New 35mm print struck from the 2016 4K digital restoration by MoMA and the Film Foundation, taken from the original camera negative and overseen by George A. Romero. Print courtesy Image Ten.
Shot outside of Pittsburgh at a fraction of the cost of a Hollywood feature by a band of filmmakers determined to make their mark, George A. Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is one of the great stories 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 flesh-eating ghouls newly arisen from their graves, Romero's claustrophobic vision of a late-sixties America (literally) tearing itself apart rewrote the rules of the horror genre, combined gruesome gore with acute social commentary, and quietly broke ground by casting a black actor (Duane Jones) in the lead role. Stark, haunting, and more relevant than ever, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is back.