Although he’s directed some of the most suspenseful sequences in cinematic history, Martin Scorsese isn’t typically associated with horror. His remake of Cape Fear and his adaptation of Shutter Island, while well-received, were both considered outliers within a career dominated by crime thrillers. But no one depicts Catholic guilt and existential anxiety within the New York underworld better than Scorsese, and the underrated horror film Bringing Out the Dead saw him merge these personal themes with a form of psychological terror that’s finally been restored in a new 4K Blu-Ray release from Paramount.
Nicolas Cage starred in Bringing Out the Dead as Frank Pierce, an insomniac Manhattan paramedic who struggles with depression after losing a young patient. Although he ignites a relationship with the recovering addict Mary (Patricia Arquette), Pierce’s nightmares become so visceral that his grasp of reality begins to slip away. While Bringing Out the Dead’s haunting portrayal of a decaying city is as gloomy as any ‘90s crime film, its stirring exploration of faith and futility could have only been realized by Scorsese.
