Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		2.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Night of the Living Dead Blu-ray Movie Review

The first real Zombie classic earns a subpar Blu-ray release.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 29, 2017

There actually was a time in entertainment history when zombies weren't beating down every door, when they weren't infesting every theater and ambling across every television screen. There was a time when the mere thought, never mind the sight, of the undead coming after those still fortunate...or unfortunate...enough to be alive was one that yielded genuine terror for both the audience, watching through tiny slits between the fingers covering their faces, and the characters, forced to flee in terror, batten down the hatches, and hope with every fiber of their likely soon-to-be-devoured essence that they could somehow survive the night. Night of the Living Dead didn't change cinema immediately, overnight, but it did usher in a new era of flesh-eating reanimated corpses, building on a handful of previous "zombie" films and forever changing the genre's landscape and core essence into what it is today. It asked a lot of questions -- it would be another decade before "when there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth," -- and didn't answer them all to satisfaction, but then again that's sort of the point. Perhaps the only thing more scary than the cretures' relentless hunger is the possibilities of their origins, the how's and the why's and the very real concern that it could happen and whether anything could prevent their rise or prevent the fall of man, and not only in the physical sense.

Info.

In the first Dead film, the series that would make Pittsburgh, PA-based filmmaker George A Romero a household name, audiences are introduced to the frightening proposition of friends and neighbors and total strangers reanimating from the dead with only one goal: violently devouring anyone in their way. Their prey: a small band of survivors who have no idea what is going on, other than that their lives are in grave and immediate danger. The film gradually introduces sporadic information as the characters piece together the clues as they are fed inconclusive but terrifying radio and, eventually, television reports. Indeed, much of the fear comes not from direct contact with the zombies but rather in their frantic preparations to fend them off from inside a house and, even more terrifying, their inability to always keep their cool during the in-fighting that inevitably results, particularly as most characters deem it safer to stay in the house's main area while one stubborn man insists on keeping his family locked in the basement with no means of escape. The film certainly finds some horror and scares in its action but, in another way in which the film would influence the genre, it's often the living who make things more perilous for themselves that puts them in greater danger.

Of course, the film is downright tame by today's standards, more visually than psychologically but even with a few scattered "grisly" moments the picture has nothing on what AMC airs every week or what can be found by scouring the annals of the Zombie genre that has materialized since. But for its time, it's visuals and edgy narrative structure were hotly debated and derided by many. The film nevertheless found a rather wide audience and became a success even as an independent release. Today it's a film heralded for genre innovation, expert construction under limited financial constraints, and of course a launching pad for a genre and the man who made it. Romero would follow the film a decade later with Dawn of the Dead, a film perhaps not quite as fundamentally influential but certainly better in every way, larger by every measure, and the film for which the director is best known. It's much more expansive in comparison, and more socially biting, too, never mind amping up the gore factor many times over. Yet Night remains, arguably, the quintessential Zombie film. It's more limited scope, greater sense of urgency and confusion, and tighter focus on deteriorating conditions inside the house amongst the survivors brings the story together in a way that the more sprawling sequels could not achieve. Yes, Dawn is a better film, but Night is a better experience.

The film makes the most of its limited resources, including relatively cheap (but still convincing) makeup and effects, little-known actors in lead roles, and simple sets, primarily a real cemetery and a house ticketed for demolition. Performances are solid, if not a bit crude. The cast is tasked with playing against the movie's limited resources but also, perhaps more challenging, the novelty of its story and the violence it depicts, the latter in particular something, for the time, was closer to uncharted territory than it was run-of-the-mill. Both Judith O'Dea and Duane Jones are strong in their parts, each more or less opposites in how they react to the crumbling world around them and the hopelessness of the situation in which they find themselves. O'Dea's Barbra finds herself emotionally compromised and physically inept as the trauma at the cemetery sinks in and the hopelessness of the situation becomes clear. On the other hand, Jones' Ben is a fighter and a survivor. He's certainly scared -- who wouldn't be -- but he's able to compartmentalize and push forward, to finish the tasks at hand and keep a clear head through the horror. The two make for an interesting juxtaposition and are, while certainly each an extreme on the zombie survival spectrum, two characters that give clear-cut viewpoints on what's happening in the film and individuals with whom the audience can easily relate.

Night of the Living Dead Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Night of the Living Dead releases to Blu-ray with an MPEG-4 AVC encode (a rarity for recent Mill Creek Blu-ray releases) and a 1080p transfer in need of some help. No clean-up has been performed, and the print is riddled with wear, pops, and scratches. It's unrelenting, and there's not a shot, scene, or sequence in some severity of deterioration, which is often thick and the presentation's most noted quality. Details are not particularly impressive. The image cannot reveal finer-point details with any depth or consistency. Faces are flat, surfaces around the cemetery and around the barricaded home offer basic qualities but little that reflects the inherent textural details of its film source. The grayscale lacks nuance. Blacks are overbearing and blown-out highlights to some degree are commonplace, whether the daytime sky over the cemetery or the many white surfaces inside the home. The image retains a bit of grain, but consistency is not a strong suit. This is not in any way a definitive presentation of this classic and important film.

Night of the Living Dead Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Night of the Living Dead features an LPCM 2.0 uncompressed soundtrack. It's not particularly noteworthy or even good, struggling to maintain clarity and consistency. Music is mismanaged, wavy, unable to hold firm and remain in balance. It's scratchy, sharp, and shrill. There's little range; the track struggles to decide where to go, not expanding the front stage particularly far and not pushing to the middle with any security. Sound effects, whether hammering boards or shooting guns, offer no definition or stage presence of note. Dialogue is adequately clear with fair front-center positioning.

Night of the Living Dead Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Night of the Living Dead contains no supplemental content.

Night of the Living Dead Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Night of the Living Dead certainly offered the first real glimpse into the nightmarish world of zombies, and it's interesting to watch the movie now in hindsight through the prism of a world where shows like The Walking Dead exist, not to mention a slew of other Romero zombie films as well as a cornucopia of other like-minded (and even Romero remakes) pictures that have so deeply saturated the marketplace. But none of them, with the sole exception of Romero's own Dawn of the Dead, can claim to be so influential, so genre-defining as Night of the Living Dead. A trailblazer in every sense of the term and more than any other the film responsible for carving out one of the most popular niche genres of all time, the film is rightly heralded a classic today, even as it was, in some corners, panned upon its release. Unfortunately, the film has not received the treatment it deserves on Blu-ray. Mill Creek's presentation struggles through tattered picture quality and an unsatisfying soundtrack. No extras are included. Rumors persist of a superior Criterion release coming down the line, and with that studio's track record, as well as some gorgeous screenshots out in the wild, that release, should it materialize, is bound to be the film's definitive home video release. Until then, this makes for a decent substitute, but it's hardly the end-all, be-all of Night of the Living Dead releases.