Rating: 
Summary: sharpen the axes for the "30th Anniversary"
Review: Like more than a few other poor souls who fell for this "Special Super-Duper 30th Anniversary Edition" of NOTLD, I thought this would be the best release yet from Anchor Bay (a company which, this title aside, can do no wrong). Man, was I wrong. I just finished watching the 30th Anniversary version of the movie, and it is--like many have already stated here--an excising of 15 minutes of original footage en lieu of some ridiculous padding (an overacting priest, a family in an auto wreck, 'new' zombies wandering the countryside) that in no way adds to the storyline. Unfortunately, the picture quality of the new footage is inconsistent with the 1968 version, so everything that's been added is unfortunately hard to miss. The New & Improved soundtrack had me groaning at first, but got better as the film progressed (even though it resembled Tangerine Dream on a cheap keyboard). I must commend whoever re-recorded the sound efx (gunshots, punches, etc.), because that's the one aspect of this edition that's OUTSTANDING.The extras, which consist of a trailer, a making-of segment, a still gallery, and a pointless video clip from some obscure movie are pretty underwhelming. This Bill Hinzman guy shouldn't be holding his head up too high for whatever involvement he had here, along with buddy-boy John Russo. In short, I thought I'd get this and maybe do away with my 10+ year old video copy, but I think I'll stick with it. By comparison, this is the "Definitive Inferior Version."
Rating:
Summary: what the hell they were thinking!?
Review: I bought this DVD,and was really dissapointed. Well,this new scenes, you can see that cemetary zombie look much older in one scene,and in next(original scene) he suddenly looks younger. And new added scenes are ofcourse in black and white,but the brightness is different,so you can see which part is new scene evev if you see this film as first time. And new music,well it wasn't that bad,but it seems like they tried to put the music in any scenes they can.And the music was little too loud.That had destroyed the good,intention of the scenes.if they used it less,and little more quiet,it could be better. But most annoying thing about this 30th anniversary edition is, that priest. Who hired him? He is the worst actor I have ever seen in my life! If they hired someone better for this caractor,I could give one more star to rate this movie. And the ending,I did not get it at all. It looked like those clappy TV priest propaganda show. Well,I may keep this DVD ONLY for the bright picture quority, but nothing else.
Rating: 
Summary: Do Not Buy The 30th Annivesary Edition
Review: I notice some reviews below that refer to buying the Elite Entertainment DVD of Night Of The Living Dead. They're absolutely right! Their 5 star rating they're giving is not for THIS DVD! I don't want to see people confusing this DVD for Elite's DVD and making the mistake of buying this one. You will be cheated into getting a worthless piece of garbage that George Romero had absolutely NO involvement with. It's just an excuse to give the filmakers an ego trip and get their families involved in something they missed the first time around. That, and greed, pure and simple. If you really must see this edition (if only for comparing it to the original) RENT it. You might get a laugh out of the 15 minutes worth of new footage of actors you don't really care about, apart from the cemetery zombie, looking 30 years older and 30 pounds heavier, which doesn't do anything to add to the story. But mostly what you'll get is disgusted, especially with how much of the original movie they remove. The new "score" by Scott Vladimir Lucina doesn't hold a candle to the library music which was used in the original version. There is also an audio commentary with the filmakers applauding their efforts and saying how seamless the new footage is incorporated into the movie. This is far from the truth and they know it, judging from the joking around and the frequent gaps of silence. The "98" edition is equally appalling. It's the original edit of NOTLD, but also the new "score" is here in all its' glory. If Anchor Bay would've used the library score on another track there would be less disatisfied viewers (well, I would be, for one). And, contrary to the reviewer below me, there is NO, repeat NO deleted scenes added to this version. In fact, it runs about 50 seconds shorter than Elite Entertainment's version. Go figure. Oh yeah, the DVD suppliments. A useless theatrical trailer, a behind the scenes featurette that's more boring than your neighbor's home video (which essentially this is), an appalling clip from Flesh Eater, an annoying Dance Of The Dead video that is unintentionally hilarious, and a still gallery accompanied by Lucina's music. Whoop-de-dooo. There is also a "32-page, 4-color collector's booklet" about the making of this edition but precious little about making the original. The one positive thing I can say is that the video quality is very good, but no more than Elite Entertainment's DVD which is hands down the one to buy. Anchor Bay's is the one to burn. Please note that I didn't mention Scott Vladimir Lucina's acting ability.
Rating: 
Summary: A classic movie gets the A-class treatment
Review: This movie has to be one of my top 10 favorites. The DVD sports a music video, audio commentary, a 30 page booklet which is packed with information, still gallery, a behing the scenes featurette, and a 30th anniversary Theatrical Trailer. Also the 30th Anniversary DVD Edition of Night of the Living Dead is numbered up to 15,000 (mine being 11,451...But who cares right?) Now for the best part. You have the option to watch the 1998 director's cut with deleted scenes that arent in ANY other version OR you can watch the 30th anniversary edition with over 15 minutes of NEW footage that George A. Romero and John Russo directed exclusively for this edition and then tied it in with the original! The only downfall about this is being able to watch the deleted scenes with the 30th anniversay edition as you are with the '98 edition that's on this DVD. BUT here is ONE new scene that I would like to talk about that Mr.Romero made for the 30th anniversary. A family of 4 hits a tree with part of it going straight through the windshield. The father dies but the 2 daughters and the mother both walk out of the car and start eating the dad along with the other 10 or so zombies that come out of nowhere!!!!! You see them pull him out of the seat and a part of his brain pops out and lands on the seat! Gross? Yeah. Awesome? You bet!!! ...BUY THIS DVD!!! 30th Anniversary Edition of Night of the Living Dead is the best money I've EVER...EVER spent on a DVD. I hope that the horror fans get a chance to view this before Anchor Bay Entertainment decides not to produce it anymore and then your forced to go to Ebay and pay A LOT more than you could have. Oh and one last thing of advice...If you are a FREAK (like me) for horror movies and you have a relative (my dad in my case) that says "Don't get Night of the Living Dead. I've seen it and it sucks! Don't waste your money on that." Oh well. I went to the mall, they had little 9.99 versions as well but, I wanted the PACKAGE DEAL! lol. I bought it and to THIS DAY I am still proving my father wrong watching the DVD like a teenage girl watching TRL :-) Well, take care and GET THIS MOVIE NO MATTER WHAT ANYBODY SAYS!!!! 8-D seeya!
Rating:
Summary: The best DVD version of a classic horror film
Review: I watched this film when I was ten years old and it terrified me. I had nightmares afterwards about the world being overrun with zombies, and it is still the most scary film I have seen. The beginning of this film is set out brillantly to intimidate and startle us. The music is so menacing, stinging and striking. The black and white desolate setting of the graveyard. A sense of loneliness and helplessness as the zombies engulf the trapped people, and the impending doom for them as it becomes apparent the ghouls are extremely numerous and savage. The bickering and distrust between the trapped people in the farmhouse. The cheap budget of the film adds brilliantly to the effect it has, and just shows how you can make a truly great scary horror film with little financing. A great original horror film that has been imitated, but never surpassed. This Elite Special Collector's Edition DVD version is great. The picture has a digitally mastered THX transfer, and the film has never looked this good. The sound is in mono. There are 31 chapters. On the extras front we have two separate commentaries. The first one includes director George A. Romero, along with co-screenwriter John Russo, producer Karl Hardman, who also plays Cooper, and Marilyn Eastman, who plays Cooper's wife. The second commentary features Judith O'Dea, who plays Barbra, producer Russell Streiner, and cast members Bill Hinzman, Kyra Schon, Vince Survinski and Keith Wayne. Both commentaries are excellent. There's a short film entitled Night of the Living Bread. This runs for eight minutes, and it's an absurd and amusing spoof of the feature, with the difference being the people are attacked by slices of bread. There's also some trailers and TV ads. The ads don't have anything to do with the film apart from them being released at the same time as the film in the late sixties. There's many different DVD versions of this film, and you can't go wrong with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Bo-o-o-o-ring
Review: This is perhaps the worst movie ever made.If you want to see a real cult classic, buy The Little Shop Of Horrors(the original) or Robot Monster. Heck, even The Creeping Terror is better. The actors and actresses are very dumb and can't even act. The screenplay looks like it was written by a 6 year old. Don't make the mistake of buying this.
Rating:
Summary: this review is on the 30th anniv. edition only.
Review: someone who reads this review and is a fan of the original NOTLD and its sequels "dawn of the dead" and "day of the dead", is probably wondering if i was crazy when giving this film only a 2 star rating. i'd agree that i would be crazy for giving the original 1968 version of this film only a 2 star rating, but i am not rating the original version, i'm critiquing the special 30th anniversary re-issue of the film. if you have been fortunate enough not to see this version, you're probably wondering what the big difference between the original and this one is. and believe me there is a BIG difference. if you're reading this, i'm just going to assume that you've seen the original version of the film so i don't have to give a big long summary. if you've never seen NOTLD and have no clue as to what i'm talking about in this review, i apologize. please don't let it stop you from seeing the original version of this cinematic masterpiece. anyway, to those who have been long term fans of the series let me say this: the 30th anniversary ed. of NOTLD, i found out, is a huge disappointment. #1 yes, this version contains about 15 minutes of brand new footage that is supposed to make the film better. however, the running time has not changed to an hour and 45 minutes. on the contrary, it still clocks in at roughly 90 minutes. how is this possible you might wonder? simple, the producers decided to take out 15 minutes of original classic footage and throw in 15 minutes of brand new footage (most of which is annoying and pointless). the only segment of new footage that i found to be enlightening comes at the beginning of the film and explains how the "cemetery zombie" came to just be wondering around the graveyard, something the original version never explained. however, the rest of the added footage is just more scenes of zombies wondering through the night (as if the film needed anymore of that), and a cheesy new ending depicting a scene in which a reporter is interviewing a priest who supposedly survived being bitten by a zombie (any fan of the series knows that no one ever actually survives after being bitten by a zombie). the new ending is pointless and laughable, completely destroying the feeling of uneasiness created by the original version's shocking conclusion. #2 portions of the music heard in this anniv. ed. have been changed, too. again, portions of the original film have been taken out to make room for new material. as a fan of the original version i think nothing should have been changed for this re-release, especially the music. the music for the original version (although not specifically written for the film) worked well because it only helped to add to the tension and suspense of the film by sounding old and dated. the new portions of music written specifically for this re-release sound anything but old and dated. i wish that they would've just left everything alone just as it was, but if they were going to replace any of the music at all, i wish they would have re-done the whole score. instead, they left some of the original music in and threw new music in around it apparently hoping that it sound as though it had always been like that. on the contrary, any fan of the original film will immediately be able to tell where the old music ends and the new begins, probably as well as anyone who hasn't seen the original version. the two different scores just don't mix well. those are basically all the problems with this version of romero's classic film. by the way, romero doesn't deserve any blame for this anniv. ed. because he was not involved in any way with its production. according to the video's liner notes, there were disagreements between members of the production crew during the filming of the original movie back in '68, and since romero was the chosen director his vision of the film was the one that ended up being realized. this new ed. was produced by the members of the crew who disagreed with romero's finished product, and supposedly inserted the new footage in order to present the story as it was originally meant to be told. whatever. from one hard core fan of the series to the rest: skip the 30th anniversary edition of NOTLD. you'd be much better off just watching a marathon of the original 3 films. even the '90 remake of NOTLD looks good compared this piece of garbage (and that's not saying much).
Rating:
Summary: Like a page torn out of a history book!
Review: To me, everything about the original NOTLD seems oh-so-very real from beginning to end. It's been filmed and acted in such a way so as to convince me that these events actually took place! Except for the TV newsman's aside--"IT SEEMS HARD TO BELIEVE WHAT WE ARE TELLING YOU, BUT IT DOES SEEM TO BE A FACT", followed by a smirk--the newsroom scene on TV just adds to the film's realism. I've also heard tell that NOTLD 1968 symbolized the signs of the times. The trapped cabin-dwellers represented the larger society, the Establishment under siege, and the zombies signify all the restless people feeling at odds with society. I guess Ben, portrayed with marvelous intensity by the late great Duane Jones, stood for the emerging black man of that decade of change after suffering for far too long under the lash of racial injustice. At the end of the flick, when we see Ben emerge alone from the basement readying himself for another bout with the zombies, Establishment rednecks shoot him dead. The black man, for the moment, has been submerged again by the larger society.
Rating:
Summary: Creepy
Review: Will give you the chills. A landmark horror movie; the film that made horror movies scary again. The black-and-white photography may be a sign of its low-budget, but it's also a nice effect and gives the movie a memorable touch. The sight of zombies surrounding the house is eerie. A purposely frustrating ending adds to the psycholigical terror. As for the bonus feature, "Night of the Living Bread", it's pretty dumb. I thought it had one funny scene (how the girl kept falling over and over), but that's it. Still, it's not a bad extra. The original trailers are good; they really make you think about how scary this movie must've been back in the late 60s!
Rating:
Summary: Elite is the only way to go!
Review: There are many versions of "Night of the Living Dead" on DVD but there is only one that you should buy! The Special Collectors Edition put out by Elite is the ONLY version of this film that's worth anything. The transfer to DVD is so sharp and clear that you'll feel like you're watching it for the first time. One word of warning to anyone out there shopping for this DVD, there are many online auction sites and online stores claiming that this DVD is "rare and out of print"...DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT! This DVD is still being produced by Elite but not many online stores keep it in stock. Go ahead and order it...you'll get it. Don't be fooled into paying double for something that you could buy right here at Amazon.com. Oh ...and another thing...stay away from the 30th Annivesary Edition. This DVD is a shameful attempt by the "other half" of the folks who made this movie, to milk more money off it. I think that everyone who bought this horrible thing should break it in half, mail it to John Russo and write a note telling him that this is what you think of his and others attempt at desecrating a horror masterpiece. Russo, Hardman, and Striener need to understand that if they we're really as talented as George Romero then they wouldn't have to keep trying to make money off this film. Romero moved on to bigger and better things (Martin,Dawn of the Dead,Creepshow,Bruiser) but these other guys are still trying to nickel and dime everybody off thier ONE claim to fame.
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