Why Does 4K Have Such A Hold On Me?

A screening of a hard-to-watch classic has us swooning over physical media

I was up late last night so I could watch my brand-new 4K Blu-ray copy of Dawn of the Dead.

For comparison’s sake, take a moment to go stream a copy of Dawn of the Dead. I’m sure you can find a title as famous as that on one of the major platforms right now. Netflix, maybe? Or Hulu? Or Prime Video? Surely it’s on Shudder if it’s not on one of those, right? Or maybe it’s on the Criterion Channel. They get some cool genre titles sometimes, so it could be there.

Maybe you already know the punchline here. You can’t stream George Romero’s 1978 horror masterpiece on any streaming services in the US. It’s a good thing you can easily pick up a DVD of it anywhere, right? Or a Blu-ray?

Oh, you can’t? You can buy a four-disc edition by Second Sight from overseas that comes with three UHD discs, all of which can be played on any 4K player in the US, as well as a fourth disc that is a Region 2 Blu-ray full of extra features. Each of the UHD discs is a different cut of Romero’s film, which was released in several forms in different countries, and it’s an impressive overall edition of a film that is frustratingly difficult to watch legally in the US right now. You can still find occasional used copies of the excellent old Anchor Bay releases if you’re lucky, but otherwise, you’ll have to do what I did and order the UK release. Which is worth it. Totally.