"Army of Darkness - Theatrical Version" Anchor Bay Region 2 - PAL vs. Anchor Bay R1 NTSC vs Universal R1 NTSC

(aka The Army of Darkness (1993) (USA: original script title), Army of Darkness, The Ultimate Experience in Medieval Horror (1993) (closing credits title), Army of Darkness: Evil Dead 3 (1993), Bruce Campbell vs. Army of Darkness (1993) (UK: video title), Captain Supermarket (1993), Evil Dead 3 (1993), Evil Dead II: The Medieval Dead (1984) (USA: working title), The Medieval Dead (1993) )

directed by Sam Raimi

U.S. 1993

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DVD Comparison:

Anchor Bay - Region 2 - PAL - vs. Anchor Bay - Region 1 - NTSC - vs. Universal - Region 1 - NTSC

This is for the THEATRICAL CUT of the film.

Thanks to Mark Wilson for all of the NTSC screen captures and Rob Dunkley for the PAL screen captures.

(Anchor Bay - R2 - PAL - LEFT vs. Anchor Bay - R1 - NTSC - MIDDLE vs. Universal - Region 1 - NTSC - RIGHT)

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Distribution	Anchor Bay Region 2 - PAL	Anchor Bay Region 1 - NTSC	Universal Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:17:09 (4% PAL SPEEDUP)	1:20:42	1:20:51
Video	1.78 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 5.26 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1.78 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 5.65 mb/s NTSC 704x480 29.97 f/s	1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.21 NTSC 704x480 29.97 f/s
Bitrate: Anchor Bay - PAL NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Anchor Bay
Bitrate: Universal
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 5.1), DTS ES 5.1, THX Certified on both Widescreen and Full screen versions	English (Dolby Digital 5.1) THX Certified	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), French (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	None	None	Spanish, English (captions) and none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment Theatrical Release Date: February 19, 1993 Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.78:1 Full Screen (Standard) - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Color, Widescreen • Men Behind the Army - 18 minute short • Original Ending ( 4 minutes) • Full-screen and widescreen anamorphic formats Two versions of the film are included on the 2 Disc version of this release: the 77-minute US original on disc one, and the 92-minute director's cut on disc two. DVD Release Date: November 11th, 2001 Keep Case Chapters 23	Release Information: Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment Theatrical Release Date: February 19, 1993 Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.78:1 Full Screen (Standard) - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Color, THX, Widescreen, Dolby • Theatrical trailer • Original Ending • Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Featurette, "The Men Behind the Army," Narrated by Bruce Campbell • Full-screen and widescreen anamorphic formats DVD Release Date: July 9, 2002 Keep Case Chapters 23	Release Information: Studio: Universal Studios Theatrical Release Date: February 19, 1993 Aspect Ratio: Widescreen letterbox - 1.85:1 Edition Details: • Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby • Production notes • Theatrical trailer • Widescreen letterbox format DVD Release Date: August 18, 1998 Keep Case Chapters 16
Comments:	The Universal edition is brighter, but appears to suffer from some color manipulation (overly red skin tones etc. ). The Anchor Bay Region 1 version is slightly sharper with better contrast and an overall tighter image than its Region 2 PAL counterpart, but also has some overly red tints to it. The R2 release is a Pal variant of the R1 theatrical cut (Identical screen format and extras but R2 also has DTS sound) packaged with the directors cut (Identical everything to the R1 Anchor Bay except in PAL format). The Universal has better shadow delineation in darker scenes. The Anchor Bay Region 2 PAL has some color saturation. The Anchor Bay Region 1 has 5.1 sound as opposed to the Universal 2.0. So as far as the Theatrical version goes it appears the Anchor Bay Region 1 wins this battle although each version has strengths in certain areas. I draw the line at contrast boosting and do not like either's color manipulation, but feel the Anchor Bay Region 1 Theatrical version of the film to DVD has less manipulation than the Universal theatrical version and does not have the saturation of the PAL version. - Gary W. Tooze

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(Anchor Bay - R2 - PAL - LEFT vs. Anchor Bay - R1 - NTSC - MIDDLE vs. Universal - Region 1 - NTSC - RIGHT)