Dawn of the Dead (1978, Second Sight)

[Agent Kay]

Originally Posted by GasmaskAvenger

or it's actually the Zack Snyder remake.

Fine by me

[145gtw]

Glad to see that Second Sight will be handling this one. Their output has been pretty phenomenal lately.

Their release of the original Heimat series is one of the best things to grace disk.

[MTRodaba2468]

Originally Posted by The Fallen Deity

New transfers for all three cuts
The original audio mixes
All the extras from the Anchor Bay DVD set.

Give me all of those things and I'll give you all my money Second Sight!

This.

[Owenjohnston]

I've had the arrow blu ray since release day and thought it looked ok at the time. I haven't watched it in about 8 years so I'm guessing it looks poor by comparison to today's standards

[Agent Kay]

Originally Posted by Owenjohnston

I've had the arrow blu ray since release day and thought it looked ok at the time. I haven't watched it in about 8 years so I'm guessing it looks poor by comparison to today's standards

It always looked poor, arrow stared out like Scream.
All packaging over quality, difference is they got a whole lot better

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by crazybeats

I don't see what the issue is with previous releases, it may just be one of those films that's never going to look stunning in HD or 4K.

No.

[The Beast Within]

Originally Posted by Agent Kay

It always looked poor, arrow stared out like Scream.
All packaging over quality, difference is they got a whole lot better

Yeah, i remember this looking like an upscale of a very old master, not watched it since it released but I remember being underwhelmed at least. Same for their release of Day of the Dead.

[GasmaskAvenger]

Ah yes, the classic "it'll never look better than the current masters" argument, which has been continually BTFO by multiple amazing 4K OCN restorations.

[oldmario]

i guess this is both off-topic and on-topic but is there any reason why we never got the remake of Dawn of the Dead on blu-ray over here? i know we've had the last bunch of "of the dead" modern movies released on blu-ray

[cinescot]

Originally Posted by oldmario

i guess this is both off-topic and on-topic but is there any reason why we never got the remake of Dawn of the Dead on blu-ray over here? i know we've had the last bunch of "of the dead" modern movies released on blu-ray

Never understood it. It's not the only big horror remake that remains unreleased in the UK. RZ's Halloween and The Amityville Horror are another 2. Also sequels like TCM: The Beginning and The Ring 2. All of these films done extremely well at the Box Office (although some were panned by the critics). Snyder's Dawn of the Dead is particularly surprising in that it's definitely one of the best horror remakes and it's also a Universal title. I don't see why Universal wouldn't just put it out like they did in quite a few other countries.

I'm really happy Second Sight are putting out the original and cannot wait to see the specs. If there is a LE, which is likely, hopefully the print run is set at a decent figure (at least 10k) as it will likely sell out very fast.

As for the remake, perhaps Arrow could pick it up for a UK-only release? I reckon it would be a big seller in the UK with it not already having a release.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by cinescot

Never understood it. It's not the only big horror remake that remains unreleased in the UK. RZ's Halloween and The Amityville Horror are another 2. Also sequels like TCM: The Beginning and The Ring 2. All of these films done extremely well at the Box Office (although some were panned by the critics). Snyder's Dawn of the Dead is particularly surprising in that it's definitely one of the best horror remakes and it's also a Universal title. I don't see why Universal wouldn't just put it out like they did in quite a few other countries.

It could be possible that Uni didn't want to submit the Director's Cut to the BBFC. Up until the Shout re-release, every Blu was the Director's Cut.

[OgamiittoMcJ]

UK got Dir Cut on DVD uncut so nothing to do with BBFC imo
just like countless other films this has just been neglected for BD release in the UK

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by OgamiittoMcJ

UK got Dir Cut on DVD uncut so nothing to do with BBFC imo
just like countless other films this has just been neglected for BD release in the UK

That sounds about right. After my comment I checked if "Land of the Dead" was released on Blu in the UK and it was.

[Killer Meteor]

Originally Posted by OgamiittoMcJ

UK got Dir Cut on DVD uncut so nothing to do with BBFC imo
just like countless other films this has just been neglected for BD release in the UK

It was released by Entertainment in Video, not Universal.

[The Fallen Deity]

The people saying that DOTD can never look stunning on home video are full of doo doo.

It's never been transferred and mastered properly. That's the problem right there.

[OgamiittoMcJ]

Originally Posted by Killer Meteor

It was released by Entertainment in Video, not Universal.

yeh and I never said it was ?

there was 2 separate UK DVD releases Theatrical and Dir Cut, rather than a 2 Disc, I still have them both
I also still got Japanese Dir Cut DVD and Korean Dir Cut DVD
and the US Theatrical 1st BD release

[BluProofie]

If this is Region Free and a remaster I’ll pick it up. If not, I’ll stick with the decent Anchor Bay disc and hope a better one eventually comes along.

[crazybeats]

So all these studios that have released this film have all gotten it wrong every time? Some films just aren't going to look stunning in HD or 4K.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by crazybeats

So all these studios that have released this film have all gotten it wrong every time? Some films just aren't going to look stunning in HD or 4K.

In a word: yes. In more words: it's not really "studios" as it is a bunch of home video distributors who've kept on releasing Dawn over the years within their limited means, either reheating the creaky HD telecine that was done for the theatrical/extended cut a full FIFTEEN YEARS AGO or creating new transfers which have had a variety of problems, all of them different faults as Daily tried to explain and that's not on the source material, unless it magically kept changing what was wrong with it every time?

And I don't want nor have asked for "stunning", I just want a new transfer for this film done from a decent pre-print element with a modicum of competence. We have not had the latter thus far IMO, and if Second Sight can come up with the goods then I will pay whatever price they're asking for it while you can be happy with whatever version it is you've got. Fair enough?

[grahams76]

The blu-rays of this film have all reportedly been so lacklustre that I've just hung on to my 2004 (?) Anchor Bay DVD boxset. I'm hoping this will be the release to change that.