Night of the Living Dead 
Millennium Edition
(1968)
review by Head Cheeze

Elite Enterainment have long been associated with the quality and quantity of extras they've adorned their releases with, from laserdisc to DVD, and fans of films like The Evil Dead and Maniac can attest to this fact. I am happy to say that the trend continues with Night of the Living Dead, the first title under Elite's "Millenium Edition" banner.

I'm not going to go into too much depth regarding the film, since Red Velvet Kitchen posted a great review/essay about the film HERE, so instead I will delve into the absolutely mind-boggling amount of extras Elite has assembled for this, the definitive release, of NOTLD.

First up is the film's transfer, newly approved THX style and sharp as a zombie canine. I was literally giddy while watching the film because I have never seen it look so good. This surpasses Criterion's transfer of Carnival of Souls, which, for me, is no small feat. Elite's NOTLD looks as fresh as any DVD on my shelf, with a crisp and virtually flawless image .When one factors in the new Dolby 5.1 mix it's like seeing NOTLD for the first time. Yes, it's that good, and if this were all that were on this disc it'd be worth the purchase.

The dual commentary tracks, especially the one featuring director Romero and John Russo are very entertaining and enlightening. It's laugh out loud funny when Romero and Russo dish out the behind the scenes dirt and tricks of the trade that they employed to get the desired effects and should be considered required viewing for aspiring filmmakers (I know I learned a few tricks from them!).

As a bonus to Romero fans, Elite has included some scenes from his little scene film "There's Always Vanilla" as well as a small gallery of images and promotional materials from it. This is mostly peripheral to the reason anyone would buy this set, but I have to admit that the scenes piqued my curiosity and I'd really love to see this "lost" part of Romero's ouevre'.

There is also a section devoted to Romero's advertising agency, The Latent Image, with a brief history as well as a series of original television commercials and short films. Once again, this stuff has nothing to do with NOTLD, but shows what the folks behind the film did to make ends meet before AND after they unleased their zombie classic on the world!

The rest of the set is packed with other goodies including interviews with stars Judy Ridley and Duane Jones, the short Night of the Living Bread parody, an original props gallery, stills gallery, poster and promotional gallery, the original shooting script (neat feature for budding screenwriters!), photos and memoirs from cast members and a full color one sheet insert with liner notes by Romero's pal Stephen King!

In a nutshell this set ROCKS beyond belief. Even if you've seen NOTLD a hundred times, you've never seen OR heard it as good as it is presented here, and with the wealth of extras in this set there is no reason on Earth why you should pass this one up!