Why So Blu?

Zombie Fight Club (Blu-ray Review)

Brace yourself for a gritty, zombie apocalypse action film that delivers non-stop action, edge-of-your-seat thrills, bloody violence and gore in equal measure. On February 2, 2016, SCREAM FACTORY™ is proud to unleash ZOMBIE FIGHT CLUB on Blu-ray and DVD, as well as being made available on digital entertainment platforms. This much-anticipated film premiered overseas and at numerous film festivals to great audience enthusiasm. ZOMBIE FIGHT CLUB is a must-have for action movie fans, zombie terror enthusiasts and movie collectors.  Terence Yin (Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Special ID), Michael Wong (TRANSFORMERS: Age of Extinction,Firestorm, Seven Swords), Jack Kao (Shinjuku Incident, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate) and recording artist MC HotDog also star in this no-holds-barred, martial-arts-meets-walking-dead masterpiece!

Film 

In a corner of the city, in a building riddled with crime… there is an outbreak of zombies. When one young woman witnesses her boyfriend falling victim to the zombie horde, she must team up with a police officer in order to stay alive and escape the building. But the once warm-hearted chemistry teacher, Wu Ming, is now the zombie leader following the chaos, which has transformed him into a cruel, vicious and formidable opponent.  Ratcheting up the terror, an evil organization has begun pitting humans against zombies in a malicious killing game. The good side of humanity has seemingly all but vanished and a world of uncertainty awaits…

Having a title like Zombie Fight Club doesn’t exactly exude any sort of confidence for someone strolling through movies to figure out what one to pick out for the night.  Unfortunately, its just about as bad as you could imagine for something with the title.  The film takes some fun, pulpy, exploitative members that do titillate, but really isn’t enough to sustain interest for the short run time.

What’s funny is, while the film is Zombie Fight Club, for the first three quarters of the film I thought a more apt title might be Zombie The Raid or Zombie The Raid: Redemption if you’re an American.  With events taking place in a singular apartment building and then also follows a character who is a SWAT officer type entering to figure out what’s going on.

The film takes its time getting to the zombie stuff and takes even more time getting to the fight club portion of the story.  However, the fight club stuff is closer to a Zombie Gladiator thing than it is a fight club.  So, that title really is kind of misleading (As is the image of the female with the swords on the cover of the box).  Nevertheless, its got plenty of blood, guts and sex that some are going to find it fine.  Personally, this was a movie I wanted to get on board with but struggled to from the beginning and never really connected.

Video 

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Clarity/Detail:  Zombie Fight Club’s image is sharp, crisp and full of detail.  The transfer here looks very good.  This movie itself isn’t a pretty one.  So, I guess this transfer makes the ugly picture look as beautiful as it possibly can.

Depth:  Movements are smooth.  Background imagery is as clear as the focus allows.  Spacing looks natural and accurate.

Black Levels:  Blacks are rich and deep.  No crushing witnessed.  Good shading and darkness with minimal detail hidden on dark objects/details.

Color Reproduction:  The film has a green filter over everything with a bleached out look.  There is no real pretty colors, but what it has to deal with it does well.

Flesh Tones:  Skin tones are consistent throughout.  They have a bleached/white’ed out look to them.  Details like make-up, zombie crust, lip texture, wrinkles and the like look really good here from most distances.

Noise/Artifacts:  Clean

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD MA, English 2.0 DTS-HD MA, Mandarin 5.1 DTS-HD MA, Mandarin 2.0 DTS-HD MA

Subtitles: English, English For Mandarin Only

Dynamics:  This is a real solid track, capturing the action and making it a full action experience in your viewing space.  It doesn’t really go out of its way to be memorable, but does a real good job with what it has.  The film features both Mandarin and English spoken languages in its natural mix.  To get the intended performance, select either of the Mandarin options.

Low Frequency Extension:  Punches, crashes, door slams and much more is rumbled by the LFE.

Surround Sound Presentation:  Rear speakers mainly present ambiance.  The front speakers give a good depiction of what is going on onscreen with movements back and forth and accurate volume placement for characters.

Dialogue Reproduction:  Dialogue is crisp, clear and placed accurately in the mix.

Extras 

Zombie Fight Club Stunts (HD, 2:42) – Just a generic montage of on-set behind the scenes footage.  The first 50 seconds of this is an intro which is pretty much footage of what looks to be a trailer.

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:05) 

Summary 

Zombie Fight Club is a bit of a project mayhem in terms of being an enjoyable feature.  Its an ugly looking movie that sorta plays that way too.  It does have some grisly violence and some bit of sexiness to it, but it just doesn’t really work.  The Blu-ray here has strong technical features but really has nothing much to offer in term of the extras (The featurette amounts to being a bit more of trailer).  This should be a hesitant rental for anyone who is curious.