Evans Above

Mill Creek’s Through the Decades 10 Film Collection: 1980s DVD set presents a sampling of ten films released between 1980 and 1989. Spread over four discs, these movies cover the spectrum from comedies and thrillers to dramas. The ten included films (with synopses from Mill Creek) are:

• Like Father Like Son (1987) – An uptight doctor (Dudley Moore) struggles to relate to his trouble-making, laid-back son (Kirk Cameron) until an experimental potion causes them to swap identities.
• Vice Versa (1988) – A wish made upon a mysterious Tibetan artifact causes divorced executive Marshall (Judge Reinhold) and his son Charlie (Fred Savage) to switch bodies, and they both find the other’s life isn’t quite so easy as they thought.
• Roxanne (1987) – C.D. Bales (Steve Martin) has always been shy because of his abnormally large nose. To win over his love Roxanne (Daryl Hannah), he enlists the help of Chris (Rick Rossovich), a handsome man who Roxanne loves. C.D. uses his gift with words to write letters as Chris professing his love to Roxanne.
• Punchline (1988) – Steve Golden (Tom Hanks) and Lilah Krytsick (Sally Field) meet on the New York stand-up comedy circuit and become friends, helping each other improve their acts. But when a competition comes to town with a star-making grand prize, their friendship may be left in the dust.
• Who’s Harry Crumb? (1989) – A hapless private investigator (John Candy) stumbles and bumbles along the trail if a kidnapped young heiress (Renée Coleman), managing to get closer and closer to solving the case despite making mistakes every step of the way.
• Blue Thunder (1983) – LAPD Pilot Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) is assigned as a test pilot for the experimental Blue Thunder police helicopter, designed to pacify riots. But Frank soon begins to suspect there is more to Blue Thunder than he is being told.
• Suspect (1987) -Defense attorney Kathleen (Cher) and jury panelist Eddie Sanger (Dennis Quaid) work together to prove Kathleen’s client (Liam Neeson) innocent in a murder case involving a judge’s secretary and corrupt officials.
• Band of the Hand (1986) – Five teen criminals are shipped out to the Everglades, where a war veteran (Stephen Lang) tries to whip them into shape by teaching them to survive in the Florida wilderness. Also starring Leon Robinson, James Remar, Lauren Holly, and Laurence Fishburne
• Little Nikita (1988) – On the hunt for a Soviet agent, FBI agent Roy Parmenter (Sidney Poitier) investigates the family of young Jeffrey Grant (River Phoenix), whose parents are both suspects. Things get complicated when Roy forms an unexpected friendship with Jeffrey.
• The New Kids (1985) -Orphaned siblings Abby (Lori Loughlin) and Loren (Shannon Presby) move to Florida to live with their aunt and uncle to help run their amusement park. They soon find themselves at odds with a local gang of teenage ruffians, forcing them into a confrontation at the amusement park.

Mill Creek’s 1980s collection’s ten movies are contained on just four DVD discs, so be aware that these are not movies that will have the clarity or colour palette of an individual Blu-ray presentation and some compression artifacts are visible. If you’re willing to accept that, the presentations are okay.

On the audio side, the movies come with Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks. Subtitles are available for English. Again, because of the quantity of films, these are not lossless tracks but they do have clarity in dialogue and effects.

The collection does not come with digital code or bonus materials.

The Through the Decades 10 Film Collection: 1980s DVD set is perfect if you want a low-priced sampler pack of movies from the decade or are buying this for a relative who still might be rocking a DVD player and just wants a bunch of movies at a good price. Not everyone is buying the latest 4K with a restored scan and this type of collection fills that niche of the market.

Lionsgate’s For the Love of Money did have a limited theatrical release in November of 2021 where it earned just under $500,000. I’m sure the fact that it has a home entertainment release is a last ditch attempt to try to earn some money back for the investors. The film stars Keri Hilson as a single mom trying to keep her Atlanta home and her daughter in private school. When her need for money is desperate, she ends up being involved in a life of drug running and money laundering. The cast is filled with other singers like Keith Sweat, Jazzy Jade, D.C. Young Fly, and Rotimi, so there is the occasional musical break. Comedian Katt Williams also has a cameo and appears to be the only person who considered coming up with a character. The plot has more loose threads than a cheap fast fashion knock-off, the acting is pretty awful, and the film’s only saving grace is a pretty short 98 minute running time. I had the chance to check out the Blu-ray release of the movie, so let’s take a look at the technical aspects.

The 1080p AVC encoded video transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The visuals do contain a nice level of detail, especially on the colourful outfits worn by the female cast and the bright colour palette pops on the screen. However some shots in the film do have issues like aliasing. So while it’s not a great video presentation, for the material it’s supporting it’s good enough.

On the audio side, there’s an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack. Subtitles are available for English SDH and Spanish. The surrounds get the occasional usage in crowd or club scenes and dialogue is clear throughout the movie.

Wrapping things up, the Blu-ray I reviewed also comes with a US-only digital code. Unless you are a huge fan of Keri Hilson, simply must have everything Katt Williams appears in, or need a new coaster, I don’t think you’ll want to add For the Love of Money to your home entertainment library.

Ten years after Dexter left our TV screens, everyone’s favourite police blood splatter expert and serial killer returns in Dexter: New Blood. This time we’ve left the warm, sunny beaches of Miami for the colder, snowier fictional small town of Iron Lake, New York, where Dexter lives under a new identity. He’s turned things around and his “ethical” serial killing is under control. Oh, who are we kidding here? Dexter’s “Dark Passenger” is back and so is his need to avoid detection. Paramount has now released Dexter: New Blood on Blu-ray and I had a chance to review the limited edition Steelbook version. Joining Michael C. Hall in the ten episodes are Jack Alcott, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Jones, Alano Miller, Johnny Sequoyah and Clancy Brown.

The 1080p AVC encoded transfer is presented in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. The detail in the video presentation is great and checks all the boxes of hair and facial features, indoor and outdoor environments and textiles. The black levels are very good too and with many night and shadowy scenes we can still see what’s going on. The colour palette is bleaker (Iron Lake is not Miami) but the white snow is bright and the blood, of course, is rich and red. There are no digital noise or compression issues to speak of.

On the audio side, Dexter: New Blood has an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack with English SDH subtitles. The surround usage is good for putting some of the unsettling ambient sounds and effects around you and there’s subtle use of low frequency sounds but it won’t overwork your subwoofer. Dialogue is clear, centred, and well-prioritized.

The 4-disc SteelBook edition that I’m reviewing features a snowy, menacing headshot of Dexter on the front cover. The back cover features an overhead shot of a snow-covered forest with a blood-stained road bisecting the image. The discs are on individual spindles and behind them there’s a photo of Dexter chopping wood with an axe. There are bonus materials on three of the discs. While three are just about two minutes long and give some brief info on the show, disc four has a half-hour look at the show’s legacy and production.

Obviously, you’ll want to have watched the previous Dexter series to be fully up on what’s happening in Dexter: New Blood. With an excellent video and audio presentation, Dexter fans old and new will be interested in this release.

I may be a little late to the party here. Though the 2020 limited series of The Stand was released on Blu-ray in the US in October 2021, it didn’t get released in Canada by Paramount until March 2022. Based on Stephen King’s 1978 novel, and a remake of the 1994 series, The Stand is a post-apocalyptic story that occurs following a pandemic caused by a military biological research mishap. The remaining survivors are drawn to following two people, Mother Abigail (Whoopi Goldberg) or Randall Flagg (Alexander Skarsgård), in a struggle of good versus evil. The main cast of the series also includes James Marsden, Odessa Young, Jovan Adepo, Henry Zaga, Greg Kinnear, Irene Bedard, Nat Wolff, Owen Teague, Amber Heard and Brad William Henke.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. It’s a really good looking video presentation with amazing detail from hairs and skin textures to environmental elements, textiles and the ravages of disease cooked up by the makeup department. The colour palette is natural, flesh tones look very good, and black levels are deep with good detail in darker scenes.

On the audio side, The Stand comes with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack as well as German, Spanish, French, and Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available for English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish. The 5.1 soundtrack makes good use of the surrounds to place ambient sounds around the viewer, while action effects also move around the soundscape with a nice floor of low frequency tones for your subwoofer. The score is dynamic and mostly focused in the front. Dialogue is clear and well-prioritized.

The three-disc set comes with a couple of extras: a gag reel and an almost twenty minute featurette that looks at King’s work and some of the production aspects.

Given what we’ve been going through in the world these past few years, this update of The Stand seems quite timely and comes with a great cast and excellent video and audio presentations.

Film lovers and physical media collectors can often be heard talking in their sleep. Nine times out of ten what they’re mumbling is “When is The Godfather coming out on 4K?” Wake them up now, because Paramount has released a newly-restored 4K set of the entire trilogy to celebrate the first film’s 50th anniversary. The set contains The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II and The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, which is Francis Ford Coppola’s preferred cut of the third film. It also contains the theatrical and 1991 cuts of what was then called The Godfather: Part III. I had a chance to take a look at a review copy of The Godfather Trilogy 4K courtesy of Paramount.

Let’s take a look at the video presentation first. The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded transfers with HDR10 and Dolby Vision for all three films are presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. All three films have been lovingly and meticulously restored, looking over multiple source materials and spending thousands of hours cleaning up stains and scratches. The results are just beautiful. The clarity and detail of the visuals are spot on. Facial textures, hair, textiles, sets and outdoor locations have an amazing amount of detail. The original film grain is slightly more pronounced in the first film, but who cares? Black levels and contrast are spot on and there’s a really good amount of detail in the shadows and darker scenes. Colours are natural but pop where needed and the HDR really enhances fire and neon elements. Digital noise and artifacts are not noticeable at all. Again, just a beautiful video presentation.

On the audio side, The Godfather has an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD and 2.0 Restored Mono Dolby Digital soundtrack as well as Spanish, French, and Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks and French, Italian, and Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese Spanish, and Swedish. The Godfather: Part II has an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD and English Dolby Digital 2.0 Restored Mono soundtrack as well as French, Japanese, and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks and French and Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone has an English 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack as well as Czech, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish (Spain and Latin American) Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, and a Polish Dolby Digital 2.0 track. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Roman, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America), Swedish, and Thai. The Godfather: Part III (Theatrical and 1991 cuts) have an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, soundtrack as well as French German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Spain) and Spanish (Latin America) Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Roman, Simplified Chinese, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America), Swedish, and Thai.

Phew! Still with me? Okay, so how is the sound? The 5.1 mixes make good use of the soundscape with ambient sounds and effects placed and moving throughout. For purists, the first two films also come with their original mono soundtracks. The subwoofer adds extra weight to not only effects like gun shots but also the scores which are rich and dynamic throughout the three movies. Dialogue is clear, centred and well-prioritized in the mix.

The Godfather Trilogy is a five-disc set. The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II and The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone each get a 4K disc. A fourth 4K disc contains the theatrical and 1991 cuts of The Godfather: Part III, while the fifth disc, a Blu-ray, contains the special features. Digital codes are included for the three main versions. The extras are a mix of legacy materials from previous releases and some new featurettes for this release. The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II 4Ks include audio commentaries from Coppola and there’s an additional commentary on Part III 1991 cut. We get looks at the restoration work, a piece on the late set photographer Steve Schapiro, multiple production featurettes, behind-the-scenes looks at the music, the cinematography, and screenwriting, additional scenes, photo galleries, and interviews with the filmmakers. It’s a great set of extras.

Stunning visuals, great sound and a plethora of bonus materials in The Godfather Trilogy 4K leaves me with just one question: What are you waiting for? Go! Add this to your collection!

In the 2007 film Shooter, Mark Wahlberg plays a former Marine sniper, Bob Lee Swagger, who is asked to come back and help prevent a Presidential assassination attempt. When he finds himself double-crossed by a group with tentacles in the halls of power, he sets out to clear his name and bring justice to the traitors with the assistance of Michael Peña, who plays an FBI agent. Paramount Home Entertainment is celebrating the film’s 15 anniversary with a 4K limited-edition SteelBook release, which I had a chance to review.

The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Shot on film, IMDb indicates there was a 2K digital intermediate and I haven’t seen if there was a new 4K scan. Regardless if this is native 4K or upscaled 2K, the detail in the image looks amazing with a light filmic grain. Close-ups reveal every hair and pore, while textiles, environments and weaponry look great. The HDR does wonders for the colours. Bright whites, deep rich greens and browns, and popping primaries. There’s no digital noise or compression artifacts nor is there any damage to the 15-year-old print. It’s a great video presentation.

On the audio side, there’s an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack as well as German, Spanish, French and Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (Portugal), Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain) and Swedish. Phew! Your subwoofer will appreciate the mix with gunshots and other action effects landing with a real oomph. The surrounds are used well to space both effect and ambient sounds and place the listener in the action. The score is powerful and dialogue is clear, centred and well-prioritized. Though an Atmos upgrade would have been nice, this soundtrack is no slouch.

The 4K Steelbook features a black and white photo of Swagger holding his sniper rifle on the front, along with some red, glowing embers. The back features the text “I Didn’t Start It But I Mean to See it Through.” There’s a digital code. One extra that’s missing is a director’s commentary from Antoine Fuqua that was on a previous Blu-ray release. There is a trailer, some deleted scenes, a look at Independence Hall, and an almost 20 minute “making of” featurette.

Well-directed action, amazing visuals and great sound makes Shooter an easy recommendation for fans of the genre.

Yellowstone has been a real hit for the Paramount Network (not to be confused with Paramount+) and the streaming services that carry it. The show follows John Dutton (Kevin Costner), who operates the biggest ranch in the United States. He’s constantly battling the various interests after his land while also dealing with the family and political drama that gives shows like this another layer. Paramount has just released Yellowstone Season 4 on Blu-ray and I had a chance to take a look.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 2.00:1 aspect ratio. It’s a beautiful looking video presentation with great clarity and detail in facial textures, hair, clothing and the natural and man-made environments. The colour palette is realistic with strong primary colours. Black levels are deep and there’s detail in the shadows and darker scenes. No signs of digital noise or compression artifacts.

On the audio side, the show comes with an English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack and subtitles for English SDH. Though there’s good use of the surrounds, the track feels like it’s missing a little weight when it comes to some of the action effects. Music is clean and dynamic. Dialogue is clear, centred and well-prioritized.

Though the four-disc set doesn’t come with a digital code, it is packed with a nice selection of bonus material, something that many TV releases skimp on. While the first three discs only contain episode overviews, the fourth disc contains the extras. There’s a making of/story insights piece that clocks in over half an hour, as well as a look at the flashbacks that feature Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. We learn more about the character arcs of the bunkhouse characters, look at the production, and get insights and stories about the making of each episode.

Yellowstone Season 4 gives viewers an excellent video and solid audio experience supporting great stories and acting. Toss in a surprising amount of extras and this is very much recommended.

Coming 2 America, the long-gestating follow-up to 1988’s Coming to America, reteamed Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall as the newly-crowned Zamundan King Akeem and his trusted aide and sidekick, Semmi. It appeared on Amazon Prime Video as the daily numbers of the Covid-19 pandemic kept rising. Though not as charming as the original, it did provide some needed laughs in a story that sees Akeem learning that he had been drugged and sired a son in Queens, New York. The film features appearances by original cast members James Earl Jones, John Amos, Louie Anderson and Shari Headley as well as new additions like Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan and Wesley Snipes.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 2.00:1 aspect ratio. The video presentation is very sharp with amazing details in the clothing and environments as well as facial textures. The colour palette is lush, with bright primaries popping in the Zamudan palace and scenery and a more realistic palette appearing in Queens. The black levels are excellent with no loss of detail and digital noise and compression artifacts appear to be nonexistent.

Heading over to the audio side, your ears are offered the choice of an English 5.1 DTS HD-MA soundtrack as well as French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French and Spanish. It’s a solid soundtrack with pretty good usage of the surrounds for various ambient and effects moments. The music is dynamic and it’s in the score that the lower frequencies get a workout. Dialogue is clear, centred and well-prioritized.

The Blu-ray disc is sadly not rich in extras, which is sad given how long people have waited for a sequel. There’s a commentary by director Craig Brewer and a short featurette called “From Queens to Zamunda.”

Aside from the lack of extras, Coming 2 America does have excellent video and solid audio. Though most will stick to streaming it, Eddie Murphy fans will probably want to pick this up to keep their collections complete.

Universal is home to some of the most celebrated horror icons of all time. Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, the Invisible Man, and the Wolf Man are all staples of pop culture and a constant go-to for Halloween costumes, movies, and TV shows. Universal has just released the aptly-named Universal Classic Monsters Icons of Horror Collection on 4K and I had a chance to review it. The set contains four classic movies: Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and The Wolf Man.

1931’s Dracula stars Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire. The film, directed by Tod Browning was apparently a bit of a disorganized shoot, with cinematographer Karl Freund shooting some scenes which has led to some film historians listing him as an uncredited co-director. 1931 also saw the release of Frankenstein, with Boris Karloff in the role of the mad scientist’s stitched-together monster. Despite being layered below makeup, Karloff’s performance is stellar, moving from the monster’s innocent curiosity to frightened rage with ease. Moving ahead two years, Universal then released The Invisible Man, which starred Claude Rains in this adaptation of the H.G. Wells story. Hats go off to the early visual effects team that created the process to make the Rains invisible in the production. The final film in the set, 1941’s The Wolf Man, stars Lon Chaney Jr. in the titular role. Chaney’s legendary father was already a huge figure in Universal’s horror world, having starred in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera in the 1920s.

The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K transfers with HDR10 are presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. All of the films have benefited from some tender loving care to reduce scratches and other source defects. All of the movies have very evident film grain, especially the 90-year-old Dracula and Frankenstein, so if grain really bugs you, you might prefer the Blu-ray versions that are also included with the set. I think the grain is okay given that the real treasure in the 4K presentation is the enhanced clarity of the image, the deep inky blacks and the improved contrast and variations in gray that the HDR gives these films. Of the four, the “younger” two films are the best looking of the bunch.

On the audio side, each film features an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono soundtrack with a variety of additional languages dubs and subtitles available with each title. The mono tracks are clear except for some hissing in the high end but otherwise dialogue and musical scores are clear. I like that they didn’t mess around and try and jazz up 80+ year-old soundtracks with an Atmos mix.

The discs (four 4K UHD and four Blu-ray) are housed in a hardcover book with poster art and publicity stills inside a slipcase. Sadly, instead of individual spindles for each disc, the discs are in a slot at the end of each page. Getting fingerprints on the discs is therefore almost unavoidable. If you have a disc that skips in your player, check it for fingerprints. The set also comes with digital copy codes. The bonus materials are included on both the 4K and Blu-ray discs.

The Dracula disc is notable for the inclusion of the Spanish-language version, Drácula. At the time, Universal was making foreign versions of some of its projects. At the end of each day of shooting, a Mexican crew and cast were brought in and shot their scenes using the same sets. This version is slightly longer than Lugosi’s version. The disc also contains a couple of audio commentaries, an alternate score written by Philip Glass and performed by the Kronos Quartet, a 35 minute featurette with filmmakers and historians discussing the film’s influence, another lengthy piece on Bela Lugosi, a look at the film’s restoration, a slideshow of posters and promotional artwork, trailers for the film and some of its sequels, and an option to watch the film with trivia.

The Frankenstein disc comes with two audio commentaries from film historians Rudy Behlmer and Sir Christopher Frayling, a 45 minute piece hosted by historian David J. Skal which looks at the source material, its adaptation, the stage play and the characters, another lengthy featurette on Boris Karloff and his legacy in the genre, a 95 minute doc on the Universal horror catalog, a slideshow of promotional artwork, a parody short from 1932 titled Boo!, a collection of trailers, a look at Universal’s restoration work and a trivia option.

The Invisible Man’s disc comes with an audio commentary from film historian Rudy Behlmer, a featurette on the source material, its themes and adaptation, production photos, a trailer gallery, and a look at iconic characters in the Universal horror catalog.

Finally, The Wolf Man disc has an audio commentary by film historian Tom Weaver, a retrospective look on the film and its influence hosted by An American Werewolf in London director John Landis, a piece on the werewolf myth, a look at the life and career of Lon Chaney Jr., a piece on makeup artist Jack Pierce and his work on the Universal monsters, a slideshow of promotional artwork, a trailer gallery and a look at the famous Universal back lot.

The Universal Classic Monsters Icons of Horror Collection on 4K gives these movies excellent video and audio presentations and a great amount of bonus material. Whether you’re a collector, a film buff, or a fan of the horror genre, you’ll want to add this to your collection.

Warner Brothers Home Entertainment is releasing director Jason Axinn’s Night of the Animated Dead on Blu-ray on October 5th (with a digital release appearing earlier on September 21st), just in time for Halloween. I had a chance to review it, and since Warner Brothers likes disclaimers more than zombies like brains, here goes: though Warner Brothers provided me with a review copy of the movie, the thoughts and opinions below are mine alone.

George A. Romero’s legendary Night of the Living Dead has seen its share of remakes due to the fact that a copyright filing error left the film in the public domain, with no fees needed to remake or reimagine it. Axinn gives us an almost shot for shot animated remake that features a voice cast that includes Josh Duhamel, Dulé Hill, Katharine Isabelle, Katee Sackhoff, Will Sasso, Jimmi Simpson, Nancy Travis, and James Roday Rodriguez. One word kept occurring to me: Why? That was soon followed by three other words: No really, why? The film marries a quite good voice cast with a style of animation that looks like the work of a novice animator using a fifteen year-old copy of Flash. If you look at the cover graphics, it looks like the detailed work of a graphic novelist, but the actual animation is nowhere near that. It’s a cinematic bait and switch.

Ignoring whether or not this film should have been made, let’s look at the video presentation. The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The image is sharp, the colours pop, but the style of animation is really making look for detail. The black levels are deep and whatever detail there is survives darker scenes and there’s no sign of crushing. No digital noise or compression artifacts to speak of in this presentation.

On the audio side, zombies have a choice of an English 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack as well as French, German and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks. Subtitles are available in English SDH, German SDH. Dutch, French and Spanish. The soundtrack’s surrounds do a good job of placing you into the scene, which helps heighten the horror factor. The low end effects give added power to items like explosions and gun blasts. Dialogue is clear and centred.

The Night of the Animated Dead Blu-ray also comes with a digital code and a short featurette with the director and some of the voice cast discussing the project and showing some of the recording sessions.

The Night of the Animated Dead Blu-ray come with excellent video and audio presentations, but the animation they’re supporting sadly doesn’t do the source material justice nor take it in a new direction. It’s sole purpose appears to be squeezing out a few more dollars and cents from a public domain original. Unless you simply must have every version of Night of the Living Dead, I’d give this disc a pass.

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