| Night of the Living Dead: A Review: George A. Romero's classic late 60's zombie romp is a landmark in cinematic history and it opened up a whole new cult section of the horror genre, the zombie movie. Although the zombie movie was nothing new, this was the first zombie movie of what we all know and love as zombies. Mindless hunks of undead flesh staggering across the landscape, hammering at the doors and windows while they munch on the flesh of the living, not their brains as all the spoofs seem to think. Opening on an empty dirt road accompanied by an eerie soundtrack, a car slowly makes its way towards the cemetery, coming to a stop at Barbara and Johnny's father's grave. After a brief scene where Barbara prays, Johnny is quick off the mark to point out a staggering man in the distance claiming "they're coming to get you Barbara!" And slowly, in the Hitchcockian style, this shambling wreak of a man does come into the plot. But this isn't any normal man on a walk, this is a zombie! In fact, this is one of the most famous zombies in horror history; Bill Hinzman plays the small part wonderfully and sends the entire movie down the road to become an image of doom. After a booming escape sequence, Barbara comes to rest in an abandoned farmhouse after the murder of her brother, Johnny, by the monster in the cemetery. It is not long before another lost soul turns up, Ben, a young black man who's encounters with a hoard of flesh-eating zombies has left his dazed and confused, but still very much in the mood for fighting. He attempts to gather a shred of sense from the babbling Barbara but to no avail. Instead, he must board up the house to hopefully stop a gathering crowd of zombies outside from getting in and feasting on them. The atmosphere is tight and claustrophobic and it becomes ever more so when the rest of the cast is introduced by a family and a young couple who come crawling out of the cellar, hoping that the banging they heard upstairs wasn't zombies, fortunately for them it wasn't. But the scene is far from quiet as Cooper and Ben fight for top-man in the house, who is the boss? A string of arguments and close calls with the undead eventually lead to an attempt to re-fuel Ben's truck as a means of escape. However, after a disastrous attempt, two are left dead after an explosion at the gas pump and the rest of them fending off the zombies the best they can. But they all know that the end is nigh as more and more of the zombies gather outside, hammering on the door and clawing at the windows while scattered news casts set the ailing situation in its place. Finally, the end comes and a blood bath ensues finishing in a pack of hunters killing Ben in either a racially motivated or accidental way. The movie ends as swarms of gun-ho hunter's blast the dead to a new grave and as the helicopters and police observe the carnage to another eerie soundtrack. Night of the Living Dead was and still is a cult classic, "one of the most successful independently made films ever" as claimed by Danny Peary and stated as redefining the meaning of horror. Romero's classic is a landmark in horror and the film is as terrifying today as it was back in 1968. Filmed in gritty monochrome, the zombies are as real and as threatening as they could ever be, clawing at the windows, feeding on arms and chunks of flesh in the night shadows, brought masterfully to undead life by the talents of the F/X artist. Unlike Dawn and Day, Night of the Living Dead did not have the presence of Tom Savini on set, in fact, Savini was in Vietnam at the time and was unable to work on the movie, although he really wanted to. But luckily for him, after Dario Argento approached Romero in 1977, Savini was able to put his talents to masterful effect on both of Night's two sequels, and hopefully the work-in-progress third sequel. Night of the Living Dead is a classic and is of course, worth a million viewings and a permanent place in any true horror fan's video collection. True horror and chills ye shall find inside this dark and original zombie film. An inspiration to all and in fact the basis of Lucio Fulci's career! Night is just so fantastic it is very hard to find the words to describe why so. A King's ransom in visual and creative joys as well as classic black and white film allows the zombies to appear even more undead-like while the chocolate sauce blood is terrific! So stop reading this review and go and watch Night of the Living Dead now! You aren't a horror fan without seeing this movie! Go watch it now! |