Romero Zombie movies....DVD questions

[jcb231]

Amazon and many other sites are tough to use to answer this question, as they tend to lump all reviews together, regardless of the DVD edition they refer to.

My mother's birthday is coming up, and she is a big horror movie and zombie movie fan. I have decided to buy her DVDs of all the Romero "of the Dead" movies. That's Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, and Land of the Dead. Diary of the Dead just came out in theaters, so it is not yet on DVD.

Land of the Dead is easy. There's basically one edition. The same is true, to some extent, for Day of the Dead. Dawn of the Dead causes some confusion as there are a handful of editions, but Night of the Living Dead is the biggest head-scratcher. There must be dozens of different versions, and it is tough to know which one to buy based on store websites.

Are there any Romero fans out there that can recommend a particular edition of Night and Dawn? I hear that one of them added terrible new footage, so I want to stear clear of that.

[InfinityMax]

Night: You want the first one, the black and white version that got ruined when they colorized it. Great film with a great kick-in-the-gut ending.

Dawn: Also go with the original. The new version with Ving Rhames is crap. Zombies that run like track stars may be the new thing, but I don't like them. The whole zombie mythos is these slow, mindless creatures that you have to outwit, not outfight.

Zombies should be slow, and I don't care what happened in 28 Days Later.

I've somehow never seen Land of the Dead. Probably because I suck.

[Havokscry]

Originally Posted by InfinityMax

Night: You want the first one, the black and white version that got ruined when they colorized it. Great film with a great kick-in-the-gut ending.

Dawn: Also go with the original. The new version with Ving Rhames is crap. Zombies that run like track stars may be the new thing, but I don't like them. The whole zombie mythos is these slow, mindless creatures that you have to outwit, not outfight.

Zombies should be slow, and I don't care what happened in 28 Days Later.

I've somehow never seen Land of the Dead. Probably because I suck.

I think he's referring to the different dvd editions of Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead" and not the remakes. I can't to speak which is better, but I picked up a cheap $4 to $5 edition of "Night of the Living Dead" awhile back. The packaging is pretty generic and I haven't watched the movie. Are there any anniversary editions available? They tend to pack those full of extra features that your mom may enjoy.

This version of the original sounds pretty promising, but is expensive.

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Living-M...3880095&sr=8-2

[ParaGoomba Slayer]

If you buy night, get it in black and white. It's more creepy that way.

[jcb231]

Yes I know I want the original Romero versions, not the remakes. I also know I don't want any colorized versions, but the trouble is Amazon and other sites lump reviews of multiple releases together so its hard to know what edition has what.

Night of the Living Dead, the 1968 original, is now in the public domain, which is the cause of most of the problems. Everybody and their mother can release this flick and try to cash in.

For Night, I think I found a good one, called the Millenium Edition or some such. It avoids all colorization and has none of the poorly-reviewed added 30th anniversary scenes (which were not even added by Romero). It also has some commentary tracks. Anyone know of a better edition?

For Dawn, I found an aptly-named "Ultimate Edition" that has three different cuts of the film....Romero's, an Extended Cannes festival version, and the European cut that strated the spin-off "Zombi" series. If anyone knows of a better DVD edition, let me know.

For Day, I found a Divimax Special Edition that seems to cover all the bases....there's really only one or two editions of this one so its easy.

For Land, there's only one choice. Easy as shooting a zombie in the head.

For Diary, she's getting a homemade coupon to cash in to me whenever that flick hits DVD.



Zombie movie fans surely feel my pain. I've discovered that Romero and Russo, his partner, split ways after Night, with Russo going on to do his own sequel series called "Return of the Living Dead" which now has five films in it. Russo also re-edited the orignal Night of the Livng Dead in a very slap-dash manner and then made a sequel to that re-editing, called Children of the Living Dead. Confused yet? Hang on....Romero's Dawn of the Dead was released in Europe as "Zombi" and then got it's own unofficial Italian sequels which number at least 3 or 4. Plus there are spoofs (Shaun of the Dead) and unauthorized sequels (Day of the Dead 2) and other zombie flicks galore (28 Days Later, Resident Evil, Evil Dead, etc). And then there's the remakes....Night, Dawn, and Day have all been re-made at least once, sometimes in 3-D.......(head explodes).

The editions I list above are likely what I'm going to purchase, unless I find a better option. They are pricier than I thought, but hey, I only got one mom.

[jaques]

Dude, whichever editions of the Romero movies you end up getting her, you must buy her Fido, if she hasn't already seen it.

This movie is brilliant, inventive, hilarious, and believe-it-or-not, heartwarming. If it weren't for all the flesh-eating and electro-shock collars and implications of necrophilia, this would be the perfect feel-good family zombie flick.

By the way, it sounds like your mom is pretty cool.

[kboleen]

On a side note: I don't think Return of the Living Dead was ever meant to be a direct "sequel" or "continaution" of the original living dead movies. When it first came out I was appauled at it's stupidity and flippant use of the zombie theme. However, I saw it a few years ago and I viewed it from the perspective the film was originally intended: a spoof of the zombie concept. My favotite scene: when the zombie gets on the police radio asking "... send more cops."

[Kahrma]

Originally Posted by jcb231

For Night, I think I found a good one, called the Millenium Edition or some such. It avoids all colorization and has none of the poorly-reviewed added 30th anniversary scenes (which were not even added by Romero). It also has some commentary tracks. Anyone know of a better edition?

I agree here, and yes - "Millenium Edition" is the correct name. I did some looking around, and wound up purchasing this - no regrets. The movie itself looks great, and there's more cool extra stuff in this edition than you'll be able to "take-in" in one sitting. Highly recommended!

I also agree on jcb231's recommendation of the "Ultimate Edition" of "Dawn". I've got this one too, and again - no regrets!

[jcb231]

Originally Posted by kboleen

On a side note: I don't think Return of the Living Dead was ever meant to be a direct "sequel" or "continaution" of the original living dead movies. When it first came out I was appauled at it's stupidity and flippant use of the zombie theme. However, I saw it a few years ago and I viewed it from the perspective the film was originally intended: a spoof of the zombie concept. My favotite scene: when the zombie gets on the police radio asking "... send more cops."

Actually it was....Russo, in his movie, works into it by saying that "Night" was based on the "real" events portrayed in Return of the Living Dead. It was Russo's way of continuing the series after his arguments with Romero caused a split in where they saw the series going. Russo took things in a more flippant direction, for sure.

And yeah, my mom is awesome. A couple years ago I bought her the complete Creature from the Black Lagoon series on DVD. She tapes so many B-rate horror movies off of Sci-Fi channel and the sattellite dish that she runs out of tapes and calls me up to have me record things for her because I get some channels that she doesn't.

[kenjib]

The tar man from Return of the Living Dead immortalized the now infamous "braaaaaiiiiins...." thing. Great stuff! My favorite zombie movie is White Zombie, though it's not Romero. Bela Lugosi stars in that one and the subtext deals with post-colonial issues of power and race and the relationship of first and third world countries.

[InThisMoment]

Originally Posted by jcb231

Amazon and many other sites are tough to use to answer this question, as they tend to lump all reviews together, regardless of the DVD edition they refer to.

My mother's birthday is coming up, and she is a big horror movie and zombie movie fan.

You're mom sounds awesome!

Hey, question, is Suspiria a Romero film? Or is is Argento? I can never remember.....

[kenjib]

Originally Posted by InThisMoment

You're mom sounds awesome!

Hey, question, is Suspiria a Romero film? Or is is Argento? I can never remember.....

Argento: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076786/

I love the skylight scene in that movie. Great film.