Night of the Living Dead (Audio Commentary)

Film Year:  1968
Genre:  Horror
Director:  George A. Romero
Starring:  Judith O'Dea, Duane Jones, Marilyn Eastman, Karl Hardman, Judith Ridley, Keith Wayne
Commentator:  Michael J. Nelson

The Movie

*I HAVE SURVIVED WATCHING THIS MOVIE UNRIFFED*

When it gets to be Halloween season and I find myself compiling a list of horror flicks to watch during the October festivities, Night of the Living Dead is usually the first film that pops into my head (it's usually a race between it and Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy).  It was an early favorite horror movie of mine, and along with films like Halloween and Jaws it started to get me interested in the nutty and versatile genre.  I feel this movie is the epitome of isolation, dread, and dramatic conflict.

This classic tells the chilling tale of the dead rising from the grave and eating the flesh of the living.  Seeking shelter, a group of strangers take refuge in an abandoned house and argue over what their next move should be.

I've always loved the character use here, as we're initially introduced to this film through the character of Barbara, who we follow as she runs for her life into the place she'll hide from the ghouls in.  Barbara, in her shock, then shuts down entirely as she finds herself unable to comprehend what's going on.  Other take-charge characters take over the film from there, as Ben and Cooper begin to have heated arguments over what the best course of action to take is.  Cooler heads try to prevail in their clash, but it always comes back to these two and their disagreement on how to handle the situation.

Sometimes stilted acting threatens to overwhelm the character drama though, but it's counteracted by the fluid way the film builds itself.  It grows more unsettling and terrifying as it goes on, fueled by a down and dirty black and white cinematography that is just breathtaking.  Night of the Living Dead is a master wielding of a limited budget and using it to its fullest extent to create an atmosphere.

Night of the Living Dead spawned five sequels directed by George A. Romero, including the equally iconic Dawn of the Dead.  It also inspired a spiritual followups in the Return of the Living Dead and Zombi 2 (which was actually a quasi-sequel to Dawn of the Dead), each in turn inspired their own sequels.  The film also inspired various remakes of itself and a few of the films it spawned.  But the original is the film I always find myself going back to no matter how many movies are squeezed out, because it's so damn good.

The Commentary

Mike's second Legend Films commentary is at the expense of one of the most iconic horror films of all time.  Mike doesn't quite seem to revere the film all that much, as he rides it hard for being needlessly prolonged and depressing.  Agree to disagree.

Though while Mike doesn't seem to be a fan of the film, I'm not entirely convinced he quite knew what to do with it.  He's still in that early commentary phase where he feels he needs to drop production trivia tidbits every so often for it to count as a "commentary," and he spends what may be way too much time riffing on the trivia than the actual movie.  Segments like this feel like Mike is laughing at his own jokes, and it just comes off as a cry for a writing crew more than anything.  Further enhancing this are portions where he gives up on riffing the film and just shares zombie themed drink recipes.  I've never tried any of these myself, but I hope they pack more punch than these portions of the commentary.

When Mike actually comments on the film itself, I find my interest upticking.  Mike relishes the angry-at-everyone character of Harry Cooper and unleashes a slew of comments making fun of his anger and that scuff on his head.  He also has more than a fair bit of zingers at the way the story unfolds, the various performances, and some silly lines reads.  He also has some fun trying to match zombies as lookalikes to various celebrities.  Night of the Living Dead is not a total loss, though watching it without the commentary is far more entertaining.

Average

The DVD

All of Mike's audio commentaries were offered as a part of Legend Films' colorization line of DVDs from the early 2000's.  The video of the film is a bit rough, looking greasy and scratchy overall.  Night of the Living Dead is usually in rough shape on home video, and it at times enhances the mood.  The colorization, on the other hand, does not, and this version of the film just sucks the mood out of the room.  And to be honest, the colorization just isn't very good either.  Flesh tones look like plastic, and hair looks like a colored smudge.  The zombies are given a greenish skin tone, and really just look like Muppets.

Mike's commentary is the highlight of the special features, other than the original black and white version of the film.  The audio and video on that presentation is good enough, and easily the best representation of the film on this disc.  There is also an image gallery called Separated at Death which shows off various characters and zombies and shows which celebrity they look like, playing off a gag from the commentary.

The film rounds out with colorized trailers to Night of the Living Dead and Carnival of Souls, and a black and white trailer to Flesh Eaters.