7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A young Canadian nurse comes to the West Indies to care for Jessica, the wife of a plantation manager. Jessica seems to be suffering from a kind of mental paralysis as a result of fever. When she falls in love with Paul, Betsy determines to cure Jessica even if she needs to use a voodoo ceremony, to give Paul what she thinks he wants...
Starring: James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway, Edith Barrett, James Bell (I)Horror | 100% |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
4K Ultra HD
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Jacques Tourneur's "I Walked With a Zombie" (1943) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include archival audio commentary by critics Kim Newman and Stephen Jones and alternate audio track with excerpts from Adam Roche's eleven-part series "The Secret History of Hollywood". In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.
Criterion's release of I Walked With a Zombie is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray is Region-A "locked".
I Walked With a Zombie is paired with a new 4K restoration of Mark Robson's The Seventh Victim in this 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack and this Blu-ray only release.
The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this release:
"These new 4K restorations (for I Walked With a Zombie and The Seventh Victim) were created from the 35mm original nitrate original camera negatives. The negative of The Seventh Victim had large amounts of mold throughout. Digital restoration helped mitigate the damage, but there is still some mold residue present in the picture. The original monaural soundtracks were remastered from a 35mm safety composite fine-grain for I Walked With a Zombie and a 35mm original soundtrack positive for The Seventh Victim.
Mastering supervisors: Lee Kline, Giles Sherwood.
Colorist: Mishel Hassidim/Resilion, New York.
Audio restoration: Criterion Collection."
Please note that all screencaptures included with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray.
In native 4K, the 4K restoration of I Walked With a Zombie cannot be viewed with Dolby Vision or HDR grades. I viewed it in its entirety in 4K and later spent time with the 1080p presentation of it on the Blu-ray.
On my system, I Walked With a Zombie looked outstanding. In fact, I was a bit surprised because I expected to see some noticeable signs of aging, but aside from a few more pronounced density fluctuations, the film maintained a consistently very pleasing and attractive organic appearance. Darker footage, which is the most atmospheric, looked great, boasting great ranges of rich and more subtle shadows. The daylight footage was even richer and more vibrant. I would describe delineation, clarity, and depth as excellent, but in the areas with the small density fluctuations they become slightly uneven. Is it possible that a Dolby Vision or HDR grade could have made a substantial, positive difference? I am unsure. Even in the darkest footage, nuances looked superb, without ever struggling to overcome crushing. There are no traces of any problematic digital corrections. Image stability is excellent.
What about the 1080p presentation on the Blu-ray? I think that it is equally impressive. I compared multiple sections with very dark footage and several sections with daylight/brighter footage. Even on a very large screen, all sections looked equally pleasing. The daylight/brighter footage was marginally sharper, or at least it appeared to be on my system, but this discrepancy would be very difficult to spot if one does not do what I did, which was multiple direct comparisons.
There is only one standard audio track on this release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.
All exchanges are very easy to follow. They are clear and stable. However, if you turn up the volume slightly more than usual, you will notice that in the upper register there is a tiny amount of hiss. I am quite certain that it is on the original soundtrack. The upper register feels slightly thin too, which is again an inherited limitation. I did not encounter any areas with obvious and distracting age-related anomalies.
4K BLU-RAY DISC
Instead of a B-film, I Walked With a Zombie should have been a big-budget extravaganza with a tremendous imagination because it works with a very interesting for its era material. It has several sequences with the type of atmosphere one would expect from a film directed by Jacques Tourneur, but it is not in the same league with Cat People. Criterion introduces a terrific new 4K restoration of I Walked With a Zombie, paired with another 4K restoration of Mark Robson's The Seventh Victim. RECOMMENDED to the fans.
(Still not reliable for this title)
1943
Grey Knight
1993
Zombi 2 / Zombie Flesh Eaters
1979
1968
1957
La rebelión de las muertas
1973
Buio Omega
1979
Limited Edition of 3000 | Zombi 4 | Oltre la morte
1989
La noche de los brujos
1974
L'altro inferno / Guardian of Hell
1981
Also Includes = I Eat Your Skin and Blue Sextet
1970
Mo / 魔
1983
1964
1990
1966
Black Magic 2
1976
1984
1932
Dèmoni 3
1991
1996