5.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
In a polluted future Venice researchers work to improve the situation. One day, unknown forces start killing them. A team of soldiers and a couple of civilians is sent to investigate. Soon, they encounter strange murderous creatures.
Starring: Christopher Ahrens, Haven Tyler, Geretta Geretta, Fausto Lombardi, Mark SteinbornHorror | 100% |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Italian: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
German: Dolby Digital 2.0
Mandarin: Dolby Digital 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
There are a number of funny aspects, many unintentional and some kind of tangential, to all three of the releases that Severin Film is putting out simultaneously this week. For some unintentional comedy directly related to any of this odd trio of releases, I’d recommend simply watching them (yes, that’s a joke). For some more tangential but still kind of amusing data points, there’s a brief summary of the somewhat confusing history of the so-called Zombi franchise in the Zombie 3 Blu-ray review. Zombi 3 (the “e” is missing from the actual title credit of the film) grew out of Zombi 2, which itself was marketed as a direct follow up to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, which was released overseas as Zombi. However, just to make things delightfully confounding, Zombi 2’s stateside Blu-ray release was named Zombie. There’s a somewhat similar “shell game” at play with regard to Shocking Dark, which was originally released overseas under the title Terminator II, and which had a marketing campaign obviously designed expressly to make potential audience members think that the film was an honest to goodness sequel to The Terminator. However, in one of my more favorite recent quotes gleaned from the always questionable Wikipedia, “Although the film was promoted as a rip-off of James Cameron's The Terminator, it is actually mostly a rip-off of Aliens, also by Cameron.” Severin’s press materials accompanying this release actually kind of celebrate the film’s genesis, mentioning that Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi “went beyond brazen plagiarism” to create “a fearless act of deranged genius. . .a bravura rip off of both Aliens and Terminator”.
Shocking Dark is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. As with the simultaneously released Zombie 3 and Zombie 4: After Death, Severin doesn't provide a ton of information on the transfer, though it does mention "scanned in 2K from the Director's Cut negative discovered in a Rome lab vault", which is the only time an OCN is referenced in press materials for the three releases. While I'm scoring this at the same 3.5 I gave Zombie 3, mostly due to the amount of age related wear and tear in the form of scratches, flecks and other damage (some of which can be pretty easily spotted in some of the screenshots accompanying this review), this has the most consistently pleasing looking palette of the trio, with good saturation levels, at least when lighting conditions allow, and above average detail levels, again at least when lighting conditions allow. The brightly lit Tubular "high tech" facility probably resonates best due to "office" lighting, with the fabrics on the "futuristic" costumes looking precise, and the blue and yellow tones looking reasonably vivid. A lot of the film takes place in steam strewn underground alleyways and the like, and detail levels are understandably less discernable. A number of shots are lit in things like deep red tones, and fine detail is pretty negligible in these moments. While the film is often shrouded in darkness, there are no real issues with grain resolution or general compression competence like some that are seen in Zombie 4. My score is 3.75.
Shocking Dark features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track that offers decent fidelity and some surprisingly tight "sync" which suggests to me that this film may have actually been filmed with "live" sound recording, rather than post dubbed. There's just the barest hint of break up in the upper midrange that can be heard on occasion when amplitudes spike in the more "intense" moments, especially when characters scream or speak loudly. Otherwise, though, things sound fine if not especially deep, with dialogue, effects and score reproduced without any significant problems.
I was actually kind of weirdly "charmed" (if that's the right word) by the two Zombie films Severin released at the same time as Shocking Dark, but the absurdly derivative nature of this outing combined with some less than effective performance styles which includes a lot of actors playing to the veritable second balcony almost all of the time didn't sit quite as well with me. I'm sure there are fans of this low rent enterprise, and for them the good news is video is pretty nice looking aside from some age related wear and tear, and audio suffices well enough, too. The interviews with Fragasso and Drudi, and Geretta, may be the actual ultimate selling point here for some interested consumers.
Collector's Edition
1978
10th Anniversary Special Edition
2008
Limited Edition of 3000 | Zombi 3 | Zombie Flesh Eaters 2
1988
Limited Edition of 3000 | Zombi 4 | Oltre la morte
1989
Collector's Edition
2006
1987
2016
2015
2013
2016
2011
Mutant / Roger Corman's Cult Classics
1982
Mind Ripper / The Outpost
1995
2016
1979
Enemy From Space
1957
1987
Space Vampires / Space Zombies
1968
1979
1957