Zombie on UK Blu-ray from Arrow

[MorallySound]

Update from Arrow. Here ya go Chomp.

Originally Posted by Arrow Video

‎***ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS UPDATE***

Firstly , we would like to thank all of our customers who purchased any Arrow title. Without our customers and fans of what we do, we wouldn’t have a business and would never take that for granted. However, we also ask you to bear in mind that we spend considerable sums on all elements of each release. For Zombie Flesh Eaters, the restoration was one of our most expensive projects to date. We did all we could to make this edition perfect and special and it was 9 months of production time and a huge amount of money in the making. It is incredibly frustrating that anything may have gone amiss that would have tarnished our customers enjoyment of the release.

The idea behind the £5 replacement disc programme on ZFE was not for commercial gain but was conceived for 2 reasons. Firstly as a company with few number of employees it was a way of facilitating the replacement programme without the administrative need to handle each enquiry internally. Secondly, we ran a replacement programme on The Beyond that was systematically abused, we wanted to avoid this situation again.

On reflection, we can certainly see how the £5 plus postage could irk someone who had purchased the product at full price, especially as a pre-order. We would like to apologise therefore for this ill-conceived programme.

We will offer anyone who has purchased any of the Zombie Flesh Eaters Blu Ray releases a free replacement of the disc on receipt of their original disc. We will provide details of where to send the disc very shortly. Anyone who has purchased a disc will receive a refund.

Thanks again for your continued custom

Arrow Films

[Katatonia]

^^ Well kudus to them for doing that.

They need to seriously monitor the quality control of their titles though, to avoid snafus like this in the future.

[Chomp]

Wow...watched the Arrow disc over the weekend. It is definitely superior to the BU transfer. I was expecting a slight variation, but the difference was greater than I had anticipated...for the better. The colors "popped" more so on the Arrow transfer than from what I remember on the BU disc. It also didn't looks as soft. I noticed a lot more detail in facial features...and the zombies had texture, they didn't look like wax.

I was impressed.

I just also want to point out how much I love the Fulci zombie...just the mannerisms of them and such...head down, slouched over, and extremely slow moving...that's how you'd think a corpse being controlled only by its brain would operate. Its also extremely effective at being downright creepy. I think they may be my favorite "type" of zombie.

[Jason25]

Originally Posted by Chomp

Wow...watched the Arrow disc over the weekend. It is definitely superior to the BU transfer. I was expecting a slight variation, but the difference was greater than I had anticipated...for the better. The colors "popped" more so on the Arrow transfer than from what I remember on the BU disc. It also didn't looks as soft. I noticed a lot more detail in facial features...and the zombies had texture, they didn't look like wax.

I was impressed.

I just also want to point out how much I love the Fulci zombie...just the mannerisms of them and such...head down, slouched over, and extremely slow moving...that's how you'd think a corpse being controlled only by its brain would operate. Its also extremely effective at being downright creepy. I think they may be my favorite "type" of zombie.

I agree with you. Fulci certainly knew what he was doing. He perfected the zombie. This is such a remarkable film and I certainly appreciate the work put in by Arrow. It is a shame however that they always seem to have an issue with so many of their releases. There is not one thing that I would change with this film. It is perfect in my eyes.

[x666x]

Yeah, I hate to admit it, but I always loved this and ROTLD more so than even the Romero films.

[Demoni]

Sorry for the negativity, but for a company that galvanizes on spending 9 months of production time and a huge amount of money to make this edition perfect... to release and incomplete print just means one thing...lack of quality control.

Maybe Arrow can work the other way around and refund us for £5 for advertising an uncut edition that is actually cut.

I like when they justify their move as anything but commercial gain:
"The idea behind the £5 replacement disc programme on ZFE was not for commercial gain but was conceived for 2 reasons. Firstly as a company with few number of employees it was a way of facilitating the replacement programme without the administrative need to handle each enquiry internally. Secondly, we ran a replacement programme on The Beyond that was systematically abused, we wanted to avoid this situation again."

01- 5£ from us saves an employee to do an administrative handle... so, one less task and more to gain from the employer.
02- 5£ may justify the abused The Beyond replacement programme.

What´s not to gain with all this...

[X-human]

Arrow listened and it's no longer £5, it's free. This isn't worth getting upset about anymore. I don't even think it's worth the postage to get a replacement the issue is so minor.

I'm tired of people calling it "cut" which is a misrepresentation of what happened. No gore was cut. No censorship happened. The digital marker was wrong and that created a glitch. Hell if you were so inclined you could rip the transfer off the disc and get a perfectly full "uncut" film out of it. It's all there, the disc just had a bug. Those seconds of a boat are not worth £5. In fact I'd be willing to pay £5 less for such a copy.

£5 or six seconds of a boat... Hrm... tough decision.

Even with the mistake this is still the best thing Arrow has ever done and better than Blue Underground has done. It's a shame they're taking such a beating over it.

[bruce h]

Originally Posted by bruce h

To my eyes, this looks like another case of Arrow not properly setting their contrast levels / color correcting their master. Way too bright and lifeless. Why bother with a new scan if you're not going to follow through to the end?

Well, I bought the thing, and have to eat my words a little. This is easily the best ZOMBIE has ever looked. While there could've been a little more tweaking to the color timing, it frequently looks amazing, with a level of detail I didn't even think possible for this film. If you're on the fence, put aside any fears and take the plunge. I'm not even mad about the stupid boat footage.

Now why can't they ALL look like this?!

[mlock]

Hope this is the right section to post this question:
I was looking for feedback from you guys, the fans, as to which commentary track you recommend I listen to on the Arrow release. I don't spend too much time listening to commentary tracks and want to make sure I choose a good one. My initial choice was to go for the Stephen Thrower and Alan Jones track. What do you folks think?

Dammit! I guess I'm too late to participate in the disc replacement programme. It ended March 31st. I wonder if amazon.uk would send me a replacement copy? Is there a way to tell on the packaging if you own a "fixed" copy?

[mlock]

Update:
I sent amazon.uk an e-mail about my problem with the disc and they promptly responded saying that my replacement disc is not only on the way, but I could keep my defective copy since the shipping costs would be too high to bother. Talk about great customer service! I bought it back in January and they sent me a replacement just like that.

[Marv Inc.]

Steven thrower and alan jones is the track you want to listen too.

[mlock]

Originally Posted by Marv Inc.

Steven thrower and alan jones is the track you want to listen too.

That's what I thought. Thanks for vote!