If you’ve never seen Night of the Living Dead or just need a refresher, the movie starts with a brother and sister—Johnny and Barbara—visiting their father’s grave. Suddenly, a Zombie attacks the pair and kills Johnny, leaving Barbara to flee for her life. She comes across a farmhouse where other people are hiding out, and the group tries their best to fortify their shelter as more and more zombies appear to menace them.
It’s a fairly simple story that really didn’t need improving, but when has that stopped anyone?
For the 30th Anniversary Edition, Russo filmed a new prologue to the original film set during a funeral for the first iconic zombie who chases Barbara through the cemetery. The prologue goes out of its way to let the audience know that the zombie was a murderer and a child molester because, apparently, being an undead flesh-eater wasn’t a good enough reason for the audience to hate him in Russo’s eyes. This depraved ghoul escapes his coffin and bites a priest in the face before lumbering off to attack Johnny and Barbara like in the original.
