Night of the Living Dead George A. Romero

Premiere controversy

Night of the Living Dead premiered on October 1, 1968, at the Fulton Theater in Pittsburgh.[21] Nationally, it was a Saturday afternoon matinée—typical for horror films at the time—and attracted the usual horror film audience of mainly pre-teens and adolescents.[96][97][98] The MPAA film rating system was not in place until the following month, so children were able to purchase tickets. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times chided theater owners and parents who allowed children access to a film they were entirely unprepared for. Ebert noted that the children in the audience initially displayed typical reactions to '60s horror films, including shouting when ghouls appeared on the screen. He said that the atmosphere in the theater shifted to grim silence as the protagonists each began to fail, die, and be consumed—either by fire or the undead.[98] The deaths of Ben, Barbra, and the supporting cast showed audiences an uncomfortable, nihilistic outlook that was unusual for the genre.[99] According to Ebert:

The kids in the audience were stunned. There was almost complete silence. The movie had stopped being delightfully scary about halfway through, and had become unexpectedly terrifying. There was a little girl across the aisle from me, maybe nine years old, who was sitting very still in her seat and crying ... It's hard to remember what sort of effect this movie might have had on you when you were six or seven. But try to remember. At that age, kids take the events on the screen seriously, and they identify fiercely with the hero. When the hero is killed, that's not an unhappy ending but a tragic one: Nobody got out alive. It's just over, that's all.[98]

A review in Variety denounced the movie as a moral failing of the film's makers, the horror genre, and regional cinema. The reviewer claimed that the "unrelieved orgy of sadism" was effectively pornography due to its extreme violence.[100] These early denouncements would not limit the film's commercial success or later critical recognition.[101]

Critical reception

Despite the controversy, five years after the premiere Paul McCullough of Take One observed that Night of the Living Dead was the "most profitable horror film ever ... produced outside the walls of a major studio".[102] In the decade after its release, the film grossed over $15 million at the U.S. box office. It was translated into over 25 languages.[103] The Wall Street Journal reported that it was the top-grossing film in Europe in 1968.[89][89] In a 1971 Newsweek article, Paul D. Zimmerman noted that the film had "become a bona fide cult movie for a burgeoning band of blood-lusting cinema buffs".[104]

Decades after its release, the film enjoys a reputation as a classic and still receives positive reviews.[105][106][107] In 2008, the film was ranked by Empire magazine No. 397 of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.[108] The New York Times also placed the film on their Best 1000 Movies Ever list.[109] In January 2010, Total Film included the film on its list of The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.[110] Rolling Stone named Night of the Living Dead one of The 100 Maverick Movies in the Last 100 Years.[111] Reader's Digest found it to be the 12th scariest movie of all time.[112] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 84 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "George A. Romero's debut set the template for the zombie film, and features tight editing, realistic gore, and a sly political undercurrent."[113] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 89 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[114]

Night of the Living Dead was awarded two distinguished honors decades after its debut. The Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry in 1999 with other films deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".[6][33][115][116] In 2001, the film was ranked No. 93 by the American Film Institute on their AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Thrills list, a list of America's most heart-pounding movies.[117] The zombies in the picture were also a candidate for AFI's AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Heroes & Villains, in the villains category, but failed to make the official list.[118] The Chicago Film Critics Association named it the 5th scariest film ever made.[119] The film also ranked No. 9 on Bravo's The 100 Scariest Movie Moments.[120]

New Yorker critic Pauline Kael called the film "one of the most gruesomely terrifying movies ever made – and when you leave the theatre you may wish you could forget the whole horrible experience. ... The film's grainy, banal seriousness works for it – gives it a crude realism".[121] A Film Daily critic commented, "This is a pearl of a horror picture that exhibits all the earmarks of a sleeper."[122] While Roger Ebert criticized the matinée screening, he admitted that he "admires the movie itself".[98] Critic Rex Reed wrote, "If you want to see what turns a B movie into a classic ... don't miss Night of the Living Dead. It is unthinkable for anyone seriously interested in horror movies not to see it."[123]

Copyright status and home media

In the United States, Night of the Living Dead was mistakenly released into the public domain because the original distributor failed to replace the copyright notice when changing the film's name.[9][124] Image Ten displayed a notice on the title frames of the film beneath the original title, Night of the Flesh Eaters, but the Walter Reade Organization removed it when changing the title.[9][125] At that time, United States copyright law held that public dissemination required copyright notice to maintain a copyright.[126] Several years after the film's release, its creators discovered that the original prints distributed to theaters had no copyright protection.[124]

Because Night of the Living Dead was not copyrighted, it has received hundreds of home video releases on VHS, Betamax, DVD, Blu-ray, and other formats.[127] Over two hundred distinct versions of the film have been released on tapes alone.[128] Numerous versions of the film have appeared on DVD, Blu-ray, and LaserDisc with varying quality.[129] The original film is available to view or download for free on many websites.[f] As of February 2024, it is the Internet Archive's third most-viewed film, with over 3.5 million views.[138]

The film received a VHS release in 1993 through Tempe Video.[139] The next year, a THX certified 25th anniversary Laserdisc was released by Elite Entertainment. It features special features, including commentary, trailers, gallery files, and more.[140] In 1999, Russo's revised version of the film, Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition, was released on VHS and DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment.[139] In 2002, Elite Entertainment released a special edition DVD featuring the original cut.[139] Dimension Extreme released a restored print of the film on DVD.[139] This was followed by a 4K restoration Blu-ray released by The Criterion Collection on February 13, 2018, sourced from a print owned by the Museum of Modern Art and acquired by Janus Films.[141][142] This release also features a workprint edit of the film under the title of Night of Anubis, in addition to various bonus materials.[143] In February 2020, Netflix took down Night of the Living Dead from its streaming service in Germany following a legal request in 2017 because "a version of the film is banned in that country."[144][145]