To start out the horror reviews I decided where else than George A. Romero zombie series. First up is the Night of the Living Dead. Romero's first big hit that put him on the map. When the film was first released as with other horror films of the time, it was said to be too violent and that people couldn’t take it. That’s same they said about The Exorcist and Alien later on. Once released it became an instant hit.
The plot is simple and familiar to viewers even casually acquainted with the genre. The dead come to life, attacking the living in order to feed upon their flesh. Some survivors shack up in a old house trying to survive the zombies. But as they find out it’s not going to be that easy because they have to first settle their differences in time before the zombie have them for dinner.
As in most Romero films and primarily his zombie films he puts always a little social commentary or satire. In this film the social commentary comes from the character of Ben that is played by a African American. This is the first starring role for an African American in a horror film. Actually it was not intended. In the script Romero didn't specify what the character ethnicity was. So when he was choosing actors the best actor he knew he cast. By chance he was African American. But the social commentary that was in the intended was that how humanity cannot work together with simplest of problems. As we see in the film everybody wants to look out for themselves and save their hind. This is common theme throughout the Dead series.
But it’s not only the social commentary. Romero manages with b&w photography to make this into a really creepy film for its time. He managed to create a whole sub-genre of horror with the zombies. This was one of the first films to have gory material of people eating other people. To viewers now everything might seem a bit fake and cheesy. But you have to give these films some slack. They were low budget with un-experienced actors and crew. They didn’t have Hollywood money. So their efforts should be praised, because the end result whole lot of more of zombie films, good and bad.
Now a warning to anyone interested in seeing this film. Beware, because their are number of DVD editions of this film and versions of this film. The best is the Millennium Edition on DVD. The problem is that co-writer John Russo later on made 20 minutes more of footage, re-edited the film and put a new score. In so many words he butchered the film. The butchered version is called the 20th anniversary edition. So stay away from that.
Night of the Living Dead is a cult classic, the start of my favourite horror film genre of Zombie films and wonderful zombie film. This film deserves viewing to see how the zombie genre really started and the magnificence in Romero's handling of a horror film, that differed quite a lot from the usually horror films of the time and in a way differs a lot with the horror films of today by possessing a story and more importanly some meaning.
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