The Corner Penthouse

Hello Boils and Ghouls. The Halloween season is upon us, which means lots of treats to enjoy on October 31st. Join me as I take a look at The Criterion Collection's recently released Night of the Living Dead (1968) 4K UHD/Blu-ray combo pack. Read on to find out more...

[ SYNOPSIS ]

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, combining gruesome gore with acute social commentary and quietly breaking ground by casting a Black actor (Duane Jones) in its lead role.

[ SPECIFICATIONS ]

The movie is presented in a 1.37:1 aspect ratio with a runtime of 1:36:41. The movie is Not Rated. Audio languages include English. Subtitle languages include English SDH.

[ SPECIAL FEATURES ]

This is a three-disc set, with one UHD Disc and two standard Blu-ray discs. The commentaries can be found on both the 4K UHD and movie Blu-ray disc. The "Night of the Anubis" workprint can be found on the movie Blu-ray disc only. All of the other special features can be found on the second Blu-ray disc.

• Audio Commentary #1 - with George Romero, producer/actor Karl Hardman, actor Marilyn Eastman, and cowriter John Russo. It was recorded in 1994 and has appeared on other home video releases of Night of the Living Dead.
• Audio Commentary #2 - with producer/actor Russell Streiner, production manager Vincent Survinski, and actors Judith O'Dea, S.William Hinzman, Kyra Schon, and Keith Wayne. It was recorded in 1994 and has appeared on other home video releases of Night of the Living Dead.
• Night of Anubis (1:25:09) - An uncorrected 16mm work print of Night of the Living Dead which features the initial working title for it, Night of Anubis.
• Night of Anubis: Introduction (7:17) - A filmed introduction by Russell Streiner.
• Light in the Darkness (23:41) - In this featurette, which was produced exclusively for Criterion in 2017, directors Guillermo del Toro, Robert Rodriguez, and Frank Darabont explain what makes Night of the Living Dead a very special film and discuss its lasting impact on the horror genre.
• Dailies (18:04) - A silent 16mm reel with never-before-seen footage and alternate takes that were not used in the final cut of the film.
• Dailies: Introduction (3:41) - A filmed introduction by Gary Streiner.
• Learning From Scratch (11:58) - In this featurette, which was produced exclusively for Criterion in 2017, cowriter John Russo recalls how he was invited by John Romero to be part of the production unit behind Night of the Living Dead and discusses some unique obstacles that had to be resolved before and during the shoot.
• TV Newsreel (2:48) - A VHS recording of silent, B-roll 16mm film shot for Pittsburgh broadcast news, which has the only surviving raw footage from the shooting of Night of the Living Dead. Original ambient music by Jeff Carney is included with it.
• Walking Like the Dead (13:04) - This featurette, which was produced by Jim Cirronella for Criterion in 2017, contains clips from 2009 interviews with ten actors who recall what it was like to play the ghouls (zombies).
• Tones of Terror (11:15) - In this featurette, which was produced exclusively for Criterion in 2017, producer Jim Cirronella discusses the stock music that was used to enhance the claustrophobic ambiance in Night of the Living Dead.
• Limitations Into Virtues (11:57) - In this visual essay, produced exclusively for Criterion in 2017, filmmakers Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos address some of the technical obstacles that the creators of Night of the Living Dead faced during the shooting process and discuss the film's unique visual style.
• Tomorrow (18:20) - Edited excerpts from the July 3, 1979 episode of NBC's Tomorrow show in which George Romero and Don Coscarelli (Phantasm) discuss the evolution of the horror genre and the creative enthronement in which horror films were made during the 1970s.
• Higher Learning (45:30) - An archival interview with director George Romero which was recorded at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2012.
• Duane Jones (21:56) - In this archival audio interview, conducted and edited by journalist Tim Ferrante on December 13, 1987, Duane Jones discusses his involvement with Night of the Living Dead and explains why he decided to distance himself from the film despite being grateful that George Romero gave him the opportunity to be a part of it.
• Judith Ridley (10:42) - In this archival interview, produced by Elite Entertainment in 1994, Judith Ridley recalls how she became involved in the production of Night of the Living Dead and shares a few funny stories from the actual shoot.
• Venus Probe (0:32) - This 1967 newsreel details the real-life findings of the Mariner 5 space craft in Venus' atmosphere that precede the crash that unleashes the zombie plague in Night of the Leaving Dead.
• 1968 Trailer (1:49).
• 2017 Trailer (1:13) - Criterion's trailer for the 4K restoration of the film.
• TV Spots - Includes "Twenty Seconds" (0:22) and "Sixty Seconds" (1:02).
• Radio Spots - A collection of vintage radio spots that includes "1968 Thirty Seconds" (0:30), "1968 Sixty Seconds" (0:59), "1970s Re-release 1" (1:03), "1970s Re-release 2" (1:00), and "1970s Re-release 3" (1:01).

[ ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ]

A fold-out mini-poster with critic Stuart Klawans' essay "Mere Anarchy is Loosed" on the reverse is included inside the thick clear three-disc Blu-ray case.

[ NOTES ]

Night of the Living Dead (1968) is available from Criterion on 4K UHD/Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray and Individual DVD.

Since the film is in the public domain, there have been hundreds of home video releases over the years. Obviously, this Criterion 4K UHD release is the best the film has ever looked, and provides a great wealth of materials, but it is, sadly, not the definitive release. There are lots of extras that are missing. For starters, a few of Criterion's supplements were excerpted from the Autopsy of the Dead (2009) documentary. So, why isn't the full documentary here?

I don't own many other copies of the film on DVD or Blu-ray, but I do own the 40th Anniversary Edition DVD from Dimension Home Video (also paired with Diary of the Dead), and it includes some extras that aren't found on the Criterion discs. There's an 84-minute documentary titled "One For The Fire: The Legacy of Night of the Living Dead", a 16-minute interview titled "Speak of the Dead: A Conversation with George A. Romero" that was conducted after a screening of the film in 2007 in Canada, a photo gallery containing 68 images, and the film's screenplay in PDF format on the DVD-ROM portion of the disc. If all of this had been included in the Criterion release, I could have gotten rid of that DVD.

There have been a few humor releases of the film that may be worth your interest as a supplement to the Criterion release. The Mistress of the Dark herself, Elvira, interjected some jokes into the film in an episode of her "Movie Macabre" series that was released on DVD with I Eat Your Skin. Another joke release is Legend Films' gaudy colorized version that was released on DVD by 20th Century Fox with an audio commentary by Mike Nelson of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Finally, there are numerous sequels to and remakes of the film. George A. Romero made five sequels, all of which are available on Blu-ray: Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985), Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007), and Survival of the Dead (2009). As for the remakes, most of them are not worth your time, but the 1990 film directed by effects make-up legend Tom Savini is worth buying on Blu-ray or DVD.






This item has been provided by The Criterion Collection for review on this site.