6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.1 |
Following at first the journey of Lt. Brian Murphy, wanting nothing more than to return home from a zombie outbreak stricken Africa, then Murphy and Sgt. Daniel Dembele, the latter trying to find his son, this is a quest film as much as horror, the journey as important as the grue.
Starring: Rob Freeman (I), Prince David OseiaHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
We're all dead anyway.
The real appeal of the zombie genre doesn't just come from the guaranteed mutilation and gore -- audiences can find that anywhere -- but in the
immediacy, the despair, the hopelessness, the constant fight for survival, the forever-altered landscape where up is down, right is wrong, wrong is
right, and where ordinary people are forced to either do extraordinary things or die a miserable death via their refusal or physical or emotional failure to
adapt to an environment that all but asks of its survivors to abandon their humanity if they are to save humanity. The genre has positively exploded
of late in all forms of entertainment media, namely movies, television shows, video games, and literature. It's escapism entertainment defined,
gobbled up
by the masses who crave a look at the unreal becoming a terrifying reality of not only blood and guts but an exercise in one of the ultimate games of
"what if?" The Dead is the latest to dabble in the genre, the film a visually gritty but stylistically bland entry that mixes the Road Trip movie
with a post-apocalyptic African landscape. The picture works on the genre's most basic level, offering up a sobering yet at the same time entertaining
glimpse into a world overrun and destroyed by the living dead, but its lack of thematic relevance, terribly linear plot, repetitive cadence, and only
occasional successes in
stylization make it better suited to genre fanatics rather than the casual fan wondering what all the zombie fuss is about.
Watcha gonna do when they come for you?
The Dead's 1080p, 1.78:1-framed Blu-ray transfer is fair but uneven. The picture strives to deliver a gritty, sun-scorched image that reflects both the environment and the sense of death and decay within it. Director of Photography Jon Ford has succeed, but the end result is a transfer that won't spring immediately to mind as one of the format's best. The image is hot, with colors primarily of the warm earthen variety. There's very little vibrancy, though objects like a worn out white vehicle hold up nicely amidst the surrounding harshness. Still, there are some soft, blurry shots mixed in. Fine detail is fair; facial textures are often complex, as is the rust, dents, scratches, and overall wear on the aforementioned vehicle. The dusty African terrain looks fairy good, too. Grain is present, but appears frozen in place in several scenes. Blacks are very deep, yielding a bit of crush, while also showcasing some heavy noise in the film's darkest scenes. Edge halos are occasionally evident, too. On the flip side, banding and blocking are largely absent. The Dead's transfer is more effective than it is stable and pretty; the gritty look helps the movie, but in this case doesn't translate extremely well to Blu-ray.
The Dead's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack fares a slight bit better than its high definition video counterpart. The track offers fair ambience. Gusty winds never sound quite precise, but screaming people, distant pops of gunfire, and natural environmental atmospherics are handled rather well and play from anywhere and everywhere around the soundstage. Music is adequately spaced and plays with admirable clarity. Bass often plays as a series of deep vibrations rather than tight, looming lows. Gunfire in the middle of the action isn't to the level of perfectly engineered Action films, but the track gets the point across. The chaotic opening sequence inside the doomed plane offers a jumble of sound that drowns out dialogue, but the spoken word -- which is far from prevalent in the movie -- is generally clear. This isn't a memorable soundtrack, but it's efficient and sufficient for the sort of material it supports.
The Dead offers three supplements.
Ultimately, The Dead may be seen as a terribly frustrating Zombie picture. On the one hand, it's fairly well made, ultra-violent, and plays in a rather unique setting within the landscape of the Horror genre. It exudes a quiet confidence, foregoing excess dialogue and character development in favor of a raw tale of survival in an unimaginably brutal, inhospitable, and dangerous world. On the flip side, the movie is terribly repetitive and is harmed by fairly bad acting. Hence, the picture is constantly struggling between success and failure, ultimately settling into a neutral middle ground that neither accentuates the positives nor disproportionally highlights the negatives. Zombie and Survival Horror fans will want to give it a chance, but casual viewers are encouraged to look elsewhere. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of The Dead features fair video, decent audio, and a few supplements. Worth a rental.
2010
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Ultimate Undead Edition
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1978
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Uncut
2013
1968
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Død snø
2009
1973
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