Review of Night of the Living Dead (1968) by Tommy H — 13 Apr 2015
Movies like Night of The Living Dead make me envious of people who experienced giant leaps in film-making when it they fresh and exciting. being born in 1982 all I witnessed was the rise of CGI and the perfection of manipulative movie trailers. Just imagine -- it's 1968 and you don't know what the future of horror movies will bring. Then you see Night of The Living Dead at your local drive-in. I'm sure it blew many minds back then.
Horror started out artful and elegant, like a stage play, but not scary. Then horror got taken over by comedy and science fiction and boring movies based on old stories that were better told by ink and paper. Around the time Night of The Living Dead came out the wave of classy European Gothic horror and romantic horror was crashing. What made Night of The Living Dead so revolutionary was the realism. At the time it must have looked more like a documentary than a horror movie. And unlike movies like Psycho, the combination of realism and fantasy pushed the terror into the imagination, where our most primal fears and doubts still hide.
If the zombies didn't scare you, in 1968 maybe the social commentary will. In many ways Night of The Living Dead and Dawn of The Dead are like much more nihilistic and cynical interpretations of Animal Farm. Orwell commented on our political leaders and ideologues; Romero commented on everyone else.
This review of Night of the Living Dead (1968) was written by Tommy H on 13 Apr 2015.
Night of the Living Dead has generally received very positive reviews.
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