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[JohnIan101]

Past Tense - The Death Of Death Part I


[An earlier version of this PT was originally posted on October 10th, 2013 on JoBlo's "DVD, Blu-Ray & Home Theater Discussion" forum.]

You can't keep it down, it is insatiable. Hide if you must, pray if you wish. It's HERE!

Welcome the Third Annual "Limited Edition Horror", 2017. Four weeks of horror themed Past Tense entries, one each week for October.

We kick off '17 with a three parter and face our worst enemy - ourselves in "George A. Romero’s Diary Of The Dead"...



The motion picture had a very limited theatrical run on February 15th, 2008. It mostly played on the film festival circuit; Austin Fantastic Fest (September 20th, 2007), Screamfest Horror Film Festival (October 12th, 2007) and Sundance Film Festival (January 18th, 2008). You could very well say, this movie ended up being a direct to video release.

It was made with a budget of $2,000,000 (estimated) and grossed over 952 thousand during its U.S. theatrical run. It did make some money, when including foreign receipts it grossed $5.3 million. The film opened number thirty-two at the box office, the following week it dropped to number thirty-nine.

The feature opened against "Step Up 2: The Streets", "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best Of Both Worlds Concert Tour", "Definitely, Maybe" and "Juno".

This release originally came with a cardboard foil slipcover which mirrored the case's wraparound. No insert (or advertisement) was issued.

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There were two store exclusives. One of them was nearly impossible to find. In fact, it wasn't even advertised. I didn't get mine until May of 2013, off Ebay ($12.99 including shipping) with the slipcover.



Best Buy sold an exclusive gift set; the DVD with the Scott Kenemore paperback book, "The Zen Of Zombie". All of which was packaged in a cardboard foil slipcase with different artwork than the wraparound (as shown above). This set streeted on May 20th, 2008 and sold for $19.99.

The 263 page book (released in 2007) was not an exclusive, it can still be found at your local book sellers. It's basically a 'how to' - be a zombie and be happy; written for both the living and undead from Skyhorse Publishing. It's cute, I guess. Don't really know why it's here. *shrugs*

The package does not include the slipcover for the DVD (though it does fit inside the slipcase). I had to be creative at Wal-Mart to obtain it (slipcover); there I also bought "Night Of The Living Dead: 40th Anniversary Edition" which also streeted that day too.



What you see above was Circuit City's weekly ad - notice something missing? It just highlights the movie for $13.99.

There was an exclusive postcard set; five of them.

Didn't know about this until later that evening. I bought "Diary" along with the better re-release, season one of "Twenty-Four" at Best Buy.

I found out about the cards through a DVD enthusiast message board (a daily haunt of mine). I went to the store, but discovered that my Circuit City did not get any copies of the exclusive.

Hell, the clerks didn't even know about it. And that's where it remained for me - for five years.

Almost a myth; once in a long while I would see someone selling it on Ebay. But it was always expensive.

Then in late May '13, I was able to complete this movie. I'm anal. The exclusives were still sealed in its wrapping (inside the case). And it came with the slipcover, a sticker showcasing the physical bonus inside. The thing was, that slip was quite damaged, didn't want it.

Ended up using my adhesive remover, Un-Du (paper safe, no staining) to peel off the sticker and re-attached it to my far better slipcase. But there was some areas of the sticker that no longer stuck. So I used some light, wood glue to finish it.

All of this, now inside the slipcover box. *smiles* This was bought knowing it would be used for an L.E. Horror post.

Opened it, ever so gingerly, cutting a slit on the side so I can access to them and put them back once finished.



So here they are; one of the most limited Circuit City exclusives - in the same league as the mini CD-ROM (iActiveCard) for "Hellboy II" (2008). Man, that was super rare (the exclusive got pulled - the store was in the middle of their major money woes before shutting down; they couldn't pay their creditors and vendors).

I'm VERY lucky to have mine.

These postcards were printed on non-embossed cardstock, their backs are blank; each are roughly 5 x 7 inches. How many sets were actually released?

I do not know, not many. All I can say - it's pretty damn rare.

- - - - - - - - - -

Rant.

Let me start off by saying, this movie is the second reboot of the Romero zombie franchise. No, this needs it's own section, I'll explain in detail in a few.



Before we get into the meat as it were; here is the slipcover with the Circuit City notice.

Man, this movie has a lot of haters.

So many bitch about the effects; CGI blood and gore. Man, they need to watch any SyFy movie of the week and they'll appreciate the effects in "Diary" - "Sharknado 5: Global Swarming" (2017)) anyone?

Yes, this had CGI, but production had a limited budget. It also had numerous practical effects as well. These thing take time to prep on site and if they go south, you can potentially lose half a day waiting for such effects to be ready to film again. It's expensive.

The argument is often made that Hollywood used to do it for real; squibs for their gun shots wounds. It is true, but that took time and if it didn't go off correctly you lost filming time and wardrobe. Once CGI effects caught up (mostly) with the physical simulation, it became the norm.

Time is money for production - it's one less thing to worry about during filming.

Back then there was ZERO choice. If you wanted a gun shot impact, you had to do it. End of story. Now - no, effects added in post. I'm totally okay with its use here. It's a rather mundane application of computer imagery. I do take offense at productions who use CGI as crutch and not as a tool.

A hammer is great for nailing boards, but I wouldn’t use it to crack eggs or pet animals - unfortunately too many in Wonderland have not learned that. Poor Mittens.

Back to the topic of hate. The one of examples sited as very poor is the pool scene at Ridley Wilmott's McMansion home. Ridley (Philip Riccio) had to contain his undead parents and servants, he picked the family's enclosed swimming pool, an ill conceived choice.

When he takes Debra (Michelle Morgan) and Tony (Shawn Roberts) into the pool room we see the zombies underwater, still moving on the bottom. On the commentary, Romero explains that they were in a crunch - they ran out of both; money and time. This was the best they could muster under that situation.

Yes, he admits the effect is so-so. What can you do? That effect by the way was a favor to production, otherwise it couldn't have been shoot. That's life, get over it.

The other is the undead bald follow who's head is melting (acid thrown at him) at the fortified warehouse. I don't get the hate here. It works, a well executed effect. Things don't always have to be photo-realistic. And if it's not, you're taken out of the feature. There's this thing called 'imagination', use it.

While in the minority, I enjoyed, had a good time. Good zombie gags, some nice moments. I'm happy. To each their own, but some folks need to be reasonable with their entertainment. I'm not sure what they expected. This was an indie flick.