Night Of The Living Dead Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

They're coming for you, Barbara...

This is an essential piece of Cinema. The film that coined the expression 'Video Nasty'. Ok, so it looks a bit dated now, the acting's a bit hammy, but it was made in 196bloody8! Check out other horror films of this era and you'll see how graphic and controversal this film was. This film is as influential to modern horror films as the beatles are to modern pop music. And it's sequels only got better..

Seminal horror

This film, the first of George A. Romero's 'Trilogy of the Dead', was the inspiration for almost countless zombie movies made in the 35-plus years since it was made.

The premise is simple and one we are probably all well acquainted with; the dead are coming back to life, attacking the living. Survivors in a remote part of America find refuge in an 'abandoned' house and must do their best to defend themselves until help arrives, hopefully in the form of some gun-happy yokels.

The claustrophobic camerawork, teamed with the general absence of a score (this is a very quiet film) and sporadic attacks from the zombies lend themselves brilliantly to the build up of tension.

The undead evoke an initial 'stupid-therefore-harmless' feeling. They are slow and seem easily escapable, but are relentless, stopping at nothing to get their fill of fresh human flesh, their lumbering becoming a taunting panic-inducing gesture -'I'm going to eat you! But I'll make you wait for it! Hahaha!' (not a quote, unfortunately).

This primary reaction to the idea of the dead being resurrected is unsettlingly joined by that of how we would deal with our loved ones becoming the exactly what we are trying to escape/defeat, our ability to empathise being called into question regularly.

Distracting at times, Night of the Living Dead can seem rather amateurish, the acting sometimes wooden, sometimes conversely hyperbolic, and occasionally in the same performance. In terms of production there is some form of a disclaimer in the opening credits, the fledgling talents of (if my memory serves me well) a college film team being utilised.

If you watch thinking that everything will be alright in the end; think again. The constituent films of this trilogy famously have very bleak endings, leading us to think, as Romero (although he more in social and moral terms) did; 'what will become of the human race?'.

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[Highly rated reviewer]

...

when i watched this film i struggled to contain my laughter. and thats not really what you want from a horror film.

Seminal horror

This film, the first of George A. Romero's 'Trilogy of the Dead', was the inspiration for almost countless zombie movies made in the 35-plus years since it was made.

The premise is simple and one we are probably all well acquainted with; the dead are coming back to life, attacking the living. Survivors in a remote part of America find refuge in an 'abandoned' house and must do their best to defend themselves until help arrives, hopefully in the form of some gun-happy yokels.

The claustrophobic camerawork, teamed with the general absence of a score (this is a very quiet film) and sporadic attacks from the zombies lend themselves brilliantly to the build up of tension.

The undead evoke an initial 'stupid-therefore-harmless' feeling. They are slow and seem easily escapable, but are relentless, stopping at nothing to get their fill of fresh human flesh, their lumbering becoming a taunting panic-inducing gesture -'I'm going to eat you! But I'll make you wait for it! Hahaha!' (not a quote, unfortunately).

This primary reaction to the idea of the dead being resurrected is unsettlingly joined by that of how we would deal with our loved ones becoming the exactly what we are trying to escape/defeat, our ability to empathise being called into question regularly.

Distracting at times, Night of the Living Dead can seem rather amateurish, the acting sometimes wooden, sometimes conversely hyperbolic, and occasionally in the same performance. In terms of production there is some form of a disclaimer in the opening credits, the fledgling talents of (if my memory serves me well) a college film team being utilised.

If you watch thinking that everything will be alright in the end; think again. The constituent films of this trilogy famously have very bleak endings, leading us to think, as Romero (although he more in social and moral terms) did; 'what will become of the human race?'.

Brains!!!!

My first experience of Romero was through a haze of smoke watching Dawn of the Dead on late night TV. Expecting the usual late night horror flick to wash over me as I lost interest and drifted into unconsciousness I was gripped by an altogether different experience. An experience which dragged me completely into his world and despite poor special effects by today’s standards evoked a true sense of dread which I shared with the main characters as they fought to preserve what they knew as their world dissolved around them.

So impressed with the second of Romero’s Dead quadrology that I had to explore the remaining films, and what better place to start than at the beginning. Night of the Living Dead throws you right in the mix straight away, he gives you no time to question what you are seeing around you just like the central characters all you can do is react! The lead character Ben is black not unusual in today’s films but much more significant in 1968. This fact now passes audiences straight by now times have changed for the better but it was these differences Romero sought to highlight. We all know zombies are stupid, slow, and clumsy and when whacked over their thick heads they die. We on the other hand are clever, we drive cars, play football and laminate our floors so what’s all the fuss about? Well zombies aren’t vain, their not prejudiced, their one united force with a common purpose, they want to eat our brains nothing else. In Romero’s films it’s your own personal decisions that become yours and everyone else’s undoing when faced with this ceaseless enemy. Very much the influence of the cold war drove this message but it still resonates today. The internal barriers in any society can be far more dangerous than any other external and some what vilified enemies, Bush and Saddam anyone? At a time when all Americas ills where blamed on Communism or the Civil Rights movement Romero reminded people that it was their society too and one day they would have to accept responsibility for it as individuals. Maybe the political landscape hasn’t changed quite so much in 40 years?