DAY OF THE DEAD gets an "ultimate edition" resurrection in Umbrella Entertainment's new all-region Blu-ray, but is it really the ultimate?

In the third installment of George Romero’s “Dead” trilogy, zombies outnumber humans four hundred to one. A team of scientists are frantically working on a solution to the zombie plague with military protection in a massive Florida mine, but their numbers are dwindling and patience is wearing extremely thin. They have lost contact with Washington D.C. and have thus far not encountered any human life on their helicopter tours two hundred miles up along the coast. When the death of Major Cooper, abusive Captain Rhodes (Joe Pilato, EFFECTS) has taken over as acting commander, and he’s sick of his men rounding up corpses for the socialization experiments of Dr. Logan (Richard Liberty, THE CRAZIES) or his colleague Sarah’s (Lori Cardille) increasingly desperate attempts to find a cure; Rhodes wants he and his men to cut loose from the project and blast their way to civilization. Further ratcheting up the tension between the scientists and the military officers is Sarah’s relationship with Private Miguel Salazar (Anthony Dileo Jr., MONKEY SHINES) who is cracking under the pressure and making potentially life-threatening mistakes as Rhodes continues to work him against the Sarah’s objections. Dr. Logan promises startling advances in his research in the form of “Bub” (Sherman Howard, DARK ANGEL), a zombie that he has managed to civilize, suggesting that the living dead can be conditioned not to eat flesh; but that proposed solution seems just as difficult to implement as Rhodes’ desire to decimate millions of the living dead with limited firepower. The scientist-military schism – with pilot John (Terry Alexander, THE WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON) and radio engineer McDermott (Jarlath Conroy, the remake of TRUE GRIT) on the sidelines until forced to make a choice – is a powder keg waiting to erupt whether due to Rhodes’ and Sarah’s standoff, Miguel’s erratic behavior, or the icky details behind Logan’s experiments; whatever the outcome, the living dead will get fed. MARTIN’s John Amplas plays the third ill-fated member of the scientific time.

The third film in Romero’s original “Dead” trilogy received mixed reviews upon its release, and first time viewers expecting another DAWN OF THE DEAD are bound to be disappointed by the downbeat tone and mostly unlikable characters; although, in retrospect, it seems like the likely downbeat turnout in the long run. Although its reputation has become elevated since for most viewers by way of VHS in the 1980s and several barebones to fully-featured special edition DVD and Blu-ray releases in the last decade, yet another ultimate edition is unlikely to convert any of its detractors, but it’s a great way for fans to enjoy the film. After its unrated theatrical release, the film went to VHS via Media Home Entertainiment and Image Entertainment laserdisc. A 1986 Japanese laserdisc featured mono dialogue and effects but the music score in "Zombiephonic" stereo while a subsequent edition had mono audio, redubbed profanity, and cut gore. Elite Entertainment gave the film its first widescreen release on laserdisc in 1998, and that master was used for Anchor Bay's first DVD. Their subsequent Divimax single and double-disc editions gave the film an anamorphic overhaul with 6.1 DTS-ES and 5.1 Dolby Digital EX tracks, as well as a new commentary with Romero, Savini, Cardille, and production designer Cletus Anderson (TWO EVIL EYES) as well as a fan track with filmmaker Roger Avery (KILLING ZOE), and new extras; however, the dialogue track provided for remastering and remixing turned out to be censored for profanity and never repaired. Their subsequent Blu-ray release included a mono track with the original dialogue track but the remixes were the same as the DVD. Arrow in the UK had the uncensored audio for their special edition DVDs and Blu-ray but dropped the Romero et al track for a new track with effects team members Greg Nicotero (INTRUDER), Howard Berger (WISHMASTER), Everett Burrell (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 1990), and Mike Deak (EVIL SPAWN), but master was the same as the US releases looking rather flat thanks to digital video noise reduction. Scream Factory’s Blu-ray dropped the audio enhancements but featured a brighter master with bolder colors that might seem to go against the film’s rough-hewn look and feel, but gave the film an EC-comics feel particularly with the scenes where cinematographer Michael Gornick (DAWN OF THE DEAD) utilized CREEPSHOW-esque color gels; not perfect, but preferable. The sky backgrounds in the chopper scenes were still lacking detail, but the commentary track revealed that they were shot against seamless white paper. Extras included the two Anchor Bay commentaries and a handful of carried over extras and some new ones. Down under, Umbrella previously single and double-disc editions that paired the Romero et al and effects team tracks with the old master along with a new feature-length documentary and vintage behind the scenes featurette. Their new "Ultimate Edition" carries over the Scream Factory master with the two tracks from the previous Umbrella editions as well as DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 mono tracks and optional English SDH subtitles.

The Romero, Savini, Cardille, and Anderson commentary is carried over. As usual with tracks by Romero and his collaborators on various releases of his films, this track is a thoroughly enjoyable and warm discussion covering all aspects of the film. Cardille discusses being the daughter of Romero alumnus “Chilly Billy” Cardille, who was supportive of the first film and hosted a Saturday night program called “Chiller Theatre”. Anderson discusses dressing the Florida streets for the opening (the second unit was directed by composer John Harrison and shot by BONES’ Ernest Dickerson with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 90's future DP Frank Prinzi as assistant camera), but everyone has something to say about the advantages and drawbacks of working in the mine location (including various respiratory issues). Romero is extremely complementary of the participants’ contributions to the film (including Savini and crew’s severed heads). Romero also points out one of the film’s few visual effects, a matte painting by Jim Danforth (THE THING) that extends a shot of a derelict Florida street into the horizon. The second track with the effects crew is a lively affair with the group discussing the four month prep in Savini's basement creating appliances of various sizes for principal zombie actors and pieces that could be modified for others. They note that there ultimately was little consistence for the look of the zombies with background zombies wearing either "atrocious" masks created by Terry Prince (ARMY OF DARKNESS) or sprayed with various make-up and amateur appliances by costume designer Barbara Anderson (MONKEY SHINES). They also note the influence that the effects of Burrell and John Vulich (CASTLE FREAK) for Savini's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD remake had on their designs for Romero's second trilogy LAND OF THE DEAD, DIARY OF THE DEAD, and SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD. There are plenty of stories about working with zombie extras – among them some respected Pittsburgh stage actors – and the prank war between Savini and his crew that resulted in some actual injuries including an exploding blank cartridge to the head a few months before the accidental death of TV actor Jon-Erik Hexum. They also note that some of the body part props used to decorate the sets were spares from effects artists like Steve Johnson (NIGHT OF THE DEMONS) and Carl Fullerton (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS).

Also on disc one is the feature length documentary titled "World's End: The Legacy of DAY OF THE DEAD" (85:26). The featurette brings back just about every surviving major player on the film from actors Cardille, Pilato, Alexander, DiLeo, Gary Klar, and even “Bub” himself Howard Sherman, as well as Romero, Savini, and composer/second unit director John Harrison among others. Among the highlights are DiLeo discussing the popular interpretation of his character, Klar (who originally read for Rhodes) waxng on Romero’s brilliance in casting him as the ultimate soldier and Pilato as the Napoleon (he also talks about his efforts to redeem his character in his final scene), Sherman discussing acting through effects make-up, and Pilato’s concern when taking the role and the first few days of shooting that he was going over-the-top (there is of course a tribute to the late Richard Liberty who was reportedly touched that fans enjoyed his work here). There’s a nice chunk devoted to the effects work, from the zombie designs to the gore itself, including the anecdote about the refrigerator storing the real animal guts being unplugged over the weekend so they were rotten when they were used for Rhodes’ death (it’s actually quite heartwarming to see some of the zombie extras who’ve torn him apart trying to shield him from the smell right after the “cut” was called). Also on the first disc is a “Behind the Scenes: Tom Savini” (30:41) featurette showcasing Savini’s make-up effects from his archival camcorder videos (much of which was already excerpted in the feature-length documentary discussed above), and a lesser-seen "On Set" featurette (20:12) in which Felice Lammi – wife of associate producer Ed Lammi (MARRIED WITH CHILDREN) – and Holly Wagner discuss their credit as additional casting as involving finding zombie extras from a handful to the hundreds depending on the scene, not only ensuring their availability and helping out with the make-up, but also seeing to their "feeding."

The disc's most interesting extra is actually an interview with Romero at the 2008 Melbourne International Film Festival (49:26) in which he and moderator Giulia D'Agnolo-Vallan discuss his decision to return to the small-scale after Universal let him do what he wanted to do with DAY on LAND OF THE DEAD, the use of the media in the series including the blogosphere explored in DIARY OF THE DEAD – making very prescient remarks about opinion-based alternate media and tribalism – as well as more general topics like the influence of EC Comics and Universal horror films on his love of the genre along with Orson Welles (whose camera angles he admits to stealing for NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) and Michael Powell (particularly THE TALES OF HOFFMANN, the Criterion DVD of which features a Romero interview). The disc also contains two theatrical trailers and a teaser (5:23), four TV Spots (2:31), and the Gateway Commerce Centre Promo Video (8:12) advertising the virtues of underground storage including constant temperatures and unlimited floor loads.

The bonus disc is a DVD which starts off with "The Many Days of the Dead" (40:14) documentary from the Anchor Bay, Arrow, and earlier Umbrella two-disc but missing from the Scream Blu-ray. It rehashes discussion of the original larger-scale concept, how Romero might have injected his anger over the budget situation into the rewrite, the effects, extras, and the conditions of the mine with comments by Romero, Savini, Anderson, Nicotero, producer David Ball – who worked in financing on everything from AND SOON THE DARKNESS and Tigon's THE GHOUL to Fulci's UK-lensed THE BLACK CAT and Richard Stanley's DUST DEVIL – Cardille, Sherman, and Pilato. "Joe of the Dead: Acting in a George Romero Classic" (50:53), produced for the Arrow release, is an interview with Pilato in which he recalls becoming part of the Romero filmmaking family by way of EFFECTS, reading for David Emge's part in DAWN OF THE DEAD but being cast as a character whose role was largely cut from the US theatrical version (which reflects Romero's director's cut more than the longer workprint version that went to Cannes), KNIGHTRIDERS (in which he believes he would have had a larger role had he been able to ride a motorcycle), and then Romero requesting he read for Rhodes before casting went to Los Angeles. He expounds upon his interpretation of the character as military prick turned fascist – noting that he knew nothing of the character as depicted in the earlier version of the script at the time – the character in the context of the conflicting perspectives of the parties of characters in the film, his death scene, and his subsequent DEAD-related projects.