Night of the Living Dead (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Product Description

Shot outside Pittsburgh on a shoestring budget, by a band of filmmakers determined to make their mark, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, directed by horror master George A. Romero, is a great story of independent cinema: a midnight hit turned box office smash that became one of the most influential films of all time. A deceptively simple tale of a group of strangers trapped in a farmhouse who find themselves fending off a horde of recently dead, flesh eating ghouls, Romero's claustrophobic vision of a late 1960s America literally tearing itself apart rewrote the rules of the horror genre, combined gruesome gore with acute social commentary, and quietly broke ground by casting a black actor (Duane Jones) in its lead role. Stark, haunting, and more relevant than ever, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is back.

BLU RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director George A. Romero, coscreenwriter John A. Russo, sound engineer Gary R. Streiner, and producer Russell W. Streiner
New restoration of the monaural soundtrack, supervised by Romero and Gary Streiner and presented uncompressed
NIGHT OF ANUBIS, a never before presented work print edit of the film
New program featuring filmmakers Frank Darabont, Guillermo del Toro, and Robert Rodriguez
Never before seen 16 mm dailies reel
New program featuring Russo on the commercial and industrial film production company where key NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD filmmakers got their start
Two audio commentaries from 1994 featuring Romero, Russo, producer Karl Hardman, actor Judith O'Dea, and others
Archival interviews with Romero and actors Duane Jones and Judith Ridley
New programs about the film's style and score
New interview program about the direction of ghouls, featuring members of the cast and crew
New interviews with Gary Streiner and Russell Streiner
Newsreels from 1967
Trailer, radio spots, and TV spots
PLUS: An essay by critic Stuart Klawans

Top Reviews

A 50 year journey to perfection
by Ty (5 out of 5 stars)
February 13, 2018

Having grown up in Western Pennsylvania, "Night of the living Dead" has always been a film that is close to my heart. From the first time I saw it, I became a massive horror fan. There was no going back. It is a masterpiece, and I believe it holds up just as well today. Over the years, I have owned copies of the film in just about every available format. My original VHS was unauthorized and barely watchable (but, I did watch it... a lot) I had several copies on DVD and Blu-ray, but none of them were perfect. Something was always off. The film was never presented exactly as it was meant to be seen and heard. Now, it has. Criterion has released the definitive and OFFICIAL version of "Night of the Living Dead", for the first time in the film's long history. This new 4K scan, supervised by Romero, looks incredible. It is detailed and vibrant, with deep inky blacks and perfect contrast. The image has been cleaned of all debris. Watching this restoration is like watching it for the first time. It is truly a joy to behold. Let's not forget the sound, which may be one of (or the) biggest improvement the film has seen. It has fantastic clarity. I'm positive that I've heard sound effects and dialogue on the criterion disc, that I had missed on every other format. It sounds as good as it looks, and that is a match made in horror heaven. I've seen the movie at least 50 times and am now discovering new things with both my eyes and ears. It really is that good. How wonderful it is to see this definitive masterpiece with its copyright notice, as well. There is no longer ANY other acceptable version of the movie. This is it.

With a wealth of extras, including interviews with the filmmakers, and an unseen workprint version, this is the release that fans have been waiting for. It has been a long journey, but here it is. A masterpiece finally gets its due.
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A classic finally restored and given the edition it deserves!
by Maximillian Galer-Cail (5 out of 5 stars)
February 13, 2018

The ultimate edition is finally here! When this film was first released, Romero made an unfortunate mistake of not copyrighting the film properly. As a result he not only did not get the money he deserved, he also had to witness many, and I do mean many of companies releasing this film nearly every year. I used to own the Millennium edition DVD, which was actually good for its time, and more recently an import blu ray from Japan. But I wished that someone would restore this film properly, someone with the best tools to do so, giving this monumental horror film the release it deserves.

Many folks, including myself shuddered when the dreaded Mill Creek Entertainment put out a shoddy so called "anniversary edition;" losing hope that the NOTLD would not be properly honored. However, a short time later, Criterion made one of their best announcements of the decade! The original filmed fully restored, with Romero's personal seal of approval!

The film is presented from a glorious new 4K scan, showing the film as it was intended upon its initial release. The museum of Modern Art lent a hand in this, I was beyond overjoyed to hear this reading the pamphlet that's included. The original Mono soundtrack is crisp and clear, previous issues have been corrected.

The second blu ray discs include a slew of retrospectives, the original work print of the film that was called, "Night of Anubis," radio and TV spots, you name it, this edition has it all.

Criterion is always the best when it comes to releasing films. They use the best resources available and give us an unbeatable product every time. I give this edition my highest recommendation.

Finally after years of disappointing editions, we have the right one, the only one and we can rest easy.
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50 years in the making! You've not seen this movie until you have seen this new release. Yes, it's t
by Drake (5 out of 5 stars)
February 12, 2018

Lots of interesting and unfortunate history on the original release of this film, (Google if you don't know), but in short, this movie fell into public domain as a result of a simple copyright mistake when originally released. Resulting from the copyright error, hundreds of unlicensed and poor quality vhs and dvd's were produced and sold worldwide. After a 50 year effort, the original creators now have control over their masterpiece. This is one of the greatest and most influential horror films ever made and it finally gets a long over due blu release worthy of its contribution to movie history. Why is this a masterpiece? There are many things in this movie that were done for the 1st time, it was groundbreaking (think of all the groundbreaking things about Jurassic Park). And all of this genius resulted from a budget of just over 100k. The criterion release of this film is the only one to buy. The original filmmakers oversaw the entire restoration process. Not only is the picture a massive improvement over the many unlicensed versions that have been floating around for years, but the sound got an equal upgrade. This is how the movie was meant to be seen. A true labor of love by George, John, Russ and Gary to get this version produced for the fans.

There are plenty of extras as well. I really enjoyed the interview with Duane Jones.

A comment on the budget for this film. This was a completely independent film made in Pittsburgh, PA for just over 100k. I think its interesting that even today Hollywood can spend 100 million plus on a movie and the result is often a film not worth watching and yet look at what was produced for a fraction of what Hollywood spends. I think this just exemplifies the talent that these young and novice filmmakers had.
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Criterion delivers the gold standard Blu Ray release of this classic film!
by John D. Scoleri (5 out of 5 stars)
February 20, 2018

As a lifelong fan of George A. Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, I was thrilled when the announcement was made that Criterion would be releasing the Museum of Modern Art's 4k restoration of the film on Blu Ray and DVD in time for the film's 50th anniversary. The new restoration also allowed for Image Ten (the creators of and investors in the original film) to secure a copyright to the what is now the only version of the film worth owning. I'm not going to spend a lot of time here talking about the film itself, beyond stating my opinion that it's the greatest horror film of all time, bar none. If you've never seen it, rest assured there is no better time, nor edition, with which to familiarize yourself with this classic film. The purpose of this review is to provide detailed information on this new Blu Ray release, comparing how the transfer stacks up to prior releases, and detailing the numerous extras to be found on the two-disc Blu Ray set.

I almost envy those of you who have previously only seen NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD in poor quality versions, as the comparison to the restoration will be revelatory. Yes, it's cliché to say that the film has never looked this good before on home video, but it's undeniably true. If you're familiar with the Japanese Happinet Blu Ray (without a doubt the best release prior to this one), you'll already know that NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD can look good in HD. While at first glance you might not recognize the difference in video quality between the Japanese disc and the Criterion release (ignoring the poor quality Mill Creek 'anniversary' Blu Ray rushed out last fall to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the film's restoration and theatrical rerelease), it doesn't take long to see just how significant an improvement the new restoration is over the Japanese disc. Contrast is greatly improved-very noticeably in some of the darker basement scenes, where blacks are crushed and whites tend to bloom on the Japanese release. Additionally, prior releases were very tightly cropped, whereas the film is presented here in its 1.37:1 aspect ratio, frequently with additional information on all edges of the frame. I cannot stress enough just how much of an improvement this new edition is over every other release of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD to date. And short of Criterion getting into the 4K/UHD market, this will be the only version of this film worth watching for years to come.

As if the finest presentation of the film itself were not enough, Criterion is to be praised for assembling an amazing selection of new and previously created special features to make this the ultimate edition of the film. Here are my thought on those:

NIGHT OF ANUBIS, a never-before-presented work-print edit of the film. Introduced by producer Russ Streiner.

Streiner discusses how George Romero and his colleagues at The Latent Image edited their films on 16mm reductions of 35mm footage, and this version of the film represents the cut that George assembled by hand. Despite a) some missing footage (Tom and Harry first coming upstairs from the basement, and Bill Cardille interviewing Sheriff McClelland), b) not having the original dialog track present (the audio from the release print has been married to the work print), and c) having been cut to conform with the length of the release print (meaning the portion of the basement scene cut for time that resulted in a jump cut in the finished film remains lost to the ages), the work print contains two particularly wonderful treats for fans. First, the ability to see the NIGHT OF ANUBIS title card on an actual print of the film. Until a few years ago, most fans (this one included) had no idea that any print existed with the ANUBIS title, so it was extremely cool to see that represented herein. Second, and even more exciting, is a day-for-night shot of the ghouls in the field approaching the house. This shot was replaced in the finished film with an alternate take of ghouls feasting on the remains of Tom and Judy (it can be seen right after Harry Cooper looks out the window and says, "Good Lord!"). Thankfully for us, the change didn't require an adjustment to the dialogue track or overall running time, so the scene was not replaced when the work print was edited to conform to the release print. Criterion was kind enough to place a chapter stop right before the shot, for those not interested in viewing the work print in its entirety. Another side benefit of the inclusion of the work print is that it provides a great frame of reference with which to compare how a well-worn, 16mm reduction of the film compares to the all-new 4K restoration.

Light in the Darkness: The Impact of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

I really enjoyed listening to Frank Darabont, Guillermo del Toro and Robert Rodriguez discuss the film; particularly Darabont and del Toro, as their love for NIGHT really shines through as they describe the impact it had on them as horror fans and filmmakers. And kudos to Darabont for identifying some of the specific elements of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend that Romero drew upon in crafting the story.

Dead Relics - Never-before-seen 16 mm dailies reel, introduced by Gary Streiner

Any disappointment in the absence of the lost basement footage is quickly forgotten when you get to this treasure trove of dailies (a portion of which were flopped at some point, as Gary Streiner explains in his introduction). Included in the 18 minutes of footage are multiple takes of the posse and ghouls outside the house, Ben and Harry's confrontation, Karen attacking Ben, the ghouls closing in on the cellar door, and even several takes of the zoom in to the skull at the top of the stairs.

Learning from Scratch: The Latent Image and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

John Russo provides a nice overview of Image Ten and the work the team was doing before they made the decision to mount a feature film. The featurette includes several of the Latent Image commercials they worked on, including some not released with previous editions of the film.

Limitations into Virtues

An interesting analysis of the making of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. While this type of thing can easily come off as scholarly and pretentious, and some of the suggestions made seem to be a bit o a stretch, there's still plenty of interesting food for thought here.

Tones of Terror: The NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD Score

I can't imagine there's anyone out there who knows more about the library music used in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD than Jim Cirronella, who in 2010 produced THEY WON'T STAY DEAD-the definitive CD collection of Capitol Hi-Q library cues used in the film (watch for an expanded vinyl release of cues from Waxworks Records later this year). Cirronella narrates this featurette, providing an excellent analysis of how Romero used the library music throughout the film, and highlights several scenes where it is clear that George was cutting the film to match the existing cues.

Walking Like the Dead

This featurette re-purposes some of the interview footage shot for Jeff Carney and Jim Cirronella's excellent 2009 documentary Autopsy of the Dead
, enhanced herein by the inclusion of numerous rare behind the scenes photographs of ghouls. I highly recommend the full documentary if you enjoy this brief featurette.

There's a 45m interview/Q&A with George from the Toronto International Film Festival. While I had previously seen this online, it's a welcome addition to provide a more recent interview with Romero.

A 1979 episode of Tomorrow with Tom Snyder

The episode features George and PHANTASM director Don Coscarelli as guests, talking about their newly released films (DAWN OF THE DEAD in George's case). I was initially surprised that Don seemed so comfortable being paired with George; I would have expected any young horror filmmaker to defer to the master in a scenario like that. But Don comes across as very confident, and it's easy to forget that PHANTASM was his third film, so he wasn't a brand new filmmaker at this point in his career.

A few minutes of silent footage shot when Bill Cardille and his WIIC cameraman Steve Hutsko visited the set to shoot their scenes for the film are included from the only extant VHS source. As this is the only behind the scenes footage that exists from the making of the film, it's another welcome addition-in any quality.

An amusing Venus Probe newsreel from the period is also included.

Rounding things out are vintage and contemporary Trailers, a TV spot, and radio spots from 1968 as well as from the 70s, after the film was recognized as a horror classic.

Legacy features:
- Two audio commentaries from 1994 featuring Romero and members of the cast and crew
- 1987 audio interview with Duane Jones
- 1994 video interview with Judith Ridley

These features, several of which have appeared on multiple DVD releases throughout the years, allow fans to hear from many of the original cast and crew members who worked on the film. It's particularly nice to have those who are no longer with us represented on what is now the gold standard release of the film. I revisited several of these features for the first time since they appeared on the 1994 Elite LaserDisc release for the purpose of this review, and they all held up well. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the Duane Jones interview contained material not included in earlier presentations, along with several great photos of Duane. So don't skip it just because you think you've heard it all before!

IN SUMMARY

A bare bones HD release of this restoration would have earned a must-buy recommendation from me. Considering the wealth of supplementary materials that are included, there's no excuse not to add this two-disc set to your library.

With NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD now in the Criterion Collection, those who might have previously written it off as just a cult film can no longer deny it the classic status it so richly deserves.
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My Thoughts On An All Time Great Horror Movie
by James C Girasa (5 out of 5 stars)
January 28, 2019

This review is for the Blu-Ray edition of 'Night of the Living Dead' released by The Criterion Collection in February, 2018.

I'm going to start by saying that this is a 5 star release. Everything about this edition is first rate. I've always liked this movie and it's an all-time great horror movie that's as influential as it gets.

That said, I'm still going to dish out some criticism in some sections below. I believe there are no perfect movies and every movie has it's flaws. Especially low budget movies such as this one. Great movies along with cult movies always have fans that think that particular movie is perfect. Not me. I like to use these reviews on Amazon as a way of airing out my complaints which are really just discussion points when I have nobody to discuss these issues with. So yes I'm admitting to having nobody to talk to!
*****IMPORTANT***** I'D LIKE TO GET "DEFENSIVE" FOR A FEW MOMENTS...

With a large number of reviews for various versions of this movie, I'm not sure if there will be very many people reading this. But if you are reading it and you are a fan of this movie, I get it, it's a great movie, I like it too! I'm simply stating some facts and opinions because 'love fests' are boring. Nobody wants to read about how much one particular fan loves a movie. There is no discussion necessary for that sort of thing. It's par for the course to get attacked these days for presenting a differing opinion. That is what usually happens whenever I get critical about a much loved movie or book.

BLU-RAY: The picture is excellent. I did see some graininess at various times so I can't give it a 10 (which I never do anyway) but we can call it a 9. This is good as you can reasonably expect this movie to look.

EXTRA'S - These are excellent and Criterion gets 5 stars for the extra's.

Disc 1:
-Audio Commentary with director George Romero, Co-writer and actor John Russo, actor Marilyn Eastman, who plays Helen, and Production Manager Vincent Survinski. This commentary was made in 1994. A bunch of comments made below, especially in the 'PRODUCTION' section, are facts I learned while listening to this commentary.* I listened to this and you get quite a bit of information about the movie. You have a lot of the key players in the production of the movie commenting so they know almost everything. That is the reason I chose to listen to this.
-Audio Commentary with actress Judith O'Dea, who plays Barbra, S. William Hinzman, who plays the zombie in the graveyard, Kyra Schon, who plays the 11 year old daughter along with the corpse that is dragged on the second floor, Keith Wayne, who plays Tom, Producer-Actor, Karl Hardman and Producer-Actor Russell Streiner. This commentary was made in 1994.* I listened to the first part of this but I wasn't learning a whole lot new. A lot of what I was hearing was similar to the other commentary with George Romero. I'm sure there would be some other new tidbits once we got deeper into the movie, but as of this date I haven't listened to it.
*A NOTE ON THE ABOVE COMMENTARIES-In each audio commentary there is somebody who goes out of their way to try and tell you how smart Duane Jones is. I'm really tired of this sort of thing. Romero made a point of casting a black man in a role that had nothing to do with race. This was extremely rare in his day. Almost all major roles for minorities were in movies that were about race. I don't feel like it's necessary for everyone to go out of their way to tell you how smart a minority is. I think they should let that person's actions and behavior determine their reputation.
-Work print for 'Night of Anubis' - This was the original title of 'Night of the Living Dead'. This is missing the second reel. For all intents and purposes this work print is the finished movie. There are some changes but they are minor. This work print is on 16mm film. It was made from the original negatives which were 35mm. The original audio is missing and the audio from the finished film is used on the work print. I noticed very little that is different. There is a seven minute introduction by Russell Streiner giving the details of how this work print came to be.

Disc 2:
-Light in the Darkness: This was made in 2017. This is a 23 minute tribute to the film. Interviewed are Frank Darabon, Robert Rodriguez and Guillermo Del Toro. They talk about the impact the movie had in it's day.
-Dead Relics: This has an introduction by sound engineer Gary Streiner. There are 18 minutes of dailies that are silent. This is raw footage shot in 16mm in color. There are some alternate takes on scenes in the movie that weren't used. I'd say there are roughly 10 scenes.
-Learning From Scratch: This is a 12 minute 2017 interview with co-writer John Russo. Russo discusses his and Romero's experiences while running Latent Image, their company. They formed this company to film commercials. They made a lot of commercials together. Russo credits this experience with teaching them about film making. As a result they became very good at editing.
-TV Newsreel: This is the only known behind the scenes footage of the making of 'Night of the Living Dead'. It's less than 3 minutes and uses 16 mm color film. It exists on a VHS tape and was made for a local news broadcast.
-Walking Like The Dead: This was made in 2017 but uses interviews from a 2009 documentary. In it,10 cast and crew members relay their experiences. They tell you how they got the job and what instructions they were given along with their experiences with make up. It's about 13 minutes in length.
-Tones of Terror: This is a 2017 interview with producer Jim Cirroella. He talks about the library music used in the movie.
-Limitations into Virtues - This is 12 minutes long and it interviews filmmakers Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos. The two talk about the style of the movie.
-Tomorrow: This is an episode from the 'Tomorrow' show staring Tom Snyder that was show on July 3, 1979. Snyder interviews George Romero along with Don Coscarelli (Phantasm).
-Higher Learning - This is an interview with George Romero from the 2012 Toronto Film Festival. Romero discusses horror movies and how they scare people. This is about 18 minutes long.
-Interview with Duane Jones - This is an audio interview taken on December 13, 1987. This is probably the only interview he ever granted. Jones did not like talking about the movie. He didn't want to be known as Ben and didn't like being asked the same question's repeatedly. This is an interesting interview. I was surprised at how negative a person he was. The interview lasts about 22 minutes.
-Interview with Judith Ridley: This interview was from 1994 and lasts about 10 minutes. Ridley is surprisingly frank in this interview. She says she couldn't act. She was up for the part of Barbra but lost out. She says she was not disappointed at all and felt that she could not play the part. She got to audition for the roles because she was an employee of Romero's at Latent Image.
-Venus Probe: This is a short, only 32 seconds, newsreel on the Mariner 5 spacecraft the went to Venus.
-Trailers: You get the original 1968 trailer along with a 2017 remake trailer.
-TV Spots: There are two, one is 20 seconds and the other is 60 seconds.
-Radio Spots: There are a total of five radio spots from 1968 and 1970.

PLOT/SUMMARY: I'm not going into any great detail here. My review is from the standpoint of somebody who has seen the movie and wants to know about the quality of the print, the extra's and possibly compare notes with a fellow fan. If you need more detail about the plot, there are innumerable other places to find that information including right here in the Amazon reviews.

Anyway, the plot is quite simple... brother and sister, Johnny and Barbra, are visiting their father's grave in Pennsylvania. They got a late start and it's almost evening. Suddenly a man walking through the graveyard attacks Barbra. Johnny jumps in to help Barbra and gets knocked out when his head hits a tombstone. Barbra runs away and finds refuge in a farmhouse. Shortly thereafter, a man named Ben arrives and starts sealing up the farmhouse. The living dead are beginning to congregate and are trying to get into the farmhouse. Inside on the second floor they find a dead body. Ben quickly learns that the living dead are afraid of fire and starts planning accordingly. A little while later, Barbra and Johnny discover that a couple and a small family have been hiding in the basement. They have a working radio and television and learn that the dead have been coming to life all across the country and everyone is warned to lock themselves in their homes. The group of seven people in the farm house must try to survive until help can come. The problem is that they disagree on how to do this. Harry, the father, wants everyone to go down to the basement and board up the door while Ben and others want to stay in the living room with the television and radio and defend the house from there.

Will they survive the night of the living dead?!?

PRODUCTION: This movie was filmed in 1967 and released in 1968. The budget was slightly over $100,000.
-During production, this movie was originally called 'Flesh Eaters'. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint) this name was taken and the production team was served with a cease and desist order during filming. Romero decided to come up with a name that nobody would ever use so this problem wouldn't occur again. That title was 'Night of Anubis' and that is the title on the work print. The distributor had a problem with this title and it was changed to the now legendary 'Night of the Living Dead'.
-Romero got the idea for his story from Richard Matheson's 'I Am Legend'.
-George Romero had the choice of filming this movie in color but then he would have had to use 16mm film instead of 35mm. He says the cost would have been the same. He doesn't think the movie would have been nearly as effective in color.
-You see a lightning flash during the scene in the graveyard. This is because it was drizzling when the scene was being filmed and they weren't sure if the rain would show up on the film.
-The automobile that crashes into the tree was actually damaged by the owner while driving it. The owner had an accident after filming had begun so they created the scene with Barbra rolling the car into a tree. The car window being smashed was not a special effect. It was done for real after the production team agreed to pay for a new window.
-The music audio from this movie is not original. It was taken from an audio library much the same way stock footage is used in movies.
-Ben's character was written as a truck driver but the actor who played him, Duane Jones, didn't want him to be a truck driver. He didn't think it fit his personality. Most agree with him.
-Russell Streiner, who plays Johnny, was also one of the producers of this film.
-The skull used for the dead person upstairs was actually a skull from a Revell model.
-Jack Russo, the co-writer of this movie, was the zombie that comes into the house early in the movie and attacks Ben.
-The basement didn't exist in the house. The basement scenes had to be filmed elsewhere. The production team cut a hole in the wall for the door downstairs.
-The house itself no longer exists. It was torn down by the new owners soon after the movie was made.
-The blood used in this movie was made using 3 different methods. They used chocolate syrup, black paint and red ink.
-Marilyn Eastman, who plays Helen, also plays the zombie who eats the insect.

WAS GEORGE ROMERO REALLY PROGRESSIVE? Not by 2019 standard's he's not. He may have been a liberal in 1968, but if he made this movie today, he would be crucified by the media. He wouldn't check off many social justice boxes today. No strong female protagonist, no interracial relationships, no (fill in the blank) characters... I can't use any terms I'm looking for or this review will be flagged for offending somebody. Romero makes all the females behave, dare I say, realistically? How dare he? Your not allowed to make females be reliant on men to protect them. He does check a few boxes though. I'll leave that for you to figure out.

WHAT I LIKE:
-The opening scene when Johnny gets attacked by the zombie in the graveyard. I liked how well this was done. You see the zombie but it is unlike anything else I have ever seen up until that point. You just aren't sure what's going on. Of course today, the unexpected is expected.
-I like movies that are about a group of people trapped in an enclosed environment. This movie fills the bill. It so happens that this scenario works well for low budget movies.
-I like the fact that the most unlikable character in the movie was the one who was correct.
-At first I was surprised by the ending but ultimately I believe it was a good choice. It is a very different ending for an industry that needs them.
-They use a black character for the lead and never even mention race throughout the movie. Romero gets credit for being progressive. But really, by today's standards there was not a lot progressive about it. Romero has stated that he chose Ben because he was the best actor who tried out for the part. If he's telling the truth, race had nothing to do with the choice. In addition, Ben is a deeply flawed character and there is no picking on white people in the movie. A person of color having flaws wouldn't fly with today's progressives.

WHAT I DON'T LIKE: Yes there will be some nitpicking here...
-I didn't like how some zombies change speeds and strength and also intelligence. Their hunger was inconsistent also. See comment below on Bill Hinzman.
-In the commentary with Bill Hinzman, who played the zombie in the graveyard, Hinzman says that Romero didn't know what to tell him when he questioned him about his sudden strength. He noted that Romero told him that zombies were weak when alone. He indicates that Romero was perplexed and told him to just attack Johnny and kill him in the scene. The intelligence of the zombies was also inconsistent. Most of them act like lemmings but a few used their brains. For instance, when one picks up a rock and smashes the window. Finally, why didn't the graveyard zombie have any interest in eating Johnny?
-I didn't like how long it took for the people downstairs to come up. All they had to do was listen next to the door and they would have known what is going on.
-Why would Ben send Judy down to watch the kid when the mother was already there. What was the mother going to do upstairs other than get in the way? She comes upstairs and smokes a cigarette.

WAS HARRY RIGHT?
-Ultimately Harry was right. He was made out to be the biggest jerk in the movie, yet I agreed with him 100 percent about going into the basement. To me, the obvious choice was to go into the basement. I didn't even think it should be up for debate. Just take all the food and water you can get and bring it down there. There were numerous places for the living dead to break in and by making noise they were attracting them. In the basement no light could be seen or sound could be heard. It would be next to impossible for the dead to break in if you put even a little effort into boarding the door. The movie itself proved Ben to be wrong. After everyone dies, what does he do? He goes into the basement and easily survives the night. He didn't even have to board the place up. He just had to slide one board to lock the door and that was it. At that point he must have been feeling like an idiot.

WAIT... ARE THESE REALLY ZOMBIES?: Not really. They are the living dead. Romero himself has told us that. It's somebody else's fault for calling them 'zombies' and a lot of people's fault for going with it after the mistake was made. Before this movie, Zombies were generally created through some ritual. Often, they could be controlled. They didn't mindlessly eat people. I'm not sure who started calling the living dead, 'zombies', but the two are pretty much interchangeable to today's audiences.

YOUR LOW BUDGET IS SHOWING:
-When the dead body on the second floor is moved you can see the actor's face and there is no rotting flesh make up on it. It's just a plain face.
-After Ben puts shoes on Barbra's feet, they suddenly disappear in the next shot.
-The transition from day to night happened too quickly. Yes, I know this is really nitpicking on a low budget movie.
-If you watch carefully, in one of the scenes where they are boarding up the house, you can see writing on the back of one of the boards. The writing was instructions on where to place the board. The production team had to remove the boards and replace them because they shot the scenes out of order.
-Barbra wipes the blood off her hand, but there is none there.

HOW INFLUENTIAL WAS THIS MOVIE?: Probably too many ways to count.
-The stupendously dumb teenager is born! For that matter... the stupid everyone in a horror movie is born. I said the same thing about 'Halloween' on this subject, but that was for just 'slasher' movies. This is for the entire horror genre.
-The zombie movie becomes big time even though zombies are never mentioned in this movie. From Romero's own sequels to comedies like 'Shaun of the Dead' and 'Zombieland' to television series like 'The Walking Dead' to mega tentpole summer flics like 'World War Z', zombies are everywhere these days.
-The flesh eating zombie was born. Before this time, zombies acted mostly as slaves or servants.
-I'm guessing the 'destroy their brains' method of killing zombies (living dead) was invented in this movie. I could be wrong but...
-While not the first to do so, this movie had an unhappy ending. When Romero showed the movies to distributors, aside from minimizing the gore, all the major companies wanted a happy ending. Obviously he declined.

OTHER COMMENTS:
-Ultimately I didn't think that Ben was the hero that everyone made him out to be. His intentions may have been good but his decision making was terrible. His decision to stay upstairs and not go into the basement was terrible choice (I go into this in a section above).
-The production team had Johnny put on gloves in the car so he would be more easily recognized when he came back as a zombie later in the movie.
-I'm not sure why Ben wanted to board up the upstairs windows. It's not like the zombies could get there. In addition they needed the wood downstairs for further protection.

RECOMMENDATIONS: This is the way all noteworthy movies should be treated. This release features an excellent film restoration and excellent extra's. Everything you want or need to know about this movie can be found on these Blu-Ray discs.

Clearly this is a 5 star release. Just as this movie defined the zombie movie, this release defines what makes a good release. I'm not going to waste anybodies time by breaking down my ratings for the different aspects of this movie.

Highly Recommended for any fan of horror movies, anywhere, anytime.
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Spectacular, Magnificent, Unbelievable, The Best Restoration Possible For A Beloved Classic
by Rae (5 out of 5 stars)
April 10, 2018

This is the one you want, the one we've been waiting for, the best version of one of the best horror films of all time. George Romero's original 4K restoration of Night of The Living Dead, supervised by him, personally, stands alone as the best version of this film, over anything I ever could have expected or imagined. The newly restored soundtrack, presented uncompressed, also having been remastered under Romero's supervision, is, of course, the absolute best this film has ever sounded. I had not been aware that the sound was being remastered, evened out and restored, as any film will be for a new release, but not fully remastered and certainly not to such spectacular results. The film is still the film, the same film, with the same feel and texture, but somehow it is richer, deeper, bolder. It is Night of the Living Dead but with more of that cinematic quality we loose in television viewings. Well I watched this on a television and I felt like I was in a theater and that is all due to the incredible job Romero did in remastering this film during his last years. I wish I could tell him that.

Criterion has gone above and beyond in their extras on the set, as they promised. They've included, on top of the spectacular Janus restoration by Romero, an original workprint version of the film, extensive interviews from five new featurettes, some quite long, as well as archival interviews, also quite long, archival commentaries, dailies from the original film shoot, newsreel footage, trailers, TV and radio spots, and, of course, the obligatory Criterion insert poster and essay on the film.

I love this. I know, I know, I love all my blu-ray sets and say they are all wonderful. Well, they are all wonderful, when they look good and have a nice selection of special features. But this is different. This is Night of the Living Dead. This is a film that was made for pennies, filmed under the most interesting and unique conditions of guerrilla film-making crashing headlong into genius, accidentally dropped into public domain, such that no work, no restoration, no care would likely ever be invested in this film. Janus outdid themselves, by putting forth the effort and garnering the funds necessary to achieve such a restoration. Romero outdid himself, in putting forth so much time and effort to revisit such a beloved film, to such magnificent results. Criterion outdid themselves, by putting forth even more effort and more funds to piece together a legacy collection: film stock and interviews and retrospectives and commentaries and everything a fan like me could possibly want to see. And what's more, they got it right, down to the last participant, they all got it right. I really did want to see it. I've seen it several times. I'll be seeing it again. I hope you will too.
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CRITERION'S NOTLD IS THE BEST version you will ever buy!
by Movie Lover (5 out of 5 stars)
February 13, 2018

Wow, finally the restored version every fan should own! I first watched this at the age of 17 (as a local television station presented in "green" because it was St. Patrick's Day weekend) and was captivated by it. Even as a teenager I was able to understand the underlining message of the movie, even if the filmmakers themselves weren't trying to make a political statement. Anyway, I've owned a VHS copy (distributed by Blockbuster Video), the Weinstein's 40th Anniversary Restored DVD release which is actually pretty decent; also including good extras, and the unfortunate Mill Creek Blu ray release from October 2017 (I gave that copy away). I wish Criterion had done a 5.1 mix, but I guess they wanted to stick with the integrity of the piece as it is also still presented in 4:3 aspect ratio, not 16x9. Whatever the case, this is the BEST version you will ever buy!
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The last word on Night of the Living Dead.
by Butch Rosenbalm (5 out of 5 stars)
April 9, 2018

This is, quite simply, THE most amazing version of NOTLD ever. The picture is amazing (My wife kept laughing at me going on about the detail "look, you can see the tire tread"). I don't think this film has ever seen clear or look so good. The sound is good (I just have a regular tv set up, so I can't speak on surround sound). The special features are just loaded. The only thing that I could ever think of being added is the humor short "Night of the Living Bread", but is by no means necessary. Criterion has hit another grand slam with this disc. If you are a fan of NOTLD, you HAVE to have this disc. I only wish George Romero could have seen this.
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What a great transfer, but bad packaging!
by Disccritic (3 out of 5 stars)
March 18, 2019

Not going to review the Film here as I'm sure everyone has seen it & will agree with me that it's a masterpiece of shocking Horror & hopefully everyone loves it, then again it would be a cold, boring world if we all loved & hated the same Film.

As with the impact of the Film which is still felt today in such Films asDead Snow,Eat Locals!, The Cured & Redcon-1, George Romero's zombie movie still let's you know who's in charge when delivering the goods in making a great Horror Film, although Romero topped this 10 years later when he released Dawn of THe Dead (1978).

As great as the movie is however The 2-DISC SET FROM Criterion is lacking in terms of the packaging & there could be a few more extras. I'll start with the horrible packaging, it's the 2 discs in a cardboard inner sleeve when opened the poster flies out at you, I don't know why there was no case to hold everything as it would of been better I was expecting the same compact case like the one which Criterion did for Straw Dogs (1971).

Also there could of been a few more extras thrown in the mix as what there is with the commentaries, interviews, small docs, work print version is not enough. I do know that the awesome One for the fire documentary on the 2008 DVD could of been ported over to this version, never mind.

The good news is that the 4K remaster is stunning, I've never seen any Film look as good as this it's crystal clear & all dirt & damage have been removed, also the audio is great as all hiss has been removed as well.

But unfortunately because of the content I'm giving my overall rating of 3 stars instead of 4 for this release.
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Romero's Horror Masterpiece Now Brilliantly Restored By Criterion in Blu Ray!
by Frederick Baptist (5 out of 5 stars)
June 9, 2018

This is the one that started it all and yet it is still the best especially when you consider its influence on the zombie genre to come as well as the metaphors that represented the social issues of the time. Criterion has done a masterful job restoring this film with both excellent picture and sound quality; also included is a foldout poster of the child zombie with an essay by Stuart Klawans on the other side. Disc one contains the film while disc two has all the great special features. Coming out in 1968 it's hard not to see the parallels between scenes in this film and the Vietnam War, student riots and the Civil Rights Movement ongoing at the time. We get a great performance by a black leading man who is clearly in command keeping cool and showing self-sacrificing behaviour while all around are losing their heads and some pursuing selfish agendas of self-preservation instead. To describe further the parallels would be introducing spoilers and so I will let you watch out for them yourself. Director Romero made a film that transcends the zombie plot and makes the audience think about these parallels and this is why this film is and will continue to be named among lists of the greatest films of all time from the horror genre no less and probably only together with the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" will remain so.

Highly recommended!

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