Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Horror • 2h 6m
Director: George A. Romero
Cast: David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger, Gaylen Ross, David Crawford, David Early, Richard France, Daniel Dietrich, Fred Baker, James A. Baffico, Rod Stouffer, Jese Del Gre, Clayton McKinnon, John Rice, Ted Bank, Randy Kovitz, Patrick McCloskey, Joseph Pilato, Pasquale Buba, Tony Buba, Tom Savini, Larry Vaira, Marty Schiff, Taso N. Stavrakis, Sharon Ceccatti, Mike Christopher, Clayton Hill, John Amplas, Greg Besnak, Rik Billock, Christine Forrest, Roy Frumkes, Debra Gordon, Michael Gornick, Jim Krut, Donald Rubinstein, George A. Romero, Warner Shook, Sara Venable, Laura Ziemba, John 'Weezer' Wickerham, Vickie Walters, Billie Walters, Vincent Vok, Susan Vermazen, Bobbi Van Eman, Jeanette Lansel Vaira, Danny Vail, Milt Thompson, Ralph Tallo, Stephen M. Silverman, Donna Siegel, Gina Sestak, Frank A. Serrao, Mike Savini, Donna Savini, Charlie Peters, Jeff Paul, Ken Nagin, Robert V. Michelucci, Doug Mertz, Molly McCloskey, Nicholas Mastandrea, Leonard Lies, Ed Letteri, Maxine Lapiduss, Robert Langer, Ralph Langer, Tommy Lafitte, 'Wild Bill' Laczko, Katherine Kolbert, C. Courtney Joyner, Jeannie Jefferies, Jon Hayden, Barry Gress, Ingeborg Forrest, Cliff Forrest, Tom Dubensky, Zilla Clinton, Mary Lee Casey, Adolph Caesar, David W. Butler, Ben Barenholtz, Renee Banks, Joe Abeln, Nick Tallo, Joe Shelby, Rudy Ricci, Joey Baffico
Best English-friendly release · updated 4 months ago
UHD tiers
caveat: heavy noise reduction on all audio tracks
Overview
During an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter, and his television-executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.
Director: George A. Romero
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Mono: 35mm scan, old Shout! Factory and Australia Umbrella Blu-ray sounds better than the rest of the discs, but has noise reduction
Stereo: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray has a transfer of the 1986 Japan LaserDisc Stereo
Director: George A. Romero
Shout! Factory Blu-ray for the original Dolby stereo, 4K Blu-ray is a downmix
Director: George A. Romero
Old master's magenta grading was dialed back
2.0 mix is said to be superior to the other mixes and is likely the original one
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
2022 Criterion 4K Blu-ray
?
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
UK Second Sight Trilogy Boxset 4K Blu-ray
US Magnolia Pictures 4K Blu-ray uses the same source but with worse encoding
Director: Phil Joanou
UK Second Sight Blu-ray maybe better than all the other Blu-rays?
Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray is disappointing with DNR and poor compression
Director: Andrzej Żuławski
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
> Le Chat Qui Fume 4K Blu-ray > Umbrella 4K Blu-ray see caps
Second Sight uses the same Le Chat Qui Fume master, but encoded by FiM and applied Dolby Vision. Umbrella's encoding is visibly worse than Le Chat Qui Fume.
Mondo Vision Blu-ray and Anchor Bay DVD have an alternate audio track with an unauthorized soundtrack.
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
UK Second Sight 4K Blu-ray is FiM encoded and superior to French Severin or German 4K Blu-ray: see comparison
Second Sight UK Blu-ray for restored versions of both theatrical cut and festival cut
Second Sight UK Blu-ray replacement disc
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Atmos on the Sony 4K Blu-ray maybe better?
Regarding the "original theatrical audio" 5.1 mixes:
The Sony UHD and the BD DTS-HD 5.1 mixes are the same but the UHD has been pushed slightly harder and has a lot of clipping. The UHD is 16 bit vs the BD's 24 bits.
The Second Sight UHD DTS-HD 5.1 is a downmix of its respective Atmos track. Definitely different from the Sony UHD/BD mix plus a little less dynamic. Whether or not that's representative of the theatrical Dolby Digital mix is anyone's guess.
So, if you want the best version of the original 5.1, the 2012 BD is the winner.
Directors: Danny Philippou & Michael Philippou
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Lionsgate retains more detail, but Second Sight might be better in motion. Both are very close. Caps
Director: Martin Scorsese
2024 Second Sight 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Erik Skjoldbjærg
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Second Sight 4K Blu-ray is a Criterion SDR master with a HDR grade. Caps & comparison
Director: David Cronenberg
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
More Horror on Blu-ray
Director: Glen Morgan
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
> Germany Wicked Vision Blu-ray > US Flicker Alley Blu-ray see DVDBeaver caps
Director: George Pavlou
Arrow 4K Blu-ray teased
Germany Wicked Vision 4K Blu-ray better than US Kino Lorber?
Director: Roman Polanski
Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray see caps. Much better contrast and grain exposure but the grade is a bit questionable as it skews heavily towards magenta in some caps and the encode looks low-pass filtered.
Atmos Remix: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1: Imprint Australia Blu-ray or StudioCanal Germany/France Blu-ray
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray encoded the "Original 5.1" as lossy Dolby Digital, which is very different from the AC3 on the original DVD. This new "Original 5.1" may in fact be a downmix of the Atmos track. FWIW, the original DVD AC3 still sounds very good.
Director: F. W. Murnau
2006 Restoration: Eureka Blu-ray
1995 photochemical restoration: BFI Blu-ray
Eureka with Murnau institute restoration featuring score based on original score, BFI uses Photoplay restoration with James Bernard score
Both Eureka and BFI Blu-rays are worthy of owning. Each restoration has unique positives and extras. The James Bernard score on the BFI is outstanding and the image tinting is different to how the Murnau institute official restoration was done. The Eureka MoC Blu-ray is stuffed with extras and remains one of the best-made Blu-rays of all time. Whatever you do: AVOID THE Kino Lorber Blu-ray!!! It uses the same Murnau institute restoration but drops frames for the whole feature - thus it loses a significant portion of the film! This was never acknowledged or addressed. The Kino Lorber Blu-ray remains one of the worst Blu-rays of all time for this reason.
Germany Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray is disappointing with AI upscaling
Director: Stanley Kubrick
US Cut: WB 4K Blu-ray
International Cut: Old 2007 Europe Blu-ray
Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, both the US and the International Cut, new restoration/remastering of the mono mix which should be better than the 1999 WB DVD, revised colour timing to make the film look more like it did in 1980 and for the first time ever on physical media, the film will be in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
No Blu-ray or DVD release has presented the movie in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 for the US cut or 1.66:1 for the International cut.
The packaging on the back of the 4K Blu-ray incorrectly states it as 1.85:1 when the movie is actually 1.78:1 as is the original Blu-ray.
Director: Paul Leni
Theatrical/Original A negative: MoC Blu-ray
European C/D negative but better picture quality: Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
From DVDBeaver: The MoC Blu-ray is scanned from the American A negative, as opposed to the European C or D negatives used by Photoplay and others (Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray), so it is identical with the film US audiences saw in 1927
See caps for comparison
In addition, the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has sepia tinting throughout while the MoC Blu-ray has yellow for normal scenes, blue for night scenes, and some even green tintings.
Director: Lewis Teague
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray disappointing
R1 DVD
R1 DVD sounds best and has the original mono and a Dolby Stereo remix
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