Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition

Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition
DVD Cover
Directed by	John A. Russo
Produced by	John A. Russo Bill Hinzman Karl Hardman Russell Streiner
Written by	George A. Romero John A. Russo
Starring	Bill Hinzman Scott Vladimir Licina Grant Cramer Adam Knox Debbie Rochon Heidi Hinzman Scott Kerschbaumer George Drennen
Music by	Scott Vladimir Licina
Cinematography	Bill Hinzman
Edited by	Bill Hinzman John A. Russo
Production company	Market Square Productions Westwood Artists International Inc.
Distributed by	Anchor Bay Entertainment
Release dates	August 24, 1999 (1999-08-24)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	no info
Box office	no info

Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition is a 1999 recompiled version of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead with all new features by John A. Russo such as a new story, footage and soundtrack.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Plot

Following the execution of a convicted child rapist and murderer, drivers Dan and Mike are in the process of delivering the corpse to the county cemetery for anonymous burial. After brief words by Reverend Hicks, Dan and Mike notice that the corpse appears to be twitching and possibly even moving. They are suddenly attacked by the reanimated corpse, prompting them to flee to Beekman's Diner. Meanwhile, Barbra (Judith O'Dea) and Johnny (Russell Streiner) drive to rural Pennsylvania for an annual visit to their father's grave, at their mother's request. Noticing Barbra's discomfort, Johnny teases, "They're coming to get you, Barbra", before she is attacked by a strange man (Bill Hinzman), the same reanimated corpse that Dan and Mike were in the process of burying. Johnny tries to rescue his sister, but falls and bashes his head on a gravestone, killing himself. Barbra flees by car but almost instantly crashes into a tree. With the man in pursuit, she flees and eventually arrives at a seemingly abandoned farmhouse where, to her horror, she discovers a woman's mangled corpse. Running out of the house, she is confronted by strange menacing figures like the man in the graveyard. Ben (Duane Jones) arrives in a truck and takes her back inside the house. Barbra slowly descends into shock as Ben drives the monsters from the house and begins boarding up the doors and windows.

Ben and Barbra are unaware that the farmhouse has a cellar, which is housing angry married couple Harry (Karl Hardman) and Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman) and their daughter Karen (Kyra Schon), who sought refuge after a group of zombies overturned their car; and teenage couple Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley), who arrived after hearing an emergency broadcast about a series of brutal murders. Karen has fallen seriously ill after being bitten on the arm by one of the zombies. They venture upstairs and tensions immediately rise between Ben and Harry. Meanwhile, the situation outside worsens, as we see hordes of hungry reanimated corpses wandering the roads and fields. Among the recently dead are a family of 4, all of whom perished in a car wreck. The mother and two daughters reanimate, and descend upon the corpse of the father (whose head was crushed in the initial impact, thus preventing reanimation) and devour him.

Radio reports explain that a state of mass murder is sweeping across the eastern United States. When Ben finds a television, the emergency broadcaster reports that the recently deceased have become reanimated and are consuming the flesh of the living. Experts, scientists, and the United States military fail to discover the cause, though one scientist suspects radioactive contamination from a space probe returning from Venus, which was deliberately exploded in the Earth's atmosphere when the radiation was detected. When the reports list local rescue centers offering refuge and safety, Ben plans to leave and obtain medical care for Karen. Tom states that the closest center is in the town of Willard, several miles away. Ben and Tom venture outside to refuel Ben's truck, while Harry hurls Molotov cocktails from an upper window to keep the ghouls at bay. Fearing for Tom's safety, Judy follows him. At the pump, Tom accidentally spills gasoline on the truck, setting it ablaze. Tom and Judy try to drive the truck away from the pump, but Judy gets her jacket caught in the car door and is unable to free herself. The truck explodes, instantly killing both Tom and Judy and setting their corpses on fire.

Ben flees back to the house, but finds himself locked out by Harry. He pounds on the door and shouts without result, finally kicking the door in. Angered by Harry's cowardice, Ben issues him a sound beating, while the ghouls feed on the remains of Tom and Judy. In the house, a news report reveals that, aside from setting the "reactivated bodies" on fire, a gunshot or heavy blow to the head will stop them, and that posses of armed men are patrolling the countryside to restore order.

Moments later, the lights go out and the ghouls begin to break through the barricades. Harry grabs Ben's rifle and threatens to shoot him, but Ben wrests the gun away and fires. Mortally wounded, Harry stumbles into the cellar and collapses next to Karen, who has also died from her illness. The ghouls try to pull Helen and Barbra through the windows, but Helen frees herself and goes down into the cellar, only to find a reanimated Karen eating Harry. Helen, paralyzed by shock, falls as Karen stabs her to death with a masonry trowel. Barbra, seeing Johnny among the ghouls, is carried away by the horde and likely devoured. The undead overrun the house, and Ben fights off Karen as he seals himself inside the cellar. He finds Harry and Helen starting to reanimate and shoots them.

The next morning, Ben is awakened by gunshots as sheriff's department deputies move through the fields, shooting all the zombies they find. We see that Reverend Hicks has encountered the "original zombie" and as he tries to condemn it by reciting scripture, the zombie falls upon him, biting his face before it is killed by the armed posse. Meanwhile, venturing upstairs, Ben is killed by a member of the posse, who seemingly mistook him for a ghoul.

In the final scenes of the film, a year passes and the crisis is averted. We find Reverend Hicks is being kept in solitary quarters under constant observation, still alive. He reveals that the parents of the little girl that was murdered by the "cemetery zombie"(prior to his execution), found Reverend Hicks and took him in. Between caring for the wound and reciting endless prayer, Reverend Hicks manages to survive the zombie bite. Declaring it to be divine intervention by God, the reverend delivers an ominous statement to the reporter who had come to interview him, and seems to disgust her to the point of storming out when he says that the only reason he is allowed to keep his pet dog is because it will provide a distraction for him should he turn into a ghoul, allowing his captors to dispose of him without risking human life.

Cast

S. William Hinzman as Zombie
Scott Vladimir Licina as Reverend Hicks
Grant Cramer as Dan
Adam Knox as Mike
Debbie Rochon as Darlene Davis
Heidi Hinzman as Rosie
Scott Kerschbaumer as Prison Guard
George Drennen as Arthur Krantz
Julie Wallace Deklavon as Hilda Krantz
etc. (Rest of cast is the same as in original Night of the Living Dead (1968))

New Features

15 minutes of new footage produced and shot by three original creators John A. Russo, Bill Hinzman and Russell Streiner. This edition also features an all new musical score by Scott Vladimir Licina and a scene from Bill Hinzman's feature film Flesheater at the film's conclusion.^[2]

Release

On the morning of 24 August 1999 Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition was released in the United States for VHS and DVD.^[1]^[2]

Reception

Critical reception to the 30th anniversary treatment has largely been negative. While the picture quality is often praised, the newly added sequences and characters are met mostly with displeasure by fans. The character of Reverend Hicks, portrayed by the composer of the film's new score Scott Vladimir Licina, has been considered by some to be one of the worst horror movie characters of all time. Acting in the new sequences is considered to be terrible, and the pacing of the original film is damaged by the superfluous added footage.^[3] Others view the inclusion of Bill Hinzman reprising his role as the Cemetery Zombie to be awkward, as the clear age difference, makeup and costume design between his original portrayal and the new footage is blatant and obvious.^[3]

Contrast to criticism, others praise the film for its new score and definite conclusion, which shows that the original outbreak was in fact contained and eradicated.^[3] Additionally, the documentary content and extra features were all well received by fans of the original film.^[4]

References

↑ 1.0 1.1 Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition (DVD, 1999), ASIN B00000JXVO.
↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Magpies (2013). "Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition (1999)" (Review). scaryminds.com. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Gore, Chris (October 4, 1999). "Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition" (Review). filmthreat.com. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
↑ 4.0 4.1 McDonagh, Maitland (1999). "Night Of The Living Dead -- 30th Anniversary Edition" (Review). tvguide.com. Retrieved July 14, 2014.

External links

Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition at the Internet Movie Database

Living Dead films

Romero's Dead series	Night of the Living Dead (1968) Dawn of the Dead (1978) Day of the Dead (1985) Land of the Dead (2005) Diary of the Dead (2007) Survival of the Dead (2009)

Dead series remakes	Night of the Living Dead (1990) Dawn of the Dead (2004) Night of the Living Dead 3D (2006) Day of the Dead (2008)

Russo's Dead series	Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition (1999)

Return of the Living Dead series	The Return of the Living Dead (1985) Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988) Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993) Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis (2005) Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave (2005)

Unofficial sequels	Zombi 2 (1979) Zombi 3 (1988) Zombi 4: After Death (1989) Zombi 5: Killing Birds (1988) Children of the Living Dead (2001) Day of the Dead 2: Contagium (2005) Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane (2007) Night of the Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation (2012) Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D (2014)

Parodies	Night of the Living Bread (1990) Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006) Night of the Living Carrots (2011)

Homages	Flesheater (1988) Shaun of the Dead (2004) Fido (2006) Dance of the Dead (2008) Zone of the Dead (2009) Juan of the Dead (2011)

Related topics	Return of the Living Dead (1977) Document of the Dead (1985) Escape of the Living Dead (2005) Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler's Green (2005) City of the Dead (Cancelled) Empire of the Dead (2014– )