Night of the Living Dead

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Horrorphile - November 2007

Night of the Living Dead

November 5th 2007 05:23

Writer/Director George A. Romero re-invented the horror movie with his landmark super low-budget cult classic Night of the Living Dead (1968). Shot on 16mm in grainy black and white and with a bunch of amateur actors in and around his home town of Pittsburgh the movie became a staple of the midnight movie circuit and, in retrospect, spearheaded the rise of the modern horror movie.

Along with William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) and Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Night of the Living Dead re-vitalised a dying art form, injected it with the dark uncompromising attitude, and gave it the visceral edge it so demanded. It was the end of Hammer Horror’s stranglehold. The subversive sideshow of Hollywood was here in all its glorious grotesquerie.

Judith O'Dea as frightened Barbara

Night of the Living Dead's premise is simple, yet devastatingly effective: a young man Johnny (Russell Streiner) and his sister Barbara (Judith O’Dea), are visiting their parents grave when they are terrorised by a shuffling, seemingly deranged, and rather ghoulish man. Johnny has been teasing Barbara, “They’re comin’ to get you, Barbara! Look there’s one of them now!” Johnny is fatally wounded by the ghoulish man and Barbara manages to escape.

Night of the Living Dead cemetery zombie

They're coming to get you, Barbara!

She seeks shelter in a nearby farmhouse where she discovers several others already hiding out. It becomes quickly apparent that the countryside is running amok with zombies; the dead have come back to life and have only one desire: to eat living human flesh. Anyone bitten by a zombie becomes a zombie. The only way to kill them is to destroy the brain.

Ben (Duane Jones), Harry (Karl Hardman), Helen (Marilyn Eastman) and Tom (Keith Wayne) watch the telly for updates

Ben (Duane Jones) seems the only one of the household with any shrewdness and ingenuity, the others; a married couple Harry (Karl Hardman) and Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman) and their young daughter Karen (Kyra Schon), Judy (Judith Riley) and Tom (Keith Wayne), and heavily traumatised Barbara, are all rather hopeless.

Night of the Living Dead Marilyn Eastman, Kyra Schon and Karl Hardman

In the farmhouse basement the Coopers try to comfort their terminally-ill daughter Karen (Kyra Schon)

Their safety is frequently threatened as the undead surround the farmhouse. In a nerve-wracking sequence several of them try and get gasoline from a pump into a truck, but it ends in tragedy. Eventually chaos breaks out within the farmhouse, and everyone’s lives are up for grabs. A situation like this can only go from bad to worse. And it does.

Zombies roam the countryside

The screenplay was co-written with John Russo, who had a falling out with Romero after the movie’s success (in their subsequent legal settlement Romero wasn’t allowed to use the words “Living Dead” in any sequels he might wish to make). It’s a lean and effective script with strong characters and good dialogue. Most effective of all is the movie’s uncompromising denouement. It’s Murphy’s Law through and through, the most bitter of ironies.

Young Karen is feeling hungry

Night of the Living Dead Marilyn Eastman

But her mother doesn't agree with what her daughter wants to eat

The movie’s handheld standard ratio camerawork adds a claustrophobic urgency to the film’s visual narrative. Romero, uncredited, was the cinematographer and co-editor (along with Russo). The clever use of having most of the graphic violence and gore occur in shadows or half-light only intensifies the overall effect. The scene when Barbara discovers a body with its partially-eaten face on stairwell landing of the farmhouse is a genuinely alarming image; it’s mostly in shadow, but the staring dead eye and ruined flesh makes for a truly horrific motif for the whole film.

Ben finds a big gun is always the best way to answer a zombie

Night of the Living Dead is an excellent example of low-budget, indie filmmaking; paring back to the essentials of cinematic storytelling, making sure everything is a believable as it can possibly be, despite the inherently implausible premise. There are numerous goofs and technical trappings, but the atmosphere and pacing is so good, you forget these trifles.

The redneck locals descend upon the farmhouse at movie's end

Romero has made three sequels to this seminal film; Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985) and Land of the Dead (2005). Tom Savini, who provided the ingenious special effects make-up for the first two sequels, directed a colour remake of the movie in 1990. The first two sequels have also been re-made. There are rumours that Romero is still interested in making a fourth sequel.

Here is the original trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

7 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Damo

November 5th 2007 10:35

For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics

I still have a soft spot for the old B/W films that really chill people out.
The is something artistic about the lack of color

Comment by Cibbuano

November 5th 2007 22:25

20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak

beautiful... I would have loved to been involved with the movie... imagine how exciting it would have been!

Comment by Bryn

November 5th 2007 23:29

Horrorphile

Damo, yeah I quite agree ... I'm thinking Nosferatu. A masterpiece, I think I'll review that soon ...

Cibby, how cool would've it been!!

Comment by Miswanderlust

November 9th 2007 04:12

Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy

Bryn
Love this movie in all of it's gory glory! I also have a soft spot for black and white horror.
Mis

Comment by Bryn

November 9th 2007 04:44

Horrorphile

Mis, I have a few monochromatic goodies to review in the future ... stay tuned!

Comment by Cibbuano

June 2nd 2008 23:40

20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak

I just rewatched this last weekend, downloading it off the Internet Archive.

Wonderful! Incredible! Even better than I remember.

The low budget look only makes it better, and the black-and-white filming is perfect for the cheap effects.

Great ending, too. Tragic, horrible. Symbolic? I dunno... in interviews Romero claims to have never thought about his lead being black..

Comment by Bryn

June 3rd 2008 04:44

Horrorphile

Cibby, yeah, it so rocks. I've seen Tom Savini's 1990 colour remake, but can't really remember any of it ... No doubt it'll get remade again very soon ... and be really bad. The ending is powerhouse, especially done in that newsreel montage ...

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[ Next - A Short Film About Killing ]

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