THE EVIL DEAD RETURNS ON THREE DEMONIC DISCS BURSTING WITH BONUS FEATURES
More than 25 years ago, a low-budget movie its young producers called 'The Ultimate Experience In Grueling Terror' roared across movie screens and changed the velocity of fear forever!
Today, its ferocious ingenuity, relentless shocks and gore-gushing havoc remain an absolute standard of modern horror!
Now celebrate the original Sam Raimi masterpiece like never before with two versions of the movie, six new featurettes that revisit the film's cast, crew, biggest fans and undying legacy, plus a jaw-dropping torrent of never-before-seen production footage, outtakes and deleted scenes, reconstructed and restored for the first time ever!
I have both the Elite the Anchor Bay "Book of the Dead" editions. Not only was the BOTD cropped from 4:3 to 1.85 (a lot of the framing shows that the film was NOT meant to be matted over the way it was), but the transfer was very VERY dark. Here's hoping AB gets it right this time. It says "two versions of the movie", so I wonder if this means full screen and "supervised by cinematographer" widescreen, or if they created some type of new cut. Either way, it's interesting to say the least.
It was meant to be widescreen - original records prove that - but a comparison we did on Bullets a while back found the DVD image to be matted at the wrong position
bradavon wrote:
but I guess you're more intelligence than me.
Evil Dead was never properly intended to be widescreen. Have you read the Evil Dead companion Drago? It's been years since I have but I remember Raimi (or maybe Rob Tapert, i forget) stating that that they didn't shoot the film for widescreen, they just shot it on 8mm (then blown that up to 16mm IIRC to cut the cost of shooting in 16mm, damn my memory!) at 1.37:1 knowing they would have to cut it down to widescreen for a proper theatrical release. However when the film was initially premiered to audiences they showed it in 1.33:1 (or it might have been 1.66:1, either way I distinctly remember it not being 1.85:1), as 1.33:1 was their preferred ratio.
Ivan Drago wrote:It was meant to be widescreen - original records prove that - but a comparison we did on Bullets a while back found the DVD image to be matted at the wrong position
I thought I read that somewhere... that's what I meant when I said it wasn't meant to be matted "the way it was". There was WAY too much headroom in some shots, and barely enough in others. In other words, it looked like a lot of time that they just took the 1.33 image and smacked two black bars on it, rather than checking each individual shot.
Looking at that forum, they got the specs for the dvd
The Evil Dead: Ultimate Edition 3-Disc Set
Disc 1: THE EVIL DEAD - Widescreen Version
Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround - English
Dolby Digital Surround EX - English
DTS 6.1 ES Surround - English
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - Sam Raimi - Director; Robert Tapert - Producer
Featurette - ONE BY ONE WE WILL TAKE YOU: The Untold Saga of The EVIL DEAD
Disc 2: THE EVIL DEAD - Full Frame Version
Audio:
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Surround - English
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - Bruce Campbell - Star
Featurette - THE EVIL DEAD: TREASURES FROM THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR
Disc 3: LADIES OF THE EVIL DEAD
Additional Release Material:
Featurette - 1. LIFE AFTER DEATH: THE LADIES OF EVIL DEAD
2. The Ladies of THE EVIL DEAD Meet Bruce Campbell
3. Discovering The Evil Dead
4. At The Drive In
5. Make-Up Test
6. Unconventional
Trailer
TV Spots
Text/Photo Galleries:
Poster & Memorabilia Gallery
Still Gallery
I think I will pass, I'm happy with my Book of the Dead (r2) and Elite Version.
Within the Woods is shit anyway, just download it off the net and see how shit it is. Unwatchable dogcrap. Anyone wanting that on a dvd, well obviously has not even seen it.
That extras dvd sounds ok spec wise, if they are long extras! but I imagine they wont exactlt be hours long. Featurette, urggh ban that word.
romerojpg wrote:Within the Woods is shit anyway, just download it off the net and see how shit it is. Unwatchable dogcrap. Anyone wanting that on a dvd, well obviously has not even seen it.
Exactly the one that is floating on the net is unwatchable, it crap quality, see http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0798371595
This is kinda the reason why people would want to buy Evil Dead, to see how the short was - remastered, How the story evolved, Bruce first acting gig
That extras dvd sounds ok spec wise, if they are long extras! but I imagine they wont exactlt be hours long. Featurette, urggh ban that word.
Yup totally, this is a pale in comparision to Dawn of the Dead: Ultimate Edition
I never seen dodgy version like that of Within the Woods, the version I dopwnloaded ages ago was about 80MB and the quality was not too bad at all, it was just awful to watch, the acting, everything just felt so wrong Remastering would not change a turd
Still I would never say no to a new edition of Evil Dead (or any film I love) and this version seems very good, I wont buy it (brand new) but would consider it if it was really cheap for that extras dvd alone (if its worth seeing).
I see the Evuil Dead HD release on the horizon anyway, that will probibly be the best version well we can hope it is.
It sounds like they just mixed stuff from the Elite and BOTD editions plus added a "Ladies of Evil Dead" 3rd disc... eh, yeah, not nearly as "Ultimate" as DOTD.
romerojpg wrote:I never seen dodgy version like that of Within the Woods, the version I dopwnloaded ages ago was about 80MB and the quality was not too bad at all, it was just awful to watch, the acting, everything just felt so wrong Remastering would not change a turd
Ahh I see, Fair enough, my viewing of the short was on that link i provided, watched a bit and just didn't like it, so didn't finish watching all of it, wanted a better quality
Still I would never say no to a new edition of Evil Dead (or any film I love) and this version seems very good, I wont buy it (brand new) but would consider it if it was really cheap for that extras dvd alone (if its worth seeing).
Mmm yeah I can see what you mean, if they have very good extras, then I prob may get it. If I see it for dirt cheap, then again i may get it
I see the Evuil Dead HD release on the horizon anyway, that will probibly be the best version well we can hope it is.
Bah Hambug to HD, nothing wrong with DVD (As you prob noticed I haven't got an HD TV or an HD Player/Bluray )
Shingster wrote:Evil Dead was never properly intended to be widescreen. Have you read the Evil Dead companion Drago? It's been years since I have but I remember Raimi (or maybe Rob Tapert, i forget) stating that that they didn't shoot the film for widescreen, they just shot it on 8mm (then blown that up to 16mm IIRC to cut the cost of shooting in 16mm, damn my memory!) at 1.37:1 knowing they would have to cut it down to widescreen for a proper theatrical release. However when the film was initially premiered to audiences they showed it in 1.33:1 (or it might have been 1.66:1, either way I distinctly remember it not being 1.85:1), as 1.33:1 was their preferred ratio.
The Evil Dead Companion states 1.66:1 as the correct ratio. In full frame, there's WAY too much headroom. It's 16mm to 35mm. Within The Woods was 8mm. The DVD, as Old Pang Yau states, does not frame for widescreen accuratly
bradavon wrote:
but I guess you're more intelligence than me.
Remastering would not change a turd 
)