Review of Night of the Living Dead (1968) by Byron B — 03 Oct 2011

Based on the bargain bin Horror Classics 50 Movies DVD pack, which includes several zombie flicks from the 30's and 40's, zombies were the monsters of choice when your budget was the lowest of low. Their movies were absolutely awful and not given the relative respect of the classic Universal monsters. Most would hardly be recognized as official zombies prior to this gem though. Romero defined the disfigured, jerky shuffling, pawing hands, and eating of flesh of the ghouls in this picture as quintessential zombies. In fact they are referred to as ghouls through most of the film and not zombies specifically, but this is the beginning of our association of those qualities with the zombie as it is seen today in pop culture as far as I know.

A good suspenseful atmosphere. Romero is able to pull surprisingly good simple performances from his no name cast and the low budget locales are perfect. I liked the microcosm created by the various people trying to survive the zombie attach in the small farm house. The racial tensions and the generational tensions gave the story added heft. Duane Jones as Ben was surprising as the most heroic survivor. I liked the use of media. The delivery of communication through radio and television reports strengthens the Midwestern setting and formation of modern day instant news feeds. The fact that the ghouls look like normal people until they get close enough that you can see scars and wounds was creepy. There is a great sense of menace. This was ahead of its time in use of language and in gore. The effects were effective. This movie walked a fine line that I appreciated in showing more violence and death than had probably been included in any horror movie before, all of it necessary to make the threat believable, but still with an old fashioned sense of decorum that refrained from gallons of spurting blood and other excessive-ness. It is rare that I really enjoy a horror film, but this fit the bill.