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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: December 28th, 2021.
Director: Mark Goldblatt
Cast: Treat Williams, Joe Piscopo, Vincent Price, Darren McGavin, Lindsay Frost
Year: 1988
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Dead Heat – Movie Review:
Detectives Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo) and Roger Mortis (Treat Williams) are two cops working the beast in Los Angeles. When they’re called to help out at a jewelry store robbery in progress, they show up with guns blazing and save the day. When they head to the morgue to check out the bodies of the crooks that they’ve just taken out, they’re informed by Roger's ex-girlfriend Rebecca Smythers (Clare Kirkconnell), the morgue attendant, that this isn’t the first time that these corpses have been here. They guys they killed at the time crime scene were already dead. Dr. Ernest McNab (Darren McGavin), Rebecca’s boss, seems oblivious to all of this.
From here, the duo decides to figure out just what’s going on here. When they learn that a medical company has purchased an unusually large amount of a very specific chemical, they pay a visit and meet the company’s PR rep, Randi James (Lindsay Frost), who explains to them just what goes on in the lab and gives them a bit of a tour. One thing leads to another and soon enough, a resurrected corpse with three noses has hulked out and attacked our heroes, with Roger getting killed in the process. Randi and Doug use the company’s technology to bring him back. Resurrected Roger may not have too much time before he starts to decompose, but he wants revenge against the guys that killed him, and Doug is only too happy to help him get it.
Director Mark Goldblatt’s directorial debut is as corny as it is entertaining. Part buddy cop film, part zombie picture, the movie features some pretty solid practical effects and a storyline that’s interesting enough to keep you wanting to know how this will all play out, even while it deals in genre clichés again and again. It’s a really fun watch, never meant to be taken seriously and a film that puts entertainment value front and center before things like character development and logic. If you think about things too much, the film falls apart but thankfully you don’t really need to think about this one too much to follow it. It’s pretty straight forward and it delivers pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a buddy cop/zombie movie hybrid made in the late eighties starring Joe Piscopo and Treat Williams.
As to the acting, neither of the leads is breaking any new ground here. Piscopo is the goofier of the two, a bit of an old school, sexist type but a guy who clearly has his buddy’s back no matter what and who wants to see the right things done even while making quip after quip while doing so. Williams’ character is a bit more sophisticated and a little classier in that he wears a blazer instead of a leather jacket but he’s also interested in seeing bad guys get their comeuppance and protecting those that he cares about. These guys are fine in their respective roles, these characters aren’t deep at all and the leads don’t need to invest too much in their parts, they make it work. We get some fun supporting work from Carl Kolchak himself, Darren McGavin, who handles his part without any issue and from lovely Lindsay Frost, who was a recurring player on As The World Turns around the time that this movie was made. The film also benefits from a small but important role for none other than Vincent Price. He’s underused here but, as you’d expect, he’s great when he’s on screen.
Dead Heat – UHD Review:
Dead Heat comes to UHD in an HEVC encoded 2160p 4k transfer with HDR10 “newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative and framed in its proper 1.85.1 widescreen aspect ratio. As far as the color reproduction comes, outdoor scenes on the UHD can look pretty hot at times but most of the indoor scenes look good. This results in whites looking almost blinding at times and skin tones sometimes looking a bit off in certain scenes. Detail is really strong and the transfer looks properly filmic throughout, with grain resolving properly throughout and no evidence of any digital noise reduction or edge enhancement problems. Without previous versions to compare this new transfer to we can’t say how it stacks up against past editions, but the ‘hot’ issue aside, the picture quality here is pretty impressive. There’s a lot of depth and detail in pretty much every frame and compression is strong.
The English language 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo track, which comes with optional English subtitles, sounds very good. There are no problems with any hiss, distortion or sibilance and the track is well-balanced. Dialogue is easy to understand and to follow and both sound effects like gun shots and the film’s score have some pretty decent depth to them.
The only extra on the UHD disc is the archival commentary track with director Mark Goldblatt, screenwriter Terry Black and producers Michael L. Meltzer and David Helpern. It’s a pretty informative talk that goes over the origins of the film, writing the script, what it was like on set, working with the different cast members, some of the cuts that were made to appease the MPAA and get the film an R-rating (it’s a shame none of this missing footage has ever turned up) and lots more.
This commentary is also found on the included Blu-ray disc as well as a bunch of other new extra features not on the UHD, starting with The Building Blocks Of Movies, a twenty-six minute interview with director Mark Goldblatt that covers how he's been a life-long movie lover and a big fan of genre pictures, how he got his start in the movie and some of the early films that he worked on like Grand Theft Auto, making connections through his early work with the Roger Corman crew, moving up the ladder and working on bigger pictures like The Terminator, how he wound up directing Dead Heat, his thoughts on the script, the importance of the casting and what it was like working with the main cast members, the editing that was done in post-production, the effects work featured in the pictures and more.
A Thousand Feet Of Lightning is an interview with visual effects artist Ernest Farino that clocks in at sixteen minutes. Here he discusses how he started in the effects business doing stop motion work as a kid, getting his start in commercial work, moving on to work for Corman and then for James Cameron on The Terminator where he met Goldblatt. This lead to getting work on Dead Heat, which he goes into some detail on, covering how some of the work he did on The Terminator came in handy on this film.
Second Unit Director Patrick Read Johnson gets in front of the camera for six minutes in Seizing the Opportunity where he talks about connecting with a miniature effects company after knocking on their door and showing them his work. He landed a job as a PA/model maker and from there he worked his way up, learning as he went and moving up to bigger and better things, including Dead Heat, which he took on a lot of responsibility for behind the scenes, the butcher shop scene being the big one.
How to Edit For An Editor interviews editor Harvey Rosenstock for twelve minutes in a segment that covers how Dead Heat was his first feature in California after cutting his teeth on a lot of movies made in New York in the seventies. He talks about meeting Mark Goldblatt at Cannon Films, landing the gig on Dead Heat, how helpful Treat Williams was on set and behind the scenes, his thoughts on the script, how things were going great until Goldblatt came into the editing room and took over and how the movie was definitely a learning experience for him.
Composer Ernest Troost is up next in Happy Accidents Happen, an eight minute audio interview where he talks about moving from scoring shorts and documentaries to doing feature work for Corman on the west coast. He then talks about landing the job on Dead Heat after making a connection at New World Pictures, what he tried to bring to the score, the fairly rushed schedule he had to work under, problems that he ran into during the recording of the score, accidently harmonizing part of the score with Williams' scream during the ambulance scene and more.
The disc also includes an archival interview with makeup effects creator Steve Johnson titled Dead And Alive that runs for nineteen minutes. This originated on the 88 Films release of the film and it serves as a nice overview of the effects industry in the eighties and how exciting it was to be a part of it. He then talks about how he wound up working on Dead Heat, how much run doing the graphic car crash and shoot out was using marionettes for the opening shoot out, why one zombie has three faces, working on a modest budget, research that went into some of the makeup effects, which effects he thinks still work and which ones he isn't happy with, the importance of working with good people and lots more. There are some deleted scenes included in this piece as well that are interesting to see.
Rounding out the extras is a still gallery, the film’s original theatrical trailer, a TV spot, a handful of deleted scenes, an archival EPK featurette, an MIFED promotional piece, menus and chapter selection.
As far as the packaging for this release goes, Vinegar Syndrome offers up some reversible cover sleeve artwork and, for the first six thousand copies purchased directly from Vinegar Syndrome’s website, a limited edition embossed slipcover designed by Earl Kessler Jr.
Dead Heat - The Final Word:
Dead Heat is as corny as they come, it’s seriously goofy stuff, but it’s also a whole lot of fun, with Piscopo and Williams clearly having a lot of fun here. A solid supporting cast and some great creature effects help to seal the deal. Vinegar Syndrome’s UHD release looks hot at times but offers strong depth and detail as well as an impressive array of newly created extra features.
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