
including a lot of concept drawings and behind-the-scenes stills. And
there's even more of those to be found in Second Sight's 20-page
booklet. And their release is available in a limited edition steelbook
[pictured at the top of this post] or standard case
[right].
Speaking of limited editions, we've really got to dig into
Scream Factory's 2016 release, because they've essentially released this
in three different sets. There's the standard version you can get from
Amazon or anywhere, which includes the 2-disc set with reversible
artwork and the Tarman slipcover
[pictured above, left] shrinkwrapped inside. If you order it from Shout Factory directly, you also get the Tarman 18"x24" poster
[pictured left, on the right-hand side]. BUT, you could also have pre-ordered the "Deluxe Limited Edition" direct from Shout, which includes both slipcovers
[above] and both posters
[left].
I personally was hoping they would have made one slip cover a hair
bigger than the other, so you could slip one over the other, as opposed
to having to store one separately. But that's not what they've done. The
case can only wear one at a time, and the other one is shipped flat.
Anyway, the Deluxe was limited to 1000 copies and has long since sold
out, so if you want that now, you'll have to check EBay or bargain with
another collector. There is no difference in disc content, however, in
any of these versions. They all have the same extras and everything; the
only distinctions are in posters and slipcovers.
The 2022 UHD set also comes in a slip cover
[pictured at the top of this page]. Pre-ordering it direct from Shout's site also netted you a limited edition poster. And there's a deluxe edition which contains all the same stuff, including the poster, plus a limited (to 1000 copies) enamel pin set, which as of this writing, is still available.
So now let's get to the more important stuff, the actual features on the
disc. Scream Factory has a whole second blu-ray disc just filled with
extras, so there's a lot. First of all, everything from MGM is back in
the picture. All the extras from the original DVD, including the
commentary and featurettes, plus the newer commentary from MGM's
reissues. It even has the silly "what the zombies are saying" subtitle
track and alternate easter egg "what the zombies are thinking" track. So
you can pretty much chuck your MGM discs now.
Scream also has a lot of what was on the Second Sight blu, including the complete
More Brains
doc, the O'Bannon interview, the Russo interview, the soundtrack
featurette and the special effects featurette. But it's also missing
some of the other features, like the
More Brains deleted scenes, two half-hour segments on
RotLD 2 &
3, the location featurette, the music video and the
Return Of the Living Dead in 3 Minutes.
It makes up for that, though, with some new, original special features.
Of course there's the workprint, which we've discussed a little
already. It runs an hour and forty-nine minutes, without any credits. It
also features another terrific episode of
Horror's Hallowed Grounds,
where they explore the filming locations of the movie... so this sort
of makes up for the loss of location featurette on Second Sight's blu,
though both obviously would have been ideal. Scream Factory also
includes two more, all new, audio commentaries: one by
Gary Smart, who wrote a book on this movie, and one by actors
Thom Mathews,
John Philbin and effects artist
Tony Gardner. And finally, Scream has added some additional TV spots and two stills galleries.
So, just to be clear, since it gets pretty confusing with each disc
sharing some extras and keeping others exclusive, here's a color coded
list of which blu-rays have which extras:
- Audio commentary with Dan O'Bannon and William Stout
- Audio commentary with Stout, Dan Calfa, Brian Peck, Linnea Quigley, Allan Trautman and Beverly Randolph
- Decade Of Darkness featurette
- The Dead Have Risen featurette
- Designing the Dead featurette
- Zombies talking subtitle track
- Zombies thinking subtitle track
- Audio commentary with Thom Mathews, John Philbin and Tony Gardner
- Audio commentary with Gary Smart and moderator Chris Griffiths
- The workprint
- Horror's Hallowed Grounds
- Stills galleries
- TV spots
- Trailers
- More Brains feature-length documentary
- The FX Of the Living Dead featurette
- Party Time featurette
- Dan O'Bannon interview
- John A. Russo interview
- More Brains deleted scenes
- They Won’t Stay Dead, RotLD 2 doc
- Love Beyond the Grave, RotLD 3 doc
- Resurrected Settings featurette
- Return of the Living Dead In 3 Minutes
- Stacey Q music video
Blue = Scream Factory exclusive,
Red = Second Sight exclusive,
Purple = Second Sight & Scream Factory,
Dark blue = MGM & Scream,
Dark Purple = on all three
Scream Factory's new 2022 set doesn't have any more or less special
features than their 2016 set. In terms of extras, they're identical.
So, in short, the Scream Factory blu pretty much invalidates the MGM.
But Second Sight and Scream both have a bunch of exclusive stuff, so
you've got some tougher decisions there.
So wow, yeah. Scream Factory really brought the heat. Twice. Even their 2016 scan
tops the old ones (which were all pretty equivalent), and their 2022 tops that. And they recovered
at least almost all of the original audio track. Plus, they're the
first to give us the workprint, all of MGM's extras (though I'll miss
their glow-in-the dark slip), and a solid little batch of new ones. On the other hand, Second Sight is still the only disc with 100% of the original audio,
and it has a nice collection of unique extras, too. I imagine most fans
will wind up going with the latest Scream set, with hardcore fans opting for
both the Scream and Second Sight. Of course,
it's not impossible, or even all that unlikely, that another region will
be able to license both the new 4k scan and the complete original audio
down the road. Is Second Sight going to come back for another round? Or could we see an ultimate, perfectly definitive edition
down the road, maybe from Australia, Germany or Japan? I wouldn't be
surprised, but even then, they might not be able to get all these
amazing extras, so we might always wind up with more than one
Return Of the Living Dead
release in our collections. But that's alright, because it's truly one
of the great 80s horror films, so a
double-multi-dip isn't so unreasonable.
