Blu-Ray Review: Dead Shadows

By Brad Henderson

I, along with many others, have been pleased with Scream Factory’s colossal catalogue for the past year and a half, as well as some of the astonishing releases they have planned for the near future. Along with their old-school horror/sci fi lineup, they are also acquiring new films and setting them up with the Scream Factory treatment.

Dead Shadows is one of the films that they have recently added to their roster of releases, after picking them up post-festival screenings. They first brought us Dead Souls, Cockneys Vs. Zombies, Chilling Visions (short film collection), and Beneath. Now they have released their first foreign language film, Dead Shadows.

Dead Shadows is a film that I’ve heard about at a lot of festivals and it’s been praised by a few people here and there. With the buzz that went around and its kickass plot, I was expecting a lot from this film to begin with. Sadly, this is another of Scream Factory’s new acquisitions that I did not like.

First, I understand it is an indie film. Second, I understand that for a film like this, CGI is cheaper and more practical for budgetary reasons, but that is not an excuse or free ride in my eyes. I can deal with wonky CGI, but when it looks like a cartoon and is waved in my face countless times, my stomach begins to turn. Now if it is a comedy I have a little more tolerance for it, but when it is supposed to be a serious horror film, then my opinion changes.

The CGI in Dead Shadows is some of the worst I’ve seen in a while and I think that’s because it is very active and constantly moving around, which makes it look weak and cheap. There are also practical effects on some of the characters and that looks good, but they put this waviness effect on it in post to make it look like it is mutating. It just looks like something is wrong with your screen.

I’m glad that Scream Factory is picking these films up for distribution and that they’re getting a fair treatment, I just don’t understand why they are picking some of the films that they do. Obviously this company has great taste in cinema but at this point it seems they are just doing favors.

Dead Shadows will be released by Scream Factory on Blu-Ray on April 29.