LEGION OF THE DEAD (2001)
Limited Collector's Edition
Label: Unearthed Films
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 92 Minutes 27 Second (Producer's Cut), 108 Minutes 39 Seconds (Director's Cut)
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Stereo or DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles (Producer's Cut), Enlish and German DTS-HD MA 5.1 or 2.0 Stereo Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Olaf Ittenbach
Cast: Russell Friedenberg, Kimberly Liebe, Michael Carr, Matthias Hues
In the Olaf Ittenback (Burning Moon) directed From Dusk Till Dawn riff, Legion of the Dead (2001) two likable down on their luck losers William (Michael Carr, Dream Stalker) and Luke (Russell Friedenberg, Wind Walkers) are hitchhiking through the California desert when they are picked up by Psycho Mike (Christopher Kriesa, The Man Who Wasn't There), who unbeknownst to them is a notorious hitchhiker-killer dubbed The Kern River Killer. Once in the car with him they find themselves on a journey straight to Hell. In a separate storyline a mysterious blond man (Matthias Hues, I Come In Peace) and a his henchmen, the craggy faced Jeff (Hank Stone, Last Shift) and comic relief Nicholas (Harvey J. Alperin, The Artist), are travelling from place to place are killing people to create a Legion of the Dead to wage an unholy war on humanity. Another storyline involves a small town diner where waitress Geena (Kimberly Liebe, Maniacts), who surely was cast because she brought to mind Salma Hyeck, holds a secret connected to the Blond Man. Eventually all the storylines converge at the roadside diner, where Luke instantly falls for Geena, and the demonic Blond Man and his sadistic henchman, as well as their Legion of the Dead, prove they are willing to slaughter everyone at the diner to get to Geena, for reasons that are revealed, eventually.
What we have hear is Ittenbach channeling his inner Tarantino, the film is clearly influenced by From Dusk Till Dawn, it's action-packed and chock full of bloody violence and demonic menace, with nods to Kevin Smith's Dogma and Lamberto Bava's Demons. The story has a lot of subplots which can get somewhat confusing initially, it took me a bit to catch up to it, but it does decent working bringing the various plot lines together during the bloody finale at the diner.
It starts off a bit slow but the various characters are pretty interesting, especially Christopher Kriesa as the seizure-prone serial killer - he is a fucking hoot, and the movie could have used more of him. The lengthy dialogue exchanges feel very Tarantino influenced with a healthy dose of comedy, mostly by way of the demonic henchman as they incessantly argue about petty stuff, like what color suits they should wear. They're comically adversarial, while not all the laughs land they did manage to get a couple of laugh out of me.
Let's talk about the special effects, we get a blend of gory practical effects and some not so great digital effects that tend to detract from the practical stuff, mostly by way of transitional digital morphing flourished which looks utterly shite, but the practical stuff looks fantastic. We get bullet riddled bodies, severed limbs, heads exploding, and we even get a truck plowing into another car with a huge fireball stunt, once the action and gore kicks in the flick picks up considerably.
The acting is honestly pretty spotty, but it is energetic, everyone seems to know exactly what sort of movie they're making which works in it's favor, the heightened acting style perfectly matches the vibe of the flick. If you're a fan of stuff like The Prophecy (1995) and From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) and the low-budget gore-fests from Olaf Ittenbach this Tarantino homage should go down pretty well for you, but it does feel like Ittenbach is perhaps restraining himself here, holding back his darker more macabre impulses.
It should be noted that this version of the film is not the same R-rated version that was released in 2005 on DVD from Artisan, which ran 8-minutes shorter than this Producer's Cut. We get quite a bit more gore and violence this time around, it's imperfect, but it is an entertaining flick and quite a step up in production value and style from Ittenbacjh's previous film Premutos: The Fallen Angel (1997)
Audio/Video: Legion of the Dead (2001) makes it's North American Blu-ray debut from Unearthed Films as part of their heralded Unearthed Classics line-up. The 1080p presentation is framed in 1.85:1 widescreen and appears clean and free of blemishes. Grain is present throughout, having been shot on 35 mm, whites can have a bleached blow-out look, particularly in the outdoor desert and the flashback sequences, which might a stylistic choice to convey the heat of the desert, and generally colors have a slightly desaturated look to them. Some of the scenes are rather dark in some scenes which appear underlit due to budget constraints, but generally I thought it looked solid. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround or 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles. The tracks are clean and well-balanced, dialogue exchanges are nicely prioritized, and the score, gunfire and sounds of carnage sound terrific.
Extras include for the Producer's Cut star off with an Audio Commentary with director Olaf Ittenbach. We also get a 22-min archival Making of Legion of the Dead, 9-min of Deleted Scenes, 16-min of Outtakes, 9-min of Festival Premieres footage, a 6-min Photo Gallery, plus the 2-min Original Trailer, 2-min Alternate Trailer, and the 1-min U.S. Trailer.
The sole extras on disc two is the 109-min Director's Cut Version (2007, 108:39) which "was created by Olaf Ittenbach for the Austrian market in 2007" featuring additional and alternate scene with German dialogue. This version features both uncompressed English/German hybrid 2.0 and 5.1 audio options with English. I did not do a side by side comparison but these looks very similar to me as far as A/V quality. The added/altered scene add over 15-min of additional footage, the film is also re-sequenced/edited, so it's actually quite a different movie in that respect, not just simply re-inserting deleted footage.
The 2-disc Blu-ray set arrives in a dual-hub keepcase with a single-sided wrap, plus the first-pressing includes a limited edition Slipcover with the same artwork.
Special Features:
Disc 1: Legion of the Dead Producer's Cut + Extras
- Audio commentary with director Olaf Ittenbach and composer
- Unrated Festival Producer's Cut Version
- Making of Legion of the Dead (21:43)
- Deleted Scenes (9:16)
- Outtakes (15:37)
- Festival Premieres (9:17)
- Photo Gallery (6:01)
- Original Trailer (2:14)
- Alternate Trailer (2:2
- U.S. Trailer (1:00)
Disc 2:
- Director's Cut Version (2007, 108:39) English/German DTS-HD MA with Optional English Subtitles)
- Slipcover
The 2-disc Limited Collector's Edition Blu-ray set from Unearthed Films offers the longer, gorier Producer and Director's cuts of Legion of the Dead with solid A/V presentations and an decent array of extras to support it. It's great to finally see Ittenbach's entertaining Tarantino riff fully uncut and in all it's gory glory on home video, the way it was mean to be seen!
Screenshots from the Unearthed Films Blu-ray:
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