Reliving the night zombie culture was born

It might be easy today for some to dismiss George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" as schlocky, dated and amateurish. But these folks would be missing the big picture. Because, truth is, this film was enormously influential on the horror genre and pop culture. It also remains an effective chiller five decades following its release. Here's further evidence of these claims, as discussed yesterday at CineVerse:

WHY IS THIS FILM IMPORTANT AND WORTH CELEBRATING 50 YEARS LATER?

• It’s arguably the first truly modern horror film in its amplified, random violence, gore, documentary visual style realism, and dark tone (consider that everyone we care about dies at the end, and there is no accepted rationale for why the zombies attack or what created them); this film was truly shocking upon initial release.
• It created the zombie film subgenre and established the modern conventions for zombie monsters—that they eat human flesh, that they infect others, that they attack mindlessly and not necessarily energetically.
• Night of the Living Dead was well-timed to exploit the fears and emotions of teenagers and young adults who were distrustful of our government and its involvement in the brutal war in Vietnam, traumatized by the political assassinations and unrest of the time, and mindful of racist attitudes of that era.
• It features an African American male as its main protagonist, which was bold and revolutionary for a 1968 movie of any genre, but especially a horror movie. The fact that this character, the lone final survivor, is ironically gunned down at the conclusion, helps this film rise from exploitative B-picture material to a deeper sociopolitical statement.
• It demonstrated that a lot of creativity and ingenuity, despite a low budget and lack of major studio involvement, could reap significant box-office and critical rewards for the genre; this film’s success paved the way for other independent small-budget filmmakers to release their horror magnum opus works, like Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left, Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and John Carpenter’s Halloween.
• At a time when color films were much more prominent, it was shot on cheap black-and-white film, which helps to bridge the gap between old school horror movies and the new wave of increasingly violent and adult scary fare. Using black and white allows us to focus on the characters and the action and not see the flaws or low-budget deficiencies as much.
• This movie lacks the sex and nudity that would have attracted horror audiences at this time to drive-in theaters and midnight showings. Instead of tawdry thrills, it’s all about stark, abject, senseless terror.
• There was nothing like this at the time—no precedent for audiences to grasp onto; they had never seen a film about zombie flesh eaters, about monsters who looked like everyday men, women and children. This would have put viewers off guard, made them vulnerable and therefore more frightened and disturbed.
• Blogger Brian Eggert wrote: “Night of the Living Dead was not another pulpy B-movie wrought with space aliens, monsters from the abyss, and atomic-era mutations. Romero’s film turned people, among them our friends and family members, into flesh-eating ghouls.”
• Interestingly, the filmmakers reportedly forgot to put a copyright notice on the movie, which meant that it was considered in the public domain; film pirates duped and exhibited it, which ironically led to greater exposure for the film, helping to cement its popularity.

WHAT THEMES STAND OUT IN THIS FILM?

• Zombies as stand-ins for whatever currently ails society; in 1968, they could have been symbols for bigots, counterculturalists, Americans deadened by the violence around them, consumers, etc.
• Eggert theorized: “Other described the film’s cannibalism as humanity’s irrational compulsion for violence, our seemingly embedded need to destroy one another. Elsewhere, viewers saw the film as a reaction to anti-war protests of the current Vietnam conflict, a critique of the media, an indictment against familial and governmental establishments, and a severe blow to civil defense.”
• Irony: the fact that the black hero of the movie outlasts everyone else thanks to cunning and instincts, but is tragically shot to death by white men who, presumably, think he’s a zombie.
• Senseless violence, which viewers would have been used to by the late 1960s due to the war, police brutality, assassinations, racist actions, the Manson family murders, and other current events.
• The breakdown of society and civilization that is inevitable when human beings don’t work together to solve problems.

WORKS AND EVENTS THAT MAY HAVE INSPIRED NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD:

• The Last Man on Earth (I Am Legend)
• Carnival of Souls
• Goya’s painting Saturn Devouring His Son
• The Vietnam War and the rising counterculture of the late 1960s
• The Civil Rights movement and black power movement

LATER WORKS INFLUENCED BY NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD:

• The Return of the Living Dead movie series
• 28 Days Later and its sequels
• Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland
• The Walking Dead TV series
• World War Z

OTHER FILMS DIRECTED BY GEORGE ROMERO:

• The Crazies
• Martin
• Five Dead sequels, including Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead
• Creepshow