George A. Romero’s 1968 masterpiece changed everything. It invented the modern zombie. It broke racial barriers by casting Duane Jones as a lead who wasn't a stereotype. It was bleak, nihilistic, and shot on a shoestring budget in grainy, high-contrast black and white.
Then came the color.
The history of night of the living dead color versions is a messy, fascinating saga of copyright blunders and artistic controversy. People usually fall into two camps: the purists who think colorizing a noir-style horror film is a sin, and the curious viewers who just want to see what Ben’s Winchester rifle looks like in walnut brown. Honestly, both sides have a point. The film’s transition from monochrome to Technicolor-adjacent is less about "improving" a classic and more about how the industry tried to squeeze every last cent out of a movie that accidentally fell into the public domain the moment it hit theaters.
The Public Domain Disaster That Started It All
You can’t talk about colorizing this movie without mentioning the "Theatrical Distributor Blunder of the Century." Basically, when the title was changed from Night of the Flesh Eaters to Night of the Living Dead, the distributor forgot to put the copyright notice on the new title cards.
Instant public domain.
Because Romero and his team at Image Ten didn't own the exclusive rights, anyone with a film print and a garage could distribute it. This led to a flood of terrible VHS transfers, but more importantly, it opened the door for companies to "transform" the work so they could copyright their specific version. Adding color was the easiest way to do that. If you own a colorized version, you own those specific pixels, even if you don't own the underlying 35mm story.
Hal Roach Studios and the 1986 "Green Zombie" Era
The first major attempt at a night of the living dead color release happened in 1986. Hal Roach Studios—the same folks who did those early, somewhat garish colorizations of Laurel and Hardy—decided to tackle the zombies.
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It was... weird.
If you’ve ever seen this version, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The skin tones are a bit too pink, the blood looks like strawberry jam, and there’s a strange, hazy glow around everything. Technology in the mid-80s wasn't exactly nuanced. Colorization was a "brute force" process where technicians literally painted digital masks over every frame.
It felt wrong.
The stark shadows that made the basement scenes so terrifying were suddenly muddied by puke-green highlights on the ghouls. Fans hated it. Critics like Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were notoriously against colorization in general, arguing it was "vandalism" of a director’s intent. Romero himself was never a fan of these early efforts, seeing them as cheap cash-ins on a movie he was already struggling to see any royalties from.
Why the Lighting Doesn't Translate
The biggest problem with the 1986 color version isn't just the palette. It's the physics. Romero and cinematographer George Fereé shot the movie specifically for black and white. They used high-key lighting to create deep blacks. In monochrome, those shadows hide the cheapness of the sets and the fact that the "blood" was actually Boscoe chocolate syrup.
When you add color, those shadows lose their depth. You start to see the seams. The magic of the "Pittsburgh Gothic" look evaporates, replaced by something that looks like a low-budget soap opera filmed in a field.
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The Legend Films Update: A Better Sort of Blasphemy?
Fast forward to 2004. Technology had leaped forward, and Legend Films decided to give it another go. They actually brought in Ray Harryhausen—the stop-motion legend—to consult on their colorization projects.
This version is objectively "better" than the 80s attempt. The colors are more muted, the skin tones don't look like they're made of plastic, and the blood actually looks like blood. Legend Films even did a "Special Edition" that included a commentary track by Mike Nelson of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame.
Even with better tech, the fundamental question remained: why?
Some younger viewers argue that black and white is a "barrier to entry." They say the movie feels "old" or "boring" without color. While that's a tough pill for film buffs to swallow, it's a real sentiment. The Legend Films version was an attempt to bridge that gap, making the movie accessible to a generation raised on 28 Days Later and the saturated gore of the early 2000s.
The 1990 Remake: The Only "True" Color Version?
If you really want to see night of the living dead color, many purists will tell you to skip the colorized 1968 prints and just watch the 1990 remake directed by Tom Savini.
Romero wrote the script for this one.
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It was a way for the original creators to finally get a copyright they could actually defend. Because it was shot on 35mm color film from the jump, the lighting works. The zombies look terrifyingly visceral because they were designed for a color palette. Tony Todd’s performance as Ben is incredible, and Patricia Tallman’s Barbara is a much more capable, modern protagonist.
It’s not the original, sure. But it’s the only version where the color feels like an intentional artistic choice rather than a digital after-thought.
The Aesthetics of Dread: Monochrome vs. Palette
There is something inherently "zombie-like" about black and white. It feels dead. It feels like a newspaper clipping from a nightmare.
When you look at the night of the living dead color versions, you notice things that were meant to stay hidden. You see the texture of the makeup. You see the flatness of the wood. The original film relied on "suggestive horror." Your brain fills in the reds of the gore, and because your brain's imagination is better than a 1980s computer, it’s scarier.
However, looking at the colorized versions can be a great educational tool for filmmakers. It shows you exactly how much work the "shading" was doing in the original. You can see how a simple light placed behind Duane Jones gave him a halo effect that is completely lost once you turn on the digital "browns" and "blues" of his clothes.
Where to Find Them Now
Finding these versions today is a bit of a scavenger hunt.
- The Original Black and White: Available everywhere, including a stunning 4K restoration by The Criterion Collection that was supervised by Romero before he passed.
- The 1986 Colorization: Mostly found on old, out-of-print DVDs or grainy YouTube uploads. It’s a curiosity, nothing more.
- The Legend Films Version: Often bundled in "Zombie Collection" budget sets. It's the one most people see if they accidentally buy a color version on Amazon.
- The 1990 Remake: Widely available on Blu-ray and streaming. It’s held up remarkably well.
Actionable Steps for Horror Fans
If you're curious about exploring the world of night of the living dead color, don't just pick the first version you see on a streaming service. Most free streaming apps (like Tubi or Pluto TV) will often carry the cheapest, most readily available version, which is usually a bad public domain print or an early colorization.
- Watch the Criterion 4K first. You need to see the "intended" version to understand why the shadows matter. It's the gold standard.
- Compare a specific scene. Take the "basement argument" between Ben and Harry Cooper. Watch it in the original, then find the Legend Films colorized version on YouTube. Notice how the tension changes when you can see the color of the wood paneling. It feels less claustrophobic, doesn't it?
- Check the 1990 Remake. If you want color, this is the version to spend your time on. It honors the original while providing a fresh take on the gore.
- Avoid "AI Upscaled" Fan Edits. Lately, people have been using AI to "colorize" and "60fps" the movie. Avoid these. They create "soap opera effect" and weird digital artifacts that ruin the movement of the zombies.
The debate over night of the living dead color isn't going away. As long as the movie is in the public domain, companies will keep trying to "refresh" it with new tech. But at the end of the day, the stark, cold, black-and-white reality of 1968 is what makes the movie a legend. It doesn't need a coat of paint to be terrifying. It just needs the lights turned off.