Anchor Bay originally released
Bruno Mattei's
Hell Of the Living Dead and
Rats as two separate releases in 2002, and then reissued them as a double feature in 2003. Blue Underground than acquired them and put both titles out individually again, under their own banner, in 2007. Always with the same transfers and extras. But finally in 2014, Blue Underground has released them, again together as a double-bill, on blu-ray with all new transfers and features.
Update 2/21/15 - 3/10/23: 88 Films has reissued
Hell Of the Living Dead on BD/ UHD, and it fixed the broken sound in the SWAT sequence! Let's hope they got everything else right...
I've always been amused by both, but
Hell of the Living Dead was the film I'd been a fan of since owning the old VHS release under the title
Night Of the Zombies in
the 80s. It's an Italian zombie film that fully delivers on everything
you wanted from those films, an at the same time is totally bonkers. And
unlike most knock-offs and retreads, it's quite ambitious in its scope.
This isn't four teenagers in a cabin beset by zombies; our cast travels
practically half the globe, having adventures in the jungle, high
rises, power plants, suburban homes and abandoned missionaries. It's got
a big cast, bolstered out even further by a generous helping of stock
footage, which is creatively integrated into the film, even if its
effectiveness is uneven. And it was pretty damn impressive to see
Dario Argento's infamous scorers
Goblin had
done the soundtrack to this film... until I grew to realize it was just
their previous work carried over from previous films, mainly
Dawn Of the Dead. And that's not all that's been carried over from
Dawn; this film replicates so many key scenes that, if it weren't for the cannibal stuff, this could almost be classified as an unofficial remake. But that's all part of
Hell's charm.
I did see
Rats back in the day, too; but remembered it mostly as a
pretty average horror film that was basically 90 minutes of generic
build up for an admittedly pretty great ending. But that was never
enough to compel me to pick up any of the DVD releases, especially since
Hell and
Rats shared the same Bruno Mattei interview on both discs anyway. So I picked up the very first
Hell disc
and then just sat it all out from the outside, until I found out Blue
Underground was creating an all new documentary on the making of
Hell Of the Living Dead, compelling me to upgrade to the blu-ray. But I have to say, having gotten it now as part of the package with the
Hell upgrade,
the film has grown in my estimation, and I've come to appreciate the
silly, colorful comic book tone Mattei applied to both films.
 |
1) 2002 US Anchor Bay DVD; 2) 2014 US Blue Underground BD; 3) 2023 UK 88 Films BD; 4) 2023 UK 88 Films UHD.
|
So let's get into the transfers. Each disc is matted to roughly 1.85:1... AB's DVD is more like 1.84:1, and 88's BD is 1.83:1, though their UHD is 1.85. The difference between the two 88's being that the BD reveals slivers more along both sides than the UHD. But the shifts in framing across all four editions are very minute, and nothing you'd ever notice outside of a direct screenshot comparison like this. But you will notice the boosts in clarity. BU's blu-ray is distinctly sharper and more detailed than the old DVD, and even 88's blu is another substantial advancement, with grain only softly hinted at on the 2014 disc now clearly and cleanly captured. And fine detail that looks just a little clunky on the BD, like the clip in
Margit Newton's hair, looks far smoother with natural gradation on the UHD. But even more eye-catching than any of that is the color-timing, so let's get into that.
 |
1) 2014 Blue Underground BD; 2) 2023 88 Films BD; 3) 2023 88 Films UHD. |
First of all, I'm noticing that the two shots I selected to compare
for the UHD look very flat and low contrast. So here's one more
screenshot from the UHD, just to show that it's how those two particular
scenes look, not the whole film. Of course it's still darker (a gentle reminder: all HDR screenshots are darker because a proper 4k set will display them with more nits), but the colors are vibrant, looking very close to 88's BD on an HDR display, including the shots from the two earlier comparisons. But what should still stand out to you is how different BU's looks from the others. It has a very cool blueish cast; 88's transfer is back much closer to the old AB timing, albeit a little better separated. Overall, I prefer 88's colors. There are scenes where I prefer BU's - occasionally, 88 feels a little over-saturated or unnatural. But for the most part, 88 wins. This is the best the film has ever looked.
But the look isn't what the controversy around the 2014 blu is about. What you
don't see in those screenshots is the sound, or the film's running time.
So is this new blu-ray cut? No, not really... but technically yes. No
scenes have been removed or graphic imagery censored, but their have
been micro trims to a LOT of scenes. Basically frames have been removed
regularly, throughout the film (only
Hell; it's not on
Rats), between shots. Essentially, it's the exact same problem that plagued Shriek Show's infamous
Burial Ground blu-ray. And as with
Burial Ground,
the problem is not on the older DVDs, just the newer blus. To be fair,
you don't generally notice it in most cases... In fact, I don't think I
could even locate the instances without ripping both discs and syncing
them up to find the moments where the they
go out of sync. But when the cuts happen during music, you do hear it.
You don't hear pops or drop outs, because the shots have been buttressed
up against each other, but the score skips notes. And it always happens
as the video shot switches, which makes it seem like Mattei was some
kind of amateur who couldn't edit the audio and video on separate
tracks... it's the kind of error you find in student films. Except in
this case, it's not a problem with the original film, only the new
blu-ray.
 |
It's most obvious during this scene.
|
So I contacted BU back when
a forum member on blu-ray.com first pointed this out and
another member followed up by uploading comparison footage, and here's what they said:
"We
became aware of the issue with HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD after the
Blu-ray was released. We brought it to the attention of the Italian
licensor who supplied the new HD master to us. They informed us that
there was damage at several of the cement splices in the original
negative, necessitating that they remove one frame on each side of the
cut so that there wouldn’t be noticeable frame damage or picture jumps
during those cuts. Please keep in mind that this is a 30+ year old,
extremely low budget film. We're confident they did the transfer as best
they could with what they had to work with. Hopefully this does not
impede in your enjoyment of the film. We believe that the positives of
this new HD transfer far outweigh any negatives. As there is no way to
fix the damage to the negative, we are not able to issue replacement
discs."
And yes,
unless you're really searching for the problem, you won't notice it when
the score isn't playing, which is most of the time. I think BU is right about the positives of the HD outweighing the negatives for sure. I wouldn't go back to the DVD. But happily, this issue can now be put behind us forever. 88 has fixed the problem! They don't appear to have done anything dodgy, like upres SD frames from the DVD to fill the gaps (though, in a pinch, I might've preferred if BU had tried that instead of leaving it like it was). The running time is back. Both discs state they're scanned from the original negatives on their back covers, so presumably they're from the same source. So I don't really know how they did it, but they did it. It looks great, and the music no longer skips. Huzzah!
And that's not the only win in 88's audio column. AB's DVD just gave us the English mono dub with no subtitle options. BU bumped that track up to lossless DTS-HD and threw in optional English, French and Spanish subs. 88 dumps the foreign subs, keeping the English, but most importantly gives us both the English and Italian audio tracks (to be fair, 88's 2017 BD did this, too) in LPCM, giving us the option to watch the film with either track. The Italian seems to at least sometimes match the actor's lips, i.e. that's what they're actually speaking; though I will say the music sounds decidedly more robust in the English mix.
 |
2014 US Blue Underground BD.
|
Meanwhile,
Rats looks pretty good on BU's disc, too. I never got the DVD to compare
it to, but the image here looks great. Once again, it's been slightly
letterboxed to 1.85, and it's a very attractive watch with bold colors that's probably
part of what helped me come appreciate the film more this time around. It also has the English mono track in DTS-HD with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.
But like I said, the biggest selling point for me to upgrade from my old DVD
back in the day was actually the special features. First of all, the original Bruno
Mattei interview, which has been on every release of both
Rats and
Hell from Anchor Bay and Blue Underground has been carried over here, too.
And that's great, because it was an upbeat yet very forthcoming chat, and the only time we'll hear from Mattei on any of these discs.
There's also trailers and galleries for both films, that have been with
us since the earliest release. Some of the trailers are worth checking
out, though, since you get to see the films marketed with different
titles like
Virus and
Blood Kill. The DVD did have a unique insert, which included an interview between
Fangoria's
Michael Gingold and filmmaker
Scooter McCrae; but I'm really not at all sorry to see their
"Shatter Dead
is a much better film than Hell of the Living Dead
" trash talking fest go.
But then there's a new, 50+ minute documentary film called
Bonded By Blood, which really focuses on
Claudio Fragasso and his involvement. He's as forthcoming and engaging as Mattei was, but with an extra sense of humor, talking us through
Hell Of the Living Dead,
his marriage (his wife is also his collaborator who cowrote most of his
films) and touching on the rest of his and Mattei's careers. Margot
Newton and
Franco Garofalo are also interviewed to share their side of things. And at first it seems like it's going to be all about
Hell, but then we travel to the studio where they shot
Rats and Fragasso talks to us on the old sets, along with stars
Ottaviano Dell'Acqua and
Massimo Vanni.
Unfortunately,
none of that makes it to 88's release, but they've come up with a ton
of their own, mostly excellent material. I say "mostly," because boy is
the audio commentary skippable. It's by the usually reliable
Troy Howarth, along with second expert
Eugenio Ercolani, and it starts out fine. But maybe 20 minutes in, they just change the subject and stop talking about
Hell Of the Living Dead
altogether. They start drifting into other Fragasso films, but soon
they're just free-wheeling into whatever springs to mind. They go on
tangents from other tangents. Troy goes over the whole spiel of how
Romero
changed zombie films, which I'm sick to death of hearing repeated on
every zombie commentary ever. At the very end, Howarth admits he's not
interested in
Hell; it's not a film he likes very much. Yeah, no
shit! But you should at least talk about the film you're doing the
commentary of, no? A few references to other, related films, sure. But
this was a real piss take, like that AB insert turned into 100 minutes
of audio, except at least they were trashing the film instead of
ignoring it. 88 should demand their money back.
But all of 88's
other extras are quite worth while. First of all, their exclusive
interviews with Fragasso and Newton are back, and they're both top
notch. Then there's all new stuff for this release, starting with
another Fragasso interview. Don't worry, they ask him all different
questions, so he doesn't repeat across both interviews. Then there's an
excellent interview with Mrs. Fragasso:
Drosella Drudi, which is a real
must-watch. There's also an interesting but less essential interview
with two experts on Hell's history on VHS in the UK. Personally, I'm a
little burned out on "Video Nasty" talk, but it's a good piece. 88 also has the trailer, a 12-page booklet with notes by
Francesco Massaccesi (so not the same notes or author as 88's 2017 booklet), a fold-out poster, reversible artwork an a slipcover.
So 88's new 4k set is really satisfying. Fans may still want to hang onto their BU discs for the exclusive Mattei and Garofolo interviews (plus their
Rats coverage, if you're a fan of that movie, too). But this release finally gets
Hell right.