Who payed the critics

not horrible nor great

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

George Romero's black & white cult low budget zombie film, Night of the Living Dead is now regarded as a seminal classic.It is not a great film. The acting is ropy, the zombie effects are not that good and it is too talky. However it did rewrite the rules for low budget horror films.Two siblings are visiting their father's grave and are attacked by a strange looking drifter. The woman, Barbara (Judith O'Dea) runs to an abandoned farmhouse to escape him.Ben (Duane Jones) a black man also escapes to the farmhouse where she meets Barbara who is in shock. Ben barricades both of them inside the farmhouse by reinforcing the doors and windows.They encounter several other people who have been hiding out in the cellar. They learn on the radio that radiation contamination from a space probe has somehow reactivated the brain of dead people. These people were now devouring the flesh of the living who themselves would come back as zombies.It is a classic base under siege scenario with various types of people bickering, arguing and reluctantly joining forces. The film is notable that the lead is played by a black actor who is ordering the other survivors around, even shouting at them. In retrospect that looks like a brave piece of casting.Jones does give the film's best performance. O'Dea is pretty bad though, the zombies are more animated than her.

Director/co-writer George Romero and co-writer John Russo bring a fierce and subversive undiluted nihilism to the basic formula horror premise of the dead coming back to life as hideous flesh-eating ghouls that's lost none of its sting throughout the decades: Whether it's a couple of loved ones returning as lethal zombies so they can kill their own mother or sister or the noble Ben (a fine and commanding performance by Duane Jones) being shot dead with a bullet to the head after he's mistaken for a zombie by a posse of trigger-happy rednecks, this film pulls zero punches. Romero and Russo tackle head on major issues that remain timely and topical even today: The unreliability of the clueless media, the danger posed by average citizens having easy access to firearms, people failing to put their differences aside in order to work together so they can survive a perilous situation, and society starting to come apart at the seams when faced with a baffling problem that it's patently unprepared for and hence unable to properly deal with. In a movie rich with dark and delicious ironies, one of the richest and mot biting ironies of all is that the idea proposed by the selfish and cowardly Harry Cooper (well played to the slimy and sniveling hilt by Karl Hardman) to hole up in the basement is much better than Ben's insistence on remaining upstairs. Wholly deserving of its classic status.

Compared to most horror films these days, Night of the Living Dead is quite primeval. But that's not to say that it is bad - Primitive Technology on YouTube has shown me time and time again that early man was brilliant. And in a way it was refreshing to take a break from overdone gore and overacting. Well, overacting is still here. The plot is pretty simple by today's standards too. A couple of people, led by a Mr. Ben (Duane Jones) attempt to survive against a wave of zombies while trying hard not to attack each other first. And more than 90% of the movie takes place inside the same house which they barricade and raid for supplies. As far as the simple plot goes, I feel they do it justice, and it is supplemented by the interesting to watch power struggle between Ben and Mr. Cooper (Karl Hardman) and the racial undertones that the movie infers. But aside from the inherent fun this movie offers, about halfway through, the movie becomes a little repetitive. Even though new characters are introduced, the tone feels quite samey for the entire middle leg. It's not until the run where Tom (Keith Wayne), Judy (Judith Ridley), and Ben run out where things get moving again. Perhaps I am just accustomed to today's thrillers which keep up at a breakneck pace for the entire runtime, but it felt not too much was happening during that period. Overall, I think it a successful and worthy grandfather of modern horror.

If ever the term "classic" seemed more appropriate then Night of the Living Dead is the perfect example of what classic really means. A film laced with fear, dread, social commentary and layered with atmosphere so thick it could smother the air.Night of the Living Dead follows Barbara as on a trip to her father's grave she and her brother are attacked by a listless person who seems to move awkwardly and destroys everything in its path. Eventually she holes up in a farmhouse with other survivors including Ben as they work together to survive the terrifying events surrounding them. Whether you like this film or not does not diminish the fact that this rightly deserves its place in history as one of the finest zombie (or ghoul depending on your preference) films there is.The pace is admirably quick: from the beginning with Barbra and Johnny at the graveyard, the ghoul/ zombie it sets a consistent pace that grips the audience and keeps you hooked. The acting is decent, though Judith O'Dea does, to a degree, let it down slightly with a character that's just too emotionally wrought to oftentimes care about. But where she lacks Duane Jones compensates entirely with a performance of outstanding brilliance. The quiet intelligence of his character; how he thinks through many of scenarios placed before them - Jones is a joy to watch time and again. The ghouls/ zombies look fantastic and act it too; the shambolic way in which they move, the slow pace that persists, they feel and come across as genuinely terrifying.And it must be said that the small trace of a score is beautiful. When it's not present we hear the smooth notes of birds whistling on high, the natural sounds proving as unnerving as the gentle strum of notes in the background that precipitate the altogether disturbing sequences especially that cellar scene!Maybe it's talked about too often but I can't mention NOTLD without discussing that end! Even to this day it leaves an hollow emptiness in the stomach at what happens to Ben and the impact it courts upon the viewer never quite fades - yet despite my desire for a semi happy ending I have to concede it needed this dark, bleak ending to leave that impression. If you love horror and haven't yet seen this, do so, it's one that I feel is mandatory viewing. So turn off the phone/ computer/ laptop, put down the shades and embrace Romero's outstanding low budget film.