Review of Night of the Living Dead (1968) by Brian S — 11 Oct 2010

Overall, this film is awfully written, very poorly filmed, and incredibly dull, but redeeming qualities do exist. for one thing, it set the stage for a whole new generation of horror films (which some may legitimately argue isn't necessarily a good thing)--it uses the most conventional plot devices imaginable, but it also set the precedent.

there really aren't any other well-known or mainstream films like this that were out in 1968. there also is an actual creep factor, which I think makes this film bridge the gap between prior and future horror movies.

for about the first hour, the film is nothing but cheesy dialogue and obnoxious set-up. we don't really see murderous hordes of zombies as much as we hear the TV and radio TALKING about them. in a movie like this, more talk than action equals extreme boredom.

however once the action finally starts to kick in and the zombies actually start DOING something, the tone gets much darker and much creepier. the ending was also fantastic--unlike some other films that try to end the film on some sort of optimistic note, Romero chooses to embrace the horror to the bitter end.

you want a happy ending, watch another movie. given the genre, I really appreciate that. I didn't especially enjoy this movie because 90% of it truly is laughable and boring--but the other 10% is actually pretty good.