In Art, there are some times you cannot but help stepping on the toes of another artist.
There are only so many arrangements of musical notes, of plotlines, of brush strokes and paint types. Of course, most of the time these are either accidental or as a 'nod' to the audience. But as of this date, you can see increasing use of Art feeding off itself. This is not a homage, this is a ripoff.
By this, I mean the 'works' of Puff Daddy and other musicians (yes, Kid Rock, even you) taking old tunes and changing the lyrics into either pathetic whining about 'the streets' and how 'bad' they are. All of this is static: shit like this never keeps a firm foothold in popular culture because sooner or later it is seen as the ripoff it is. Why listen to Kid Rock ripoff "Sad But True" when you could just get a cheap Metallica CD from your local grocery store and hear the real version?
Thus, we get to the root of today's experiment. Wait, did I say experiment? I mean WARNING. For this, my friends, is a cinematic ripoff. And it's surprising that this was released at all.
In the '60s, "Night of the Living Dead" was made. If you don't know what it's about, then what are you doing here? Anyway, it was made by two talented men by the names of George Romero and John Russo. After selling the rights to "NOTLD" cheap, both Romero and Russo went on to other pursuits. Romero did the two 'official' sequels to the series, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead along with other films while John Russo spun off Return of the Living Dead and all it's sequels.
Why? Lawsuits, babe. Both men fought legally over the rights to the further dead films, and Romero got the use of "Dead" in the title and Russo got "Living Dead." Big deal. Romero's films are considered the true sequels thanks to the superior "Dawn," while Russo's films are just curiosities. Now the fare that Romero's are.
Flashforward to now. Recently, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of NOTLD, Anchor Bay Entertainment released a superior, 35 mm print of the original, remastered NOTLD to the public. This was GOOD. But, to counter this or to get money, John Russo and a few others from the cast of NOTLD did the unspeakable: they made "The 30th Anniversary Edition."
Or rather, they shot some new footage and weaseled it into the original movie. I kid you not.
Instead of beginning the movie with Johnny and Barbara's silent drive to the graveyard, we get a good ten minutes of padding explaining how the first zombie in the movie actually comes about!! Or, rather, we get two gravediggers screaming as the zombie merely rises from the grave, which then cuts to the original movie. Also, we are introduced to some weird preacher who keeps screaming about God and is bald. Oh, yeah, REAL '60s. In fact, NONE of the new scenes effectively flow into the real film thanks to the time period. NOTLD is a product of it's time, good and bad. And the fact that all the 'actors' in the new scenes are Hollywood Prettyboys is a jarring interruption to the original to such an extent it causes laughter. Plus, you can tell by the grain of the film from 35 mm film to Home Videotape.
Anyway, the bastardization of NOTLD doesn't fuck much with the interior of the film except to add some shots of zombies that are being played by some of the family of the makers of the film!! No shit! Even more frightening is hearing John Russo and his buddies talk about changing the death of Ben at the very end. Thankfully, they 'resist' and just show some more footage of the preacher at the end and more of his bitching which is just useless. I won't even go into what he says because I can't remember. I don't want to remember. It's just AWFUL.
Why did they do this? Money? Fame? I don't know. All it proves is that George Romero was truly the brains behind this outfit. This 'Anniversary Edition' is AWFUL. It stinks of being made for the money and nepotism instead of the fan viewpoint and I find it amazing that Romero didn't do something to halt it's release OR that Anchor Bay Entertainment actually released this, the focal point of their business being the CONSERVATION and release of previously unreleased videos. Why they bothered to milk the NOTLD money cow one more time for this is beyond me. I can only hope next time they resist destroying a perfectly good movie and just go release more of their "Hammer Collection."
Same goes for John Russo. I hope nobody lets him near a print of NOTLD ever again.
RATING: What's the point of owning a version of something someone has messed up with the intention of getting more money? Zero Stars out of Four. Don't even BOTHER, just get the real version and walk away and deny this ever existed.
God, I'm disgusted.