Customer Reviews

Rifftrax: Night of the Living Dead - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000!

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This old black and white movie was cheaply made but became a Cult Hit shock horror film that started the Flesh-Eating Zombie movie craze. The old MST3K crew of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett take it on with quite a few funny riffs. Some don't quite hit the spot, and the guys miss some choice moments to riff, but that's always the case with Rifftrax. One of the better ones was, "A Zombie's Worst enemy, a Clothesline." The clueless young couple who try to escape the zombies and the ultra-Angry family man get lots of attention. Rifftrax does not include old MST3K things like skits, sets, or the Bots. You never See the guys in any form. You simply HEAR them from the beginning to the end of the movie. Not even an Intro!

I also recommend Rifftrax "House on Haunted Hill." It's terrific.

I somehow stumbled across this at my local Best Buy on May 11, 2009. To the best of my knowledge, it wasn't supposed to be released outside of rifftrax.com for another month. Naturally, I grabbed it quickly.

The comedy of Mike, Kevin, and Bill is solid as expected. Some of the jokes are the word-for-word exact same as in the earlier version from Legend Films, featuring only Mike Nelson's comedy track. In this version, however, the delivery of those lines is shared by Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. Luckily, there is some new material mixed in that offsets the repeats. If you've never seen the previous version, you won't even notice.

I only had two real technical issues with this DVD. Firstly, the menu screen ran once and then stopped instead of looping back to the start. This meant that I had to start the entire DVD all over again. Secondly, the video was choppy in parts. The audio ran without issue, but some parts of the film seemed to be skipping video frames. I am not certain if this was an issue with all copies of this DVD or if it's specific to my player.

All in all, it's enjoyable and funny, a good buy for any fan of Rifftrax, Mystery Science Theater 3000, or Cinematic Titanic.

This one is great, and I strongly recommend it. The movie in itself is a scream; and the rifs are hilarious icing on a very funny cake.

The premise is simple--find a movie and make fun of it with a commentary track. It's harder than it sounds, I'm sure, but Mike Nelson and company do an outstanding job of taking down one of my personal favorite cult films, "Night of the Living Dead."

The fun starts early, with jibes not only aimed at the actors onscreen, but 'technical' aspects of a shot (which serves the dual purpose of making fun of commentary tracks in general). It continues throughout the film, at various levels of inspiration, from silly sex jokes to esoteric references to wry, shrewd observations. And since the film was shot around Pittsburgh, there are several references to the Pittsburgh Steelers, just to keep us on our toes.

I'm sure my neighbors must think I'm crazy, because I sat on the sofa laughing hysterically for at least half of the 96 minute runtime. Hilarious. I mean that.

Also, as a 'bonus,' you can watch the film without the RiffTrax commentary. For someone as into cult film as I am, this really is a true bonus...I can watch it for the original zombie suspense, or for big, big yuks.

Highly recommended.

If you like MST3K, you will laugh at this video. Mike and the guys are in top form as they demonstrate the lighter side of flesh-eating mutants (and their victims !).

This is easily my favorite of the four RiffTrax DVDs in my collection. They've taken a cult horror film which I've never really cared much for and turned it into one of the best riffs since the MST3K version of "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians". Unfortunately, it's not as 'family friendly' as some of the other shows, what with the nakey zombie shambling around outside of the house and the bodies being ripped apart and eaten.

This DVD of RIFFTRAX: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was released a mere 9 days before Michael Jackson's untimely death and features a joke about him, a reference to the infamous "hair-on-fire" incident of the 1980's. Grab a copy of this DVD before its withdrawn and becomes a highly prized collector's item...

Somehow I managed to purchase this at BestBuy on May 7, more than a month before it's official release?