Night of the Living Dead The Criterion Collection
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