- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit), English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo(48kHz/16-bit)
- Subtitles: N/A
- Subtitles Color: N/A
- Region: B (Region-Locked)
- Certificate: 15
- Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
- Digital Copies: N/A
- Run Time: 84 Mins.
- Studio: StudioCanal
- Blu-ray Release Date: April 15, 2013
- List Price: £22.99
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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(The below TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:3.5/5]
On a day when I also sat down to a viewing of The Human Centipede 2, I think I can be forgiven for thinking how sublimely ridiculously the “horror” in Evil Dead: 2 all seems today. But, this is really what horror is all about. I mean, the genre has always been steeped in the inane and the humorous, going way back to our recently reviewed The Phantom of the Opera from 1925 or the B-movie monster films of the 50’s. Evil Dead 2 manages to mix in all the over-the-top shock and theatrics from those eras with its own era’s blend of slasher bloodiness, making it a true long-lasting cult favorite with good reason.
Bruce Campbell, most recently of Burn Notice fame, stars as Ash, the sole survivor from a flesh-eating spirit attack who’s decided to high tail it to the woods with his girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) and holed up in a secluded shack. Ash’s mistake, however, is playing a recording from a professor’s readings from the Book of the Dead, which awakens evil spirits that take over Linda’s body and threaten to claim Ash’s as well. The rest of the night is a gory, campy battle against the undead as the professor’s daughter and her friends arrive to help Ash do battle against the forces of evil that include flying eyeballs, chainsaws and zombies!
Saim Rami’s film is a marvelous blend of gratuitous gore, old school stop-motion special effects, and melodramatic campiness that is just perfect for a lighthearted horror marathon. In comparison to some of today’s humorless horror films, like Saw and Human Centipede, this is a breath of fresh air.
(Editor’s note: portions of this review not specific to this release were previously published as our Evil Dead: II 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Review. All screen captures were taken from their respective releases.)
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
If this is a different transfer from the previously released Lionsgate 25th Anniversary Edition, then I struggle to see any differences. They look the same to me, and, as before, while the transfer, appearing here from StudioCanal also in an AVC/MPEG-4 1080p/24 encodement framed at 1.85:1, does have some issues with the darker areas such as noise and some wash out, it also yields some crisp detail and texture on many of the close-up shots plus vibrant colors, especially those blood reds.
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) mix is offered up on here and it still sounds a bit clumsy, off-balance, and shrill, just as it did on the Lionsgate release. StudioCanal also offers up a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz/16-bit) stereo mix, although the disc menu incorrectly lists it as LPCM. While it is not the original mono, it does sound a little more balanced than the 5.1, offering a rather widely panned stereo soundfield. It still sounds a little shrill and suffers from some crackle in the sound effects and dialogue, however.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:4/5]
The supplements offered up on this StudioCanal release are identical to those which previously appeared on the Lionsgate 25th Anniversary Edition in the U.S.
The supplements:
- Audio commentary with writer-director Sam Raimi, actor Bruce Campbell, co-writer Scott Spiegel, and special makeup effects artist Greg Nicotero
- Archival Footage:
- Behind the Screams (1.33:1; SD; 00:17:07)
- The Gore the Merrier (1.33:1; SD; 00:31:52)
- Theatrical Trailer (1.85:1; 1080p/24)
- Road to Wadesboro (1080p/24; 00:08:10) – Revisiting the shooting location of Evil Dead II
- Swallowed Souls: The Making of Evil Dead II – (1.85:1; 1080p/24; 01:38:14)
- Cabin Fever (1.33:1; 1080p/24; 00:30:23)
- Photo Galleries:
- Ads and Memorabilia
- Behind the Scenes
- Special Makeup Effects
- Stop Motion Effects
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
The humorous and over-the-top cult horror classic Evil Dead II arrives on Blu-ray in the UK with the same solid transfer and deep set of supplements please fans. This is an easy one to recommend for all our friends who like these campy horror classics out in the Region B territories.
Additional Screen Captures
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Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.co.uk
Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3.5/5]
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