Night of the Living Dead 1968

Greetings all! This is the first in the series of George Romero's Dead series. As we all know George is the father of the modern day ghoulish Zombie. Before then Zombies were usually of the less frightening in nature and basically were servants of the person whom they belonged to. A lot can be said about George's work and George himself has explained that at the times these movies were made their was a lot of social commentary interlaced in the movie. Hopefully this will get some discussion started on this blog. 

The first in this series is Night of the Living Dead. A few things that should be mentioned here is that the movie itself is open domain and no one person or entity holds copyright over it. Why is this you may ask.  Well the answer is simple. When releasing the movie it was Scripted as a different title. So NOTLD was not copyrighted. Therefore George receives no cut in the reproduction or selling of his movie. If you do not own this movie then I suggest Going onto Itunes and looking up the Podcast "cult of UHF". From there you can download the movie. View Trailer HERE. This movie was rated 4 stars on Netflix and 8.0 stars on IMDB. 

Many have tried to outdo Romero but the simplistic and dark NOTLD still maintains a hold as a beacon of truth in the Zombie Universe. All that come after him will forever walk in the shadow of his films. (Well most anyways)

This film starts with the main character going to visit her fathers grave.  This is where the famous line, "They are coming to get you Barbara" was uttered. after a few peacefull moments Barbara and her brother are attacked by the first film zombie in Romeros series, William Hinzman. After the zombie dispatches her brother, Barbara runs to the car only to be chased by the zombie who YES FOLKS DOES HAVE THE MENTAL CAPACITY TO PICK UP A ROCK AND BREAK THE FUCKING WINDOW! (sorry....ahem.)  As she makes her escape HE DOES RUN AFTER HER!!

She eventually finds shelter in what appears to be an abandoned farmhouse. Eventually Ben shows up and starts to take control of the situation. Now Ben is a black man ordering a white woman around and taking control of the situation. It should be noted that Barbara is in a state of shock at this point and almost incoherent as she tries to help out Ben. Once it is discovered that other people are occupying the same  place we see a beginning of social breakdown. 

No one gets along and fighting between the group increases even as the undead horde approach and surround the building shutting off the power. One of the survivors has been bitten. A little girl who is cared for by her mother and father who is possibly the embodiment of white sentiments in the 60's. Prejudicial, untrustworthy, and unwilling to work beside a black man.

Tommy and Judy try to make a run for the gas pump to put gas in the truck. Unfortunately things don't go as planned and they get BARBQed and munched on. Two down, 5 to go. So the struggle continues, one by one they are picked off as the are pulled through doors or are killed by their own daughter. The death of Helen raises even more questions abut the undead's capacity for thoughtful processing of information.  As her daughter arises as one of the undead she does start to try and munch on mommy but instead grabs a garden trowel. She then proceeds to stab her mom in what was called "one of the most disturbing scenes of any movie of it's time". But the point here is she knew that she could kill her mom in some other way other than just munching on her.

Eventually a stand off between Ben and Harry ends up with both of them passing bullets and Harry getting hit and eventually dying leaving only Ben to survive the night, locked in the basement with three corpses. As the morning breaks Ben peers out the window to see a party of rescuers coming his way.  In what is one of the most disappointing endings of all movies Ben gets shot by some over zealous redneck. 

This movie is not what george Romero had originally planned for when he wrote the script. Luckily for us Tom Savini remade NOTLD and with Romero's help gave us what was originally the script. Barbara was the strong willed woman that survived the night. Took control of the situation and showed us that humanity is probably deserving of the fate we get.

I give this movie 5 severed thumbs. And Remember

I watch this shit so you don't have to.

Shane

	Duane Jones	...	Ben
	Judith O'Dea	...	Barbra
	Karl Hardman	...	Harry
	Marilyn Eastman	...	Helen
	Keith Wayne	...	Tom
	Judith Ridley	...	Judy
	Kyra Schon	...	Karen Cooper
	Charles Craig	...	Newscaster / Zombie
	S. William Hinzman	...	Cemetery Zombie (original and new scenes) (as Bill Heinzman)
	George Kosana	...	Sheriff McClelland
	Frank Doak	...	Scientist
	Bill 'Chilly Billy' Cardille	...	Field Reporter
	A.C. McDonald	...	Zombie / Posse Member
	Samuel R. Solito	...	Zombie / Posse Member
	Mark Ricci	...	Washington Scientist
	Lee Hartman	...	Zombie / News Reporter
	Jack Givens	...	Zombie
	Rudy Ricci	...	Zombie (as R.J. Ricci)
	Paula Richards	...	Zombie
	John Simpson	...	Zombie
	Herbert Summer	...	Zombie
	Richard Ricci	...	Zombie
	William Burchinal	...	Zombie
	Ross Harris	...	Zombie
	Al Croft	...	Zombie
	Jason Richards	...	Zombie
	Dave James	...	Zombie
	Sharon Carroll	...	Zombie
	William Mogush	...	Zombie
	Steve Hutsko	...	Zombie / TV Cameraman Steve
	Joann Michaels	...	Zombie
	Phillip Smith	...	Zombie / Posse Member
	Ella Mae Smith	...	Zombie
	Randy Burr	...	Zombie / Posse Membe