In 1968, Night of the Living Dead had its world premiere at the Byham Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. To celebrate the film’s legacy, a restoration of the horror classic will be screen in the same exact theater with many of the film’s cast and crew in attendance on October 6th.
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Per the press release, “George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is returning to the place where it all began, with a new 4K state-of-the-art restoration, created by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) from the original camera negative.
“All the living (and otherwise undead) cast members will be here for a special pre-show program commemorating the 50th anniversary of Night of the Living Dead. Plus, some shocking surprises!
“It will screen at the Byham Theater, Downtown, on October 6th. The show starts at 8 pm, and the film screening will begin at 9:30 pm. An after-party at the Byham will begin at 11 pm.
“’50 years later, in the same theater that it premiered in 1968 (when it was the Fulton),’ says organizer Gary Streiner. ‘How many times do you get to show the same movie in the same venue 50 years later?’”
“Though it started as a low-budget horror flick, made far outside the Hollywood system—Night of the Living Dead is now considered one of the greatest horror movies ever made, and is credited as the beginning of the modern horror movie genre.
“The premiere is presented by the George A. Romero Foundation and Image Ten.”
It’s difficult to overstate the impact the film had on not just the horror genre, but the process of independent filmmaking.
Prior to Romero’s films, a number of different horror pictures used the concept of a “zombie,” but not until Night of the Living Dead did a filmmaker establish that these monsters could come back from the dead and shamble their way towards humans to consume their flesh, with their only weakness being to shoot them in the head.
What’s even more fascinating is that, while the film is considered a preeminent zombie movie, the film never refers to them as such, often calling them “ghouls.”
As witnessed by the popularity of AMC’s The Walking Dead, countless storytellers still use Romero’s rules for the creature in contemporary fiction, proving that Romero was breaking fresh ground in the horror world.
You can visit TrustArts.org to buy tickets or learn more about the screening.
Will you be heading to check out this anniversary screening? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!
