Horror 2025 Countdown: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Night of the Living Dead (1968), dir. George A. Romero, Image Ten

What can I say that hasn't already been said by far more learned people than myself? Prior to 1968, zombies were still considered a purely folklore monster, a corpse or doomed person drugged into mindlessness for manual labor. Here? The rules changed and the bar was raised.

Siblings Johnny (Russel Streiner) and Barbara (Judith O'Dea) are driving out into the country to pay respects to their late father. Johnny is griping the whole way while Barbara stoically chides him. They put the arrangement on the grave when Johnny opts to tease her some more in a memorable exchange, but as he pretends to flee in terror when a strange man (Bill Hinzman) starts approaching them. 

The man is a lot stranger than either of them realize, as he quickly moves to attack Barbara. Johnny tries to fight him but gets his head slammed into a tombstone for his trouble. Barbara makes it back to their car, but since the keys are in Johnny's pocket all she's done is trap herself. The stranger corners her and starts beating against the car with a rock. She escapes by putting the car in neutral and costing away but she doesn't get far before the car get stopped by a tree stump. 

Breaking free, Barbara hoofs it to a nearby farmhouse. The backdoor being unlocked gets her inside, but things are weird. The phone doesn't work and there's no sense that anyone's been there. Upstairs answers her questions, in the form of a partially devoured corpse. 

Barbara breaks down at this point when Ben (Duane Jones) shows up, tire iron at the ready. He manages to take care of the stranger and a few more weirdos that popped up. He's direct and a bit more action orientated. The tale he relates of how he got there doesn't paint a good picture. Whatever is happening is more widespread then they think and this isn't simply a case of people going crazy. Crazy people don't ignore gunshots, no matter how crazy they are. 

Ben takes stock of the situation. There are some gas pumps nearby but they're locked. He also finds a rifle and plenty of ammo. He also starts fortifying the house, which is good as more crazy people start amassing outside.

Speaking of people, there's more people in the house. Emerging from the basement, we met the Coopers. Harry (Karl Hardman), his wife Helen (Marilyn Eastman), unrelated teenagers Tom (Keith Wayne) and his girlfriend Judy (Judith Ridley). There's also the Cooper's daughter Karen (Kyra Schon) but she's staying in the basement. During their rush to safety, Karen got bit pretty bad. 

Naturally the tension is well past the breaking point. Ben points out staying upstairs is the best idea. They can escape if they have too and with the windows they can signal for help/spot help if it comes. Harry argues that the basement is the best idea. With only one means of entering, they can defend it easier plus the underground natural all but guarantees that none of those ghouls can get inside. 

[I'd argue they should have gotten on the roof, but what do I know?]

They compromise; find the pump keys, refuel Ben's truck and drive like hell to the nearest town. Everything works until it doesn't. The keys don't work and in their haste to both refuel and ward off the ghouls the truck (plus Tom and Judy) get blown up/barbequed. 

Things get worse from there. 

Honestly this might be one of the best horror films, if not best film in general made in the 1960s. This was the line that was drawn. Blood had been seen before but never with such a visual hit. Likewise zombies had been seen before, but here? Silent but ever moving. They don't care and won't respond to anything less than a bullet to the head. All they want to kill you.

The characters are also perfect. Ben is presented as a standard hero but he's wrong. Harry Cooper's points are logical but he's such a jackass you want to disagree with him out of principal. 

The violence is also something else. No cut aways, no humor to defuse things. People die and they die bad and we are there for every gut munching second. There's no real release either. Why is this happening? What do the people in charge know and what are they doing? No one has any idea and that might be more terrifying than a zombie.