Night Of The Living Dead DVD Retrospective

[JohnIan101]

PART I: THE 1968 CLASSIC - H P2

The next issue I have is with the music which was crap on a cracker; poor, poor synth score by Matthew Jason Walsh. Folks who moan about the music by Scott Vladimir Licina for "Night Of The Living Dead: 30th Anniversary" (1999) should know that score is so superior to Walsh's balderdash. It's embarrassing.

On the topic of the 1990 remake...

The remake suprised me. Barbra ends up with an uzi and fatigues, mowing 'em all down. In a way, I'm sorry, that they did that. To me it wasn't a remake, then. Even though it was in the 1990s; yes women were gonna control the world or they kick started their Harleys and roared down the freeway. But I was sorry to see that we changed it it that much.

- Judith O'Dea

The O'Dea interview wasn't filmed for this documentary. It was footage from "Something To Scream About" (2004). A doc covering nine actresses (scream queens) who have made a name for themselves in horror; Ariauna Albright, Brandi Burkett, Debra DeLiso, Denice Duff, Judith O'Dea, Debbie Rochon, Felissa Rose, Lilith Stabs, Brinke Stevens and Julie Strain. The sixty five minute program is hosted by Brinke Stevens. This is also from Tempe Entertainment for $14.99, a real DVD though.

"Reflections" by the way is dedicated to the memory of Duane Jones.

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A couple weeks ago the first trailer for "Night of the Living Dead: Genesis" (2016) hit the webs. [long pause] It looks terrible. Bad acting and it appears to have been shot on video as if it was a student film.

I had hope for this, honestly did.

The concept was good; a remake of "Night" done as flashbacks with O'Dea reprising her role of Barbra in a rest home, talking about her undead experience. That sounds awesome, but the end result isn't.

Addy Miller plays the younger Barbra and she looks poorly cast.

The release date is in flux. I'll keep you posted. Now I'm somewhat curious - in a train wreck kinda of way.

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Something that I ran into recently.

Music from the TV show, "The Rebel", the 1959 black and white ABC western series.

The episode "Land" (aired February 21st, 1960) has library music which was used in NOTLD '68. Music when Barbra fled from the cemetary ghoul on foot - finding the farm house.



On the Varése Sarabande 1982 vinyl soundtrack, it is track two: "At The Gravesite/Flight/Refuge".

The basic plot of "Land" is a famer gives up his land next to a stream (prime real estate) for a chance at bigger propery. All he has to do is walk the distance he wants of this land on a hot summer day, pinning stakes.

The elderly man dies from exposure and exhaustion, but not before completing his goal, much to the chagrin of the non-water land owner.

He fully expected the man to die before reaching the finish; after all, the fellow had a heart problem.



The music plays as a single man (the farmer) rising up a hill top, staggering like a zombie towards the finish.

Let me take a step back.

"The Rebel" was a two season show that had seventy-six half hour episodes. It told the story a post Civil War veteran, Johnny Yuma (Nick Adams). Once conflicts ended he was lost and disenfranchised. Yuma decided to find himself by roaming the united country. Never ashamed, he was a Confederate soldier. He kept a journal of his adventures. His main gun is a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun.

While being only half an hour it was densly written with good characters and stories which were not the norm. You see, this was about moral ambiguity - shades of grey. Quite a few episodes did not have a clear White Hat; even when you won, you still lost. Which may have lead to its cancelation.

Bought season one a few months ago.

I'm enjoying it, but wish the episodes were remastered. Some are no better than YouTube videos. And this is an official series release from Timeless Media Group.

The episodes of The Rebel included in this set were mastered directly from 16mm prints. Due to the age and condition of the prints, some image and audio artifacts are present.

That's kinda an understatement.

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Here's a behind-the-scenes pix - who's that fellow in the doorway?

It's sound engineer, Gary Streiner watching the blaze.

Want another? Here's one from Eastman's scrapbook.



One of the make-up jobs for a ghoul extra, Ella Mae Smith.

Do I have buyer's remorse? Nope. The roundtable interview makes it worth the dollar with added bonus - Hardman and Eastman and O'Dea.

It's not fantastic. Nope. Parts of this production felt so amateurish. But the good spots outshine the bad. So I'm glad I picked this up. Though I am upset this is not a real DVD. The back of my mind is how long will this last before it fades? The price was a bit much for fifteen dollars. I would be more comfortable at ten.

Something I've taken notice. Many low rated TV shows are coming out as MODs. But they're still asking for full price - as if it is a pressed release, which it isn't. I don't like this trend.

Hope you have a grand and entertaining Halloween. Come back here on November 17th, 2016 for another entry on the 1968 motion picture.

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Update...

Something I discovered an hour ago after posting...

Ogre (Robin Ogden) and Dallas Campbell have digitally released an alternate synthwave soundtrack the 1968 movie with cover art by John Bergin - "Night Of The Living Dead: Original Motion Picture Rescore".



As it stands, it is exclusively available from Bandcamp, released on October 14th, 2016 and sells for $10.00 (downloadable MP3s). I've been sampling the tracks. It's a decent re-imagining. If you're into synthwave, you'll probably like it. I'm a fan.

If not, you won't enjoy the synth score.

What's surprising is where it's from - Lakeshore Records; "The Official Bandcamp of Lakeshore Records, the independent music division". They release movie soundtracks and others on CD. Lakeshore Entertainment has made "Underworld" (2003; and all the sequels), "The Cave" (2005), "Crank" (2006 and its sequel) and "Million Dollar Baby" (2004) among others.

Rescore is a thirty-one track soundtrack; featuring alternate cues.

The collaborative effort was done across the planet; Ogden lives in United Kingdom and Campbell is in West Virginia. In fact both artists have never meet in person, all done online.

On other thing - On October 28th, 2016 on their Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/LakeshoreRecords), they will be streaming the movie with the new soundtrack attached.