Rating summary
| Movie |  | 3.5 |
| Video | | 3.5 |
| Audio |  | 4.0 |
| Extras |  | 3.0 |
| Overall | | 3.5 |
Drive-In Delirium: Dead By Dawn Blu-ray Movie Review
Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 22, 2019
"Drive-In Delirium: Dead By Dawn" (2019) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Australian label Umbrella Entertainment. The only bonus feature on the disc is a collection with bonus VHS trailers for a wide variety of smaller genre films. In English, not subtitled. Region-Free.
Welcome trailer junkies!
Similar to the recently reviewed
Drive-In Delirium: With a Vengeance, the content on
Drive-In Delirium: Dead By Dawn is gathered in two main sections,
The Final Chapter and
A New Beginning. There is a bonus section with additional trailers that were sourced from various VHS tapes titled
Bride of VHS Delirium.
This installment in the
Delirium series emphasizes horror in all of its variations, from classic black-and-white thrillers to psychological chillers and even some Naziploitation films. In other words, the overall tone and atmosphere of this collection are much, much darker than that of
Drive-In Delirium: With a Vengeance.
For folks that enjoy monster and weird creatures films will discover trailers for such gems as
The Monster That Challenged the World,
The Gorgon, and
It Came from Beneath the Sea.
Slugs, the low-budget affair
Zaat, and
The Deadly Bees and
The Gorgon are also highlighted. However, it is worth mentioning that plenty of the trailers that are used for niche titles come from smaller independent studios and have not been fully remastered as the ones that are seen in
Drive-In Delirium: With a Vengeance.
Toward the middle of the first section, there is a nice selection of trailers for European gialli, such as
Four Flies on Grey Velvet,
Five Dolls for an August Moon,
The Case of the Bloody Iris,
The Bloodstained Butterfly, and even the edgy thriller
Death Laid an Egg. Big cult films like Dario Argento’s
Suspiria and
Opera, and Massimo Dallamano’s
What Have They Done to Your Daughters are also part of the same selection. The likes of
Massacre in Dinosaur Velley, which is not exactly a horror project, and
Cut and Run appear at the bottom of the same selection as well.
In the second section,
A New Beginning, there are trailers for some genuine genre classics, such as
Black Christmas,
Psycho,
The Changeling and
Evil Dead. The exotic flavor comes via trailers for niche favorites such as
The Stuff,
Neon Maniacs, and
Motel Hell. There are also trailers for big studio projects like
Silver Bullet,
Blow-Up (a real surprise here), and
Play Misty For Me.
Things become quite loose toward the end of the second section where all kinds of other genre films are highlighted. For example, there is a trailer for the dark comedy
Eating Raoul, another for the classic
Casino Royal,
Dr. Strangelove, and even the erotic thriller
9 ½ Weeks. Even the teen comedy
Zapped! somehow makes the list.
The bottom line is this: There is a heavy dose of horror in this collection, plus some additional spooky and sleazy material. Interestingly, the exotic material is actually provided by more mainstream films, like comedies and even political films, but it is not enough to offset the dark tone and atmosphere that give the collection its identity. (For what it’s worth, I enjoyed
Drive-In Delirium: With a Vengeance quite a bit more because it had trailers for a wider range of genre films from my favorite periods, the ‘60s and ‘70s).
*The complete list of the trailers that are included on this release can be seen
here.
Drive-In Delirium: Dead By Dawn Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
The trailers in Umbrella Entertainment's Drive-In Delirium: Dead By Dawn release are presented in various aspect ratios, from 1.37:1 to 1.85:1, 2.35:1 and 2.39:1. The release is encoded with MPEG-4 and the content in the main sections is presented in 1080p.
The quality of the trailers that were gathered for this collection varies quite a bit. Some are remastered -- typically the ones for the bigger titles --but there are also plenty of vintage trailers with obvious wear and tear. Nevertheless, there isn't actually any distracting material, so the overall quality of the selections in both sections on this release is quite good. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).
Drive-In Delirium: Dead By Dawn Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Dolby Digital 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are not provided for the main feature.
Some of the older and unrestored trailers show some signs of aging -- like unevenness and small dynamic fluctuations -- but I think that the lossy audio is still perfectly fine. On the other hand, there are plenty of trailers for recently restored and remastered films that actually have great audio. So, it all evens out.
Drive-In Delirium: Dead By Dawn Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- Son of VHS Delerium - as it was the case with the previous installments in the Drive-In Delirium series, Umbrella Entertainment has a bonus selection of trailers for a wide variety of genre films that have been sourced from VHS tapes. (97 min, 720p).
- Cover - reversible cover.
Drive-In Delirium: Dead By Dawn Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
I like the selections of trailers in Drive-In Delirium: With a Vengeance quite a bit more because the overwhelming majority of them are for many of my favorite films. In this release the emphasis is clearly on horror and smaller genre films, but in the second main section there is plenty of mainstream content as well. My guess is that if you enjoyed the previous Drive-In Delirium releases, you will have a good time with Drive-In Delirium: Dead By Dawn as well. RECOMMENDED.
