Night of the Living Dead

     They're coming to get you, Barbara...

   
     Film can be a powerful medium of storytelling. I'm not talking about Oscar bait dramas or Summer blockbuster extravaganzas (though those can be highly entertaining too). I'm talking about the rare films that strike a nerve in culture that ripples inspiration for decades after it. George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) certain qualifies as one of those films. If you haven't already guessed, I'm a huge fan.

      A quite rural area in Pennsylvania comes under attack by swarms of the undead seeking human flesh. A small group of survivors is boarded up together in an old farm house, battling for survival. "So what?" I can hear you say, "This has all been done before." Actually, that's the kicker; this film was the genesis of the modern zombie genre as we know it today. Alright, I admit that it's evident that Romero took some inspiration from I am Legend, but he took the good elements of the monster epidemic and made them all the more gruesomely appealing. The gore and violence were quite bold for the time. Much of the later splatter genre flicks owe a huge debt to this film.This movie literally made zombies the meat gorging, shambling, animated corpses we think of today. Before this film, a zombie was a living person under a voodoo curse. Any horror fan has to acknowledge this film's massive impact on the genre.
     
     The plot itself seems fairly simple, but there are many messages and themes that struck at the American lifeatyle of the time. People were watching the violence of the Vietnam war in their living rooms. Here, Romero has the survivors crowed around watching a television, desperate to find some answers and hope in the face of the violence outside. It's not hard to see the similarity. There is some fleeting ideas on the fade of religion from society. The only praying is by Barbara at her father's grave before the first zombie arrives. Barbara's brother admits he doesn't attend church much. Once the mayhem starts, no one is praying for salvation. As if religion is an old custom that does nothing in the face of a real enemy. The break down of the traditional family unit is seen by Mr. and Mrs. Cooper's combative relationship. The rebellion of the youth displayed as the Cooper's daughter feasts on her father and murders her mother.
   
     Racism is addressed beautifully, without being preachy but making the viewer really think about African American oppression. The hero is a black man, challenged by the arrogant and selfish white Mr. Cooper. Though Mr. Cooper never refers to Ben (our hero) derogatorily regarding his skin color, the audience can feel the man's need to dominate and take control of the situation. He assumes Ben is beneath him and is infuriated when the others follow Ben's leadership. At one point, Mr Cooper refuses to open the door to let Ben back into the house as zombies trail him. Then at the end, when we dare to believe that Ben is being saved, the redneck police militia shoot him down without any thought at all. The black hero being murdered ending, especially since Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated earlier in the same year the movie was released, makes a huge statement.

     The ending is traumatic, even without factoring in the civil rights message. The audience is rooting for these characters to survive. Barbara's emotional frailty after her brother's death, the young lovers' fierce devotion, the family's struggle to protect their child, and Ben's determination to persevere all allow us to sympathize with the characters. Romero picks them off and the audience is ultimately crushed when they realize all the efforts were futile. All hope is lost. Our hero is dragged onto the pile to be burned up as if his life and actions meant nothing at all. It's a depressing ending, but one that mirrors a feeling of hopelessness for modern day man. After all, it was the human space probe radiation that caused the dead to rise, so humanity has doomed itself. I would argue many people feel that we are our own destruction even today.

     Now, for some negatives. I hate to comment on them, as this is such a classic, but there are some issues modern viewers will come across. The film had not aged well visually in many regards. Compared to the modern special effects makeup and spectacular gore effects, much of what was terrifying when this film was released looks campy and tame to us today. The choice to film in black and white gives the movie a distinct gritty, noir look, but depending on the version you're watching it can be difficult to see the details. The soundtrack is odd. At some points there are spooky sounds while other scenes are surreally quiet without any score. Many of the inside scenes with the group of survivors talking feels very much like a stiff stage play. These things are really due to the age of the film. Still, it can be hard for a modern audience to look past all these little aged effects and awkward bits to get to the meat of the movie.

     Overall, this is a must see for any horror fan. Push the presentism aside as much as you can and dig into the flick that made the zombie a monster phenomenon. Really, stop reading and go watch it now.