DEAD ALIVE Blu-ray Review

Dead Alive is one of the greatest films ever made. If we lived in a just world, it would come in one of those huge boxes like Casablanca or Citizen Kane with 27 discs of extras and booklets.  Instead, we get this half-assed effort from Lionsgate, who have been knocking it out of the park recently, but stumble on their presentation of Peter Jackson's best film to date.

Throw out all your preconceptions about the limits of horror! A new standard has been set with Dead Alive - The Mother Of All Horror Films.

On a quiet street, in a small town, pure evil has come to stay. Lionel, an innocent young man, is forced to care for his domineering mother and finds the task a whole lot more demanding after she's bitten by the cursed Sumatran rat monkey. Passing the point of death, Lionel's mother sucks friends and family into her gruesome existence among the living dead, and Lionel is sent spiraling into a ghoulish nightmare.

Now a crazed zombie, she soon infects enough people to make it difficult for Lionel, still the faithful son, to keep the neighbors from suspecting that something is terribly wrong.

Dead Alive is dripping with state-of-the-art special effects that feature mutilations, rock 'n' roll dismemberments and household appliances, combining into the most bizarre ending ever filmed.

Dead Alive is another film with a very spotty home video history.  In the USA, the film was initially released in a butchered, R-rated edition that ran about 80 minutes or so, luckily this was only available on VHS, and by the time DVD came around, Trimark were able to release the 97 minute unrated cut.  While this is the version that most Americans are familiar with, it isn't the longest, that belongs to the European editions, which run at a PAL corrected 104 minutes.  You'd think those would be definitive but it gets only more complicated from there.

There were only two editions of this film on DVD that were anamorphically enhanced.  One was the German edition which came only in the long out of print Peter Jackson box set and featured the longer cut, the other was the US Trimark release. Unfortunately, both of these editions are in the wrong aspect ratio.  The film was intended for 1.66:1, and is presented in 1.78:1 for both of those releases, and this new Blu-ray release. I haven't done the comparison, so I'm not sure if it is cropped or opened up, but it is disappointing either way.

All that technical mumbo jumbo out of the way, the film is fan-fucking-tastic.  The difference between the longer European version and the US unrated is not much of an issue for me, since I've seen the US cut so many times that it is the definitive version for me, but that's is a totally personal opinion, and I can imagine people being irked that the film makes its first appearance on Blu-ray in a shorter edition that is possible. I would imagine that it won't be too long before some European distributor takes the plunge with this cult classic, and hopefully then we'll have everything we want.  Until that day, this will do.

The Disc:

Lionsgate didn't do anything in the way of restoration for Dead Alive, which unfortunately means that the film is still riddled with white specks and the print is pretty dirty in a way that is occasionally distracting.  The colors are a bit muted, which leads me to believe that it is the exact same master as the old Trimark DVD, but the detail is considerably improved, which is nice.  That is really the only improvement on this over the old DVD, but it is noticeable enough to be worth the upgrade for me.  The audio is serviceable, but not outstanding. There's a lot of room for improvement, that's for sure.

The disc's only extra is the theatrical trailer.  I don't know that there is a wealth of archival material on this film, but interviews or a commentary would be nice.  A strange title to release as a cash grab, but that's kind of how it seems. I can't completely recommend this one, unfortunately, but if a little extra image detail is worth it to you and the price is right, go for it.