#93: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, but the first time was only two years ago

BEST SEQUENCE

The mother and daughter reunion that occurs in the cellar

BEST LINE

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

97%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"George A. Romero's debut set the template for the zombie film, and features tight editing, realistic gore, and a sly political undercurrent."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls that are ravaging the East Coast of the United States."

THOUGHTS

• More than any other movie so far, I'm gonna talk spoilers, including the ending of the movie, so be warned. But also, come on. It's 50 years old, it's only 95 minutes long, and thanks to a copyright oversight, the whole movie is legally available on Youtube. If you're worried about spoilers, just go watch it, especially if you've ever enjoyed other zombie-related entertainment - you owe it to the subgenre to see where it all began
• While watching this movie, the word that kept coming to mind was "economical," and while it was certainly made on a budget ($114 000 to be precise), I mostly mean that in regards to time, characters, and plot. Time - there's no long build-up. We briefly meet Barbra and Johnny, siblings who are visiting their father's grave, and Johnny croaks at minute 7. Then it's off to the races, with Barbra hiding in a farmhouse with a few others. Characters - that thin backstory for Barbra and Johnny is probably the most we get in terms of character development. Barbra meets up with a handful of strangers, and we learn next to nothing about them. Plot - there isn't really one. A group of people have to work together to defend themselves from "ghouls" (the movie never uses the word "zombie") in a farmhouse. Even the cause of the zombies reanimating is only vaguely explained through a news broadcast (radiation from an exploded space probe that was on it's way back to Earth from Venus. Hey, I'm no scientist)
• Incidentally, I was going to make a snarky comment about the way this movie spells "Barbra" instead of "Barbara," but then I remembered Barbra Streisand, so it would seem that I was the fool
• The above points about this movie being economical were not meant as a criticism. This is a tight movie that leaves an impression and packs a punch. "Concentrated" is another adjective that comes to mind
• This is not, strictly speaking, the first zombie movie. The term "zombie" actually comes from Haitian folklore, and there were a number of movies made before this one about reanimated corpses, including everyone's favourite, Plan 9 From Outer Space. Night of the Living Dead, however, is seen as the birth of the modern zombie movie - these zombies are unintelligent, aggressive towards the living, and they are driven by their hunger for human flesh. Watching this movie, one recognizes so many tropes that will appear again and again in the future. A few of my favourites - they can only be stopped with a shot to the head, body shots won't do any good; a group of survivors boarding up the windows and doors with scrap wood; zombie hands reaching through said windows and doors for some pretty good jump scares; infighting amongst the survivors about the best strategies for survival; and that old classic, an infected person in their midst who stops living and starts attacking
• But despite being a trendsetter, the movie does show its age in a few ways. The acting and dialogue is a little corny, there's a melodramatic and fake-looking fist fight between two survivors, when we finally get to see the zombies eating human flesh it looks a little silly, and the makeup effects used in 1968 would, understandably, develop to be more convincing in later movies. Given what they were working with, though, this is still an impressively immersive movie. The way the zombies are lit is often very creepy
• What really stands out to me, both on this viewing and the previous one, is how incredibly bleak the ending is. And I mean it, now, spoilers coming up
• Every single main character dies! Sure, we had that early death at minute 7 so we know the zombies aren't just playing around. Then at minute 72, two main characters die in a truck explosion during a botched escape attempt, leaving only a few people. And you think this smaller group of survivors will be able to work together, set aside their differences, and figure out a way out of this darned mess! But no, very abruptly things get bad, and they rapidly get worse and worse, including a supremely chilling case of zombie matricide (my pick for the most effective scene)
• At last the only remaining survivor is the most capable of all of them, Ben, and we think he deserves to live - he tried to protect the others, he had the best ideas, he knew when to barricade himself in the cellar when the house finally gets overrun. However, Ben is ultimately shot by a posse of vigilantes who are on zombie-extermination duty. And there is no justice for Ben
• As referenced in the Rotten Tomatoes quote above, George Romero's zombie movies often contained aspects of social and political commentary. I have to be honest, however, I'm not usually one who looks for subtext; I often take my movies at face value. I'm better at reading about film analysis than I am at pontificating about it. If you want to approach this just as a zombie movie, you're going to have a good, thrilling time. If you want to approach this as a zombie movie and a clever allegory, however, you may have an even better time, and I welcome any discussions about the movie's deeper meanings in the comments

Up Next: #92 on the list, Body Heat, from 1981, a movie that everyone agrees is fantastically sexy and ridiculously steamy. I saw it years ago, but I don't remember much about it, so how sexy can it be?! We shall find out

Update: Actually, there aren't any more zombie movies on the list proper, and we haven't supplemented the list in a while, so we'll take a brief detour to check out Romero's follow-up to Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, which he made 10 years later. Up next, #93-B: Dawn of the Dead from 1978!