White Zombie: Kino Classics' Remastered Edition 01/29/2013
 

Along a desolate road in the Haitian mountains, a carriage bearing Neil Parker and Madeleine Short encounters a funeral in which the body is being buried in the road. Further down the road, the coach stops at the sight of a man of satanic appearance: six human shapes step forth, and the horrified driver shouts ''Zombies!'', signaling the first appearance of the living dead in American cinema. When first released, WHITE ZOMBIE occupied a deserved place beside DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN as one of the most eerie and interesting horror films of the 1930's and remains a horror classic. Remastered in HD for the first time from Kino Classics!

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Awesome. Roan's work was reference quality, and still stands as the best version, but a fresh look would be greatly appreciated. As of late I can't think of a publisher that's given us more than Kino and continues to give us so much. Shout's been great but Kino is releasing even riskier stuff.

Hopefully we'll see some silent horrors from them next year.

From Kino Facebook and site:http://www.kinolorber.com/video.php?product_id=1757

I was worried they might over DNR the film because there's not very good material left to work with. However I'm not too sure what to think about this decision. Did they crank the DNR transfer up to 11 so only true grain hates would be happy? How true is the "unenhanced film transfer"? Is the compression compromised because of the inclusion of both versions?

To a certain extent I like a happy medium. You can clean the image up some and still retain its grainy goodness. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

White Zombie has an atmospheric first five minutes and a good finale, but the hour that comes between drags even by 30s standards. It's always great when a film of this vintage gets a proper restoration, but this one just isn't for me. I've always considered it pretty overrated.

As I recall this film was Lugosi's favorite of his own work and he certainly dominates the film.Good example of an early indie film,made by the Halperin brothers,made a lot of money then virtually disapeared for a long time.I'm a big fan,creepy old school horror.

Oooooo this looks interesting. Are Kino in the habit of releasing their Blu's region free? Would get this

Is this the film where they throw the indentured servant out of the private plane because the fuel is low and the natives see him fall from the sky and assume he is their deity?

Mondo Digital review:

http://www.mondo-digital.com/whitezombie.html

I don't know, but I'd watch that film.

DVD Savant: http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s4071zomb.html

That's not White Zombie, but I too would like to see it.

Mondo Digital seems to confirm what others who've already got their hands on it are saying that the "restored" transfer is DNR'ed to hell while the "raw" transfer is detailed but completely untouched (as advertised). So unfortunately we don't get the best of both worlds here which would be a transfer that steadies the image and repairs the film while retaining the grain structure.

For me what's most frustrating about this is that anyone with a HDTV could crank the DNR up to eleven and get the same results. If someone wants that let them adjust their TV's accordingly. For the rest of us do the film justice. Still it's the best way to go and unlikely to get any better.

BTW Creepy Classics are already shipping it:
Blu-ray: http://www.creepyclassics.com/produc...&categoryId=-1
DVD: http://www.creepyclassics.com/produc...&categoryId=-1

What a shame. Guess I'll hold on to the Kino DVD for awhile longer.

DVD Beaver review: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4/blu-r...ie_blu-ray.htm

The Blu-Ray.com and dvdbeaver.com reviews indicate that there is a running time discrepancy between the "Restored" and "Raw" versions of the film, with the "Restored" version running approximately one minute longer.

From the blu-ray.com review:

From the dvdbeaver.com review:

The difference in running time between the two versions appears to be attributable to the Kino / Holland Releasing / United Artists company credits that precede the start of the movie and restoration / authoring credits that follow the end of the movie on the "Restored" version. These credits are absent on the "Raw" version and appear to have a total duration of about one minute.

There is no footage missing from the "Raw" version.