Night Of The Living Dead DVD Retrospective

[JohnIan101]

PART III: ANTIPATHY - A1

Got your 'Hater' t-shirt on? Go ahead, I'll wait.

Yeah buddy, this week's "Living Dead" rumination waddles onto our darling like a tipsy hobo (like there's any other) and tries to clean a car's windshield - only making the once clear glass, murky. Good job bro.

NOTLD stinkers; DVD releases which manipulated or if you so choose, tampered with the 1968 horror masterpiece.

Lookout for the darkness.

Our title is the recut with then newly filmed footage re-do, "Night Of The Living Dead: 30th Anniversary". Man, I could've sworn this had a limited theatrical release in 1999. The date I found was August 24th, but that's the DVD release date. My archives and confirmed the home video street.

A glitch in the Matrix, maybe. So in lieu of any stats, I'm going to dive in...



Mentioned a moment ago, this was released on DVD (a gold disc, before the standard silver) on August 24th, 1999 from Anchor Bay Entertainment (#DV10951) in two separate editions; single disc $24.95 (#DV10889) and a two disc, Limited Edition (only 15,000 produced) for $34.95. I have the latter, bought new off Ebay dirt cheap - for good reason.

Looking at my archive, this happened sometime in 2004, can't isolate it further.

I'm covering the "Limited Edition". There were two inserts, a mini thirty-two page booklet. And a chapter listing (printed on card stock), thirty for the 30th and twenty-four for the remastered 1998 version. The other side of that is what appears to be the poster for the re-do.

The single disc version omits the booklet. The LE case is an Alpha, the thick kind of case that has two openings. I hate these, it's designed for scratching. You need to use your finger under the disc to pry it, there event a slot that reads "Lift Here". Planned obsolesce, if you ask me.

The motion picture is ninety-six minutes long (both editions).

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Extras:

* Newly remastered print
* Fifteen minutes of new film footage
* New score by Scott Vladimir Licina
* 1998 Edition, original cut, remastered with new score
* Commentary: writer/director John A. Russo, executive producer Bill Hinzman, producer Russell Streiner and art director/associate director Bob Michelucci (30th Anniversary)
* Behind The Scenes Featurette (30th, full screen, black and white, 9:14 minutes)
* Scene From The Bill Hinzman Film "Flesheater" (1994, full screen, black and white, 1:04 minutes)
* "Dance Of The Dead" music video by Scott Vladimir Licina (full screen, color tinted, 3:37 minutes)
* Slide Show Gallery (30th, full screen, 4:09 minutes, 40 images)
* Trailer (full screen)

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Audio:

* Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (both editions)

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NOTES/REVIEW

There are no subtitle options.

The DVD is not dubbed in any language(s).

This is the first time the film has received a DD 5.1 remix.

The second disc is the CD soundtrack.



The booklet features interviews with John Russo, Bill Hinzman, Debbie Rochon and Licina. Since there is no CD track listings, the last page has the track names. Man, reading this is amazing. Either they really believed their own hype; thought they made a truly awesome film or... lots of drugs.

Dark-sided!!!

Where to begin?

*long deep sigh*

How about with a quote...

He [John Russo] has butchered, defaced and ruined one of the greatest horror films of all time.

- Harry Knowles

Russo (Washington Military Reporter in the 1968 film) wrote and directed the new scenes. Originally Romero was to have co-written and directed the new material, but it failed to happen.

Why? Zombies. George was working on a screenplay for Capcom, the aborted "Resident Evil" adaptation. It also went in a different direction as did the final film, Google it.

In the end, Romero DID NOT participate in the re-do. The only thing that can be said is that he gave Russo his blessing to try and that he did liked the new score.

The new footage include:

* The grave diggers Danny (Grant Cramer) and Mike (Adam Knox) brings the coffin of a child killer/molester from prison (where he was executed) to the cemetery; same pick-up truck Ben (Duane Jones) finds and drives from Beekman's Diner.

* The parents (Arthur Krantz played by George Drennen and Hilda Krantz by Julie Wallace Deklavon) of the slain child are at the gave - making sure he's dead, a final look before he's buried. Rev. Hicks (Licina) says a pray before leaving the diggers to their business. The body re-animates and attacks Mike; they drive off. This is the same ghoul who attacks Barbra (O'Dea) and Johnny (Streiner) later.

* The aftermath of the dinner massacre is shown, feasting on a car crash victim. Hinzman's daughter Heidi, plays Rosie, the waitress from Beekman's.

* Additional footage of zombies coming to the farm house.

* Footage of the ghouls eating the remains of Judy (Judith Ridley) and Tom (Keith Wayne).

* A television reporter, Darlene Davis (Debbie Rochon) and camera man back at the cemetery the following day, interviews Reverend Hicks (Appalachian much?). While the locals kill off more zombies.

* Hicks confronts patient zero (who returned to the graveyard) with his bible and is bitten in the face. The ghoul is killed by the posse.

* One year later at Ormsby Medical Center, Darlene interviews Hicks again. He didn't turn, the preacher is still human; Hicks attributes his survival to God. The man is under constant observation, fearful that he may one day change.

He has a guard dog, a tiny canine, "Mushu". The critter isn't for his protection, but ours. Should he turn, the dog will be the first one eaten and its screams will give notice to that fact. Hicks goes on a rant that the undead are possessed by demons and must be spiked. This frightens Ms. Davis and she leaves.

The End.

- - -

Let me make this clear.

Fifteen minutes of new footage at the expensive of fifteen minutes of original footage. *head shakes* Gone is various character development.

Gone is Ben searching for wood and nails to fortified the house. Barbara's recap of what happened to her and her brother is shortened. Gone are the marital problems of Harry (Hardman) and Helen Cooper (Eastman), they don't bicker. Harry's ego is in check too.

The mention of the Venus probe is abbreviated, probably since the new cause is supernatural; taking a cue from "Dawn Of The Dead" (1979), "When there is no room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth."

All that's left of Barbra is hysterics; the pieces of her mind are thrown.

As noted previously, there is no official explanation why the dead have risen; people has latched on to the exploded satellite (strange radiation). But that may NOT be source. For this iteration, the cause is a vengeful God.

Others have mentioned that society began to collapse weeks after the dead rose ("Dawn Of The Dead"); one year later things are pretty much normal in this new ending.

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The biggest tripe is expecting us to believe the cemetery ghoul is the same. Hinzman was thirty-one when he did it the first time, he was sixty-two when he reprised his role. It shows, c'mon who are we kidding? And the grave diggers are far too goofy.

The idea is cute, but should've been executed with an actor who looks like Hinzman (maybe with a mask involved).

Some have complained that the radio announcer is a bad impersonation of the original. Sorry folks, that's the same guy, reprising his voice - Charles Craig (also the TV news anchor).

The broadcast IS different since it was modified for the new footage.



A nice bit; when the grave diggers leave the prison in the background a tanker truck is seen driving by; the same tanker Ben describes to Barbra that was on fire. A nice touch - I will give them that.

You gotta love these quotes from the commentary, both from Russell Streiner...

It's important from a filmmakers stand point, to, that we - in approaching this 30th anniversary edition. We as filmmakers wanted to keep the integrity of the original film.

Anybody who appreciates the craft of filmmaking will appreciates how this, the new footage is integrated with the old footage without tampering with the content of the original film at all.

Sir, you failed.

You can understand why so many people hold this in contempt. Try to imagine - learning that pandas don't naturally have those dark circles around their eyes. And there's a guy in the zoo whose job it is punch them in the face every few days to keep up appearances; that's a close approximation, emotionally speaking.

I know, you're picturing it too; poor, poor Ling-Ling.

Original music appears when Barbra and Johnny search for their father's grave. When the first zombie attack happen in the house, before we met the rest of the players in the basement. When Ben goes up stairs to take care of eaten corpse.

Come back next Thursday for the next installment and prepared to be disappointed.