To coincide with the theatrical release of its remake Anchor Bay Entertainment has released yet another DVD edition of George A. Romero's classic zombie film Dawn Of The Dead. Originally released in 1979 Dawn Of The Dead is the first of two sequels to the cult classic Night Of The Living Dead which was released in 1968.
With the zombie population rising our four heroes find themselves looking for a safe haven. They come upon a shopping mall and decide to drop anchor, so to speak. Unfortunately for them, and lucky for us, they soon discover that the mall is crawling with the recently undead.
Available from Anchor Bay Entertainment's DiViMax series the special edition of Dawn Of The Dead is presented in a 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio which has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions and comes with english audio tracks in 5.1 DTS, 5.1 Dolby Surround, 2.0 Dolby Surround and the original mono. No subtitles have been included.
The main extra on this disc is an audio commentary track featuring writer/director George A. Romero, special make-up effects artist Tom Savini and assistant director Chris Romero. Moderated by Anchor Bay's DVD producer Perry Martin this audio commentary track is well worth listening to for fans of the film and the genre in general. Writer/director Romero and crew bring us along on a friendly revealing look at the making of the film as well as share anecdotes, discuss a possible fourth film in the series and much more. George even reveals an alternate ending which has Peter and Francine committing suicide but unfortunately that ending was never completely shot so you won't be finding it on this disc.
The other extras included on this disc are: 2 U.S. theatrical trailers, 3 tv spots, 9 radio spots, a poster and advertising gallery, a bio on George A. Romero and a comic book preview. The bio is the same one that was included on the Day Of The Dead DVD released by Anchor Bay late last year and the comic book preview is not really a preview but rather just a shot of the cover with information on the comic book itself.
Last but not least there are two easter eggs hidden on this disc. To access the first egg go to the extras section. The word Trailers should already be highlighted so all you have to do is press the up arrow button on your remote. This will highlight a figure on the right side of the screen. Now press enter to view a short interview with Chris Romero on how she and George met. The second egg can be found in the audio section. The word Dolby Surround 5.1 should already be highlighted so all you have to do is press the up arrow button on your remote to highlight a figure on the right side of the screen. Once the figure has been highlighted simply press enter on your remote and you'll be treated to a short clip of Tom Savini talking about practical jokes.
Except for a few scenes where the picture is briefly grainy this is the best the film has ever looked or sounded. The only reason why I'm not giving this release four stars is because Anchor Bay will be releasing another edition of this film which will contain three different cuts(theatrical, director's and european) of the film. If you're not that big a fan of the film or don't care about owning more than one cut of the film than I definetely recommend picking this one up, you won't regret it.