Night of the Living Dead (30th Anniversary Edition) (1968)
Starring: Judith O'Dea, Duane Jones, Karl Hardman
Director: George A Romero
Synopsis: Genre busting all time great horror film
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

Purists will cringeat the changes that have been made to the original for this 30th Anniversary release - none of which improve on the original cut in any way. However we didn't despise this souped up version as much as most people appear to have been finding it fairly dramatic (overly dramatic?) and the sequence of the zombies eating the victims of a car crash are rather tastefully done - a wonderfully nightmarish vision of a world gone horribly awry. However that said, let it be clearly stated that this new fangled version issued by Anchor Bay does nothing to add to the brilliance of the original cut and one has to ultimately side with the purists who have rejected this version in favour of Elite's DVD which not only looks great but doesn't take any needless liberties..

There's not too much that has been changed, just that the soundtrack is totally different and more overwrought and not as effective. There are also a couple of new scenes - the opening is different and again, quite needless.

The movie itself may have lost some of its power to shock over the 30 years or so but its subversiveness and genre shattering is still so much in evidence.

This is the horror film that dared to explore new levels of unimaginable horror. Night of the living Dead wrenched horror movies out of the genteel closet and set new standards paving the way just five years later for the mind-blowing The Exorcist. Night of the Living Dead is a true landmark film, not only within the realm of horror but in cinema as a whole. An enduring Classic.