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The undead go hi-def…

Nov 19th 2009 By Jonathan Crocker

‘Nam hell, a doomed black hero, carnage in the American family... Trapping a group of desperate survivors in a remote farmhouse surrounded by zombie man-munchers, George Romero’s skewed-vérité horror classic still invokes chills.

Shot on a shoestring, it was never going to scorch on HD. In fact, you can often hardly tell if you’re watching a Blu-ray at all. The 1080p transfer is bright and soft and the mono 2.0 soundtrack hardly helps the muffled dialogue.

Stick with your DVD – it’ll probably come with feature-length Making Of doc One For The Fire instead of just a trailer.

Equally awesome as shock-horror and social satire, genius sequel Dawn Of The Dead bites back even harder at the me-me-me generation by swapping the tiny farmhouse for a shopping mall.

Blood sprays while the Muzak plays – and that blood now looks like blood, thanks to this surprisingly sharp HD transfer. That said, you can also now see where gore-maestro photographer Tom Savini has used a shovel to apply effects and make-up. Not up there with the best Blu-rays, but a terrific package.

Dragged from the Ultimate Edition DVD, the extras on this three-discer include the definitive Document Of The Dead doc, plus the extended cut which Romero hates and Dario Argento’s Euro-edit. Blu-ray owners also get a trivia track. Er, woo!