Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Chaos descends upon the world as the brains of the recently deceased become inexplicably reanimated causing the dead to rise and feed on human flesh. Speculation rests on a radiation-covered NASA satellite returning from Venus, but it only remains a speculation. Anyone who dies during the crisis of causes unrelated to brain trauma will return as flesh-eating zombies, including anyone bitten by a zombie. The only way to destroy the zombies is is to destroy the brain. As the catastrophe unfolds, a young woman visiting her father’s grave takes refuge in a nearby farmhouse where she is met by a man who protects her and barricades them inside. They both later discover people hiding in the basement, and they each attempt to cope with the situation. Their only hope rests on getting some gasoline from a nearby pump into a truck that is running on empty, but this requires braving the hordes of ravenous walking corpses outside. When they finally put their plans into action, panic and personal tensions only adds to the terror as they try to survive.

If you’re talking about zombies, there’s no beter place to start than George A. Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead. I’m sure many things have been said about this classic, but let’s say some more.

Night of the Living Dead was the pioneer film; the one that paved the way not only for other zombie movies but other horror movies as well. But let’s take a look at our stars.

George Romero’s zombies were a little inconsisent to what we think of as zombies. For one thing, zombies normally move slow but these zombies weren’t all that slow. They seemed to zip along at a quick pace during certain times. For example, the very first zombie (in the graveyard) moved very fast as he chased Barbara in the car and down the road, yet later in the farmhouse, these creatures moved like dying slugs.

Zombies as we know them are very…well, they’re stupid and do not have rational thoughts. Yet the ones here seem to have some intelligence because they pick up clubs and other instruments from time to time. Let’s not forget about the little girl zombie in the basement who picks up a spade and stabs her mother to death with it.

Although the zombies are inconsisent, Night of the Living Dead is a true horror classic and should be seen at least once. Night of the Living Dead stars Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea and Karl Hardman. It had a budget of $114K and grossed $30 million.