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The Dead
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Anchor Bay Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (15th June 2012). |
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The Film
 The word zombie actually has its origins in the mysticism of West Africa, eventually crossing the Atlantic—by way of the cultural migration brought about by the slave trade—wrapped in the voodoo religion that developed in the Caribbean communities populated by enslaved, and even emancipated, blacks in the late 16th century. “Zonbi”, in the original Haitian Creole, simply means a re-animated corpse, brought back to life by magic; specifically, a form of witchcraft practiced by a sort of sorcerer. And, it should be noted, the zombies-by-way-of-Haiti didn’t hunger for flesh, or brains. The word zombie then has little, if any, root in George A. Romero’s seminal by “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) as some might assume. Nor does any character in Romero’s film ever utter the word “zombie”—a near truism for almost the entire creepy canon that seems to exist for the so-called “zombie” genre. Yet, the word is now synonymous with the particularly popular sub-genre of horror. It’s a fact as true as any other, that, for better or worse, zombie now has a different, more specific meaning, in a modern context. But what’s fascinating is—despite the assertion by fans and critics of the subgenre that the word means “scary flesh-eating monster”—the word still so rarely appears in the film’s that we as a culture would deem “zombie” flicks. As was quite humorously pointed out in the greatest, and, to my knowledge, only, rom-zom-com (that’s romantic-zombie-comedy for the uninitiated) in existence, Edgar Wright’s “Shaun of the Dead” (2004), the word is off limits: Ed: Any zombies out there? Shaun: Don't say that! Ed: What? Shaun: That! Ed: What? Shaun: The zed-word. Don't say it! Ed: Why not? Shaun: Because it's ridiculous! Ed: All right... are there any out there, though? In Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later…” (2002), his fast-moving flesh-eaters are referred to as the infected, driven mad by the “Rage” virus. Even in current works that are more quote-unquote traditional, following, at least partly, a sort of Romero logic, characters don’t really call the creatures zombies. In “The Walking Dead” (2010-Present), they’re walkers. The characters in Max Brooks’ book “World War Z” largely subvert the term, thinking it absurd, and his interviewees prefer to refer to the undead as “Zack”. Zombie? Rarely does that word appear in the modern movie lexicon, unless as a joke (as it does in “Shaun”). This is true even of “The Dead”, one of the newest entries in the so-called “zombie” genre. Although, to be fair, the characters created by brothers and co-director/writers Howard and John Ford (an unknown filmmaking duo from the United Kingdom) don’t say much of anything at all. So the lack of the actual word in the script and on-screen isn’t, perhaps, that surprising. When his plane crashes, US Air Force engineer Lt. Brian Murphy (Rob Freeman) finds himself the lone survivor of one of the last evacuation flights fleeing Africa in the wake of a viral outbreak. Collecting a few weapons from the wreck, and quickly commandeering an old truck, Murphy makes his way across West Africa in hope of finding a way off of the infected continent, crossing paths with the recently undead about as often as he does with the non-zombiefied. That is to say, not very often. But soon, on his trip north, a distressed Murphy meets Sgt. Daniel Dembele (Price David Oseia), an AWOL solider in the Nigerian army looking to return home to his son. Deciding that they have a better chance making it to their respective destinations alive if they work together, the two team up, agreeing that Daniel can have the truck if he leads Murphy to an airfield, which might bring salvation in the form of flyable aircraft, located somewhere in the North. What follows is, essentially, a road movie. It’s disguised as a horror picture, with zombies—or, if you prefer to call as you see ‘em, azure-eyed monsters that aimlessly shuffle from place to place and occasionally tear a person to pieces. But most of the movie is just pretty scenery, and two guys in a truck who barely talk. And when they do speak, it’s about “home”. Do they bond? In a way; if only because the survival of the other is beneficial to each (the creatures can always eat the other one, I guess…) The confrontation with the creatures, although brief, as effectively creepy and in more than a few cases—especially the first kill—quite special in how they work against the trappings of tapping a modern flesh eater, because these guys are slow and can literally be run around if you step wide enough. So, no, this isn’t awesomely eccentric director John Huston’s career capping, Oscar-nominated, adaptation of a James Joyce work—that’s “The Dead” (1987), with Angelica Huston. This “The Dead”, is entirely different. It’s set—and was filmed entirely on location—in West Africa, not Ireland. And it’s about zombies, not aging spinsters. Light on story and even lighter on the poetic prose of Joyce, what the Ford Brothers’ “The Dead” delivers instead is good, old-fashioned, gore and a unique atmosphere. The undead in “The Dead” are slow moving, mostly silent, zombified, monsters, both in the sense of the genre roots of George A. Romero’s earlier works and the more mythic spiritual legend. At least more so that ‘most any zombie movie of late (and that includes Romeo’s own increasingly questionable modern output). The film is by no means amazing—issues in budget are easily apparent, and the acting is sub par even by the professionals (then again, the lead was nearly dead the entire time according to the commentary, so, perhaps that is excusable. It really isn’t, but at least it’s now understandable). And yet, with the beautifully barren and unfamiliar African landscape as a scenic backdrop, “The Dead” is so unique and refreshingly unlike even classic Romero, it’s like the Ford’s have sprayed the scent of Febreze upon a subgenre that was decaying and beginning to smell a bit like the putrid stench of rotten flesh. They may not have reinvented the genre, but they have reinvigorated it.
Video
Anchor Bay’s 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 encoded high definition presentation—opened up slightly from the original 1.85:1 to a 1.78:1—is proficient, but annoyingly inconsistent. “The Dead” was shot on film, but, with extensive post-production tweaking via a 2K digital intermediate, the final image on Blu-ray is decidedly artificial. It’s filmic, on occasion, with intense grain spikes in the low-light and night scenes, but also unusually digital in others. The film is soft, with a hazy (almost out of focus) look and mediocre detail in many medium and wide shots, but most close-ups are sharp as can be. Colors are far from natural—warm and shifted towards a yellow-orange—and contrast runs hot, with whites that bloom and blacks show signs of crush in the shadows. Most nights scenes are a nightmare, and it’s near impossible to make out anything, let alone depth and detail, in the grain, noise and crush; good thing most scenes take place in the daylight. Because the film has been manipulated to hell and back by the filmmakers to give it a certain look, it’s difficult to tell what’s intended and what’s a fault of the transfer. The grain structure appears overly harsh and noisy in the most severe scenes. Select moments of softness look scrubbed clean of detail by an application of DNR—or some other form of filtering. And many shots exhibit mild haloing. Artifacts are infrequent, but not entirely absent from the transfer. Banding shows up too in a few spots, usually during scenes that have extreme color grading. And perhaps strangest of all, despite the obvious digital manipulations, the print shows a few specks and damage marks, especially during the scene where Murphy and Daniel meet. Still, faults and all, the scenery is often breathtaking, and the gore is gruesomely rendered in the glory of 1080 HD. This isn’t a spotless, problem-free, transfer, but no one would ever mistake the Blu-ray of “The Dead” for a DVD. Well, maybe a really good DVD in some of those medium shots, but never in the extremely well defined close ups.
Audio
Atmospheric is the word to best articulate “The Dead’s” lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack. Chirping bugs in the bush, brush rustling in the wind and lots of other effects fill the sound field fully and to a genuinely satisfying degree. The film is almost chillingly quiet, with little dialogue and only an effective, and, yes, atmospheric, score by Imran Ahmad. Bass extends into a nice deep low end and the track has good dynamic range. Unfortunately—and I can only assume that this was a budgetary issue—dialog isn’t always clear, occasionally both fuzzy and with a hint of crackle. Bad equipment, a bad take, or whatever the reason, several of these distracting dialogue exchanges crop up and haven’t been replaced in ADR. It’s funny. The film is so light on dialogue, yet when the actors do speak, there’s a chance that’ll be prone to a persistent buzz. It’s too bad because, otherwise, the track is really quite impressive. The disc includes optional English and Spanish subtitles.
Extras
“The Dead” includes just three extras: an excellent filmmaker audio commentary, a short making-of featurette that’s not worth much and a deleted scene. The disc is also authored with optional bookmarks. It’s a rare thing when an audio commentary is as good as the movie it supplements, and rarer still to find a track that’s better than the film being discussed. But such is the case with the Ford brother’s passionate audio commentary on “The Dead”. Writer/producer/director Howard J. Ford and writer/cinematographer/co-director Jon Ford’s discussion is filled with technical details and entertaining anecdotes about the production. From the decision to shoot on 35mm, to the difficulties had with the zombie makeup in the African heat, the track is peppered with worthwhile stuff that will please many—including, I think, even those who don’t exactly warm to the film. The stories about working with the local non-actor extras, the Brother’s sickly star who was near-dead during the entire shoot from cerebral malaria (add Howard’s mugging at knifepoint and Jon’s dysentery into the mix and its clear, Africa isn’t for the faint of heart), and the constant conflicts with local police and government who were looking for bribes, make you appreciate that there’s a finished film that came out of it at all. “The Dead: Behind the Scenes” (1.78:1 widescreen 480p, 5 minutes 12 seconds) is a featurette comprised of raw video, on-set interviews and picture-in-picture scene comparisons. Finally, the deleted scene (1.78:1 widescreen 1080p, 1 minute 42 seconds)—yes, as in one scene—is an interesting, but ultimately unneeded bit with a doctor attempting to explain the origins of the undead to Murphy. Would the film have suffered from its inclusion? Hard to say, but I’m not sure “The Dead” would have benefited from it either.
Packaging
“The Dead” staggers onto Blu-ray courtesy of Starz/Anchor Bay Home Entertainment, which has distribution rights in the US. The film is pressed onto a single-layer BD-25 and is Region A-locked. The blu-ray is packaged in an Elite eco-case.
Overall
“The Dead” isn’t an amazing film. It’s a little too slow at times, the limited budget shows through in a few scenes, and the acting is questionable at best. But the so-called Ford Brothers have made a film sure to satisfy those genre-fans craving the return of slow-moving zombies or whatever you want to call them. The scenery is beautiful. The cinematography, the direction and atmosphere are all praiseworthy. The Blu-ray features an inconsistent, but passable, video transfer, atmospheric if flawed lossless audio and a commentary track that’s well worth a listen. “The Dead” is definitely worth a look.
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