4K Ultra HD – US Edition – Shout Factory – 81 min (Theatrical Cut) – 04 October 2022
Video format
• Intermediate Master: 4K
• Standard HDR: Dolby Vision
• Ratio: 1.85
Soundtrack
• English DTS-HD MA 5.1
• English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles
• English
It is brought to the attention of our dear readers as well as the viewing equipment specified and used by each tester of the MaG team, the rendering may differ from one installation to another, whether or not it is calibrated, as well as personal preferences and expectations may influence the rating. Moreover, the images in the article are not representative of the edition tested.
WORK – Ash of War
A chainsaw grafted to the wrist, a gun sawn in the free hand, Ash finds himself in spite of himself plunged into the past around the year 1300. To get out, he has to get hold of the Necronomicon, a grimoire responsible for his condition. But Machiavelic forces will force him to face an army of skeletons...
In crusade against seriousness and repetition, this third episode of the saga Evil Dead, sincere tribute and split to Ray Harryhausen, skillfully mixes genres (burlesque, adventure and fantastic) for « tinker » A buffoonry to the Cartoonesque staging and delusional bravery pieces that the Hilare Bruce Campbell, who spends most of his time throwing replicas to dig up the dead, leads to the peaks of the horrific comedy. Cult!
IMAGE – Surrounded by demons
A recent 4K scan (produced by Universal), this UHD Dolby Vision solid encoding transfer impresses with its sharpness and natural film appearance.
Benefiting from a higher resolution that provides details with increased finesse (faces, costumes and decors are superb) without denying the age of images that it « Modernisation » (such as the excessive softness of certain plans loaded with SFX and/or the presence of coarse detours), it displays a silver texture (a 35 mm capture) beautifully preserved even if variable in places, frees the density of the colors (the primary ones splash the screen like blood) while sanitizing the carnation, uses contrasts more punchy than once (the darkness of the pit and cemetery is better depicted) and animates the frame of enhanced light sources (reflections on armor, flames).
SON – Klaatu, Barada, Nikto
Apart from an atoning LFE channel that would have deserved a boost, this honestly dynamic multichannel soundtrack is provided with a particularly engaging spatialization where the effects bounce on both sides (blood-throwing, wind-blowing, harpy attack) and surrounds amuse with all the excesses (reverberation during the Boomstick shots, deadite grunts). Next to this « tornado », the dialogues are clear and the original partition is well highlighted.
CONCLUSION – Groovy !!!
While a beauf of our time and « Blowjob » of the court of King Arthur kick demonic ass in the good mood, the present 4K Ultra HD uses its magical powers (of performances A/V hell) to propel us to the heart of a divinely saugrenue medieval epic where The Dark Army a « Formed » The Ash legend!
Artistic note
8
Video quality
8.5
Audio quality
8
0
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