would you rather accidentally set your arm on fire with spilled gasoline or spend decades grappling with a paperwork mistake? Gary Streiner, who personally experienced both while making 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, says there’s no contest: “Oh, believe me, I would take the burn again.” Streiner was the sound man on George A. Romero’s classic indie zombie flick, but since everyone on the makeshift Pittsburgh project did multiple jobs he also helped create visual effects, like the fireball on a porch chair that would later engulf his limb.
His brother, Russ Streiner, was another multitasker, playing the taunting brother Johnny in the movie’s opening, and serving as jack-of-all-trades co-producer. Both were loyal Romero confidantes who helped him found Image Ten, the production company that created the apocalyptic undead tale. So both were among those bitten in the ass when Night of the Living Dead accidentally ended up in the public domain due to a copyright mistake that was anything but simple to fix.
Even today, it hasn’t entirely been resolved, which is why there is a right way and a wrong way to watch the movie (at least, if you care about seeing it in the best possible format, while also not picking the pocket of the people who made it.) Today, Romero is gone, and his debut feature is considered an all-time American classic. Stephen King himself calls it the scariest movie he’s ever seen. But the independent film garnered such success partly because it was so widely and freely shared.
The friends and colleagues who helped Romero make Night of the Living Dead have finally figured out a way to pull the movie back into their legal possession. But the freebie versions are still out there, so they are hoping fans will be honest and honorable about the version of the film they choose to play this Halloween. Don’t worry, they aren’t “coming to get you, Barbara,” as Russ intones in the iconic opening of the movie.
They are just, once again, asking nicely. Basically, look for the Criterion Collection logo. The beloved cinema preservation group helped the Streiners restore the original black-and-white negative for the Museum of Modern Art, and by refining the moody imagery as Romero originally intended, they technically created a “new” work that Image Ten could officially claim as their own.
You can find it on the Criterion streaming service, but also HBO Max is among those that licenses their version of the movie. That's the point, every time it's screened on any of those platforms,” Gary says. If you don’t spot that big, silver C when Night of the Living Dead starts playing, you’re probably watching a bootleg.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
