Night of the Living Dead - 1968
This is where it all began, folks. The basic elements for 50 plus years of horror are present in a surprisingly realized fashion: The black and white shoestring budget production of an amateur filmmaker with a new spin and a dream, one of the earliest fusions of horror and social critique, a trendsetter for eschewing more fantastical scare elements in favor of an almost documentary-like atmosphere, and much more besides. It's undoubtable. The Night of the Living Dead was the decrepit face that launched a thousand undead tales.
Now, some may watch this old tale from '68 and feel the word "dated" is the most apropos descriptor. To them I say this - you've missed the point entirely. George Romero was not some big tent filmmaker. He wasn't the next in a long family line of directors. His name was not Hollywood royalty. He was practically a kid, who had some jangling change in his pocket, some cheap cameras, and an idea to make a zombie picture (though, ironically, that word is NEVER used in the whole film) in the country around Pittsburgh, PA. And the rest is history.
In many ways, Romero was so ahead of the curve. He was repping "independent" film long before it was a thing. He didn't invent "found footage," but he sure found a way to make his picture look authentic. Of course, these historical happenstances need their share of good fortune, and this one got it. The picture is shot in black and white, uses low lighting, and has few set pieces not because of some vast genius, but because it simply HAD to. The funds just weren't there. Rather than wallow, Romero maximized what he had, and largely because of these things, the film has a quasi-doc feel to it which simply terrified viewers. Put simply, it just looked and felt too real.
Moreover, so much of this is about one thing: MOOD. The black and white photography really added to that creepy atmosphere, which begins all the way back in the opening sequence with the brother and sister in the graveyard. The music is another pointer to both this ambience and the small nature of the production. When Romero had finished filming, he liked what he had but felt it still needed one ingredient. Without the dough to hire a composer, he turned to another local entity. This time, it was an audio recording company run by a man name Karl Hardman. The company had an assortment of old sounds and thematic recordings which weren't tied to any one album or production. Romero scooped a bunch up and the memorable Night of the Living Dead score was born. And Karl Hardman? You know him as the loathsome cellar dweller, Harry Cooper, in the film. (Other folks in the farmhouse actually WORKED for his company).
So, these are the kind of remarkable things happening around this picture. Romero introduced some new tropes which are with us today as well. How about this one? Often times the most dangerous evils don't lie outside of us, but inside our ranks. We see this in one of the spiritual descendants of this film, The Walking Dead, all the time. The real evil isn't the blank-faced flesh-eaters outside, it's all the in-fighting and group dynamics between these four walls. NOTLD is no different in this regard.
To these complicated dynamics, Romero adds some incisive commentary. He casts Duane Jones as the leading man - a winsome, pragmatic, handsome, resourceful stud who is about the best chance the crew has of getting through the night alive. But I forgot to mention one thing: Duane Jones was black. As the film plays out, we have an armed white mob chasing after a blameless black man. Hmm, does this sound familiar?
But that's not all. We also witness a precursor of the 24 hour news cycle, as we see reports of some cosmic radiation from Venus causing this entire event to occur. The reporters are using these sensationalistic phrases which befit the kind of terror occurring for sure, but the repetition of words add a tongue-in-cheek element as well. This isn't just terror and murder. It's also a sick kind of entertainment pushing ratings. (For the record, Romero's second Zombie treatise, Dawn of the Dead, makes this MUCH more overt).
Finally, we actually have some terror and gore. We've got molotov cocktails and burnings, exploding vehicles and flesh-chomping. Sure, it's tame by today's standards, but it is still unnerving and disarming. To these Romero adds one last element that has become a veritable "go to" for directors since. I'll call it the "creepy little girl with dead-set eyes, hair in her face, and murderously clutching hands." Bonus point for putting her in a closed room with lower light like a basement. So look, if this one is "dated," it's because we've come to expect torture violence, gallons of blood, and complete viscera in the time since. Night of the Living Dead walked (or is it aimlessly stumbled?) so that 28 Days Later and the hundreds of others who followed its template could run.
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