More on the Past

Speaking of NOLD, one of my first DVD purchases was the Elite special version of "Night of the Living Dead." The DVD starts off with one of the most evil (and ultimately funny) practical jokes I've ever seen: the film begins with a print so lousy that it defies description: it's horribly damaged, with tons of jump-cut splices, spots and scratches; it's barely in focus and it sounds like crap.

It has that that distinctive piece-of-shit, flea market-tenth-generation pirate video feel....and it stays that way for just long enough for your heart to rise into your throat as your blood pressure starts to rise, and you begin to feel pissed with the thought that the rest of the disc is going to be more of the same....when suddenly the Elite logo breaks through the screen, then fades out to reveal the THX logo, and you breathe a sigh of relief as the film proper begins in an infinitely better transfer, pristine in quality, made directly from the original negative.

Apparently it's a joke playing off the release history of the film. Years ago NOLD got a bad rap for being a crummy movie due to all the crappy prints that exist of it. People made copies of copies, passed it around, and this is a nod to that.

All I know is that is it worked. It pissed me off the first time I saw it. But then I laughed my ass off.