Day of the Dead Blu-ray - The New Documentaries
 

Dawn of the Dead has always enjoyed more documentary work than the following Day. Yet as the years have progressed Day has become recognised as a truly brilliant horror film and one of the all-time zombie greats.

The Day of the Dead Blu-ray will feature two all-new documentaries commissioned by Arrow Video: Joe of the Dead and Travelogue of the Dead made by Calum Waddell and Naomi Holwill. Hopefully we can tease some more information on what to expect from these and some background on what it was like to make them.

Come on Calum! Tease us :biggrin:

Is this a single Bluray disc release then?

Here's what I can say:

JOE OF THE DEAD: Shot in HD, in this extensive 50 minute documentary the actor Joe Pilato talks about his career in movies - beginning with his work in the little-seen Pittsburgh horror outing EFFECTS (which also featured Romero regulars Tom Savini and John Harrison) to his small parts in DAWN OF THE DEAD and KNIGHTRIDERS and, of course, his work as Captain Rhodes in DAY OF THE DEAD. :pop2:

In addition, Pilato addresses the remake, where his career went following DAY OF THE DEAD's disastrous box office upon its initial release and his thoughts on the movie being rediscovered and hailed as a classic. I am really proud to have directed this and you can expect all kinds of never-before-seen pictures, many surprises and an honest, laid back chat from an actor who is not afraid to tell all about his life and times...

There is also

TRAVELOGUE OF THE DEAD: Join Pilato as he travels across Dublin, Edinburgh and Glasgow in October 2009, celebrating the 25th anniversary of DAY OF THE DEAD. Witness him meeting the fans, reciting his most famous lines from the movie - live and on stage - and drinking with the best of them! Directed by Naomi Holwill - this is a really fun piece, raw, uncensored Joe Pilato: whiskey and all!

It is probably also worth noting that the huge "FOR EVERY DAWN THERE IS A DAY" booklet which I wrote collects brand new interviews with Romero, Savini, editor Pasquale Buba, asst director/ composer John Harrison and actors Joe Pilato, Lori Cardille and Gary Steele. I went to some effort to secure these and hope you enjoy it - especially since many of the above names have never shared their experiences of working on the feature!

And, in closing, all I can say is if you think that's a bumper package... wait for CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD!!! ;)

Nice to see the Joe Of The Dead documentary in HD.can't wait to see it.You guys really to that extra mile to provide us fans with quality releases.So to you Calum and everyone else involved in this,a BIG thank you.

Thanks! The major hats off has to go to Almar and Alex who have consistently strived to give the fans of these movies a very special package at a time when DVDs are becoming, sadly, more and more disposable!

Superb bloody package again.

I take my hat off to everyone involved!:clap::clap::yo:

WOAH!

A package as good as this should come with its own health and safety warning. "May induce heart attacks. Not suitable for those with a nervous dispostition"

This sounds INCREDIBLE Calum!

I think my head may explode when the COTLD info is released. Pop!

Like I said on the other thread, its great that we UK folk finally have some decent dvd/blu-ray's to look forward to for once.

I remember seeing this on opening night in a big London cinema and me and my two mates were the only people in there. I absolutely loved the film from day one - but most didn't. In fact, as much as I'm glad that over time it has received the recognition it so richly deserves, I'm also a bit annoyed with the horror community of the time. Critics of the time generally panned it and horror fans did not give it the support it deserved - as the empty cinema I sat in attested to. Now people want to fall over themselves heaping praise on it, which, as I said is a good thing, is also a bit insulting IMO.

Now, this doesn't apply to anyone here, I might add - and I know for a fact Calum is a true devotee of the genre, which is why I'm so glad he's involved. It definitely helps when putting together extras to have an extensive knowledge of the genre (and the specific film), which Calum most certainly has. I think he should be heartily commended for the time and effort he's putting into this (and COTLD) and I'm spreading the word to as many people as possible. Releases like this deserve to be supported. :)

I'll echo Calum here, you guys are going to totally dig the City of the Living Dead package...it's fantastic!

I could never understand why the film was not accepted by genre fans on release. Yes, the film was more talky than Dawn (but not Night), but why was that necessarily a bad thing? It's not as if the characters were down in the missile silo discussing the weather and 80s fashion. Much more so than either previous Dead film, the debates had a bleak depth to them, covering heavy subjects and difficult questions such as the limits of morality, the deceptive nature of evolution, and the use of theology - all the kind of despairing stuff (I'm sure) people would talk about in such a dire, inescapable situation (28 Days Later owes more than just set-pieces to Day).

It's relatively smaller scope enhanced the sense of claustrophobia, and again its darker tone was completely appropriate for a horror drama. Its gore is also the best of the series.

I'm guessing people back then were just hoping for Dawn of the Dead 2 - but ended up face-to-face with yet another Romero chin-check. Day reflects 80's America for what it was, maybe people couldn't/didn't want to see it back then?

I saw it in the early 90's when I was young, so it was all over my head - but damn, I loved that gore! And Bub, of course!

Same here - I was very young when this hit the cinema, so my first Day experience was on video in around '93. And it was the almost uncut :rolleyes: EiV version, with some of the most full-on gore retained by the BBFC.

Yes Mr Ferman was more lenient with this one, only removing 34 secs (as opposed to the 4 mins he liberated from Dawn).

Ferman being odd, as the gore is much more realistic in Day (except maybe the delirious "choke on em" bit).

'James Ferman' and 'Odd' often occur in the same sentence. :D

Thanks for the kind words CJ! I am just glad to see Fulci being done properly over here in the UK - and, as for Day, I saw it on VHS when I was a kid and really loved it! Since then I must have watched Day of the Dead well over ten times and each time I enjoy it every bit as much as the last. I never understood those who complained about the "pace" - I think it moves along perfectly and I consider it to be the perfect conclusion to Romero's original trilogy (although I also liked Land of the Dead a great deal. Not so keen on the subsequent two though!)

I think fans of Day of the Dead will get a lot of fresh insight and revelation into it from the Joe of the Dead documentary. Pilato reveals a lot of stuff that I had never heard before and his comments about filming his death scene are priceless!

I see we're starting to tease more info out of Calum...

Well I don't want to give too much away - would rather folks found out all the good stuff from watching the docs!

Keep working at him folks I say...!

What we really want to know is... Does Mr. Loops make an appearence?! Ha :)

Nope nope nope - he is not on TRAVELOGUE OF THE DEAD as:

1) He was very, very drunk

2) He didn't want to be filmed (I asked him)

Forum member Nick from DVD Trash is on there. The rest are mainly members of the Edinburgh B-Team and a Captain Rhodes groupie (yes really) - but you will have to wait until the Blu Ray release to see her frighteningly enthusiastic rumblings. Funnily enough no one else from the audience volunteered to come along and speak about Pilato on-camera!

Really looking forward to this. That just leaves me Land of the Dead to get on Blu to complete the 5 Romero Dead films . (so far.)

Was Effects about a director who kills his girl on camera.? If so I had this ages ago on VHS, quite a good little film.

Loops: Shame on you! How dare you not drunkenly sound-off in front of Calum's camera!

:biggrin::tongue1:

There is no way I will ever put my face in front of a camera!

Ah c'mon! It could have been your claim to fame! I think you should have done it! :woot:

Maybe but I'm not bothered about refusing.

Fame aint for me:laugh:

Well we can always film you in March Loops! :cool:

I've attached a couple of wee stills from JOE OF THE DEAD and TRAVELOGUE OF THE DEAD so you can see Joe Pilato as he is today...

Would that be for COTLD then Calum?

It could be!

Actually there are six vips and here is the sixth (on Blu-Ray)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Survival-Dea...5337555&sr=1-2

Well i've just bought this from ebay, looks a pretty decent edition, i have at least three different versions of this on dvd, plus the vhs
Day is my favourite of the dead movies, closely followed by dawn, i'm assuming dawn is also a quality blu release?.
Oh and can i say the remake of day sucks sweaty donkey balls, really really bad.

Doesn't suck as badly though as Day of the Dead 2: Contagium though eh? ;)

spot on Almar, a shocking excuse for a film and arrow released it :crazy:l

didn't bother with that one, the remake was bad enough, but i imagine it was as bad

finally got the disc, really enjoyed the new docs, well done to those involved

Watched these today and found them to be very informative. It was nice to see some faces that I recognised from the GFT events I have been to. But the best part has to be during a Q&A session with Joe. Calum tries to open a bottle of water and fails. He forgets about it for a few seconds......looks at the bottle......picks it up and tries again........fail:pound:
He later comments on not being able to get it opened. Where at this point Joe takes the bottle and opens it effortlessly.

Glad you left this in Calum, lesser men wouldn't have:clap:

I will freely admit to not liking Day as much as Night or Dawn, BUT, once again, Arrow have gone all out feature-wise and geeks like me who are suckers for the features won't find it difficult to justify the purchase. One problem: Is it out of print now?

Honey - you are famous in certain circles!