Blu-ray

Now here's a strong contender for my favourite Blu-ray release of the year. Dan O'Bannon's splatterpunk zombie comedy has received a heck of a lot of play over the years in my household on first VHS and then DVD. And this sensational new hi-def release ensures that it will get plenty more in the coming years.

While the AVC 1.85:1 1080p encode isn’t exactly razor-sharp, this is more to do with the film’s coarse grain and low-fi origins than any overt digital filtering. In truth, it looks pretty much identical to the encode on the Blu-ray MGM released in the US last year, which is no bad thing. Where it completely trumps that disc is with the audio. Not only does it feature LPCM 2.0 and DTS 5.1 versions of the revised soundtrack (featuring alternate music tracks due to copyright issues) that the film has been saddled with for years, it also boasts an LPCM dual-mono presentation of the original theatrical soundtrack!

This in itself would be enough to delight most fans, but Second Sight has also served up a spectacular selection of extra features. While the lack of a commentary might disappoint some, it's more than made up for by the brand-new 120min retrospective documentary More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead, which is so good I'd happily have paid for it as a standalone release. Indeed, the documentary even gets its own collection of supplementary goodies in the form of 14 deleted scenes, discussions of Return of the Living Dead Parts 2 and 3, a Stacy Q music video and the final filmed interview with the late Dan O'Bannon.

If that doesn't quench your thirst for juicy RotLD extras, then don't fret. Second Sight's Limited Edition platter also offers up an interview with author John A Russo, a 21min documentary about the film's visual effects and a pair of trailers.

Second Sight, Region B BD, £23 Approx, On sale now
HCC VERDICT: 4/5