- Despite being billed as a collectors' edition and containing many extras, the UK Contender DVD appears to be missing several sequences including most of the cannibalism scenes following the attack on the car, as well as heavily reducing the trowel murder from 14 blows to three. None of these cuts were imposed by the BBFC as all video/DVD releases in the UK have always been uncut.
- The original 1969 UK cinema release was heavily cut by the BBFC with substantial edits to the trowel murder and the removal of all the flesh-eating scenes. The film was re-released in 1980 following the success of Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) and was shown completely restored and uncut. All subsequent releases have been untouched by the BBFC.
- Legend Films converted their colorized version of the film to 3-D format in 2009. It received limited theatrical screenings.
- The scene of Ben moving the body at the top of the stairs has had two versions. Originally, 39 minutes into the film, it is 40 seconds long and consists of two 20-second shots. An alternate, 60-second continuous shot, which includes Ben turning the body around, revealing the skull-face, otherwise appears identical to the original, has appeared in the 1985 Hal Roach Studio colorized film as well as black-and-white reissues on video around the same time.
- The Turner Classic Movies Channel (TCM) released a restored print of "Night of the Living Dead" through the cooperation of the Film Foundation. This version greatly improved the sound quality and clarity of the film and was considered to be the clearest print of the film until the 2017 4k restoration performed by the Museum of Modern Art, which was distributed by Janus Films theatrically and the Criterion Collection on DVD and Blu-ray.
- The Madacy DVD release is cut to a running time of 92 minutes. Seemingly arbitrary cuts are made to the radio scene in the graveyard, Barbra escaping the car, her arriving at the farmhouse, the sequence where she retrieves the knife she left behind by the phone, the beginning of the posse scene near the end, and other scenes. No edits are made for gore.
- In 2017, right before George A. Romero died, the Museum of Modern art and the Film Foundation created a brand-new, fully restored 4k print of the film that was struck from the original 35-millimeter negative. That version was distributed by Janus Films theatrically and by the Criterion Collection on DVD and Blu-ray. Unlike the original print of the film, which lapsed into the public domain, however, this restored version is under strict copyright by the film's creators.
- On the LaserDisc and 1997 Special Collector's Edition DVD release, the first few seconds of the film are shown with distorted audio, then the scene explodes to reveal the 1994 Elite Entertainment logo, which then fades to the THX Broadway trailer. Then, the film starts over with normal audio.
- The old German version misses some short scenes of dialog when Johnny and Barbara arrive at the cemetery. Some text is synchronized in a different meaning (the car's radio).
- The version shown on the Sci-fi channel deletes about seven minutes for time. The only shots cut for content are when the daughter is stabbing the mother and the blood splatters on the wall.
- This film has also been available in the United States in an edited version running 90 minutes (cut from 96 minutes). Some video (and even some DVD) releases have used this edited version.
- The older computer-colorized version (like the Video Treasures VHS version)has the TV screen the characters are watching and the photos in the closing credits in the original black and white. The new 20th Century Fox/Off Color Films DVD keeps the TV broadcast in black and white, but colorizes the closing photo montage.
- The 30th Anniversary Edition from Anchor Bay Entertainment removes 15 minutes of footage from the original film and inserts 15 minutes of new footage shot especially for this edition. George A. Romero was not involved with this version. The newly-shot scenes include the following:
- A new opening sequence in which two graveyard workers bring the body of an executed child murderer to the cemetery. The parents of the murdered child are waiting at the cemetery, along with a priest, to view the murderer's body before it is buried. Before the body can be buried, it returns to life and begins attacking the group. This is the same zombie who is later seen wandering the cemetery and attacking Barbra and Johnny.
- A scene where the victims of a recent car accident return to life as zombies. Three of the car's occupants, a mother and two daughters, return to life and begin wandering down the street, while the fourth victim, the father, is eaten by another group of zombies who come across the accident. One of the prominent zombies during this scene is a one-armed waitress zombie, who appears again later.
- A few brief new shots of zombies wandering around outside the farm house, including the waitress zombie and the mother and daughters from the car accident scene.
- A new scene where the priest from the beginning of this version of the film is interviewed by a TV reporter while local townspeople are hunting zombies in the background. During the interview, the priest is attacked by a zombie and bitten on the cheek.
- A new ending sequence in which the TV reporter goes to a medical center to visit the priest, who has survived his zombie attack. The priest claims that the reason he did not become one of the undead is because he was been chosen by God. He continues by saying that the zombies are actually demons from hell, occupying human bodies, and that all dead bodies should be crucified. The TV reporter becomes frightened by the priest's ramblings and leaves the room. This release of the film is controversial among fans, and should not be considered the definitive version of the film.
- The Slingshot DVD is an artificial 3D version of the film that is viewable in razor3D system. The film was originally shot in standard flat format and not in 3D.
- Some reissue prints contain a brief 30-second introduction by director George A. Romero.
- There are at least three different colorized versions:
- The first version, colorized by Hal Roach Studios in the 1980s, features green zombies.
- In the second version, also colorized by Hal Roach Studios, the zombies have the same skin color as the humans.
- Recently, a new high definition colorized version by Legend Studios/Off Color Films was released on DVD by 20th Century Fox.
- The original free Internet demo released as the "Night of the Living Dead: SURVIVOR'S CUT" features a remixed version (72 minutes long) with additional footage added, and several scenes digitally tinted for dramatic effect. The box-DVD release is a benevolent project that is designed to generate royalties for the creators of public domain and orphan films, it is called the "Benefit for the Living Dead."
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