The Night of the Living Dead--Special Edition

The Night of the Living Dead---Special Edition

It was just over 30th year ago when Night of the Living Dead made it's world premiere and forever changed the landscape of modern horror movie. Just a month or two ago, John Russo, co-writer of the original, finished filming about 15-20 minutes of "new" footage for a SPECIAL EDITION release of the film. "We were inspired by the success of the Star War release. George Romero and I were going to write the new scenes and George was going to direct. But by the time we got the deal with Anchor Bay, George was tied up with Resident Evil and other projects, and couldn't be involved". Russo went on to write and direct the new scenes for the release which is scheduled to be a August video release by Anchor Bay with possibly a theatrical release prior to that date.

The production used the same film stock, lenses, and in some cases the same light used during the original shoot to help maintain the look of NOTLD. Russo goes on to say that the film "is not being tampered with, just broadened. The "new" footage will go into explaining things such as "why were there so many zombies surrounding one farmhouse" and "where did they come from". The new footage will also introduce a new prologue and epilogue which details the fate of Hinzman's graveyard zombie.

The effects are being done by make-up artist Vincent Guastini, who just finished special effects duty on the upcoming Kevin Smith flick Dogma. Guastini states "almost every new scene deals with makeup effects to some exent." He goes on to state "We tried to keep a traditional look to the makeup, but it is very elaborate." Hardman and Eastman (the Coopers from NOTLD) who did the original special effects for NOTLD helped to create all the new background zombies for the SPECIAL EDITION.

To make room for the "new" 15-20 minutes of footage, Russo had to eliminate about 15 minutes from Romero's classic. "Some places that are really slow are gonna to go....it gives the movie a more modern pace, just enough to make it work better than before." Russo has also replaced the original library stock soundtrack fashioned by Romero with a new update one by Vlad and the Dark Theatre.

Russo concludes by saying, "there has been some negative stuff on the Internet, but even that has turned around now that they're starting to find out the great care and respect we're treating the original with."

So you may wondering how I feel about this new SPECIAL EDITION (SE). First, when I talked with George Romero at the beginning of the year, he told me he had no interesting in shooting new scenes for a SE release of the film. From what my sources tell me, Russo's jumped the gun early in 97 by announcing that there would be a SE release, before getting George's commitment. So everyone, please keep in mind that George Romero had nothing to do with this SE release.

Secondly, the "new" footage will not include the "Beekman Diner" scene with Ben or the scene involving Karen (Kyra Schon) being bitten by a zombie.

Thirdly, Russo has been living off NOTLD for 30th years and I think that this project is even more evil than the upcoming Psycho remake (for which my feelings have eased and I am in fact looking forward to seeing the new remake). I wouldn't be so pissed off if, 1). George Romero was involved, 2). the added footage was original material cut from the film, or 3). they didn't cut 15 minutes from the film. The third point is really what is infuriating me about this project. How can you cut 15 minutes (nearly 1/6th of the film) from such a classic film?? To me, everything in the film is so important to the total effectiveness of the story.

Finally, just look at who is involved in the film: Russo, Debbie Rochon (Russo's Scream Queen), Hinzman, etc. All people involved in Russo low budget B-movies production company. Now NOTLD is being exploited by those who original made it and the fans have to pay. We, at the House of Horrors, do not support this endeavor in any way and are only making this material available for the fans, so they can know the facts and make up their own minds.

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