“Big name” horror films are often the hardest to review since, well, what’s left for there to be said about them? George A. Romero’s original “Night of the Living Dead” is everything everyone has ever described it as and it’s hard for me to conjure up anything unique to say about it, which naturally taxes my enthusiasm to do so.
But that pointless bit of whining aside, if you haven’t seen “Night of the Living Dead” by now, then you are most likely homeless. Being in the public domain and all, that means that you already own it; and I don’t just mean a copy, but the actual rights to the film. It’s been a staple of movie theater midnight shows, late night public access creature features and video store bargain bins for decades, not to mention the fact that you can watch it for free online without having to steal it, too. It is quite possibly the most accessible film on the planet and the only way I can imagine a human being having not seen it by now is if they’ve been actively avoiding it. And if so, then shame on you. “Night of the Living Dead” is awesome.
Radiation from Venus has infected the recently deceased, causing the dead to rise and walk the earth, craving human flesh. Ben (Duane Jones) and Barbara (Judith O’Dea) seek refuge in an isolated rural home as hordes of zombies encircle them. Trapped together with a pair of teenage oafs, a jackass and his wife and daughter, Ben and Barbara’s greatest challenge will be enduring their company moreso than the flesh-eating monstrosities outside.
I’m not going to get all philosophical on you with some deep ramble about how “Night of the Living Dead” is a commentary on the Vietnam War, race relations or the decay of American values, because Lord knows there are enough reviews like that out there. When I pop in “Night of the Living Dead”, I’m more impressed with the atmosphere, the strong characters, the tension and the morbid visuals than any thinly veiled social commentary.
For a movie that redefined a long overlooked horror subgenre with its frighteningly modern and gruesome depiction of zombies, “Night of the Living Dead” is a film more defined by its human characters than the shambling undead. Though their threat is ever-present, the main suspense offered by the flick isn’t so much the zombies, but the fact that the people trapped by them absolutely, positively cannot work together to save their lives (a theme that resurfaces in all of Romero’s “Dead” films). Our protagonist, Ben, seems to be the only character in the movie that’s worth a damn, as Barbara is a catatonic wreck, the Coopers (Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman) are either consistently trying to sabotage him or doting do-nothings and the teenagers (Keith Wayne and Judith Ridley) are two brain-cells short of a fruit salad. You really feel for poor Ben, as he’s the only rationally thinking, competent individual in a house full of loons and imbeciles.
But while the character-fueled tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife, Romero finds opportunities to effectively and believably build the world the film is taking place in through radio and television broadcasts. While the stated reason for the zombies (Venus radiation) is goofy sci-fi schlock, the various news footage, story details and public reactions are all very authentic in their delivery, really selling the situation. I know that in this day and age, that sort of thing is old hat, but I struggle to think of a movie before “Night of the Living Dead” that accomplished it better.
I think one of the factors to the longevity of “Night of the Living Dead”, aside from the fact that it’s free to anyone who wants it, is that despite its age, it feels eternally modern. You can look at other horror films made in the 60s and even into the early 70s, and they tend to feel dated or even passable for something made fifteen years earlier. Romero brought a fresh take to the world of horror cinema, which was still getting out of its “Atomic Age” phase, creating a story and a situation that could occur in any generation.
The only thing really dating the film (aside from fashions and being in black and white), is the music. The entire score is pulled from library music and feels very inappropriate. The whole score actually sounds like it would be better suited to a gothic Universal Studios monster movie from the 40s. The only really outstanding instance of music I could notice came during the feasting scene; the music there sounding so incongruous with all the hammy stock orchestrations that came before and after it.
To get back to the fact that “Night of the Living Dead” is a public domain film; that works both positively and negatively for it. On the bright side, as I mentioned, anyone who wants it can see it for free with minimal effort. The downside is that anyone can do anything they want to the film. They can recolor it, rerelease it, reedit it, rescore it, remake it, and they’re well within their legal right to do so. This has created a rather tremendous glut of low-quality releases of the film on video, as well as many alternate versions crafted by film school rejects with too much free time on their hands.
You have a lot of options to choose from and should be careful when purchasing it on DVD, lest you end up with one of the awful colorized versions, John Russo’s heinous 30th Anniversary Edition with poorly conceived, newly shot footage spliced in, or even a cartoon version that recycles the soundtrack of the flick (I’ve heard this one isn’t half bad, for novelty’s sake). For my money’s worth, I’m pleased with my Millennium Edition DVD produced by Elite Entertainment. It’s the original, unaltered film with an approved THX transfer, tons of bonus features and even George A. Romero’s seal of approval on the back. If you’re looking for what version to get, I’d say you can’t go wrong with that one.
I guess, in the end, I did manage to think up some stuff to say about this film, and hopefully it isn’t all stuff you’ve read a million times before in a million other reviews. “Night of the Living Dead” is just one of those movies you really need to see, as it’s the genesis of the modern zombie film and a damn good movie in and of itself. Plus, you know, you own it, whether you realize you do or not.
Grade: A (as in, “And check out Tom Savini’s 1990 remake, too. Barbara isn’t entirely useless in that version”.)
But that pointless bit of whining aside, if you haven’t seen “Night of the Living Dead” by now, then you are most likely homeless. Being in the public domain and all, that means that you already own it; and I don’t just mean a copy, but the actual rights to the film. It’s been a staple of movie theater midnight shows, late night public access creature features and video store bargain bins for decades, not to mention the fact that you can watch it for free online without having to steal it, too. It is quite possibly the most accessible film on the planet and the only way I can imagine a human being having not seen it by now is if they’ve been actively avoiding it. And if so, then shame on you. “Night of the Living Dead” is awesome.
Radiation from Venus has infected the recently deceased, causing the dead to rise and walk the earth, craving human flesh. Ben (Duane Jones) and Barbara (Judith O’Dea) seek refuge in an isolated rural home as hordes of zombies encircle them. Trapped together with a pair of teenage oafs, a jackass and his wife and daughter, Ben and Barbara’s greatest challenge will be enduring their company moreso than the flesh-eating monstrosities outside.
I’m not going to get all philosophical on you with some deep ramble about how “Night of the Living Dead” is a commentary on the Vietnam War, race relations or the decay of American values, because Lord knows there are enough reviews like that out there. When I pop in “Night of the Living Dead”, I’m more impressed with the atmosphere, the strong characters, the tension and the morbid visuals than any thinly veiled social commentary.
For a movie that redefined a long overlooked horror subgenre with its frighteningly modern and gruesome depiction of zombies, “Night of the Living Dead” is a film more defined by its human characters than the shambling undead. Though their threat is ever-present, the main suspense offered by the flick isn’t so much the zombies, but the fact that the people trapped by them absolutely, positively cannot work together to save their lives (a theme that resurfaces in all of Romero’s “Dead” films). Our protagonist, Ben, seems to be the only character in the movie that’s worth a damn, as Barbara is a catatonic wreck, the Coopers (Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman) are either consistently trying to sabotage him or doting do-nothings and the teenagers (Keith Wayne and Judith Ridley) are two brain-cells short of a fruit salad. You really feel for poor Ben, as he’s the only rationally thinking, competent individual in a house full of loons and imbeciles.
But while the character-fueled tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife, Romero finds opportunities to effectively and believably build the world the film is taking place in through radio and television broadcasts. While the stated reason for the zombies (Venus radiation) is goofy sci-fi schlock, the various news footage, story details and public reactions are all very authentic in their delivery, really selling the situation. I know that in this day and age, that sort of thing is old hat, but I struggle to think of a movie before “Night of the Living Dead” that accomplished it better.
I think one of the factors to the longevity of “Night of the Living Dead”, aside from the fact that it’s free to anyone who wants it, is that despite its age, it feels eternally modern. You can look at other horror films made in the 60s and even into the early 70s, and they tend to feel dated or even passable for something made fifteen years earlier. Romero brought a fresh take to the world of horror cinema, which was still getting out of its “Atomic Age” phase, creating a story and a situation that could occur in any generation.
The only thing really dating the film (aside from fashions and being in black and white), is the music. The entire score is pulled from library music and feels very inappropriate. The whole score actually sounds like it would be better suited to a gothic Universal Studios monster movie from the 40s. The only really outstanding instance of music I could notice came during the feasting scene; the music there sounding so incongruous with all the hammy stock orchestrations that came before and after it.
To get back to the fact that “Night of the Living Dead” is a public domain film; that works both positively and negatively for it. On the bright side, as I mentioned, anyone who wants it can see it for free with minimal effort. The downside is that anyone can do anything they want to the film. They can recolor it, rerelease it, reedit it, rescore it, remake it, and they’re well within their legal right to do so. This has created a rather tremendous glut of low-quality releases of the film on video, as well as many alternate versions crafted by film school rejects with too much free time on their hands.
You have a lot of options to choose from and should be careful when purchasing it on DVD, lest you end up with one of the awful colorized versions, John Russo’s heinous 30th Anniversary Edition with poorly conceived, newly shot footage spliced in, or even a cartoon version that recycles the soundtrack of the flick (I’ve heard this one isn’t half bad, for novelty’s sake). For my money’s worth, I’m pleased with my Millennium Edition DVD produced by Elite Entertainment. It’s the original, unaltered film with an approved THX transfer, tons of bonus features and even George A. Romero’s seal of approval on the back. If you’re looking for what version to get, I’d say you can’t go wrong with that one.
I guess, in the end, I did manage to think up some stuff to say about this film, and hopefully it isn’t all stuff you’ve read a million times before in a million other reviews. “Night of the Living Dead” is just one of those movies you really need to see, as it’s the genesis of the modern zombie film and a damn good movie in and of itself. Plus, you know, you own it, whether you realize you do or not.
Grade: A (as in, “And check out Tom Savini’s 1990 remake, too. Barbara isn’t entirely useless in that version”.)
5 comments:
The completely dysfunctional human cast has become the one Romero trick that I've grown the most tired of. I like to imagine that every other group of survivors that we don't see is getting along just splendidly, because the entire town's population of morons and d-bags has gravitated to the group of survivors we always follow. It's really hard to become emotionally invested in some of his films when you're actively rooting for the zombies to put most of the characters out of the audience's misery.
Zombieland showed us that even a halfway trained and competent band of heroes will do just fine if they're not morons.
Yeah, by "Day of the Dead" the formula had grown a little weary. "Dawn" was probably the closest we ever got to a functional group of survivors in a Romero film, at least until the cycle gang showed up to ruin everything. It was "humans vs. humans" rather than "humans vs. zombies", a Romero specialty, but at least it wasn't two hours of in-fighting.
I sympathize with the temptation, because when it comes down to it, zombies aren't particularly cunning adversaries. Once you get a chance to breathe and plan, you should have a decent shot at escape.
I try not to let Romero's future work color my enjoyment of "Night of the Living Dead".
Though I do have to wonder, were we supposed to care at all for the main character of "Diary of the Dead"? I thought Barbara was useless in "Night", at least she's got a reason to be a dead weight!
I saw this recently, is the humour intentional?
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