User Reviews

This is less than forty minutes of talking heads talking about the horror classic "Night of the Living Dead". The talking heads are mostly lesser movie commentariats and a few participants in the movie. There is nothing new with the commentariats. One of them actually asked how people at the time reacted to the movie without actually telling us. It seems like an easy avenue to walk down but not a peep from this one. The few participants are nice to see and they have some cute stories. It's actually fun to see snippets of the industrial films. This is a short that isn't that deep.

This is less a documentary than a DVD extra, in terms of brevity and depth of quality. Of course, DVD extras often go "behind the scenes" and this, unfortunately, doesn't. Only half of the short running time specifically addresses the film, its unique characteristics, actor experiences, life on the set, etc. The rest of the time is devoted to repetitive pronouncements on how important and trend-setting the film and its director was, again with little detail, and from a collection of B-grade experts (excepting Geoff Pevere), and maybe 3 people from the film. How nice would it have been to have heard from accomplished members of the film industry having been influenced by this film, including those who did the remake (hey Tom Savini, where are you?), but afraid not. If you're hoping for an insight on the making of the film, its meaning, etc., don't bother.

No pun intended - and yes while I do agree this is way too short (I was expecting at least a feature length documentary), every little snippet, every little interview, every little insight is something I cherish. Night of the Living Dead was a revelation when I first watched it - and it is quite the important movie of its time - but also in the history of horror movies. More on that on the movie site itself.

People share their thoughts on why the movie was important - there is no insight on the troubled .. well legal issues the movie had. If writers and actors are on strike right now because of loyalties (money or earnings of a movie they made - that they don't receive), Romero had quite a lot to say about that with NotlD ... he never saw any money of it as I understand it and it is one of the movies anyone can use without having to pay for it ... which is why there are infinite amount of releases too.

But that is a different story and does not take anything from the movie itself. Would have been nice if they mentioned that here - or rather delved into it - but the running time. For any fan still essential viewing then, but I understand if some (many?) are underwhelmed.