George A. Romero’s Remastered Night of the Living Dead Is Coming Back to Life in Theaters

Long before The Walking Dead was running out of storylines and losing its main star, a twentysomething George A. Romero gathered up a group of his filmmaking friends and, with virtually no budget to speak of, ended up making one of the scariest films in horror movie history. Now, nearly 50 years after its original release on October 1, 1968, Night of the Living Dead will be creeping its way back into theaters.

For two days only next month, a gorgeously restored version of the granddaddy of all zombie films (which never actually used that term, by the way) will be returning to theaters across the country for a two-night-only engagement. The remastering process was overseen by Romero himself, shortly before he passed away in 2017.

Romero worked with original sound designer Gary Streiner to restore the original camera negative into a totally fresh 4K Ultra HD version of the film. The Museum of Modern Art, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation, The George Lucas Family Foundation, and the Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Center all helped to bring the remastered version of this iconic film back to theaters.

“There are not many films that warrant the kind of attention Night of the Living Dead has received from the Museum of Modern Art, but there are also not many films whose influence remains so strong in global popular culture 50 years after it was made. George A. Romero’s film has never looked better, and we are proud to present this dazzling new restoration to film lovers and horror fans,” Tom Lucas, Fathom Events’s VP of studio relations, said in a statement.

The film will screen at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. (local time) on both October 24th and October 25th in select theaters. To find out if the film is screening near you, or to purchase tickets, visit the Fathom Events website.