Back from the Dead Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Back from the Dead Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 20, 2024

Charles Marquis Warren's "Back From the Dead" (1957) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include audio commentary by critics Tom Weaver, Gary D. Rhodes and Larry Blamire, and second audio commentary by David Del Valle and Dana M. Reemes. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Do you recognize me now?

Because Charles Marquis Warren and producer Robert Stabler made numerous westerns together, it is fair to speculate that the only two horror films they made together did not turn out as expected. If they did, they would have been multiplied many times, like the westerns. These horror films are Back From the Dead and The Unknown Terror, and both were completed in 1957.

For Back From the Dead, Warren worked with a screenplay handed to him by Catherine Turney, who had adapted her novel The Other One. It is easy to tell that Warren was not comfortable with the original material because the crucial overlapping of suspense and Gothic horror that occurs in it is not replicated well on the screen. Unsurprisingly, this is the most consequential weakness of Back From the Dead.

Several years after the tragic passing of his wife, Dicken (Arthur Franz) is trying to start a family again with Mandy (Peggie Castle), who loves him dearly. However, during a trip to the California seaside, Mandy, while in the company of Dicken and his sister-in-law, Kate (Marsha Hunt), unexpectedly falls ill and begins acting very, very strangely. Mandy declares that she has become Felicia, Dicken’s late wife, and proceeds to convince her concerned husband and sister that she is telling the truth. At first, her transformation is credited to her condition, rightfully assumed to be a lot more serious than expected, but while visiting Felicia’s heartbroken parents, Mandy reveals intimate details from Felicia’s past that she could not have possibly been aware of.

The narrative is broken into three acts, each overlapping suspense and Gothic horror. In each act, an important revelation produces a reset allowing the audience to see past and current developments from a different angle, and this is the main trick generating all of the thrills a film like Back From the Dead is expected to deliver.

Unfortunately, all revelations and resets are the most predictable ones, so the thrills that emerge from them are quite underwhelming. For example, when Dicken’s previous wife takes over the body of his current wife, Kate immediately becomes a target, which is hardly a surprising development. Shortly after, it is revealed that a supposedly powerful occultist may have greatly influenced Dicken’s previous wife, which is hardly a surprising development either. Dicken accepting the obvious, which is that he is facing a supernatural force operating through his new wife’s body, is another inevitable development. As a result, Back From the Dead looks almost like a big final rehearsal where all characters go through staged situations without giving their best but getting everything right.

Ironically, Back From the Dead produces plenty of wonderful visuals that feel almost perfect for the type of atmospheric genre film it could and should have been. For example, there are excellent panoramic shots from the beach area near the large house where the drama takes place that easily could have emerged from a Jack Clayton film. There is lovely footage from inside the house, where the supernatural force begins asserting its authority, too.

Ultimately, there is too much evidence pointing to the fact that Warren was not the right director for Back From the Dead, or any other similar genre film, which is why after The Unknown Terror he returned to making westerns. Virtually all of them were small B-films, but in the late 1950s he created the classic TV series Rawhide with Clint Eastwood.

*Kino Lorber’s release introduces a recent 4K restoration of Back From the Dead which was completed at Paramount Pictures.

Back from the Dead Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Back From the Dead arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from an exclusive 4K master that was prepared at Paramount Pictures. Excluding a few minor surface imperfections, such as white speckles and blemishes that easily could have been removed with digital tools, the film looks as good as I think it could. In fact, I recently screened Jack Clayton's The Innocents for a close friend and think that quite a few of the panoramic and interior shots in it look as striking as those that Back From the Dead reveals. The grayscale is excellent. I did not see crushing in darker areas, or similar anomalies, and the daylight footage looked terrific. Image stability is great. All in all, this Blu-ray release offers a wonderful organic presentation of Back From the Dead which minor cosmetic work could have elevated to outstanding. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Back from the Dead Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

Even though there is plenty of music throughout the film, it is not of the kind that does crucial work to shape its identity. It is important in some areas, but elsewhere it is used only as ornamentation. Unsurprisingly, dynamic contrasts are modest. The dialog is always clear, sharp, and stable. I did not encounter any age-related anomalies to report in our review.

Back from the Dead Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary One - this audio commentary was recorded by critics Tom Weaver, Gary D. Rhodes and Larry Blamire.

• Commentary Two - this audio commentary was recorded by critics David Del Valle and Dana M. Reemes.

Back from the Dead Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Charles Marquis Warren will always be remembered as the creator of the classic TV series Rawhide with Clint Eastwood. Back From the Dead is one of only two horror films Warren directed, and I think that there is overwhelming evidence in it that the horror genre was a foreign field for him. This film is properly polished and produces some rather striking visuals, but its story and atmosphere are underwhelming. Naturally, it could be of interest only to horror aficionados who like to dig very deep and have an insatiable appetite for anything horror-related. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from a very good recent 4K master that was prepared at Paramount Pictures.