2013
Not Rated
First Run Features
1 h 16 m

2013
Not Rated
First Run Features
1 h 16 m

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 of Pitts...

Documentary

Directed By: Rob Kuhns

2013
Not Rated
First Run Features
1 h 16 m

2013
Not Rated
First Run Features
1 h 16 m

Birth of the Living Dead

Name: Birth of the Living Dead
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2013-10-18
Duration: 1 min 16 s
Rating: 65
Cast: George A. Romero, Fred Rogers, H. Rap Brown, Mark Harris, Gale Anne Hurd

Metascore Generally Favorable Based on 9 Critic Reviews

User Score Generally Favorable

7.3

My Score

Hover and click to give a rating Saved

Where to Watch

Documentary

Directed By: Rob Kuhns

Where to Watch

Critic Reviews

View All

Metascore

Generally Favorable Based on 9 Critic Reviews

67% Positive
6 Reviews

33% Mixed
3 Reviews

0% Negative
0 Reviews

All Reviews
Positive Reviews
Mixed Reviews
Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

View All

Metascore

Generally Favorable Based on 9 Critic Reviews

67% Positive
6 Reviews

33% Mixed
3 Reviews

0% Negative
0 Reviews

All Reviews
Positive Reviews
Mixed Reviews
Negative Reviews

Time Out

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.

By Joshua Rothkopf FULL REVIEW

Village Voice

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.

By Ernest Hardy FULL REVIEW

Los Angeles Times

Oct 17, 2013

Enjoyably recounts how, in 1967, Romero and an assortment of Pittsburgh locals shot a micro-budget chiller that would unexpectedly change the face of horror films.

FULL REVIEW

Slant Magazine

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.

By Chuck Bowen FULL REVIEW

Boston Globe

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.”

By Peter Keough FULL REVIEW

The Dissolve

Nov 7, 2013

Birth Of The Living Dead excels in Kuhns’ gathering of critics, academics, and filmmakers to analyze how and why the film works so well.

By Noel Murray FULL REVIEW

The A.V. Club

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.

By A.A. Dowd FULL REVIEW

See All 9 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

View All

User Score

Generally Favorable Based on 4 User Ratings

7.3

50% Positive
2 Ratings

50% Mixed
2 Ratings

0% Negative
0 Ratings

User Reviews

View All

User Score

Generally Favorable Based on 4 User Ratings

7.3

50% Positive
2 Ratings

50% Mixed
2 Ratings

0% Negative
0 Ratings

There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.

Details

View All

Production Company Glass Eye Pix, Predestinate Productions

Release Date Oct 18, 2013

Duration 1 h 16 m

Rating Not Rated

Genres

Documentary

Tagline 1968. Peace. Love. And the undead.

Birth of the Living Dead

Where to Watch

Where to Watch

Top Cast

George A. Romero

Self - Filmmaker

Fred Rogers

Self

H. Rap Brown

Self

Mark Harris

Self - Film Historian

Gale Anne Hurd

Self - Film Producer

Chiz Schultz

Self - Film & TV Producer

Larry Fessenden

Self - Filmmaker

Jason Zinoman

Self - Author, Shock Value

Christopher Cruz

Self - Filmmaker & Teacher

Elvis Mitchell

Self - Host, The Treatment

Sam Pollard

Self - Professor, NYU Film

Andy Griffith

Self

Harry Belafonte

Self

Petula Clark

Self

Morley Safer

Self

Martin Luther King

Self

Michael Kimber

Self - Building Superintendent

Clara Tirado

Self - Dental Assistant

S. William Hinzman

Self

Chelsea Banegas

Self - Christopher Cruz's Student

Critic Reviews

Critic Reviews

Critic Reviews

Critic Reviews

User Reviews

User Reviews

User Reviews

User Reviews

Details

Details

Related Movies

Hoop Dreams

Man with a Movie Camera

Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

I Am Not Your Negro

Woodstock

Collective

Amazing Grace

Stop Making Sense

We Were Here

Faces Places

David Byrne’s American Utopia

Shoah: Four Sisters

Our Body

Sherpa

The Decline of Western Civilization

Brother's Keeper

Crumb

One More Time with Feeling

Sugarcane

The Act of Killing

De Humani Corporis Fabrica

Menus Plaisirs - Les Troisgros

Related News

2024 Movie Release Calendar

Jason Dietz