1968 Directed by George A. Romero
A group of people try to survive an attack of bloodthirsty zombies while trapped in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse. Although not the first zombie film, Night of the Living Dead is the progenitor of the contemporary "zombie apocalypse" horror film, and it greatly influenced the modern pop-culture zombie archetype.
"it seems to be a sudden, general explosion of mass homicide... eyewitnesses say they are ordinary looking people, some say they appear to be in a kind of trance..."
a violent sickness intrudes a nation, fuelling its anxieties, exacerbating its tensions, eroding any and all social bonds that (barely) keep us from savagery—and still a police state is maybe the scariest result. this is brutally stark filmmaking and perhaps the most ferocious, unflinching portrait of the american psyche in the heat of the vietnam war and civil rights movement. rest in peace romero, you will be sorely missed.
So this really aged well.
I was a bit afraid that with the whole Apocalyptic Running Zombie direction Zombie films were headed this would feel old and tired, but it most assuredly doesn't.
I am not sure if I remember correctly but I seem to recall that Romero was inspired by the novel 'I am Legend' when he was thinking of this film. The feeling of being alone, surrounded by monsters is a strong concept and it is executed to perfection in this film. This is not a full out horror fest most of us are used to. Much like the zombies themselves, it is determined and relentless.
And that's the thing, this film emanates a 'this has never been…
What can I write about Night of the Living Dead that hasn't already been said by hundreds of other people, better than I could put it? At this point, everyone knows that this movie is a major feat--where ghouls are no longer ghouls, but zombies, and soon they will have a set of rules. Everyone knows that this is an influential, revered and beloved film. Everyone knows that George A. Romero created a new breed of monster. Just like vampire films are always referenced back to Bram Stoker, the modern-day zombie film is always referenced back to Romero. The only difference between both is that vampires have been around for centuries; throughout many different cultures, taking different forms in a…
Part of me wants to love this film and yet another can't see past the fact that the film tends to show its age and low budget to frequently to gain any form of a higher opinion on it.
It's a damn fine effort for its time and its many underlying themes make it still relevant to this day, yet I can't deny that some aspects are pretty dated and at least a decent amount of the film was pretty uninteresting.
Not to say the film itself is to blame, I've just never fond zombies that scary of a monster to be up against or the overall setting to offer that much in terms of overall story. Granted, Romero's efforts…
George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead is immeasurable, not just in terms of stature within the realm of horror cinema, but in ways that reflect the grand unraveling of its respective time-period. Tragically disturbing, beautifully grainy, and relentlessly bleak; Romero's film is an unforgettable beginning to the modern Zombie subgenre.
I used to think there was something about horror films that meant they could only be really good if they were in colour. This excellent movie changed my mind.
George A. Romero's original zombie classic that set, and continues to define, the rules of zombie movies for fifty years now. The bleak setting and grainy black and white imagery only serve to make it all the more chilling.
If you've seen it then you'll know the final moment. It just adds to the savagery of the movie and the futily of the battle against the undead. A battle which has been going on for fifty years and will continue to go on, with this always as the first chapter.
I thought this would be dated but it’s far from it. Although the horror is definitely present and still genuinely unnerving in places despite its age, what really makes the film are the character interactions
There are no words that can accurately capture my love for this film. It's a must watch. I can't believe it took me years to watch it. One of the best films cinema has to offer.
The original! And it still holds up! Love the social commentary, especially with the ending. Great little personal drama set amidst zombies, exactly the way it should be done.
The one that started the entire zombie craze that still has not died down. I think it is really ahead of it's time, but I also think it sucks. The camerawork is almost unwatchable, and I still have no clue why it's in black and white, even for a low-budget film. It made me realize that a film doesn't have to be necessarily cinematically good to be influential.
The first in the Living Dead trilogy from director George A Romero changed the way horror films from after the year of this release were made – and I can understand why. Not only this, but it also created a new type of horror – zombies.
Though the original version of Night of the Living Dead wasn’t the first film to deal with zombies – one of the first was Jacques Tourneur’s classic horror I Walked With a Zombie released 25 years earlier.
But Night of the Living Dead set the trend for other zombie movies in the future, most notably with the two versions of Dawn of the Dead, along with Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, World War Z,…
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