6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
In a 19th century village, a young aristocrat suffering from a terminal disease finds herself being drawn to the underground world of vampires and their strange rituals.
Director: León KlimovskyHorror | 100% |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
English, English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Danza Macabra: Volume Three — The Spanish Gothic Collection from Severin.
Since one might assume that one of the staples of Gothic media (film or otherwise), namely dank and spooky castles, were built in the veritable days
of yore
before the advent of the convenience of modern plumbing and water supplies, perhaps it's a more
apt metaphor than usual to say that Severin is "returning to the well" for a third volume of offerings branded as Danza Macabra, after their
previous releases of
Danza Macabra: Volume One — The Italian Gothic Collection and Danza Macabra: Volume Two — The Italian Gothic Collection. As can probably be
pretty easily gleaned from the subheading of this third collection, Severin is changing countries, and is here offering Spanish Gothic productions
instead of the two previous volumes' concentration on Italian Gothic films, and with production dates ranging from 1971 to 1975 (with two films from
each year). All four films in this collection are advertised as featuring new scans of the original negative for the first time. As with the other
Danza Macabra collections, the films may be of variant interest and/or quality, but as usual Severin offers a
really handsomely designed package that contains some outstanding supplemental features.
The Night of the Walking Dead is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The back cover of this release touts a "worldwide Blu-ray premiere now restored uncut", while further specifying this was "scanned in 2K from the negative for the first time ever". While not seriously deficient in any major way, I found this film to have the least consistently pleasing appearance of the four in this third volume of Danza Macabra. The color timing struck me as just a bit too skewed toward yellows at times, though that said, there is certainly commendable saturation most of the time. Some day for night scenes don't offer much in the way of shadow detail, but generally speaking detail levels are very good to excellent throughout. Very minor age related wear and tear can be spotted. Grain resolves naturally.
The Night of the Walking Dead features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks in either English or Spanish. Both tracks seem to show overt signs of dubbing, meaning sync can be loose, as they say. In terms of overall mix and amplitude, I personally found very little difference between the tracks as I toggled between them. The snarling fuzz guitar cues sound rather nicely full bodied, and dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.
It's kind of weirdly fascinating how The Night of the Walking Dead revisits any number of, well, clichés from the canon of vampire films ranging from Nosferatu to Vampyr to Dracula and beyond, while also simultaneously trying to inject some "new, improved" material. I frankly think the film might have benefitted from a bit less of the former aspect and more of the latter. Technical merits are generally solid, and as with all of the films in this set, Severin has assembled some worthwhile bonus features, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.
(Still not reliable for this title)
Standard Special Edition
1989
Pastel de sangre
1971
1968
Land of the Minotaur
1976
1996
Shatterdead
1994
1964
Il castello dei morti vivi | Crypt of Horror | Terror in the Crypt | Standard Edition
1964
1984
1974
1923
Legacy of Horror | Theatrical and TV Cuts
1978
Slipcover in Original Pressing
2014
1983
1984
Suicide Cult
1977
The Legend of Blood Castle | Standard Edition | Ceremonia sangrienta
1973
Garu, the Mad Monk
1970
Nella stretta morsa del ragno / Dracula in the Castle of Blood
1971
Il castello dalle porte di fuoco
1970