Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead



Little known fact for you upfront and free of charge: Due to a blunder with the copyright on George A. Romero's début 'Night of the Living Dead', the film has lapsed into the public domain. Meaning that you or I can release the film on DVD and make a profit without giving anything to poor George. It's completely legal to download for free and you can even steal the title for your own film if you wish.

That's why, when I checked IMDB earlier, I found some cracking rip-offs such as 'Night of the Living Bread', 'Night of the Living Dead Mexicans' and this corker -
'Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Alien, Flesh Eating, Hellbound, Zombified Living Dead Part 2: In Shocking 2-D' . All genuine films.

Enough to leave Romero spinning in his grave [when he dies (before coming back as a zombie)].

The film itself, shot in high contrast Black and White, starts with a brother and sister travelling to put flowers on a grave. In the graveyard, they encounter a man stumbling like he's drunk, who's intent on eating them. Petrified Barbra (Judith O'Dea) runs away, leaving her brother to fend off the snacking zombie.

When she escapes, she finds an abandoned house and takes refuge within. There, she slips into a catatonic state, blithering nonsense every now and again while our newly arrived hero Ben (Duane Jones) tries to slap her out of it. Trust me, if I were Ben I'd have pushed her out the front door before I boarded it up.

But, no, ever the gentleman, Ben runs around securing the windows with plywood while she sits talking to herself. Don't worry she dies later and balance is restored to the world.

Ben discovers a group of five people have been hiding out in the cellar the whole time and is suitably pissed that they didn't help. As you can tell, the whole film is an allegory for black slavery... Did I mention Ben was black?
He spends the whole time working to keep everyone safe, while they sit around and come up with ridiculous plans that end in death.

Soon, the house is surrounded by zombies and they start to force their way in. News reaches them, through the TV and Radio, of a hunting party headed their way to rescue any survivors. Can Ben last that long? Not that it matters, because when they do arrive they kill him anyway (oops).

The film is made on a very low budget and when compared to Romero's later efforts, it shows. The zombies look better in Dawn and Day of the Dead, as in this film it looks like he simply gathered up his friends and neighbours and told them to walk funny towards a camera.

But unlike his more modern Zombie horrors Land and Diary of the Dead, Night has more effective scares. Because the zombies look like dead people and don't have mangled faces etc, it give the film a more realistic feel. The social commentary works well here too, second only to Dawn of the Dead in its poignancy.

I like this film so much, I plan to re-release it this summer.

Verdict 7/10
Not without its flaws, but a true original that spawned a genre.