I first came across Zeiram in the early nineties where it played on television. I was reading a TV Guide and saw a listing for it where if I recall it played on the sci-fi channel. While I cannot recall the entire listing, the description something along the lines of “a bounty hunter has to fight off a monster” type of post. Since I love monster movies, I decided to watch it and loved it ever since!

The story is simple, a pair of bounty hunters Iria (Yuuko Moriyama), and Bob (Masakazu Handa), who is basically an artificial intelligence voice with no human form take a job to capture Zeiram who has escaped captivity and landed on Earth. They intend to use an alternate dimension, called a Zone to bring him down. Two electricians Tepphei (Kunihiro Ida, also in Zeiram II) and Kamiya (Yukijiro Hotaru, Gamera: Guardian of the Universe) stumble across Iria and get taken to the Zone with Iria, where they get involved in the fight with Zeiram. The fight with Zeiram is extremely difficult as he’s a biological weapon who spews out other man-sized beasts and morphs into other ghastly horror forms. Zeiram also wears a hat with a small face on it which is a snake like creature that stretches out to bite people! The hat comes to live in the grisly, horrifying climax!

I thoroughly enjoy Zeiram, blending some comedic moments in with some gory horror. The goriest part is at the beginning, but it’s in black and white! The practical special effects for the movie are also fun to watch as Zeiram transformers into things more horrifying than his original form. Tepphei and Kamiya are primarily there for comic relief but there are a few moments where the comedy gets set aside when they encounter Zeiram.

Media Blasters has released this 1991 sci-fi thriller on Blu-ray, and while I wouldn’t call it a substantial improvement over the DVD, it still is a strong release from them and certainly is an upgrade. Colors look solid throughout, with the best visuals coming from scenes taking place during the day. Evening shots look good with deep black levels. No DNR appears to have been applied.

Audio tracks for this release include both English and Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0. The dialogue, and other action noises come in perfectly clear and balanced. The catchy, funky music by Koichi Ohta is also rich and crisp. It is an interesting musical track for a science fiction horror movie. None of the sounds from the film came in aggressively. English subtitles are offered for this release.

Extras includes a US and Japanese trailer for the film and the behind-the-scenes interview with director Keita Amemiya and star Yuko Moriyama that was found on the old laserdisc and the special edition DVD are on this Blu-ray. The release also comes with a slipcover for those interested.

Fans of Zeiram interested in upgrading should as it is an uptick in video quality, along with solid audio for both Japanese and English languages, and on top of that, you get the features from the DVD as well. I can easily recommend this release, and the movie as well for those who haven’t seen it before.

Zeiram

Director- Keita Amemiya

Cast- Yuuko Moriyama, Kunihiro Ida, Yukijiro Hotaru

Country of Origin- Japan

Distributor – Media Blasters

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date –1/6/2022