For many years,
Day Of the Dead was the under-appreciated, unloved entry in
George Romero's epic "Dead Trilogy." It was the dumb, trashy 80s film that followed two horror masterpieces that each had dramatically revolutionized the genre. And okay,
Day didn't have the formative impact its predecessors had; but over the decades, its reputation has grown and solidified as, if nothing else, one of the great zombie films. And accordingly, it's received a series of compelling special editions, on both DVD and blu, here and abroad. Very different special editions, in fact, with all sorts of unique quirks, faults and special features. I'd actually been holding off getting any version of
Day on blu, in fact, in a sort of "which is the right one to buy" paralysis. But now that I'm the
DVDExotica guy, I figured that's no longer acceptable, so I had to work it all out.
Update 2/6/18 - 8/6/18: I already talked about it to death on this page, but now I've actually got my hands on a copy of the Anchor Bay blu-ray, so I added screenshots to give you all a 100% complete all-around comparison.
Update 7/26/26: Ten years later, and we've finally got a real upgrade. During that time, Umbrella released what could arguably've been a contender for a better disc, bur really, with the negatives lost, we were circling around lackluster masters. Until now - the interpositive has been found (no, not the negatives; those are still lost) and Scream Factory are the first to burst out the gate with a brand new 4k, fancy four-disc special edition! Let's just hope they weren't in such a rush that they screwed something up...
I've always dug this film, but I get why others haven't. It's got big performances and heavy-handed characterizations, it's a lot less scary, particularly with its eccentric, calypso-inspired upbeat soundtrack (I mean, come on,
Dawn had
Goblin!), and it doesn't help that all the fans know Romero's original concept for the film had to be greatly scaled back from his original vision, including half the action taking place on an above-ground army base with an army of trained zombies and what would eventually become
Land Of the Dead's centerpiece: Dead Reckoning.
On the other hand, this film gets so much right. The characters might be overdrawn, intentionally or not, but
Joseph Pilato's Captain Rhodes,
John Liberty's cheerfully demented turn as "Frankenstein" and of course Bub are all characters that forever stick with you. It's got one of the all-time great locations. And
Day is the film where
Tom Savini, assisted by a young
Greg Nicotero brought just not top of the line gore, but elevated the zombies themselves from extras slopped in grease paint into jaw-dropping special effect show-pieces. Practically all of the peaks and valleys that would become
The Walking Dead can be found in this film, even the way the zombies wind up getting side-lined by the in-fighting of the survivors. But even within the short run of a single movie, Romero takes the story farther with his idea of evolving zombie intelligence and views of the outer world at large, than
TWD has in all of its seasons to date.
So,
Day of the Dead was naturally in the hands of pretty much the #1 horror and cult DVD label during the 1990s and early 2000s, Anchor Bay. They first released it in 1998 as a widescreen, but non-anamorphic single disc edition in 1998. I've actually still got that one. Then they reissued it in 2003 as a proper, anamorphic, 2-disc Divimax special edition. I've got that one, too. They also repackaged that as a cheaper, single disc edition without the fancy packaging in 2004. But really, that 2003 DVD's been king until the age of HD. Then, things get a little tricky. Anchor Bay released a very early blu-ray edition of it in 2007, then Arrow put it out in the UK as a DVD/ blu-ray combo-pack in 2010 with all new special features. They reissued that as a limited edition, 3-disc set in 2012 with even more special features. They also put out a steelbook in 2014, but unfortunately without that third disc. And back here in the States, Scream Factory picked it up for their own edition, with more unique special features, in 2013. All of these blus have stuff on them that the others don't... and that includes technical problems. This isn't gonna be a quick and easy comparison, so let's not waste any more time.
 |
1) AB 1998 DVD; 2) AB 2003 DVD; 3) AB 2007 BD; 4) Arrow 2012 DVD;
5) Arrow 2012 BD; 5) SF 2013 BD; 6) SF 2026 BD; 7) SF 2026 UHD.
|
So the first set of shots shows exactly why the original DVD is hopelessly out of date. It's a tiny, little 1.80:1 non-anamorphic image. That alone is reason enough to replace it, which Anchor Bay did themselves, giving it a fresher, thankfully anamorphic 1.85:1 transfer on their newer DVD. The older DVD also had washed out colors, hot brights, artifacting, and all the obvious stuff you can expect from an old 90s DVD. I won't waste anymore time harping on that; the pictures speak for themselves and the situation is already obvious. Anchor Bay's blu? Well, it gets rid of the artifacting. Color are a little more robust, it's a bit clearer. Interestingly, it's also the last we see of the traditional 1.85 framing. Arrow and Scream Factory both opt for a 1.78:1 frame (though Arrow's DVD is a little rough around the edges and could be maybe considered 1.79:1). It's never a massive boost in detail and clarity from the DVDs, but the difference is there. You can actually read the numbers on the yellow sticker of that car on the blus (even the Anchor Bay), which you certainly can't on the original DVD.
And between the blus? Well, there's room for improvement on all three, but Arrow has a real smoothed out, DNR'd look. Scream Factory isn't exactly a microscopically perfect 4k scan of every inch of grain, but it's more natural and filmic than Arrow's. It also has richer colors. Also, despite Arrow and Scream both being in 1.78, the framing is shifted slightly. But they're close enough that it's hard to guess which one is more correct or to say that one looks better. Strictly speaking, AB's blu might be the most accurate just by virtue of being in 1.85. But they just offer slightly different slivers around the edges. But in general, yeah, I doubt many would contest Scream's win in terms of PQ. Everything's pretty natural and straight-forward so far.
Anyway, that's all ancient history now, right? What about the new scan? Well, we're back to 1.85:1, and that's not just from matting the 1.78 framing; there's a bit more picture now along the sides than any previous disc. New detail isn't as prevalent as one might've hoped, but remember, the negatives are still missing; this is from an interpositive. Even with that in mind, though, film grain is surprisingly light, even on the UHD. There's still a softness to the image I wasn't expecting this time around. In short, this is the best version yet, but I feel a little let down here.
Going back to that old 1998 DVD, it did get something right - the audio! Now, it just gives us the original mono audio track in 2.0 (and no subtitles, for the record). But having that original mono audio is going to prove important here. Yeah, the mono has a little
sibilance (on all the releases), but it's nowhere on the level of
Black Christmas
or anything. But problems were introduced with the new 2003 edition, problems that would plague this film for years to come. And this is ironic, considering we're talking about Anchor Bay's special Divimax edition, where their fancy new audio was a big part of their marketing. They included three audio tracks: Dolby Digital Surround EX (a 5.1 mix), DTS-ES (a 6.1 mix) and Dolby Surround 2.0. Oh, and now with English captions. Just one problem with all three of those audio tracks - they're censored! Lines with curse words, or even phrases like "oh, Jesus" as the scientists watch Bub eat human flesh st the 1:11:40 mark, are muted.
Now, I can't take credit for being the first to spot this problem; it's been written about plenty online.
This page on istherefood.com does a great job of finding specific instances and including audio clips of both the censored and uncensored versions; I definitely recommend pouring through that. So I'm just going to focus on which tracks on which discs are censored or uncensored. And so far, the answer is 1998 uncensored, and all the tracks on AB's 2003 DVD are censored. Now that page I linked writes about Arrow's audio being still censored. But that article is from 2006, so thankfully he's talking about an older DVD set they released that year. Checking Arrow's blu-ray, which offers both the original mono in 2.0 and a 5.1 mix in DTS-HD (but unfortunately, no subs), I'm happy to report that both tracks are uncensored. As for Anchor Bay, it's a mixed bag. Their LPCM 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks are both censored, but their Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is the original. And the 2013 Scream Factory, which just offers the original mono in DTS-HD (and yes, subtitles)? Also uncensored.
So it was a big surprise, and huge disappointment, to see that the fancy new audio tracks on Scream's new 2026 release are... censored again. WTF, guys? There's a fancy new Dolby Atmos mix, a DTS-HD 5.1 and DTS-HD 2.0 mono track - all censored. That mono isn't even areal mono, just the Atmos downmixed. Fortunately, they also threw in the old stereo track from the laserdisc, probably as a bit of a novelty nod to completionism (it's not even mentioned on the back of the package with the other ones0. But it winds up being the only way to hear the uncensored audio, and honestly, it's a pretty decent sounding-track, apart from messing up the closing credits song. So it's not an "avoid this edition" problem, but it's certainly not a good look. ...Oh, and yes, optional English subtitles are also available.
But we haven't even gotten to the most complicated part of the comparison yet: the extras. It starts out simple enough. The original DVD had a 20 minute collection of behind-the-scenes footage, the trailer, and an insert. Curiously, it was a double-sided disc, with the film on one side and the brief extras on the other. Anyway, the 2003 DVD really ramped it up, with fancy packaging of a 3-dimensional zombie acting as a little Velcro gateway to the foldout case (protected in a clear plastic shell), and a neat booklet designed to look like Dr. Frankenstein's notepad. They actually lost the original behind-the-scenes footage, though, replacing it with a new, longer behind-the-scenes footage featurette. They're very different, though. The original was apparently shot by Nicotero and interviews a lot of the crew and interns, while the latter was shot by Savini and focuses largely on the development of the special effects. There's no overlap between them and they're both quite good and worthwhile.
Anyway, Anchor Bay's DVD also added a lot more, including an excellent audio commentary by Romero, Savini, star
Lori Cardille, and production designer
Cletus Anderson, plus another commentary by
Roger Avery (
Rules of Attraction,
Pulp Fiction). The second commentary is somewhat interesting, but runs out of steam about halfway through. They also have a solid 'making of' documentary that runs about 40 minutes with a lot of interviews, an audio-only interview with the deceased
Richard Liberty (the actor who played Frankenstein), and a fun promo video for the mines the film was shot in. Also included are stills galleries, three trailers, three TV spots, and the original script as a DVD-ROM bonus. Anchor Bay's blu-ray has exactly the same extras as their 2-disc set, minus the DVD-ROM.
Which brings us to Arrow. Interestingly, Arrow's 2010 blu-ray featured all new extras, but none of the old ones. These were all made by Highrising Pictures, during
Calum Waddell's time with Arrow, and they're all pretty good (and yes, feature those cute animations by his wife). There's an all new audio commentary by Nicotero and fellow effects artists
Howard Berger,
Everett Burrell and
Mike Deak, which starts out really fun and informative, but like the Avery commentary, starts to run low on material in the second half. Then there's a nearly hour-long interview with Joe Pilato, which goes quite in depth, and another seventeen minute "travelogue" of footage of Joe at various European conventions. All great stuff, but by itself, pretty light. Like, most of the major players aren't included.
And that's why they re-released it as a 3-disc set. Now the original DVD and blu from the combo-pack are exactly the same, but they've added a third disc of extras, which basically restores most of the Anchor Bay special features. Their 'making of,' the Liberty interview, the Nicotero behind-the-scenes footage (but not the Savini one!), even the mine promo. Also this disc has all the trailers, TV spots and stills galleries. Arrow's set also includes a 16-page booklet by Waddell, a card for a different Arrow release (mine was
Withnail and I), and reversible artwork.
And the Scream Factory blu? It's another weird hodge-podge of old and new extras. They have the two Anchor Bay audio commentaries (but not Arrow's), Savini's behind-the-scenes footage (but not Nicotero's!), the mine promo, and the trailers and galleries. But they also have an all new, feature length 'making of' documentary. This is better than the AB one, covering a lot of the same material but a lot more besides (though it has to be noted that the original AB one has some exclusive interviews, too, like Romero's wife). And Scream also made a new featurette visiting the mine location (not to be confused with the promo video), which is kinda cool and a little bit weird, honestly. Scream's release also includes reversible artwork.
Now that brings us to Scream's new 4-disc set. Is it the ultimate
collection of all preceding legacy extras? That would have been sweet,
but no. It doesn't even have all the extras from their 2013 set. But before you get too disappointed, it does have most of them, and makes up for anything it didn't carry over with a bunch of new stuff. So let's start with what's gone missing. Essentially, the extras here match their previous blu, minus the Roger Avery commentary. And frankly, I don't miss it. I would've rather had Nicotero's behind the scenes footage from the Arrow release if we're being honest. And what do we get instead? There's a new expert commentary by
Daniel Kraus and
Drew McWeeny, which is probably more interesting than Avery''s, but the two you really want are the Romero one (on this disc) and Nicotero one (not on this disc). Then there's a surprisingly in-depth look at the new restoration, which I really appreciated (more of these in the future, please!). And there's a grip of new, mostly webcam (I'm not saying Covid's been completely eradicated from this Earth, but I think it's time to start filming your interviews in person again) interviews with Lori Cardille,
John Amplas, Greg Nicotero, composer
John Harrison, 2nd unit cameraman
Ernest Dickerson (he's a good addition, because he wasn't already featured in the documentary like all these others),
Suzanne Romero and
Tina Romero. There's also a bonus featurette called "Stink Of the Dead" - you can guess what that's about if you've watched many of the previous extras.
This release also includes an isolated music/ sound effects track, plus several trailers and TV spots. There's a neat collection of twelve lobby cards, and the set itself comes in two amary cases housed in a satisfyingly solid slipbox. ...There have also been
accusations of AI being used on the cover and the artist wanting his name removed, so I think we can definitely file this release under
controversial.
So let's say you want
all the extras. Admittedly, some of it gets
redundant (you'll hear the story about the guts used for the zombie
attack scene going rancid about eighteen times), but each release has
some interesting exclusives. Well, if you can track down Arrow's
3-disc set, that and the Scream Factory eould pretty much do ya.
Between those
two, you'll have both companies' new content plus all of the Anchor Bay
material. But Arrow's 3-disc set was limited and out of print, so it'll
take some digging. Your only option using the regular, more readily
available Arrow release is to buy all three blus: Arrow, Scream and
Anchor Bay (or, at least, the Anchor Bay DVD set, which would at least
save you a few bucks). Another route to go now would be the Umbrella
2018 (not their previous 2010 release) and Scream Factory sets, which
would even net you a bonus interview with Romero filmed at some
Australian film festival, and a copy of the
NotLD doc,
Reflections Of the Dead.
But then you'd still be missing out on the Richard Liberty
interview... You really need at least three older releases to get all
the pre-existing stuff no matter how you slice it. But practically
speaking, just the
2026 release's extras should be more than enough for most viewers, even
serious fans. What I'd recommend is just this: if you have any older
copies with unique extras, hang onto 'em, but don't bother hunting down
any old editions now.
As far as the film itself though, what was once a tough call is no
longer a question: 4k restoration wins. Yes, it's imperfect, and some audio nut is
going to insist on the Arrow for the uncensored 5.1 mix or something, but this is still the best version on the market, even if it's not by as wide a margin as folks anticipated. And the uncensored stereo mix isn't perfect, but saves the audio from being the complete disaster it almost was.
