Birth of the Living Dead

Name: Birth of the Living Dead
Genre: Documentary
Released: October 18, 2013
Duration: 76 min
Rating: 65

2013

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 4 Ratings

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7.3

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7.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 4 Ratings

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Birth of the Living Dead

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Movie Details & Credits

First Run Features | Release Date: October 18, 2013 | Not Rated

Summary: In 1968 a young college drop-out named George A. Romero directed Night of the Living Dead, a low budget horror film that shocked the world, became an icon of the counterculture, and spawned a zombie industry worth billions of dollars that continues to this day. Birth of the Living Dead shows how Romero gathered an unlikely team ofIn 1968 a young college drop-out named George A. Romero directed Night of the Living Dead, a low budget horror film that shocked the world, became an icon of the counterculture, and spawned a zombie industry worth billions of dollars that continues to this day. Birth of the Living Dead shows how Romero gathered an unlikely team of Pittsburghers -- policemen, iron workers, teachers, ad-men, housewives and a roller-rink owner -- to shoot a revolutionary guerrilla style film that went on to become a cinematic landmark, offering a profound insight into how our society worked in a singular time in American history. [First Run Features]… Expand

Director: Rob Kuhns

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 76 min

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Critic Reviews

Joshua Rothkopf

Nov 6, 2013

Kuhns makes time for political insights, provocative montages of race riots cut with the movie’s hick militia, and the comments of owlish Romero himself, who recounts the shoot like the enthusiastic 27-year-old he was. Read full review

Ernest Hardy

Oct 29, 2013

What distinguishes this doc from much of the tedious critical prose Romero has inspired is the fan-boy and fan-girl ardor that fuels its smarts--both behind and in front of the camera. Read full review

Andy Webster

Nov 6, 2013

Mr. Romero, manifesting a self-effacing demeanor and sensible humanity, is a most agreeable raconteur. Read full review

Peter Keough

Oct 31, 2013

In the war between zombies and vampires for the domination of American popular culture, the zombies currently seem to have the edge. So suggests a montage in Rob Kuhns’s amusing but perfunctory documentary about the origins of the 1968 ur-text of zombiedom, George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead.” Read full review

Chuck Bowen

Nov 6, 2013

The film is unavoidably slight, but there's a certain pleasure in watching talented people wax passionate about a common source of inspiration. Read full review

Jordan Hoffman

Nov 7, 2013

This documentary is basically a glamorized DVD extra, but it entertains as it details the anecdote-rich production history of “Night of the Living Dead” and, most crucially, its enormous impact. Read full review

A.A. Dowd

Nov 6, 2013

Birth briefly staggers to life when the topic of race comes up — not because that angle on Night hasn’t been covered ad nauseam, too, but simply because it seems to inspire the most provocative discussion. Read full review

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exhibe

Jan 17, 2014

It's become increasingly obvious, since "Shaun of the Dead" and AMC's "Walking Dead," that zombies are a potent metaphor for the alienation, disempowerment, anger and frustration that we feel in contemporary society. Take the Wall Street/Main Street dichotomy, add job frustration,It's become increasingly obvious, since "Shaun of the Dead" and AMC's "Walking Dead," that zombies are a potent metaphor for the alienation, disempowerment, anger and frustration that we feel in contemporary society. Take the Wall Street/Main Street dichotomy, add job frustration, dissatisfaction, loss of community and family, subsistence wages for corporate servants, pervasive lack of individualized fulfillment, and hyper-consumerist appetites stimulated by the same corporations now openly buy our "democracy" and Voila!--here we are, dead in life. I am glad to see someone look into this pop-culture expression of the collective unconscious more deeply by EXHIBE FLIX… Expand

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