The inside story of the important horror classic "Night of the Living Dead" as told by those who were there and those who were inspired by it. Including rare archival interviews, new interviews and visits to the original locations, "Chronicles of the Living Dead" also addresses the issue of the film's infamous copyright status, a legal debacle that continues to plague the original creators to this day.
If you want to learn about Latent Image, Image 10 and the $6000 that started the film... this is a great place to start. You might not know that these guys were making commercials at the time. (Missing from this film is the tie-in to Mr. Rogers.) J. R. Bookwalter is interviewed extensively, which is a little strange. George Romero also does not appear, relying almost exclusively on John Russo and Russ Streiner. It would have been nice to have Kyra Schon or some other perspectives. Bookwalter is great, but he is no more involved than any other modern filmmaker.
This film seems to have been created to really discuss the copyright issue, which is something worthy of discussion. Unfortunately, this looks at it very shallowly. The same things are repeated over and over again, without ever getting into the details of what the law says. This could have been educational, but never strays into the weeds (like it should).
The film raises the idea that its public domain status has increased its availability. This is a view I firmly believe. Because it is free to use or show, it has turned up in movie bundles and is often featured on TV or within shows as something the characters watch. Would it have been a classic anyway? Possibly. But it is hard to deny the possibility that it got big in part because it was everywhere.
If you want to learn about Latent Image, Image 10 and the $6000 that started the film... this is a great place to start. You might not know that these guys were making commercials at the time. (Missing from this film is the tie-in to Mr. Rogers.) J. R. Bookwalter is interviewed extensively, which is a little strange. George Romero also does not appear, relying almost exclusively on John Russo and Russ Streiner. It would have been nice to have Kyra Schon or some other perspectives. Bookwalter is great, but he is no more involved than any other modern filmmaker.
This film seems to have been created to really discuss the copyright issue, which is something worthy of discussion. Unfortunately, this looks at it very shallowly. The same things are repeated over and over again, without ever getting into the details of what the law says. This could have been educational, but never strays into the weeds (like it should).
The film raises the idea that its public domain status has increased its availability. This is a view I firmly believe. Because it is free to use or show, it has turned up in movie bundles and is often featured on TV or within shows as something the characters watch. Would it have been a classic anyway? Possibly. But it is hard to deny the possibility that it got big in part because it was everywhere.