Director: George A. Romero
Screenplay: John Russo and George A. Romero
Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea, Marilyn Eastman, Karl Hardman, Judith Ridley, Keith Wayne and Russell W. Streiner
Country: United States
Running Time: 96 mins
Year: 1968
When it comes to horror titans, George A. Romero is probably one of the most important filmmakers to ever dabble in the genre, let alone create classic after classic for his 50+ year career. Earlier this year, I covered an underseen gem of his, Bruiser (you can read my review here) and when I caught wind that Criterion UK were porting over their release of Romero’s debut, Night of the Living Dead, I jumped at the chance to cover it, of course.
It’s almost difficult to talk about Night of the Living Dead without feeling like you’re repeating what others have said about the film, because it’s the zombie movie (even if the zombies are never referred to by that name, and instead are called ‘ghouls’), the independent horror film, the Romero film for so many people, and for good reason. The film’s influence and legacy is obvious, thanks to the litany of copycats over the years, films, shows, books, video games and more that took the core concept of what made Night work so well and expanded on it for new generations and audiences.
For those unfamiliar, Night of the Living Dead follows a group of people holed up inside a farmhouse while undead creatures attempt to break in. The group includes Ben (Duane Jones), Barbra (Judith O’Dea), Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley) along with some others, and what makes Romero’s debut picture so brilliant are the dynamics between all of these characters. For the time, casting Duane Jones, a Black actor in the lead role was a daring, uncommon choice but as stated by Romero throughout the years, he was chosen because he was the best actor for the part. Romero also denied the takes on the film which state it was a political decision, but it’s undeniable that by making that choice, Romero paved the way for more progressive choices in the landscape of filmmaking as a whole, which is absolutely fantastic.
Made for around $125,000, the film utilises its single location remarkably well, offering a great look at all aspects of the house and despite this being Romero’s first feature, the confidence that all of his future endeavours contained was on display from the very beginning. Many of the extras included on this release go into the genius filmmaking and editing decisions that make Night of the Living Dead such a phenomenal picture in far better detail than I ever could, but it can’t be understated how excellently crafted Night is.
Throughout his career, Romero would return to the Living Dead franchise with future instalments Dawn, Day, Land, Diary and Survival of the Dead alongside the countless remakes and unofficial spin-offs these films received over the 55 years since Night was unleashed into the world. While Romero was far from the first filmmaker to bring zombies to the big screen, there’s a reason why Night of the Living Dead is the first film that comes to most people’s minds when the undead ghouls are brought up in conversation.
If you’re looking to watch an iconic piece of genre cinema, that paved the way for success in genre pictures, progressive casting, independent features as a whole as well as remarkable social commentary to boot, Night of the Living Dead is a must watch this October. Criterion’s 4K UHD presentation of the film is nothing short of sublime, which I’ll dive into below in great detail, but trust me when I say, it’s a worthwhile purchase for any horror head or film collector out there. For those wanting to read another take on the film and Criterion’s prior Blu-ray release, check out fellow Blueprint: Review writer David’s review from 2018 here.
Film: 
Night of the Living Dead released on the 7th of October on 4K UHD via The Criterion Collection. They released the film on Blu-ray back in 2018, and the Blu-ray discs included in this release are ports of those discs. The UHD disc is new to the UK, although it received a US release back in 2022. The 4K restoration included doesn’t feature HDR, which is surprising but it doesn’t detract from a truly gorgeous scan of the film. Back when I first watched the film on Criterion’s Blu-ray, years back, I found the transfer fantastic and they’ve improved on it even more with this UHD release. Audio wise, the same English LPCM 1.0 audio track is included for the feature, with a Dolby Digital 1.0 track included for the Night of Anubis work-print cut. Optional English subtitles are included for the main feature. Overall, it’s another winner from Criterion A/V wise. The following extras are included:
4K UHD + 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
One 4K UHD disc of the film and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
Night of Anubis, a work-print edit of the film
Program featuring filmmakers Frank Darabont, Guillermo del Toro, and Robert Rodriguez
Sixteen-millimeter dailies reel
Program featuring Russo on the commercial and industrial film production company where key Night of the Living Dead participants got their starts
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
Programs about the film’s style and score
Interview program about the direction of ghouls, featuring members of the cast and crew
Interviews with Gary Streiner and Russell Streiner
Newsreels from 1967
Trailer, radio spots, and TV spots
PLUS: An essay by critic Stuart Klawans
Illustration by Sean Phillips
All of the included extras are ported over from the previous Criterion Blu-ray, so there’s nothing new here but with the incredible set of extras included, that’s not a bad thing.
Two audio commentaries are included, both from 1994.
The first is a crew track with George A. Romero, John Russo, Karl Hardman, and Marilyn Eastman and it’s a blast. Packed full of anecdotes, the crew seem to have a great time reminiscing about the film over 25 years after it originally came out. Absolutely worth a listen!
The second features cast members Bill Hinzman, Judith O’Dea, Keith Wayne, Kyra Schon, Russell Streiner and Vince Survinski and it’s another solid one. This track’s full of similar information to the first track, but hearing the perspective from the cast offers more insight into the production and again, it’s worth your time.
Night of Anubis, a work-print edit of the film is included and it’s around ten minutes shorter than the final version of the film. It’s a curiosity for super-fans of Romero and while the differences don’t completely change the film, it’s worth checking out if you’re curious. A seven minute introduction is included.
Light in the Darkness: The Impact of Night of the Living Dead is a twenty four minute appreciation of the film with filmmakers Frank Darabont, Guillermo del Toro, and Robert Rodriguez. It’s a great little piece and choosing three filmmakers known for genre pictures was an excellent call. I remember watching this back when I picked up the Criterion Blu-ray years back and revisiting it for this review was delightful.
Learning from Scratch: The Latent Image and Night of the Living Dead is an interview with co-writer John Russo and it runs for twelve minutes. Russo touches on the production of the film, his collaborations with director George A. Romero and more. It’s a solid little interview.
The dailies reel features eighteen minutes of unedited 16mm footage. An introduction with sound engineer Gary Streiner is also included.
Limitations into Virtues: The Image Ten Style is a twelve minute video essay by Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos, who you may know for their YouTube channel Every Frame a Painting. If you’re unfamiliar with the pair, they create some of the best video essays out there and Limitations into Virtues is no exception. It touches on the production of the film, how the crew uses their limitations to create something truly special. It’s a great video essay that’s highly worth a watch.
Tones of Terror: The Night of the Living Dead Score is an eleven minute featurette with Jim Cirronella who talks about the stock music that was used for the film’s score. It’s an great watch, and knowing that Romero ended up doing similar things with Dawn of the Dead from the De Wolfe Library made this even more interesting to watch.
Walking Like The Dead is a thirteen minute long featurette featuring interviews with the ghouls from the film, with footage shot in 2009 and edited in 2017. It’s another delightful extra, hearing the extras recount their experiences acting in Night of the Living Dead. It’s a wonderful little extra.
A segment from the NBC show Tomorrow, which aired in 1979, featuring George A. Romero and Phantasm director Don Coscarelli discussing the horror genre. As always, it’s always a pleasure to hear Romero talk and Don’s insight is fascinating too. Romero discusses the MPAA, Coscarelli talks about seeing Phantasm in a packed screening, there’s some great stuff here.
The Duane Jones audio interview with Tim Ferrante runs for twenty two minutes and was recorded in 1987. Jones was known for not wanting to discuss the film, and this interview was conducted just over half a year before his passing. It’s a great piece, with Jones being open about how purposely remained elusive during his career so he wouldn’t be seen as Ben and his lack of experience with Romero’s other work. From all accounts, Jones seemed like a delightful person and getting this section of Ferrante’s interview is something I’m extremely grateful for.
A forty five minute extra entitled Higher Learning is included, shot in 2012 at TIFF featuring director Romero discussing Night. Romero’s charming as always, and opens the panel joking about how he can’t watch Night without noticing all of the mistakes he made. He also touches on how they copyrighted the title and not the film itself, giving anybody access to release it on home media. Even touching on the racial reading on the film, Romero states how Jones was cast purely because he was the best actor Romero knew. One of my favourite extras on the disc, easily.
Zombies, My Love is an archival interview from 1994 with Judith Ridley (who plays Judy in the film) that runs for 11 minutes. It’s a decent interview, highlighting how Ridley ended up getting the role, which characters she tested for and the production of Night of the Living Dead. Not my favourite interview on the disc, but it’s worth a look
The newsreels from 1967 included are fascinating watches too. The Venus Probe one runs for around 35 seconds and the TV newsreel is just under three minutes long. The latter showcases behind-the-scenes footage of the shoot for Night, a true rarity and seeing this included is absolutely fantastic.
Two trailers are included, alongside two TV spots and five radio spots. All of these are well worth checking out and date back to the release of the film, as well as a contemporary trailer for Criterion’s release.
I wasn’t provided with the essay, unfortunately but it seems to be a direct port of what was included in Criterion’s previous Blu-ray release.
To say that Criterion’s release of Night of the Living Dead is fantastic would be underselling it. Packed to the brim with insightful, entertaining and wonderful bonus features, a gorgeous 4K transfer, multiple cuts of the film and more, it’s the definitive version of Night. A must own for fans of Romero, horror or cinema in general.
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