NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
Back in 1968, George Romero was already successful at producing and directing commercials with a company he and his friends started called Image Ten Productions. They decided they wanted to try their hands at a feature. They decided the easiest and most accessible genre was Horror. They pitched in roughly $10,000 each and soon George was writing the script for the cult phenomenon that would become NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.
When production and editing were finished the group threw the film reels into the trunk of a car and drove towards New York to find a theater, any theater, willing to project their film. And around the time Malcolm X was shot, they found one.
The film starred Judith O’Dea, Duane Jones, Karl Harman, and Marilyn Eastman as the core group of people stuck inside an old house in the middle of the Pennsylvania countryside during an outbreak of Mass Hysteria. The film opens as Barbara (O’Dea) and her brother Johnny are driving up to put a wreath on the grave of their father. They bicker as Johnny turns off the radio just as news about this event is about to be broadcast, leaving them unaware. Moments later, after teasing Barbara in front of a seemingly harmless man wandering, the horror begins. The man attacks and kills Johnny leaving Barbara to fend for herself and escape. She finds her way to the seemingly abandoned home where she takes shelter. Very soon she is met by Ben, who himself just escaped Ghoul chaos at a diner a few miles away. That’s one thing that should be noted about NOTLD, that never once is the word Zombie uttered. They are referred to as Ghouls.
Ben starts boarding up the house to protect he and Barbara and after awhile the basement door flies open and out pours, Harry, Tom, Judy and Helen. Harry and Helen are an unhappily married couple constantly bickering as their daughter lies in the basement suffering from the effects of having been bitten. Tom and Judy are teenagers who seem scared and uncertain, and it is Ben who immediately takes charge. But his methods anger Harry. During 1968, and the Civil Rights Movement, the idea of an African American taking charge was unheard of. And although Romero maintains that Ben could have been played by either a white or black actor, it still stands out that Ben is black and in charge.
Soon the movie becomes not a film about people against monsters, but rather people against people. The infighting between two men, husband and wife, racial tensions and the idea of gender roles are brought to the surface. And what happens when people can’t or won’t work together? Things start falling apart and soon we find the hopes of survival diminishing. And that is what makes Night of the Living Dead stand out. Granted some of the characters become victims to the Ghouls but most of their fates lie in their inability to work together. Pride, ego and anger are the true “monsters” in this film.
Ultimately Night of the Living Dead has gone on to become on of the most respected cult films in history and Romero has gone on to make several more “Zombie Films” to varying degrees of success. But he created the genre and dozens of filmmakers have copied or have been influenced by this film and this filmmaker. Night of the Living Dead is seen less as a horror film, and more as a study into the human condition, especially during the tumultuous times of the late 1960’s when Vietnam raged on, major assassinations were taking place, and the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing. Whether or not Romero intended all of these subtexts to the film is still not truly known. He shy’s away from saying that all we get is what he intended, but maybe he didn’t realize how deep this low budget film really was and what it said and still says about society at large.
GRADE- A
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