After a zombie outbreak, a group of people arrive at an old farmhouse where they must spend the night to survive. This is a personal favourite of mine and has to be one of the most influential movies, not just to the zombie film but the horror genre itself. Even though it wasn't the first zombie movie it did introduce some of the most iconic tropes of the genre like using the resources you have to survive, zombies being flesh eaters and zombies needing to be shot or severely injured in the head to die.Duane Jones delivers an excellent performance as Ben who's a strong black protagonist who stands out amongst the highly irrational fellow survivors. George A Romero excellently conveys that sense of claustrophobia with the house setting and his direction unflinchingly creates tension and suspense. It managed to be the most successful independent movie of the time, garnering 263 times its budget. The movie features a ballsy ending and I won't give it away unless you haven't seen it but let's just say it's a profound social statement that you won't forget after watching the movie.

This movie shouldn't be as watchable as it is. You look up and you're an hour into it. Romero and company hit a homerun with their first at bat. The gross out stuff is not as gross as it used to be. In fact, it almost seems like a distraction now. Repeated viewing may have dulled the shocks for me but not the enjoyment...I'm old enough to remember when Living Dead aired on broadcast television the tv stations would put words on the screen during the news reports. They wanted the audience to understand it was not a real newscast and that it was just a movie.

This is my #1 favorite horror film of all time. It is the only movie to ever give me nightmares. I started getting them as a teenager, put into the same situation as the film – one among a small band of people trying to survive a zombie apocalypse, surrounded by an increasing number of the living dead.Aside from the nightmares, this is my #1 horror movie because it creates an atmosphere of absolute dread – something that I appreciate in a movie (thus my screen name AnDread). The protagonists face what seems to be a pretty much hopeless situation, surrounded by numerous antagonists who want to eat you, who can't be reasoned with, and who continue to grow in number. On top of that, they are faced with in-fighting and incompetence. Perhaps they could survive if they just learned to work together, rather than constantly argue with each other. But this is Romero's not-so-subtle point: compromise rather than dominance is the key to survival. He has said that he thought of the living dead as a revolution, a new (single- minded) generation cannibalizing the older, obsolete generation. Actually, I think of them more akin to a natural disaster – or Godzilla, a monster birthed from our own violent ways, a new creation bent on destroying everything old.The nihilistic ending still gives me chills – it's one of the bleakest movie endings ever. I don't want to spoil it. I'll just say that when I saw it for the first time as a teen, it hit me pretty hard. I had never seen any movie end like that.For such a low-budget film, Romero does a fantastic job using sound, lighting, practical effects, and performances to maximum advantage. The acting is excellent. Some may not be impressed with the way the characters are written, or the way they are portrayed. But while both are handled with a simplistic, at times seemingly melodramatic, approach, the writing is more layered than you might first think. And I think most people would agree that the performances are highly memorable. Duane Jones as Ben and Karl Hardman as Harry Cooper make this film work so well; seeing their increasing aggression and rivalry ratchets the tension to an almost unbearable degree. This dynamic is so complex that I see it a new way each time. While I've always identified with and rooted for Ben – quite a feat for an African American protagonist in 1968 – on recent viewings, I've come to realize that Ben isn't always that reasonable either. If he hadn't been so pushy and competitive with Cooper, maybe things could have turned out differently. Judith O'Dea as Barbara and Marilyn Eastman as Helen Cooper also deserve mention. Some people criticize O'Dea's performance as wooden or the way her character is written as sexist, because she's either hysterical or catatonic through much of the narrative. But I think plenty of people, men and women, would be like Barbara in a similarly horrifying situation. Although she has a minor role, Eastman as Helen is a great counterpoint to both Barbara and her husband, spitting sarcastic barbs at Harry and trying to become part of the larger group. I can't say that Keith Wayne as Tom and Judith Ridley as Judy add much, except as a counterpoint to the Coopers, a couple who tries to hang on to love during a crisis. Kyra Schon as Karen, the Coopers' daughter, George Kosana as Sheriff McClelland, and Russell Streiner as Johnny (who, according to IMDb, is uncredited for some reason), show just how memorable minor characters can be. Streiner and Kosana speak two of the most memorable lines in horror movie history – "They're coming to get you, Barbara," and "They're dead, they're all messed up." And to many, Schon's big scene is one of the most disturbing scenes in all of horror cinema.The black and white cinematography also adds to the bleakness of the film; for me, the often washed-out look and dark lighting make the zombies more frightening than in any of the subsequent films, with skin tones of blues, greens, and grays, and bright red blood flowing. Something about watching the ghouls stumble around in the shadows, and blood pour out in dark swatches, adds a sinister air to them that doesn't quite translate to color, even in the more realistic and disgusting effects in later films.Many have already spoken eloquently about the film's social commentary and influence on later horror films, and culture generally. I'll just say that Romero and John Russo (who co-wrote the script) tapped into already existing horror elements and current social anxieties around civil unrest, clashes with authorities, and Vietnam, by creating a new genre, the flesh-eating zombie film (as opposed to the Voodoo zombie), and virtually helping to usher in a new horror aesthetic – bleaker, gorier, and more focused on gritty realism than stylized aesthetics.

This was director George A. Romero's feature film debut — wild to think about considering the classics he has under his belt now (Dawn of the Dead, Creepshow, Monkey Shines) and just how known his name is. Reading some of the reviews that were made at the time is equally wild, such as this one from The New York Times: "Night of the Living Dead is a grainy little movie acted by what appear to be nonprofessional actors, who are besieged in a farm house by some other nonprofessional actors who stagger around, stiff-legged, pretending to be flesh- eating ghouls."I mean, they aren't wrong, but this movie still holds up as a cult classic among horror lovers — who HASN'T said "they're coming to get you, Barbra!" in an imitation of poor short-lived Johnny's voice? It did well upon its release, too — despite a budget of just $114,000 it grossed $12 million domestically and $18 million internationally. It seems surprising now, since much of mainstream horror is FILLED with unspeakably disturbing images, that it was criticized at the time for its "explicit gore". It's part one of three (followed by Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead) — the stories for each film all written at the same time but executed with quite a few years in between each release — and Romero has talked about it being heavily influenced by Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend.It was the first movie to introduce the modern idea of a zombie — though they never use the actual word, opting instead for both "murderer" and "ghoul" — as a reanimated, flesh-devouring creature.It's heavily ad-libbed and roughly shot — no real bells and whistles here, though I admired the stark black and white and the use of shadow and light throughout. I think it added to the movie in a real way to have it feel so raw and real.Whether it was initially intended by Romero or not, there's lots of commentary and themes throughout: on society in the 60's as a whole and peoples' disillusionment towards law enforcement and authority as a whole, the Vietnam war ("We may not enjoy living together, but dying together isn't going to solve anything."), and racism (Ben being chased by an all white zombie mob with a torch was very reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan, the upper class white man being offended and angry by Ben not ceding to his wishes and to his grabs for power, Ben surviving an attack of the undead only to be killed by a group of white law enforcement). Romero has said that he didn't cast Ben — a black lead among an entirely white cast — on purpose, or as any kind of statement; he said he simply gave the best audition. But once Duane Jones was cast and they started filming, they became aware of the symbolism and the themes that it was important to play into. In general, it was less about monsters turning against people, but people turning against people — there is no real community formed, no solid efforts to work together to face the threats head on. They are very divided throughout the whole film, and more of them are killed by human error and mistakes rather than the undead themselves.Barbra was like a silent movie star — so expressive despite not much dialogue. She becomes almost catatonic early on in the movie, and there's lots of tension between her and Ben in several scenes — again, playing into the racism and general attitude towards people of color in the 60's.I do love that they never call them "zombies" — one of the news reports on the radio said "there is an epidemic of mass murder being committed by a virtual army of unidentified assassins", they are called "marauding ghouls", and, one of my favorite lines: "yeah, they're dead, they're all messed up". Apt.There's several amazing shots that I loved: the shot of the open field as the ghouls all silently lurch toward the house is great. The overall feeling of dread and suffocation is awesome. Them feasting on the bodies in the car was definitely a contributor to the "explicit gore" mentioned. And the zombie daughter killing her own mother by repeated stabs with a spade — as writer R.H.W. Dillard, a defender of the taboo in the film, said, "What girl has not, at one time or another, wished to kill her mother?".But maybe my favorite was when the zombies finally are fully encircling the house, beating on doors and windows, and the camera pans to each actor as they express their concern and fear, the lighting as dramatic as ever, everyone SO expressive. The ghouls are slow but unrelenting, and in that moment you kind of feel the full weight of hopelessness.And then there's the ending — solidifying humans being more dangerous to one another than any outside force, the unreliability of those in power, and the fear of any "outsiders" clouding our judgment to a fatal degree. I loved the darkness of it, the finality.I don't think I even need to say it, but it's a classic for a reason — worth a watch if you've never had the pleasure (or a re-watch if you have!).