Night of The Living Dead (1998 New Footage) {30th Anniversary Edition} (0)

Director: George A. Romero(Original Footage) / John A. Russo (New Footage)

Stars :Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman

Genre: Horror

MPAA Rating: Not Rated 

Running Time: 96Mins

Tagline: "They Are Coming To Get You....Again! "

Before Romero fans begin to bash and insult me. Let me clear out that this review is for the 30^th Anniversary Edition, and not the original timeless classic from George A. Romero.  This review will center only on the new version that was released in 1998. I will talk briefly about the plot, but only to point out the differences between the original and this new version.

Why fix something if it’s not broken? (so the saying says) it couldn’t be more evident here.  Producers and writers of the original film went back to Pittsburgh (where NOFTLD was originally shot) and decided to shoot new footage, that supposedly wasn’t added at the time due to time restraints and limited budget. Excuse my French, but that is just one pile of horseshit! These Assholes just thought it was a good idea to shoot more footage to gain an extra buck.  They did it pretty easily thanks to the fact that NOFTLD has been in public domain for ages; literally anyone can add any footage they like, or release as many versions of it as possible. You would not believe how many versions of this film exist, aside the colorized version, there is also an atrocious 3-D edition (which I will do a review of eventually)

The producers released this new edition to celebrate the release of its original film. What they did was insert 15 min of footage. This footage is entirely new, not shot in 68, and perhaps the worst and most unnecessary footage ever filmed for a film. Such scenes include: a prelude which explains how the first zombie (which attacks Johnny and Barbara) came to life. While it may seem a nice tribute, it looks out of place and overall unneeded. Also, it is very obvious that the actor has aged and gained weight, unless zombies lose a lot of weight, from one scene to the next, taking place the same day, then perhaps it would be acceptalbe, but in this case it isnt.

To make matters worse they add two segments with a priest. The actor who plays the priest looks like he has never stepped into a studio in his life, plus his teeth look like Chiclets.  If you don’t want me to spoil you any further than this is my cue for you to stop reading, but if you are interested do keep reading.  The priest gets bitten by one of the zombies and miraculously he doesn’t die nor turn to a Zombie. My guess is that they wanted to make the film tie up with the tagline of Dawn of The Dead “When there is no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the earth”. So my theory is this: the priest did not turn because he is protected by God…then again we can do the right thing, ignore this idiotic attempt at reconstructing a movie that didn’t need to be reconstructed.  Stick to the original folks. I will leave a video of the priest explaining how he is blessed and protected by God, horrible scene, just horrible!