Lost Footage Discovered From Night Of The Living Dead

A time-honoured horror classic may be a set for a new lease of life - and happily, we’re not talking about a remake for once.

Word has gotten out that filmmaker George A Romero has found a long-since lost 16mm work print of his classic 1968 movie ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ which boasts 9 minutes of previously unseen footage.

And it seems we’re not talking the usual deleted scenes fodder (which, let’s face it, are generally dull as dishwater). Reportedly this lost footage includes “the largest zombie scene in the film.”

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Romero broke the news at US horror convention Monster Mania, which subsequently was announced online via the forum at Blu-Ray.com.

It has also been claimed on another forum that Martin Scorcese is overlooking a restoration of Romero’s movie, including this lost footage, for a Blu-ray release, although there doesn’t seem to be anything to verify this at present.

‘Night of the Living Dead’ has long since been acknowledged as one of the greatest, most influential horror films ever made, most famously as it introduced the prevailing model for the zombie which has endured in popular culture to this day, and brought graphic gore to the forefront.

Even more so, Romero’s film broke new ground in bringing supernatural horror into a realistic modern day setting, using the format to reflect the issues of the day. Filmmakers such as Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper and David Cronenberg would follow Romero’s example in the 1970s.

Unfortunately, a slip-up on the part of the filmmakers meant that Romero failed to secure copyright on the film. As such it is a public domain property from which the filmmaker receives no royalty payments.

Romero would go on to make more unusually realistic horror movies in the comparatively under-seen ‘Season of the Witch’ and vampire movie ‘Martin,’ before returning to zombies with 1978′s ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and 1985′s ‘Day of the Dead.’

Romero also wrote and co-produced a 1990 remake of ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ directed by his longtime collaborator and FX artist Tom Savini.

Picture Credit: WENN