Well, how's the PQ of NOTLD 1990? Worth all the hoopla?

Received my copy today. I'll most likely get to it sometime next week. I haven't seen the movie in a while, so I'm looking forward to it.

I look forward to watching it to *wink wink*. Shouldn't be too long.

Apparently it's very dark. The kids over at Blu-ray.com are going nuts on it.

TT's response?

"Perhaps the Sony tech team preferred a night/dusk colour scheme"

The way it was meant to be seen. Looks great!

Isn't much of the film supposed to be day for night anyway? If that were the case, the Blu-ray would be closer to what was intended.

I'm awaiting the...

"I saw this in Theaters when it came out and it looked/didn't like that!".

Love people with 20+ year old memories of how a film looked.

Reading various reviews from the DVD release, no one mentioned the release was too bright or not dark enough.

Those caps look horrible.

I got a copy for a friend who for some reason loves the movie. Now I wonder if I made a mistake.

Totally supposed to look like that on blu-ray...

This isn't TT's fault at all. They have no control over what their given by Sony (or any other studio). However, maybe had they looked at it they wouldn't have bothered releasing it. It's going to tarnish their "brand" (using that lightly) and people might be more wary about ordering from them in the future.

The plus side is you can easily recoup your money from stupid people on eBay.

I totally agree that's always a dangerous thing.

However...! I will say that I very distinctly remember flipping by the NotLD remake on TV a lifetime ago and being really put off by how bright it was. I think I might've even caught the scene in that comparison shot. I just remember seeing that bright green grass and recoiling in horror, thinking how wrong it was to see a remake of such an iconically B&W film with colors that vivid. I'd been obsessed with the Romero movies for a couple of years by that point, so that made more of an impression than just about anything else would have at the time.

Again, I didn't even watch the whole movie, so this is a memory of catching a few seconds' worth of footage on SDTV two decades ago or so, way before I was anything approaching a videophile. For all I know, the master USA (or whoever) used back then had been timed incorrectly. I didn't catch the remake theatrically, but despite all those disclaimers I just threw out, I feel pretty confident that brighter presentations predate the DVD.

Some have posted screencaps from the 1080p HDX Vudu version and that looked pretty good (it's bright). But looking at the Zombie shot above...I'd pick the bright, not the dark.

Hopefully someone "in the know" well get a response. Perhaps they can ask Penton

The DVD looks too bright but the Blu-ray looks much too dark. It appears as if someone tried to "fix" the brightness and went too far the other way. I didn't buy a copy so I can't say how it would look on my 55" screen but based on those screen grabs it looks almost unwatchable.

wtf?

Another comparison courtesy of odrilley on Blu-ray.com. It's not an amazing comparison, because he took pictures of his TV, but you can clearly see the difference in color & brightness.



It seems like someone at Sony was like "Why is it that the movie abruptly goes from day to night? We need to darken and tint it so it looks gradual and more night like." What they failed to realize is the movie takes place during the daytime, until a there's a shot of the sun setting, then it's night. This comparison is from a scene where the sun is still up, and all the windows in the house are uncovered. There is no reason for it to be so dark & blue.

Just watch both of them side by side, to get the full experience.

I just finished watching on my plasma. I'd notice more on the projector but I felt like watching it in the living room. I'm sure I'll be in the minority but I like the look. The film still has grain which will irritate some but I like it. In my opinion, the colors are beautifully muted, such that the film borders on B&W in a positive way almost in tribute to the original. Detail doesn't pop, a tad soft but film-like. I'm betting that's just how the original print is. Fonts in the credits are sharp and clear. The overall film look doesn't scream high def, but I feel it has a nice, dense but natural look to it. I'm happy with it. And, yes, I saw it in the theater but I won't pretend to remember how it looked, but I doubt it was radically different. Nothing screamed reprocessed. I didn't notice sharpening but i didn't look that closely. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. It looks like a low-budget horror movie should look. If you're looking for a picture that blows you away and will show off your system, you ain't getting it here. With that, the film doesn't look artificial and doesn't distract from being caught up in the film.
I can understand those that will not like the way it looks but I'll add this to the debate: My wife actually positively commented about the color in this film. She is not a film person, certainly not a horror person, nor did I even ask her opinion on the look of the film. She just said in the middle of the film while I was watching it that she liked the color of it.

Added: I just looked at those pictures above and double-checked the beginning of the film and it isn't as dark as those shots. The film starts out somewhat bright, then turns darker after the first zombie attack. Maybe there is some revisionism going on here, maybe not. I feel the darkness is appropriate.

I'm watching the DVD right now. Fonts in credit are much softer than the blu-ray. Picture is brighter, a little too happy looking. The print looks a little dirty at the start. Colors are certainly chirpier. Tones are sunny warm where as the blu-ray is coolish in it's color scheme. There is a big difference in tone and I definitely prefer the bluish, darker, muted look rather than the orangey, bright, sunny look of the DVD.
So, if you want a bright, colorful picture, this release will not be for you. If you like moody and dark, you'll be pleased.

WOW that looks like shit. I'll stick with the DVD version. I don't think it's supposed to look that way (bluray)

Well, it's very dark, not just a shade either! I dunno, but it looks kind of like the fiasco BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA was back when it was released on Blu. It is just too dark for me, detail seems to be lost in those screencaps. Viewing it in a completely dark room, with the brightness on my TV turned up a bit may result in an enjoyable 1080p experience, though. Overall, I'm glad at this point that I didn't buy it after all.

Was it official now?

Excuse of not getting the limited to 3000 Twilight Time NOTLD 1990 is:

I Will Stick To My DVD 1990 Night Of The Living Dead: Its Cheaper and Its Brighter!

Not feeling so bad now that I passed on picking this up.