Evil Dead - Which Transfer Is Best?

[EvilDeadChainsaws]

First I'm comparing four different transfers of Evil Dead;

• Anchor Bay UK R2 4 Disc Boxset DVD (2003)
• Elite Entertainment US R1 DVD (1999)
• Herald Videogram Japanese Laserdisc (1985)
• Palace Pictures UK VHS Re-Release (1990)

They all differ slightly on framing/cropping, colour timing & quality, but are all open matte/fullscreen. Here is an identical frame from each one. (To make comparison easier, they've all have been made the same size.)

Anchor Bay UK R2 4 Disc Boxset DVD (2003)



Elite Entertainment US DVD (1999)



Palace Pictures UK VHS Re-Release (1990)



Herald Videogram Japanese Laserdisc (1985)

Results

Colour timing; Both the Elite & AB transfers look more or less the same; and look too warm/red making the film look 'happier'. The Palace transfer is more neutral, and the HV LD is quite blue, I think this adds to the oppressive feel of the film. You can see from the two screenshots below, the sky from the Elite DVD looks red.

Elite DVD

Herald Videogram LD

Overlaid Comparison

Framing/Cropping; Here you can see that the Elite, AB & Palace transfers are roughly the same, while the HV LD has around 5-10% more frame on each side.

Picture Quality; No questions here, the Elite DVD is by far the sharpest & highest quality transfer of the four. The AB & HV LD are roughly equal and obviously the VHS picture quality comes off worst. You can see on the title lettering screenshots below, the real difference in sharpness between the DVD versions.

Elite DVD

Herald Videogram LD

AB UK Boxset 4:3

Below I have also posted screens from the 4:3 & 16:9 transfers on the Anchor Bay R1 US Ultimate Edition 3 Disc Boxset (2007), and the 16:9 Anchor Bay R2 UK Book Of The Dead DVD. All three of these Anchor Bay release really suffer quite badly from overly high contrast making the reds bleed on screen in places. The difference in contrast is really noticeable on the title screen, especially compared to the above three screens.

AB Ultimate Ed 4:3

AB Ultimate Ed 16:9

AB UK BOTD 16:9

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Herald Videogram Laserdisc Vs Elite DVD

Ok, so next I'll compare the Herald Videogram Japanese Laserdisc (1985) and the Elite Entertainment US DVD (1999) in more detail.


Editing Changes

One of the bigger differences between the two transfers is some little editing changes supervised by Sam Raimi during the remastering of the DVD. Two are detailed below.

At about 17m 10s in the HV LD version, you see this shot of the book of the dead, which then cuts to...

Herald Videogram LD

...this sequence showing lightning hitting a tree outside the cabin, and cuts to...

Herald Videogram LD

Herald Videogram LD

Herald Videogram LD

...a shot of the cabin.

Herald Videogram LD

The Elite DVD version cuts straight from the book, to the shot of the cabin, leaving out the shot of the lightning. Allegedly, Sam was unhappy with this effect and asked for it to be edited out.

Another little difference is at 35m 55s. In the shot where Cheryl is first possessed and turns round to the group watching, the HV LD version is a static shot from her looking out the window, turning round until it cuts to the next shot. The Elite version (digitally) zooms in just as she turns, to emphasise the 'shock'

Elite DVD

Herald Videogram LD

Comparison Screenshots

Below, you can see a set of comparison screenshots, on the left you have the Elite DVD, in the middle screenshots from the Herald Videogram Laserdisc transfer, and on the right I have overlaid some of the screens to give you a direct comparison between the framing, colour timing & quality. The red border shows the edge of the Elite DVD's frame against the larger Laserdisc frame. Click each image to open in a larger window.

Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD	Overlaid Comparison
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD
Elite DVD	Herald Videogram LD

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Verdict

If you're looking for quality over everything else get the Elite DVD, otherwise I would go for the Herald Videogram laserdisc transfer.

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Credit goes to user 'NIN' who originally posted infromation about the Herald Videogram laserdisc on the HorrorDVDs.com forums.

[Book_Of_The_Bread]

Wonderful guide! However, I still enjoy the Anchor Bay transfers on the UE.

[EvilDeadChainsaws]

I have put a more detailed review of the UE transfer on the Evil Dead DVD page on the main site, but I would go for the Herald Laserdisc, or Elite DVD every time. The contrast on the UE version is too high and the picture is not quite as sharp.

[bookofthedeadfan]

The Herald Videogram Japanese Laserdisc is the best for watch the movie in a 1.33 ratio.
For a the Widescreen version, the best is the new Blu Ray (or not for some people ?).

[The Aluminum Falcon]

I've never had time to make a proper comparison. Does the Blu-Ray (which looks absolutely fantastic IMO) have more or less picture information on the sides than the Herald Videogram LD?

Also, which release has the best surround sound audio? Though I prefer the mono track much more, I'm pretty curious about this since some reviews claimed the Blu-Ray's audio was inferior to the Ultimate Edition DVD's.

[EvilDeadChainsaws]

I've never had time to make a proper comparison. Does the Blu-Ray (which looks absolutely fantastic IMO) have more or less picture information on the sides than the Herald Videogram LD?

The framing/cropping on both is virtually identical. The laserdisc transfer gains a few pixels more to the left & bottom sides, but looses a few over the Blu-Ray on the top & right sides, the gain/loss is about the same, and the actual frame sizes are identical.

As far as audio mixes go, the 1999 'Elite Entertainment' US R1 Special Collectors Edition 2.0 stereo track was billed as 'Remixed', but that didn't just mean taking the mono audio elements and panning some of the effects to the left or right speakers. In places the bass and treble levels were in stark contrast and some of the effects and musical elements had been mixed at differing levels in relation to each other to accentuate certain instruments. The section around 28:21 (NTSC) is a good example; As Cheryl runs from the woods up to the cabin door, the background music simply stops in the original mono track, but fades out in both the DVD & Blu-ray versions. Another is around 41:40 where Scotty looks out of the broken cabin window. The wolves howling off in the distance are quite loud in the mono track, but are much quieter in relation to the cabin ambiance/wind in the Blu-ray, and had been removed all together from the 1999 Elite DVD.