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If you are a fan of living dead or zombie movies (in the movie they never used the term zombie) then it is a must that you watch Night of the Living Dead. The movie is filmed in Black and White, which adds to the atmosphere. Night of the Living Dead was made on a limited budget using few locations, where some movie participants played two roles. Scenes were shot on weekends so it would not conflict with the actors other jobs. Some feel that the acting is amateurish while others found it good. I feel that the acting was a more realistic form of acting then was customary at that time.
This movie established the characteristics of the new zombie movies. The zombies are slow moving, eat human flesh and only can be killed by destroying their brains. They can use simple tools such as rocks to break headlights and glass windows. Light bothers them and they are afraid of fire. When ignited they attempt to put out the flames. It is implied that the zombies are the result of radiation.
The movie starts terrifyingly quickly with building tension. There is good character development, leading you to love some and empathize with others. Some stereotypes are used, such as the woman who needs a man to protect her while new ground is also broken. Having a Black male and a White female alone (they thought they were) in the house. The Black male at one point even hits the White Female. The Black male has his own mind and creates a plan of action, which some Whites in the house are willing to listen to. They also have a daughter attack and kill her mother. This is a movie worth seeing.
The movie starts with Barbara (Judith O'Dea) and Johnny (Russell Streiner who is also a producer) arriving at the cemetery to place flowers on their father's grave, a trip they make every year. They have been unable to reach any station on the ride. As both get out of the car the radio begins to work but they turn of the radio. Barbara, the caring sister, places the flowers on their father's grave and prays while Johnny seems annoyed with the whole experience. When Barbara finishes praying Johnny reminisces about a time when they were both children and he jumped out from behind a tree in that same cemetery and scared her. He remembers that being in the cemetery scared Barbara. Johnny notices that Barbara still seems uneasy about being in a cemetery and utters the now famous or infamous line,
"They're coming to get you Barbara".
Johnny
Johnny notices a man ambling across the cemetery and says
"Here comes one now".
Johnny runs past the zombie. When Barbara approaches the zombie to apologize for her brother's behavior, the zombie (S. William Hinzman, who was also the assistant camera man) attacks her. Johnny attacks the zombie to defend his sister and is killed by falling and hitting his head on a tombstone.
Barbara
Cemetery Zombie
Johnny fighting with the zombie gives Barbara time to run and get into the car. After trying to get into the car the zombie picks up a rock and breaks the window. Barbara tries to start the car and discovers that the keys are not there. When the zombie reaches in the broken window Barbara disengages the brake allowing the car to roll down the hill. When a tree stops the car, Barbara gets out of the car and starts running.
She runs to a house where she enters through the back door. Barbara picks up a knife, and then hears the zombie, who has followed her from the cemetery, outside trying to get into the house. She tries to use the telephone but it is not working. When she looks outside she notices that two more zombies have joined the first one. Barbara starts to go up stairs but abruptly changes her mind when she comes across a mutated body (Kyra Schon who also plays the part of Karen Cooper) at the top of the stairs. She panics and runs out the front door and is blinded by headlights. The headlights belong to a truck driven by Ben (Duane Jones).
Ben
Ben arrives and they both go back into the house. Light appears to bother the zombies because the zombies break the trucks headlights (which Ben left on). Ben goes outside to kill two of the zombies. While Ben is outside, a zombie comes in the front door. Ben gets back inside the house just in time to kill a zombie before it can attack Barbara. When Ben runs to close the front door Ben notices more zombies are outside. Ben informs Barbara that the zombies know where they (Barbara and Ben) are. It appears that Ben has learned that the only way to kill the zombies is by destroying their brains. Barbara is starting to slowly lose her grip on reality.
Ben decides to turn on all of the lights inside the house hoping that the light will keep the zombies away. They start boarding up the house. While they are working Ben tells the story about a truck (he refers to the zombies as things) that the zombies attacked. He also saw the zombies attack a diner and kill everyone inside. Barbara tells Ben how she came to be there.
Zombies by Ben's
Truck
Ben turns on the radio to learn that there is a state of emergency. That there is an epidemic of mass murders being committed by an army of assassins. They further state that some witnesses have described the assassins as looking ordinary, some as being in a kind of trance and others state that they appear to be and the commentator does not finish. Later news broadcasts disclose that the bodies of people who have been murdered show evidence of being eaten.
As the movie develops we learn that there are more living people in the house. The others are Harry Karl Hardman who was also one of the producers, the makeup artist, and electronic sound effects) Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman who also plays the part of a zombie who eats the bug off of a tree) along with their daughter Karen. There is also a couple, Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley).
Harry
Cooper
Helen
Cooper
Karen
Cooper
Tom
Judy
News reports further disclose that people that have recently died are coming back to life to kill and eat the living. Later reports indicate that radiation from the Explorer satellite, which was sent to orbit around Venus, may be the cause of the dead coming back to life.
We also learn that Karen is sick because a zombie bit her.
The rest of the movie shows the interaction between the living inhabitants of the house as they try to get to a place of safety.
Bug
eating zombie
Johnny
as a zombie
Karen as a zombie
Zombies
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