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Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead

List Price: $4.95
Your Price: $4.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Defining moment in cinema
Review: George A. Romero directed this masterpiece back in the late 60s and it defined a new type of filmmaking, a whole new genre and a new type of horror film. In many ways this film is a landmark piece of work that pushed the whole boundaries of filmmaking outwards and gave the system a run for its money. The violence is graphic and gory. Good guys die. A black man is in a lead role. A child murders her mother. A totally untypical Hollywood ending. It had all the hallmarks of a film that should have tanked in the box office, but it did not and the overall reaction was extremely positive. People had never seen anything like it before and quickly a whole barrage of copycat horror films started to appear on the scene.

Basically the story has been rehashed by a million horror films that followed in its wake. Virus takes over the planet, the dead rise, survivors barricade themselves into a house and fight off the monsters and fight between themselves. By todays standards everything in this movie is cheesy from the hamming acting to bad special effects and the stupid "Dont go there" type maneuvers that some of the cast make and it is very slow in parts. Aside from all its misgivings it also has lots of surprises in store and the ending still manages to shock.

The "Citizen Kane" of horror movies is right here and any fan of the horror genre should not be without a copy. A critical part of anyones collection.

[By the way - you may have noticed that a number of competitive dealers are trying to sell their own brand of this movie. Just get the one that has been not been re-edited and make sure that it is really grainy and the transfer looks crap. If you have a color edition, just tune your television to black and white. The worse it looks the better. Just forget the "extra-stuff" hogwash. What you want is the gritty original feel.]

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: There coming to get you Barbara, there coming for you!!!
Review: I bought this dvd and i thought it was going to suck, man was I wrong it was a whole lot better than I thought!!! I thought it was going to be another cheesy horror movie, it was a little bit cheesy at parts but it is still a good movie for its time. There is not much blood and gore but its a good scare!!! Buy it, its a good movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Finally!
Review: I don't need to start off by selling the merits of this film. If you're here, you know that the movie stands on its own.

I'm also not going to talk about the shoddy DVD releases that have preceded this one. I hold myself in shame that I ever bought the 30th Anniversary Edition. I'm going to keep it in a drawer in good condition in the hopes that one day I'll at least be able to break even when some poor sap wants to laugh at it and pay good money for it.

That all being said. WOW! George summed it up in the first minutes of his commentary by expressing his hope that this was, finally, the definitive version of his masterpiece. The new transfer is nothing short of amazing (espescially considering all that have come before). The levels of detail that can be seen, combined with the quality of the source material have rendered a thing of beauty the likes of which probably haven't been seen since the editing bay.

I took a chance and listened to the new 5.1 sound mix and I wasn't disappointed. It still feels very much like a mono mix, but there's a better ambience. Purists such as myself will also want to check out the original mono mix.

I was a little put off by the presentation of the extras at first, but of course I'm lazy. They require lots of >> pushing and sometimes the scans lack enough detail to be able to read. Give yourself a little time, however, and you'll be greeted with a wealth of information about this film.

Of particular interest to me were his (admittedly somewhat buried) TV commercials. They're well worth digging for.

As for the commentary tracks, I have only listened to the one by George, John Russo, producer Karl Hardman (Harry Cooper) and Marylin Eastman (Helen Cooper). This is commentary just how I like it: very technical when it needs to be and very anecdotal and full of the kind of trivia that only a group of close friends can do. Did you know that Judy O'Dea (Barbara) has been doing make-up and food styling? I sure as hell didn't, but it's great to know. It certainly explains that element of her performance where she's basically fondling the sets. I know she was playing catatonia to the hilt, but please... Oh well, it all makes sense now. [No offense, Judy. My ex and I cite your performance all the time! We love ya.]

As a fan of Romero's since I first started watching films critically as a teen in the 80's, one who has the sountrack to both "Night" and "Dawn" on vinyl, and as a DVD conisseur today - I can't recommend this disc more highly.

And, always remember: They're dead, they're....all messed up.

Cheers!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: watch out not the original
Review: I had not planned to buy this. I got the millenium edition and i thought it was great. i knew this was a different version. But when i found it used for about 3 bucks I decided I would check it out. It is very different, it features a new begining and a epilogue, also several new scenes in the middle with different zombies, other changes are the radio says different things and sounds are changed here and there, also to make room for the knew scenes old scenes were cut, such as, some of the story telling lots of talking scenes in the middle also the nude zombie is gone. its not as good, but it is interesting to see the knew scenes and the special features are ok one more commentary for the film with several people who worked on the original, and were not present in the millenium edition commentaries. overall i wouldn't pay full price but if you find it cheap like me pick it up.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Zero stars - about as scary as a cartoon
Review: I have no idea how this film ever made it to cult status. I thought it might have been taken as a "turkey" - an unintentional comedy because of its dismal production values, 8 mm film quality, and 20$ reel to reel tape recorder audio standards. No! There are people who actually find this frightening. I want their names so that I won't have them around me during a real crisis - they would probably fall apart. I don't get this film. A group of ugly actors stumble around trying to act like zombies. Occasionally, they eat meat -pretending it is human flesh. It isn't scary. It is simply a low budget, drive in movie that might have filled the third slot of a late night triple feature. The story could be told in 30 seconds. Horribly bad. And I don't mean so bad that it is campy and funny. Just horribly bad.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Nice for the price-the must see Zombie film!
Review: I purchased this DVD around Halloween when it was available for a very low price, and have never been disatisfied. The movie is of course, a classic of the horror genre. Purportedly made for about 100 G's, it was extremely low budget for its time. My friend attests to going to the drive in with a girl when it first came out, and being so riveted to the screen, he never got around to the girl! This surely should be a testament of how incredible this film is, especially for its budget.

NOTLD utilizes in some scenes, purportedly real animal intestines acquired from a local butcher shop. The effect is fantastic!
This DVD has no features aside from a basic scene selection, and is taken from a reasonable and viewable print, but for the price, you get to watch this entire classic from beginning to end for nearly the cost of a rental! How's that grab you?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: This is one creepy movie... *some spoilers*
Review: I'd rented the VHS a long time ago, so when I saw this (in a two pack with Kingdom of the Spiders) in the $5.88 section at Walmart, I had to pick it up. The film had a dark, eerie atmosphere, and interesting characters, who eventually turn on each other. I remembered parts of the movie from when I'd watched it on VHS, and thought that Barbara would live, but no one in the film lives, which is kinda depressing, but differs in that it doesn't have a happily-ever-after ending. The DVD transfer is adequate, and while the ONLY extra is an interactive menu with scene selection, the DVD is worth picking up if you're a true Horror fan. I would've given the movie 5 stars, but one thing about the film itself that bugs me is that Barbara is given hardly anything to do throughout most of the film. Still, I'm glad I bought it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Scared Me to Death
Review: I'm usually not too big on horror films, but I thought that is movie if from 1968, "how scary can it be?" It doesn't have the big cinematic effects that movies have today, which I think made me uneasy. And it just got more terrifying from there.

Being the over-analytical person that I am, I wondered how were the zombies able to break the door. I mean, c'mon, its a solid wood door on an old farmhouse, but like I said, I'm over-analytical.

When everyone was turning on each other, it reminded me of the Twilight Zone episode "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street".

I definately didn't expect the ending.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I bought the cheap DVD version because ....
Review: I've been wanting to see this movie for years. Unable to find it for rent, I decided it was better to buy the cheapest DVD version available that kept the original soundtrack. Thanks to countless reviews on Amazon, I avoided the '30th Anniversary Edition" which is supposed to be a butchering of the original cut. I decided against the Elite version because it was too expensive, and would have kicked myself if I hated the movie when it arrived.

After watching my chosen "Good Times" DVD, I am glad I spent the very low amount to buy this movie. While the transfer isn't brilliant, it's far from poor. It's watchable, and the original soundtrack is satisfactory. The movie itself ended up not really being my cup of tea so I'm glad I didnt opt for the Elite expensive version.

The "Good Times" version states that its Digitally Remastered. I think they've done an okay job on the transfer. Like I said earlier, it's not great, but for [money], what more could you ask for if you a first timer to this movie?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the only version worth buying is the millenium edition
Review: I've had to go thru the many copies of NOTLD before icam across the millenium edition. This is by far the only version of NOTLD worth spending bucks on. I know there are 3 dollar version floating around, but they lack what the millenium edition has which is George Romeros blessing. Not only do you get awesome quality transfer but you als get a few commentary tracks, interviews, and other goodies included. In my opinion "Night" is the best of the dead trilogy. Unfortunately too many lackluster versions of this classic are being sold. Truth is you get what you pay for when buying a copy of night. This might be the more expensive version but it's the one that captures the films greatness.


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