Thursday, September 12, 2019

DRIVE-IN DELIRIUM: DEAD BY DAWN (2019) (Umbrella Blu-ray review)

DRIVE-IN DELIRIUM: DEAD BY DAWN (2019) 

 Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: R
Duration: 378 Minutes+
Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono 2.0 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen & Fullscreen
Director: Various
Cast: Various 

Synopsis: The crypt of coming attractions has been defiled once more unleashing a shock-quenching installment devoted to flesh & blood.  Gushing with over 6 hours of old school slice & dice, Giallo grooviness, Hammer Glamour, gut munching cannibal capers, swanky Euro-trash and creature feature monster madness (not to mention a tsunami of boobs & pubes) - Drive-In Delirium: Dead By Dawn is an all-out high-def attack on your mental tolerance for blood, breasts and beasts! 


Drive-In Delirium: Dead By Dawn is more horror-centric than the previous Drive-In Delirium: With a Vengeance entry, starting  off strong with Part One: The Final Chapter, opening with a series of nostalgic black and white creature features from the 50's and into the 70's and beyond with stuff like The Swarm and the gore-tastic Slugs, then moving into a nice smattering of vintage Hammer horror, 80's gore, Ozploitation, cannibalism and then into some vintage Italian Gialli by way of Four Flies on Grey Velvet and Short Night Of Glass Dolls, there's even a bit of unsavory Naziploitation right there at the end. 


Part Two: A New Beginning begins with a frightful dose of Hitchcock before getting into some gimmicky William Castle classics, then settling into a mixture of vintage horror classics like Black Christmas, Night of the Living Dead, and The Changeling, along with more straight-up thrillers like Play Misty For Me and Wait Until Dark. This second half is a bit uneven but heavy on fun horror classics, before detouring into some  straight-up 80's comedy by way of Caddyshack, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Strange Brew and Valley Girls. 

The bonus Bride of VHS Delirium trailers include VHS-era horror staples like Lucio Fulci's The Beyond, Cannibal Apocalypse, Argento's Creepers, The House On Sorority Row, I Spit On Your Grave, Madman and The Mutilator. 

This Dead By Dawn edition of Drive-In Delirium is drenched in horror along with some fun non-horror detours that take us into the realm of thrillers, comedy and cult-classics. It makes for a bit of uneven watch but it also prevents movie trailer fatigue which tends to happen when you have too many of the same genre trailers lumped in together. At over eight-hours in length I appreciated the diversity, if you're into trailer compilations this is another fantastic Drive-In Delirium entry from Umbrella.

Audio/Video: Drive-In Delirium: Dead By Dawn (2019) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment, presenting the trailers in various widescreen and fullframe aspect ratios. The quality of the trailers are generally fantastic, they look like they've been cleaned-up a bit, but still maintain the film grain and minor film imperfections that give it a cinematic feel. The bonus VHS sourced trailer reel is in considerably worse shape, offering cropped fullframe presentations that are murky and dupey looking, but at the same time offering plenty of that rough-looking VHS nostalgia factor. 

Audio on the disc comes by way of an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono track that offers a largely clean presentation with some minor age related audio hiss and imperfection coming through at times, but like the video presentation, this is an absolutely solid listen.


The only extra is the aforementioned sixty-minute bonus VHS trailer reel in standard-definition, which is not insignificant. The single-disc release arrives in an oversized Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of artwork featuring a hodgepodge of images from the original movie posters for some of the films on the set.  The disc itself features the signature image of a dirty 35mm film can as do the other installments in the series.

 On the flipside of the wrap you will find a complete listing of the 2-part main feature trailers on this set, minus the VHS bonus  trailers, plus an image/advertisement for the other Drive-In Delirium releases available on Blu-ray from Umbrella. 

 Complete Trailer Listing:
Part One: The Final Chapter(184 min)



Part Two: A New Beginning (194 min) 



Bonus: Bride of VHS Delirium

  • The Beyond
  • Cannibal Apocalypse 
  • Creepers 
  • The Dark 
  • Epitaph 
  • The Evictors
  • The House On Sorority Row 
  • I Spit On Your Grave 
  • LA Crack Down 
  • Madman 
  • The Mutilator 
  • Night Of The Zombies 
  • Rape Squad 
  • Savage Man Savage Beast 
  • The Slayer 
  • Splatter University 
  • Squirm 
  • Trapped 
  • Dario Argento's World Of Horror 
  • Bloody New Year 
  • Blood Theater 
  • Silent Night Deadly Night 2 
  • The Initiation 
  • Spookies
  • The Return Of Count Yorga
  • Tenebrae
  • Demons 2
  • Reborn
  • Sole Survivor
  • Android
  • The Lost Empire
  • Prisoners Of The Lost Universe
  • Battle For The Lost Planet 
  • The Brother From Another Planet
  • Hamburger
  • Pinball Summer
  • Stitches
  • Hot Dog The Movie 
  • Waitress 
  • Stuck On You 
  • The First Turn-On
  • Feelin' Up 
  • The Princess And The Call Girl
  • Blackout 
  • The Guardian
  • Family And Honor
  • The Professor 
  • Golden Needles 
  • Diva 
  • Ms. 45 
  • Rape Squad
  • Pray For Death 
  • Rage Of Honor 
  • The Retaliator
  • Feel The Heat 
  • Survival Game 
  • Commando Squad
  • Double Revenge
  • Rage To Kill 
  • Snake Eater


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