Review of Night of the Living Dead (1968) by Jonathan K — 30 Jun 2011

This was the first scary movie I ever saw. I was like....10. I had this friend in Cub Scouts, Tony, who I used to spend the night with. One time, I get over there and Tony looks at me with this devious grin, "We're gonna watch a scary movie tonight!".

I think my response was something along the lines of "Cool!" but inside I was thinking, "OHNOSHITBALLSNOTASCARYMOVIE!!!!". I really was a chicken back then. Apparently, Tony's older sister was gonna be out that night and he was gonna sneak in her room and get her copy of a movie with the delightful, kid-friendly title of.

....Night of the Living Dead. I was not looking forward to this. I was hoping something would happen to distract Tony from getting the movie, like a meteor crashing into the house or a bear coming out of the toilet (.

...I don't know......that wouldn't distract you?). But Tony wouldn't shake the idea. So finally his parents went to bed and he snuck into his sister's room and got the movie. Aaaand we watched it.

For an hour and a half, I sat there.......horrified. Even though the movie was in black and white, I could see the red blood. I mean, there were scenes of people......EATING PEOPLE! I mean straight up eating people.

My 10 year old brain felt like it had been punched. The only saving grace to me was that surely the "good guys" would triumph in the end. They would somehow kill these zombies with guns or fire or a toilet bear and the day would be saved.

So the end comes and everyone has been killed except for our fearless leader, Ben. It's the next morning and he hears the sounds of gunshots. Other people!!!! Yes! I was celebrating!!! The other people would save Ben and have cake and soda! So Ben creeps up to a window and looks out.

There's the people! Yaaaay! They're coming! My smile was so big and I felt so happy and then they SHOT. HIM. IN. THE. F**KING. HEAD! ( oh....sorry.....SPOILER ALERT!). The record player in my head went SCEEERRRRRR.

My jaw most likely was resting on my chest. How can you kill the last surviving "good guy"? Can you even DO that in a movie? That ending messed me up for days. And that movie messed me up for years.

And now I look back on it and smile. Because I was so naive. And because then I could've never predicted that I would have a passion for these types of films years down the line. I know this wasn't really a review, but it's a milestone in my life so I had to do it.

Incidentally, it is a great movie, though.