George A. Romero

Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead

Shot outside Pittsburgh on a shoestring budget, by a band of filmmakers determined to make their mark, Night of the Living Dead, directed by horror master George A. Romero, is a great story of independent cinema: a midnight hit turned box-office smash that became one of the most influential films of all time. A deceptively simple tale of a group of strangers trapped in a farmhouse who find themselves fending off a horde of recently dead, flesh-eating ghouls, Romero’s claustrophobic vision of a late-1960s America literally tearing itself apart rewrote the rules of the horror genre, combining gruesome gore with acute social commentary and quietly breaking ground by casting a Black actor (Duane Jones) in its lead role.


Night of the Living Dead was restored by the Museum of Modern Art and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation and the Celeste Bartos Preservation Fund.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1968
  • 96 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • English
  • Spine #909

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director George A. Romero, coscreenwriter John A. Russo, sound engineer Gary R. Streiner, and producer Russell W. Streiner
  • New restoration of the monaural soundtrack, supervised by Romero and Gary Streiner and presented uncompressed
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
  • Night of Anubis, a work-print edit of the film
  • Program featuring filmmakers Frank Darabont, Guillermo del Toro, and Robert Rodriguez
  • Sixteen-millimeter dailies reel
  • Program featuring Russo on the commercial and industrial film production company where key Night of the Living Dead participants got their starts
  • Two audio commentaries from 1994 featuring Romero, Russo, producer Karl Hardman, actor Judith O’Dea, and others
  • Archival interviews with Romero and actors Duane Jones and Judith Ridley
  • Programs about the film’s style and score
  • Interview program about the direction of ghouls, featuring members of the cast and crew
  • Interviews with Gary Streiner and Russell Streiner
  • Newsreels from 1967
  • Trailer, radio spots, and TV spots
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Stuart Klawans

Illustration by Sean Phillips

Purchase Options

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director George A. Romero, coscreenwriter John A. Russo, sound engineer Gary R. Streiner, and producer Russell W. Streiner
  • New restoration of the monaural soundtrack, supervised by Romero and Gary Streiner and presented uncompressed
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
  • Night of Anubis, a work-print edit of the film
  • Program featuring filmmakers Frank Darabont, Guillermo del Toro, and Robert Rodriguez
  • Sixteen-millimeter dailies reel
  • Program featuring Russo on the commercial and industrial film production company where key Night of the Living Dead participants got their starts
  • Two audio commentaries from 1994 featuring Romero, Russo, producer Karl Hardman, actor Judith O’Dea, and others
  • Archival interviews with Romero and actors Duane Jones and Judith Ridley
  • Programs about the film’s style and score
  • Interview program about the direction of ghouls, featuring members of the cast and crew
  • Interviews with Gary Streiner and Russell Streiner
  • Newsreels from 1967
  • Trailer, radio spots, and TV spots
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Stuart Klawans

Illustration by Sean Phillips

Night of the Living Dead
Cast
Duane Jones
Ben
Judith O’Dea
Barbra
Karl Hardman
Harry Cooper
Marilyn Eastman
Helen Cooper
Keith Wayne
Tom
Judith Ridley
Judy
Russell W. Streiner
Johnny
Kyra Schon
Karen Cooper
Charles Craig
Newscaster
S. William Hinzman
Cemetery ghoul
George Kosana
Sheriff McClelland
Frank Doak
Dr. Grimes
Bill “Chilly Billy” Cardille
Field reporter
George A. Romero
Don Quinn
A. C. McDonald
Washington general
Mark Ricci
Washington scientist
Samuel R. Solito
Washington scientist
Lee Hartman
News reporter
Jack Givens
Ghoul
R. J. Ricci
Ghoul
Paula Richards
Ghoul
John Simpson
Ghoul
Herbert Summer
Ghoul
Richard Ricci
Ghoul
Ella Mae Smith
Ghoul
Vincent D. Survinski
Posse gunman
Credits
Director
George A. Romero
Produced by
Russell W. Streiner
Produced by
Karl Hardman
Screenplay by
John A. Russo
Screenplay by
George A. Romero
Edited by
George A. Romero
Production director
Vincent D. Survinski
Production manager
George Kosana
Photographed by
The Latent Image Inc.
Sound engineers
Gary R. Streiner
Sound engineers
Marshall Booth
Special effects
Regis Survinski
Special effects
Tony Pantanella
Makeup
Hardman Associates Inc.
Lighting supervisor
Joseph Unitas
Title sequence
The Animators

Current

How Night of the Living Dead Broke New Ground in Casting
How Night of the Living Dead Broke New Ground in Casting

Robert Rodriguez, Frank Darabont, and Guillermo del Toro discuss the groundbreaking casting of African American actor Duane Jones as the lead in Night of the Living Dead.

Night of the Living Dead: Mere Anarchy Is Loosed
Night of the Living Dead: Mere Anarchy Is Loosed

With the scrappiest of means, George A. Romero created not only a landmark of independent cinema but also an indelible portrait of America as hellscape.


By Stuart Klawans

Dead Neighbors: Jim Jarmusch on George A. Romero
Dead Neighbors: Jim Jarmusch on George A. Romero

With his eccentric new zombie movie The Dead Don’t Die coming to theaters, Jim Jarmusch talks with us about the inspiration he drew from the late horror maestro’s postmodern, politically tinged approach to genre.

By Hillary Weston

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Raúl Castillo’s Top 10

The star of We the Animals and Looking looks back on the movies that expanded his idea of what cinema could be and made him want to be an actor.