Army of Darkness (1992) BD DONE

[Brent_Reid]

Even after scouring the comparisons, I still had to do a ton of research before deciding to replace my German Director's cut BD and various DVDs. The current notes are a little vague and inconclusive, so I suggest some alterations:

New US Collector's Edition BD footnotes:

• Initial copies had faulty US Theatrical and International cut discs. Each was missing a few seconds of footage. See below for details.

New page footnotes:

There are four different versions of the film, with each having exclusive footage:
- US theatrical cut (81 mins) – with studio-mandated, reshot 'happy' ending, against director's wishes
- International theatrical cut (89 mins) – 'happy' ending
- TV cut (93 mins) – 'happy' ending; SD only, 1.33:1 aspect ratio
- Director's cut (96 mins) – restores original 'downbeat' ending
More info here: Book of the Dead: Army of Darkness Different Versions.

The US Collector's Edition has all other versions' extras and all four different versions of the film, each with lossless audio. These include:
- A new 4K transfer of the International cut; almost all other BDs have a much older, less-detailed transfer.
- A new reconstruction of the US theatrical cut, based on the 4K International cut; all other BDs contain an older, inferior transfer.
- The best available transfer of the Director's cut; all others have been transfrerred too darkly, obscuring detail.

The German Ultimate Edition contains decent extras and three versions of the film in HD, including the 4K transfer of the International cut.

Initial copies of the US Collector's Edition set had two faulty discs:
- US theatrical cut: missing 2 seconds at 27:50 (just before windmill, Ash jumping over crumbling stone wall).
- International cut: missing 3 seconds at 30:15 (in windmill, Ash threatening tiny Ash with a small pitchfork). Audio continues as normal, so is unsynchronised for a short time.
Corrected discs have "V2" added to catalogue number on outer edge of disc's label side:
- US Theatrical cut: BD 16027-V2
- International cut: BD 16399-V2
An extra wrinkle: the first 600 corrected US Theatrical cut discs are missing the "V2" notation. They can instead be identified by "2" added to the matrix number near the hub's non-label side: BVDL-1233260A1 2
Email customer service at Shout! Factory for free replacements.

There's some incorrect and redundant info in the US BD entry's footnotes, eg about ordering early from Shout's website and omitting that the slipcase was on initial copies only.

The "Ultimate Edition" title needs adding to the German BD's entry.

Caps-a-holic link needs updating: http://caps-a-holic.com/c_list.php?c=2734

[Samuel_Scott]

Thanks Brent. Great as always!

[Brent_Reid]

You're welcome! Takes a bloody long while, but it's v satisfying assimilating all that info from so many disparate sources and being able to post it where others can benefit from it.

I think it's worth adding that first paragraph, about the different versions, to the DVD comparison too.

[Samuel_Scott]

Also added to the HD DVD comparison.