The Day of the Beast is an oft warped horror/black comedy that, even with the dated effects, is still plenty of fun thanks to the performances and oddball storyline.
The Day of the Beast
(1995)
Genre(s): Horror, Fantasy, Comedy
Severin | NR – 104 min. – $49.95 | March 30, 2021
Date Published: 04/09/2021 | Author: The Movieman
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Severin provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
Note: The screen captures in this review were taken from the included Blu-ray disc
and does not represent the quality of the 4K transfer.
THE MOVIE — 3¾/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: When a rogue priest (ALEX ANGULO) discovers the exact date The Antichrist will be born, he’ll enlist a Death Metal record store clerk (SANTIAGO SEGURA) and a cheesy TV psychic (ARMANDO DE RAZZA) for an urban spree of violence to prevent the Apocalypse by summoning Satan himself. Quick Hit Review: Add yet another movie of the bizarre nature that I’ve seen in the past couple of weeks (including Igelsia’s own Perdita Durango). This part horror, part black comedy is a fun little film with some wonderful performances by Alex Angulo as a priest looking to commit as many sins to fool the devil, Santiago Segura playing a good-natured Satanist and Armando De Razza as phony psychic. Doesn’t exactly rise to a classic in my book but I did have plenty of fun from beginning to the end, even with the dated visual effects/stop motion animation. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 4½/5 |
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This release comes with a matted slip cover and the interior sleeve is reversible. Heirs of the Beast (1:20:53) is a feature-length documentary covering the cultural impact of Day of the Beast and includes interviews with Director Alex de la Iglesia and Actors Santiago Segura, Armando De Razza and Nathalie Sesena amongst many, many others. Interviews:
Mirancas Asesinas (12:28) is a short film by Iglesia from 1990. Last up are a couple of Trailers (4:23). |
4K ULTRA HD VIDEO – 4½/5, BLU-RAY VIDEO – 4¼/5The Day of the Beast comes to 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray from Severin and has been given a new 1080p high-definition transfer, taken from a restored 4K scan of the original negative. While I won’t say it’s an awe-inspiring 4K picture, presumably it’s a considerable upgrade from any other release. Detail for the most part is well defined and colors are finely balanced, and in addition no apparent or obvious signs of aliasing or artifacts, nor scratches or dust marks. Same goes for the Blu-ray which does have a discernible downgrade compared to the 4K UHD, but still satisfactory enough. |
AUDIO – 4/5 |
| Both discs come with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track which I found to be serviceable outputting clear dialogue and only a minor hint of any noise like hisses. Depth is decent enough when there is any sort of action, which is mostly during the finale or during the record store scene with the priest requesting heavy metal music. |
OVERALL – 4/5 |
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The Day of the Beast is an oft warped horror/black comedy that, even with the dated effects, is still plenty of fun thanks to the performances and oddball storyline. This 4K/Blu-ray combo pack from Severin offers good video and audio transfers and a fine selection of bonus features. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.