For the 3rd time Elite Entertainment has released their awesome restoration of Night of the Living Dead on a digital format. Elite broke ground in the early 90's when they released Night of the Living Dead on Laser Disc in this restored edition, and it raised a lot of eyebrows. It was the first time that Night of the Living Dead looked and sounded like, well, a real film. The laser disc was packed with extras and retailed for about 80 bucks. I credit Elite for pioneering the horror restoration of today. Elite did it first with titles like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm St., Baron Blood and Night of the Living Dead. Elite then released this edition of Night of the Living Dead on DVD during the infancy stage of the format (with abridged extras from the LD). Now, in the year 2002, Elite has released once again, the restored edition of a film that has made them famous. Night of the Living Dead is the first in a new line they have dubbed, The Millennium Edition. This time around we get all the extras from the Laser Disc, along with a new 5.1 remix. Now for the big question, is it worth it...?

If you claim to be a horror fan and have never seen Night of the Living Dead, shame on you! George Romero's timeless tale about a group of strangers forced to board themselves up in a house, to avoid being eaten by the living dead, is one of the greatest horror films to hit the silver screen. For years we were forced to watch muddy bootlegs, scratchy prints, and barely audible VHS tapes of this film. Elite came to our rescue when they restored this film from head to toe and completely changed its look forever.

This edition of Night of the Living Dead from Elite boasts a new THX transfer, but one would be hard pressed to notice a difference between this DVD, and the previously released DVD from Elite. Needless to say the quality of the transfer is outstanding, with no hint of print damage whatsoever. The black and white image quality is nothing short of astounding, keep in mind though that we have seen it before. Although, it would have been nice to see a bit more clarity and deeper blacks in the transfer. It appears as if this transfer is on par with the old Laser Disc edition and we have come a long way since then. Still, one can't complain, as this version has become the definitive edition of this fine film.

Elite presents Night of the Living Dead with its original mono soundtrack, which is quite pleasing, as well as with a new 5.1 remix. The 5.1 track is subtle yet effective, and gives the audio a bit more depth without becoming too overpowering. I applaud them for not going overboard, and just giving the soundtrack a little extra punch. I also thank them for giving the option of the original mono, or the new 5.1 remix. I think that whenever someone takes it upon himself or herself to remix a soundtrack for a DVD release, we should always be given the option of the original mix as well.

Extras are plentiful and basically include everything from the previous LD release. We start things off with 2 audio commentaries featuring George Romero, and the cast. The film parody Night of the Living Bread, still galleries, Latent Image film company shorts, scrapbooks, original shooting script scenes from the lost Romero film, There's Always Vanilla and more. I would have been nice to see a few more extras added on as incentive to upgrade, however it is nice to finally have all of the LD extras on DVD as well as the new 5.1 audio mix. The mysterious missing element is one that was on the previous LD and DVD releases, but is mysteriously absent from this edition. Once the disc was started up, the film would play in a muddled unappealing scratchy version, and then fool us by exploding into the Elite logo. The restored edition would then start up, and one could really see the difference. It was a nice touch, and I'm sorry to see it didn't make it onto this new edition.

Anyone who is contemplating purchasing one of those "budget" editions of Night of the Living Dead should stop dead in their tracks. This DVD is definitely worth the extra ten bucks. Anyone looking to upgrade? This is the way to go. If you have Elite's previous DVD release, you may want to grab this for the extra extras and the new 5.1 remix. Upgrading from the out of print Laser Disc to DVD is now a snap as well. This DVD delivers a lot of punch for its twenty dollar price tag.