Night of the Living Dead

Shot on a shoestring budget in black and white, George Romero's 1968 horror classic has been the inspiration for countless successors with its barebones tale of a disparate group of stragglers holed up in a farmhouse fending off hungry zombies terrorizing the countryside. Notable for Romero's disturbing flaunting of convention and manipulation of taboo--in direct opposition to popular movie mythology, the survivors do not band together in this film, but look out for their own skin (and, in one particularly queasy sequence, one little girl zombie goes after parent skin), the imagery here is not nearly as shocking as the gore regularly produced by today's cinematic SFX wizards, but the film still hits viewers at a gut level. Given the fact that the film is in the public domain, numerous versions of Night of the Living Dead have appeared on VHS and DVD. What sets this Fox release apart--which boasts a decent transfer, as well as DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1 and mono sound--is the option to select the original black and white or a colorized version. Not surprisingly, the colorized version is both aesthetically wrong (it's not as if color was not available in 1968) and rather cheesy-looking, but it's only (and appropriately) here that viewers can access the funny and totally tongue-in-cheek commentary track by Mystery Science Theater 3000's Mike Nelson. In addition, the disc contains a "Separated at Death" spoof, matching the film's zombies to celebrities who resemble them, including Pee-wee Herman and Courtney Love. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman) [DVD Review—May 27, 2008—Genius, 96 min., not rated, $19.98—Making its latest appearance on DVD, 1968's Night of the Living Dead features a great transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. DVD extras include two audio commentaries (one with co-writer/director George A. Romero, producer/costar Karl Hardman, costar Marilyn Eastman, and co-writer John A. Russo; the other with producer Russell W. Streiner, production manager Vince Survinski, and costars Judith O'Dea, Bill Hinzman, Kyra Schon, and Keith Wayne), the 84-minute documentary 'One for the Fire: The Legacy of Night of the Living Dead,' a 'Ben Speaks' interview with costar Duane Jones (17 min.), a 16-minute 'Speak of the Dead' conversation with Romero, a stills gallery, DVD-ROM features (including the original script), and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for this excellent 40th anniversary edition of the cult classic.] [Blu-ray/DVD Review—Feb. 20, 2018—Criterion, 2 discs, 96 min., not rated, DVD: $29.95, Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and Blu-ray, 1968's Night of the Living Dead features a great transfer and an uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include two audio commentaries from 1994 (one with director George A. Romero, costars Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman, and co-writer John Russo; the other by producer-costar Russell Streiner, production manager Vincent Survinski, and costars Judith O'Dea, S. William Hinzman, Kyra Schon, and Keith Wayne), an exclusive 'Night of Anubis' work print version of the film with an optional intro by Streiner (92 min.), the behind-the-scenes featurettes 'Walking Like the Dead' with the original cast and crew (13 min.), 'Learning from Scratch' with Russo (12 min.), 'Limitations Into Virtues' with filmmakers Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos (12 min.), and 'Tones of Terror' on the score (11 min.), as well as a 'Light in the Dark' retrospective featurette with filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and Robert Rodriguez (24 min.), a 2012 interview with Romero (45 min.), an audio interview with star Duane Jones (22 min.), an interview with costar Judith Ridley (11 min.), a collection of dailies with an introduction by Gary Streiner (22 min.), edited excerpts from a 1979 episode of NBC's Tomorrow (18 min.), TV newsreel footage (3 min.), a brief 1967 'Venus Probe' newsreel, TV and radio spots, and a booklet featuring an essay by critic Stuart Klawans. Bottom line: an excellent edition of a landmark horror film.]