My son Joseph says he doesn’t like scary movies. Naturally, as a kind and loving father, I feel it’s important to subject him to George Romero’s original zombie classic Night of the Living Dead. How well did that go over? That’s what we discuss in the latest episode of the Film After 11 podcast.
Despite its huge influence in creating the zombie horror genre as we still know it today, I doubt I’d call Night of the Living Dead one of the best horror movies of all time. Honestly, its sequel Dawn of the Dead is a quantum leap improvement in almost all respects. Nevertheless, Romero achieved something pretty remarkable with little more than an idea in his head and meager resources to bring it to life. The film remains tense and exciting nearly six decades later. Is it actually scary, though, especially to modern viewers raised on far more gruesome content on TV, in video games, and even in cartoons? Perhaps not.
| Title: | Night of the Living Dead |
| Year of Release: | 1990 |
| Director: | George A. Romero |
| Watched On: | Blu-ray |
| Also Available On: | 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray The Criterion Channel AMC+ HBO Max MGM+ Peacock Pluto TV Tubi Various VOD rental and purchase platforms |
The Blu-ray
Due to huge blunder made by the film’s distributor back in 1968, Night of the Living Dead was released with no copyright notice, and thus went quickly into Public Domain status. Throughout the home video age, countless labels have released countless copies of the movie onto every video format in existence, usually in poor quality. In 2016, the Museum of Modern Art and the The Film Foundation undertook a 4K restoration from the original camera negative, which was released on Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection in 2018, as spine #909. That’s the copy I have. Criterion later released a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray upgrade in 2022, but I remain a little skeptical of the need for it.
In order to assert a new copyright, a title card with restoration credits was added to the head of the film, and a clearly digital text overlay with the copyright symbol was imposed over the final shot. These are annoying, but forgivable considering the movie’s history.
Some theatrical prints of the film over the years may have been matted down to 1.85:1, but director Romero is on record that he composed for and prefers full-frame 1.37:1 for this movie. Criterion preserves that aspect ratio, pillarboxed into the center of a 16:9 screen. Prior to this restoration, I owned a Blu-ray released in 2008 by UK label Optimum Home Entertainment. Even in just 1080p, the Criterion image resolves detail and texture much better than that older copy. The film elements have no visible dirt or damage that I spotted. Romero makes very expressive use of shadows, and the disc has generally good contrast, though I feel that daytime scenes at the beginning of the movie look too bright. For what it’s worth, I said similarly about the Optimum Blu-ray and it’s possible that trait in just endemic to the photography.
That said, Night of the Living Dead was a very low-budget production not exactly made with the best quality cameras or lenses. Some scenes were photographed with focus issues, and the restoration had to source select other footage that was too damaged on the camera negative from lesser film elements.
All told, the Criterion Blu-ray is more than satisfactory and I don’t feel an immediate urge to upgrade to 4K. The Blu-ray will suffice for my needs. Maybe I’ll have to eat my words on that at some future date.
The PCM mono audio is likewise a notable improvement over previous releases, but still has some inherent issues that date back to the production. Dialogue is not always well recorded, to the point that some shots leave me questioning whether the microphones were pointed in the right direction toward the actors or not. Overall, the track sounds very good, and the mono mix provides a lot of focus on the screen that a multi-channel remix would likely distract attention from. The music is a little bright and the track has essentially no bass at all, but clarity is so good that camera whir is audible in more than a few scenes. That part may actually be a mixed blessing.
Bonus items on disc 1 amount to two legacy audio commentaries recorded in 1994 and an 85-minute 16mm workprint edit of the film called Night of Anubis. The workprint is unrestored, covered in dirt and damage, and displays the entire 16mm frame including lines at the sides never meant to be seen. Producer Russell Streiner provides a 7-minute introduction..
Disc 2 features a 23-minute featurette in which filmmakers Robert Rodriguez, Guilmero del Toro, and Frank Darabount discuss the movie (not together). After that are a collection of dailies, a TV newsreel of rare behind-the-scenes footage, several interviews (new and vintage) with cast and crewmembers, some trailers, and TV and radio spots.
The enclosed fold-out booklet offers an essay by critic Stuart Klawans.
