Apr 07 2009
“Night of the Living Dead” (1968) ****
Preview
Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, Keith Wayne, Judith Ridley, Kyra Schon, and Russell Streiner.
Directed by: George A. Romero
Story:
The story takes place around Daylight Savings time in 1982. Brother and sister, Johnny and Barbara are driving out somewhere in Western Pennsylvania to place new flowers on their father’s grave. Johnny starts teasing his sister who has a certain fear of cemeteries. A pale-faced tall man moves toward them at a snail’s pace as they bicker and tries to attack Barbara.
The man turns out to a reanimated corpse bent on eating their flesh. Johnny wrestles him to the ground and dies, leaving Barbara to fend for herself. She runs off and stumbles across a seemingly abandoned farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Inside, she finds yet another dead corpse (although not reanimated, this one has been disposed of by someone) and a few more dead guys find their way to the house. In an attempt to flee the shelter, she is saved by Ben who shows up in his pick-up truck and fends off the four or five zombies.
Together, they hold up in the house, which Ben begins to board up with all the wood he can find. They soon discover a few other survivors who are holding up in the basement - A bitter married couple, Harry and Helen Cooper with their unconscious (zombie-bitten) daughter, and a teenage couple Tom and Judy. They find a radio which informs them of a strange mass murder effecting the entire Eastern Seaboard where the unburied and recently dead are returning to life and attacking the living.
Characters:
*Barbra (Judith O’Dea): The lead female protagonist whom loses her brother to the undead.
*Johnny (Russell Streiner): Barbra’s brother who becomes one of the first victims.
*Ben (Duane Jones): The lead male protagonist who saves Barbra’s life just in the nick of time. One of the smartest people in the group.
*Harry Cooper (Karl Hardman): Husband to Helen and father to Karen, he and his family have been hiding in the farmhouse’s cellar the entire time. He turns out to be the most ignorant of the group and the most uncooperative.
*Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman): Wife to Harry and mother to Karen, she and her family have been hiding in the farmhouse’s cellar the entire time. She is the complete opposite of her husband.
*Karen Cooper (Kyra Schon): Harry and Helen’s daughter who has been bitten by one of the undead.
*Tom (Keith Wayne): Judy’s boyfriend, the both of them have been hiding in the cellar with the Cooper family.
*Judy (Judith Ridley): Tom’s girlfriend.
Overall:
Director George A. Romero drew some inspiration from Richard Matheson’s novel, “I Am Legend”, where a plague engulfs Los Angeles in the near future, turning everyone into vampire-like creatures, and came up with the skeleton of his first feature film, “Night of the Living Dead”. It is one of the first films in the 60s to use an African-American hero without one drop of racism or the mere mention of race throughout the entire film.
The protagonists battle not only the gathering dead people outside but themselves as well. One half argues that staying in the cellar is the safest course of action while the other half wants to stay above and finish boarding the place up. Little by little, things fall apart and the group gets picked off one by one, partly due to their own arrogance to work together. By the end of the film, the world has already ended for the group inside the farmhouse but as for the virus, we are led to believe that everything is under control as the government and local authorities give the impression that they are on top of the problem. But of course, that’s another story to be continued in the film’s sequel, “Dawn of the Dead”.
Upon release in October of 1968, “Night of the Living Dead” was highly criticized for its explicit content, aside from breaking new ground in filmmaking and the horror/zombie genre, making use of fairly simple special effects (i.e. Bosco Chocolate Syrup for blood, roasted ham for consumed flesh, second hand clothing for costumes, mortician’s wax for zombie make-up). It became known as the catalyst of the contemporary Zombie Apocalypse sub-genre in horror that the world has come to know. Shot on a budget of $114,000, the movie has grossed $12 million domestically and $30 million international after a decade or so of cinematic re-releases. Since its’ release in 1968, the Library of Congress has labelled the film as “historically, culturally or aesthetically important”.
Rating: ****
