Movie: Night of the Living Dead

Traversing the strange realm of the zombie flick, I was led here by very reliable sources of guidance. I had not known until now that this was the film that defined the genre and after sitting through Dawn of the Dead, I was skeptical. However, as anyone should know the skeptic in me is often wrong and after the final scene of this cult classic I was skeptical no longer.

I first started watching the 30th anniversary version with over dubbed audio, but as soon as I was told that the original was available on IMDB I switched over. There's something wrong about a film from the late 60's having perfectly produced synth work as the soundtrack. The original soundtrack is much more haunting, but anyway.

The aspect of this movie that stood out for me was the script which is full of the most memorable quotes of any horror film I've ever seen. In fact a few of them I had heard before at the beginnings of Death Metal and Grind songs, as those musicians are apt to use such things in their compositions.

Here's a few:

Johnny: They're coming to get you, Barbara, there's one of them now!

Newscaster: It has been established that persons who have recently died have been returning to life and committing acts of murder. A widespread investigation of funeral homes, morgues, and hospitals has concluded that the unburied dead have been returning to life and seeking human victims. It's hard for us here to be reporting this to you, but it does seem to be a fact.

Ben: Don't you know what's goin' on out there? This is no Sunday School picnic!

Johnny: Hey, come on, Barb. Church was this morning.
[pause as lightning is seen]
Johnny: I mean, prayin's for church.
Barbara: I haven't seen you in church lately.
Johnny: Well, there's not much sense in my going to church.

Dr. Grimes: In the cold room at the University, we had a cadaver, a cadaver from which all limbs had been amputated. Some time early this morning, it opened its eyes and began to move its trunk. It was dead, but it opened its eyes and tried to move!

Newscaster: All persons who die during this crisis from whatever cause will come back to life to seek human victims, unless their bodies are first disposed of by cremation.

Field Reporter: Chief, do you think that we will be able to defeat these things?
Sheriff McClelland: Well, we killed nineteen of them today right in this area. The last three, we caught them trying to claw they're way into an abandoned shed. They must of thought someone was in there, but there wasn't though. We heard them making all kind of noises so we came over, beat 'em off and blasted them down.

Sheriff McClelland: Good shot! OK, he's dead; let's go get 'im. That's another one for the fire.

Another quality worth some explanation is the perspective the modern era has toward this film. There are obvious scenes of racism and sexism throughout. I think the most shocking for me was when Ben slapped Barbara across the face because she was freaking out. I understand that in movies back then when a woman broke out into "hysterics" a man would hit her. This doesn't happen very often in modern cinema and I'm thankful for that, and I'm not about to say anything condoning such a response, I'd just like to say that I appreciate the shock value of such a scene.

One more interesting aspect having to do with how dated this film is was the use of radio as the source of updates on the zombie outbreak. Just hearing the words spoken by a fearful newscaster describing what was happening was so much more powerful than if it had been a tv station reporting on pictures of what they saw. Little devices like that make the imagination run wild and I wish modern horror at least attempted to take advantage of them more often.

Anyway, I now understand why this film provoked a movement and I'm glad I finally experienced it.

5/5