“Are they slow moving chief?” “Yeah they’re dead, they’re all messed up.”
Barbra (Judith O’Dea) and Johnny (Russell Streiner) are brother and sister. They have driven into rural Pennsylvania at the behest of their mother to place a flowered cross on the grave of their father. At the cemetery a shambling man comes up to them and attacks Barbra. Johnny is killed trying to intervene. Barbra runs away and takes shelter in a nearby farm house followed by the only fast zombie in the whole film. Inside she finds a half eaten corpse. Outside are more men lumbering about.
A car pulls up looking for gas but the gas pump outside is locked. A man, Ben (Duane Jones), leaps from the car and races into the house. While Barbra is in shock Ben takes control of the situation and begins to secure the house. Any of the creatures that get too close Ben beats in the head with a tire iron. In inspecting the house Ben also finds a rifle and some bullets. After boarding up the first floor Ben goes upstairs to secure the second floor.
In the meantime the cellar door opens and two men come upstairs to the first floor. Five people have been hiding in the basement. Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley) are a young couple. Harry (Karl Hardman) and Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman), along with their injured daughter Karen (Kyra Schon), are also hiding. Harry is basically a coward with an attitude problem.
Radio broadcasts report a dire situation. Ben finds a television upstairs. The group learns that the killers are recently dead people that have come back to life. Scientists suspect that a space probe returning from Venus had been exposed to radiation and that the explosion of the probe in the earth’s atmosphere may have rained down the radiation reanimating the dead. The dead people then started attacking the living and eating them.
Their only hope now is to find a way to escape the farmhouse and make it to one of the rescue stations that the government is setting up throughout the country.
“Night of the Living Dead” was released in 1968 and was directed by George A. Romero. It was written by John Russo and George Romero. Although there have been plenty of zombie movies before “Night of the Living Dead”, this is the film that defined what a modern zombie is, even though the word zombie is never used in the film. They are simply referred to as either ghouls or creatures.
Romero is credited with basically inventing the genre. The film is the first to show zombies as shuffling and stiff moving flesh eaters that are killed by either a shot to the head or a blow to the brain. They are also afraid of fire. There isn’t much of a preamble with this movie. The zombie’s show up early on. Granted zombies are not fast, or smart, but they are relentless.
Now considered a classic, the movie was one of the first to show graphic scenes of extreme murder and gore which garnered it quite a bit of criticism at the time of release. And quite a big following. Even by today’s standards the film is quite gross and depicts some intense scenes of violence. Not to mention some possible nausea. These attributes are what gave it its cult status.
It is also one of the first to have a Black person as a main character. Much has been suggested concerning racism and racist attitudes being reflected in the movie. Some believe it is part social commentary of the times. According to the filmmakers Duane Jones was just the best actor for the part of Ben.
Romero always got asked if the tombstone Barbra is kneeling in front of was a fake one or not. "Are you kidding?" said Russo. "We couldn't afford fake tombstones in those days."
If you love horror movies or zombie movies this is on your ‘must see’ list.
The film was selected in 1999 by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry as a film deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".