Friday, July 10, 2009

BD impressions: Night of the Living Dead

2:14 PM / BD Impressions / Comments11 Comments

BD Impressions
Blu-ray

I suppose it's tempting to see Night of the Living Dead as a bit twee these days, and to a certain extent I agree. On the one hand, the unconvincing make-up effects and wooden acting do detract to a degree from the horror of the material. On the other hand, these elements, not to mention the striking monochromatic photography, clearly date it as a product of a bygone era, making it unfair to hold it up to the standards we would apply to a zombie movie released in 2009. I must confess that I'm not all that much of a fan of this subset of the horror genre, preferring my gialli and tales of supernatural terror to the grubbier, more visceral trappings of the risen dead. Still, I can appreciate this film for what it is: the originator that gave birth to a plethora of like-minded films, some good, some downright risible.

Optimum's Region B UK release is a fine example of how to treat an older, low budget title (and one in the public domain at that). While the image quality does vary on a shot by shot basis, and it never looks stunning, it appears to be free of any overt digital manipulation. There is some funny business with a handful of repeated frames, mostly near the start of the film and usually occurring at the start or end of shots, which do disrupt the flow a little, but beyond that it is very pleasing to the eye, all things considered. The compression is handled well, the blacks are deep and the grain appears natural and unmolested. Surprising as it may sound, I'd go as far as to say that this looks better than Warner's BD of Casablanca, considered by some reviewers to be a benchmark for the treatment of older black and white material in high definition. 8/10

Updated Friday, July 10, 2009 at 03:42 PM: As has been pointed out to me, the BD release is heavily cropped when compared to other releases of the film. Don May Jr, who worked on the restoration of the master used for this version, has confirmed that he received the elements in a pre-cropped state and was thus unable to rectify the problem. Personally, I wasn't unduly troubled by the cropping when watching the film (in fact, it never occurred to me that something was awry), but in retrospect I can think of a number of instances where the framing struck me as unusually tight - something which, at the time, I put down to mistakes in the original photography. For someone more familiar with the film than myself, I would imagine these issues would be considerably more troubling. After careful consideration, I've adjusted my final score accordingly. 6/10

Night of the Living Dead
studio: Optimum; country: UK; region code: B; codec: AVC;
file size: 16.2 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 24.34 Mbit/sec

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11 Comments

1. Peter von Frosta said:

Risible - I had to look that up, the latest addition to my vocabulary I guess.

While I share your opinion about the picture quality (and yes I do agree it does indeed look better than the grain-filtered Casablanca) there are some issues regarding framing.
You can find a couple of framegrabs on caps-a-holic.com:
http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleiche/index.php?vergleich=night_of_the_living_dead (click the union jack an english version of the page).

Although the issue doesn't appear too intrusive I'm not interely satisfied with this.

I do remember writing about this in english language, I hope I don't repeat myself on your page...

(Posted on Friday, July 10, 2009 at 3:01 PM)

2. Chris B said:

Hmm, I refuse to buy this particular Blu-ray because the edge cropping (both vertical and horizontal) - in comparison with the Elite SD DVD - is rather nasty. Check:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare/nightlivingdead.htm

(Posted on Friday, July 10, 2009 at 3:04 PM)

3. FoxyMulder said:

I think there is more to this movie than just a zombie flick.

Remember it was made during the height of the civil rights movement in America and it had a male black star as it's lead hero.

From a historical perspecive it's quite a fascinating film if you delve into it.

Now sure Sidney Poitier had made In The Heat Of The Night the year before and was a big Hollywood star by that point but i think Night Of The Living Dead was actually a very strong film for America at the time it was made due to the civil rights issues and it also makes the ending much more powerful if you know about all those struggles back then.

(Posted on Friday, July 10, 2009 at 3:05 PM)

4. Peter von Frosta said:

Remember it was made during the height of the civil rights movement in America and it had a male black star as it's lead hero.

And don't forget the early social commentary about the male lead surviving the Zombie attack and them being killed by the hillbillies.
I also like the updated ending with the wurstbude and stuff ^^

(Posted on Friday, July 10, 2009 at 3:11 PM)

5. Peter von Frosta said:

The updated ending in the Tom Savini version that is...

(Posted on Friday, July 10, 2009 at 3:11 PM)

6. Author Profile Page Michael said:

That cropping is pretty extreme in places - I had absolutely no idea. I note that in one instance (the fourth shot in the Caps-a-holic comparison), the Millennium Edition DVD is actually significantly more cropped than the BD. In any event, it's probably worth my adding a note to my write-up to point out the issue.

More than "just a zombie flick"? I agree, in the same sense that The Godfather is more than "just a gangster movie" and Casablanca is more than "just a romance". I'm certainly well aware of the film's historical perspective and doubt that anyone could fail to spot the social commentary (just as I doubt anyone would fail to spot the commentary on consumerism in Dawn of the Dead). What ultimately concerns me first and foremost is entertainment, however, and while Night of the Living Dead still provides plenty of that, I suspect it has lost some of its bite (pun intended) in the years since its release.

(Posted on Friday, July 10, 2009 at 3:36 PM)

7. Marcus said:

Personally I find the scene where the little girl rises and kills her parents effective to this day.

(Posted on Friday, July 10, 2009 at 3:59 PM)

8. Author Profile Page Michael said:

For me, the early stuff in the graveyard is probably the most effective, with that first zombie initially appearing in the distance and the tension rising as he gradually gets nearer and nearer to the brother and sister. There are some very strong moments in the film, that much can't be denied.

(Posted on Friday, July 10, 2009 at 4:28 PM)

9. Christopher D. Jacobson said:

Is there a possibility that the BD is framed correctly? It's good to compare things to original theatrical exhibition and/or intent rather than sizing a film up to prior home video releases. But who would know such information?

Regardless, I hope this film gets a Region A/free BD release. This is one of the titles I was considering getting a region-free player for.

(Posted on Friday, July 10, 2009 at 4:46 PM)

10. Peter von Frosta said:

Is there a possibility that the BD is framed correctly? It's good to compare things to original theatrical exhibition and/or intent rather than sizing a film up to prior home video releases. But who would know such information?

That's the thing, nobody knows for sure if the old DVD version or the remastered version is framed correctly, we just know it's different.

Maybe I'll ask George at the ...of the Dead premiere ;)

(Posted on Friday, July 10, 2009 at 6:55 PM)

11. Kentai said:

The Elite transfer has the better framing, but it's still a 15 old LD transfer. It was outdated the moment DVD arrived.

The Blu-ray caps look so much better in every other way imaginable that this remains about the only Region B title that makes me consider getting a region-free player.

(Posted on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 7:40 AM)

 
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