night of the living dead

Let this be a lesson to all aspiring filmmakers. After you’ve finished your low-budget horror masterpiece do not forget to add the little copyright symbol in the credits! That minor mistake cost George Romero and company the bulk of the profits from the original Night of the Living Dead, which ended up falling into public domain and filling up bargain bins for years on VHS and DVD.

Obviously, losing out on all those millions must have rankled Romero to no end. So much so that in 1990 he reshot his original script (with longtime make-up vet Tom Savini behind the camera this time) for purely financial reasons. Before anyone jumps in to argue, “that’s no reason to make a film!”…actually it’s the reason pretty much every film is made. At least Romero was honest about his intentions, and, as remakes go, this new version of NOTLD is a respectable do-over with just enough new twists on the material to make it worthwhile.

The set-up is the same: three men, three women and one soon-to-be-zombified kid hide out in a farmhouse to survive the undead apocalypse, only to find human nature is much more dangerous in the short-term. Savini, whose gore effects were a large part of Romero’s later success, oddly enough chooses not to go right for the guts. His zombies are still slow and shambling, but you’ll see more gore on most episodes of AMC’s The Walking Dead than you will here. The movie’s most successful switcheroo is turning Barbara – a mousy, demure and nearly catatonic damsel-in-distress in 1968 – into a bad-ass zombie killer with spot-on survival instincts.

Twilight Time’s limited edition Blu-ray (only 3000 copies were pressed and sold-out immediately) caused a bit of an internet stir after it was revealed the opening segments of the film were deliberately darkened at the filmmaker’s request. The effect serves a purpose, but it must be noted that the film is not presented exactly as it was in theaters or previous home video releases. If you’re lucky enough to score a copy on eBay or another on-line site, you’ll get an HD transfer, Savini commentary, trailer and isolated score track.