Along with "Carnival of Souls", this movie stands out as one of the definitive black-and-white horror movies of a bygone drive-in movie era. This movie scared me horribly when I first saw it back in the sixth grade. I had seen other scary movies before, but I think what makes this film so frightening is that there is a somewhat scientific explanation involved and that the horror is occurring to average people. The terror is not due to some supernatural occurrence that we know to be fantasy such as a vampire or some other relic from a 30's or 40's Universal horror film. Also, the drama is playing out in and around a farm house in rural Ohio, not some mythical haunted mansion. This puts you into the dilemma with the players. The fact that such bad acting is in play here just adds to the realism rather than making the film campy.

This movie showed something that could have only occurred pre-Watergate. At one point, the people trapped in the farmhouse discover a television and turn it on in search of news of what is going on. Something almost as remarkable to today's audiences as the dead rising from their graves is seen to occur. In Washington, reporters confront a government official about the situation, the government official tells the reporters the truth, and everyone believes what the government has told them. All of this would be truly remarkable in today's environment of mutual mistrust between citizens, government, and the media. Also, although we don't have actual vampires as the villain here, we have a similar dilemma. As the radiation causes the dead to become animated and seek to eat the flesh of the living, each time a victim is bitten, that victim eventually dies only to rise minutes later seeking the flesh of the living themselves, producing a problem that grows geometrically, just as vampires do.

Finally, this film has something important to say about race. Unique to 60's films, the group in the farmhouse accepts Ben (Duane Jones),an African-American man, as a leader since he is smart and a quick thinker. This portrayal of an African-American as protagonist and problem solver is also unique to films of forty years ago. The ending is quite powerful, and you have to ask yourself, did race have something to do with the actions of the rescue posse? I don't know if this question was hung out there intentionally by the film's creators for the audience to ponder, but it is a point that is almost impossible to ignore.

I have never particularly enjoyed NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, as it's not a genre that I particularly care for--after all, if you've seen one brain-eating zombie film, you've seen them all. However, I strongly commend this film for helping to create the genre as well as getting one of the best examples of an inexpensively produced and excellent film that made a fortune (some others being CARNIVAL OF SOULS and the original LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS). Now I won't go so far as to give the movie a hugely inflated rating like some, after all the acting was at times pretty shabby (particularly by that stupid blonde). But it did have a simple but clever script, good special effects given the budget and time in which it was made, decent direction and scared the crap out of audiences--something many horror films fail to do. If you love the genre, then this is a must. Otherwise, it's not a must-see unless you are making a study of excellent bare-bones film making.

This is one of those all-time classic horror movies, enjoyed by generation after generation and extremely notorious for being graphic and frightening, just like THE EXORCIST and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's also one of the films responsible for ushering in a whole new wave of horror in the 197's (for good or bad),where the emphasis was on gore and realism instead of the Gothic fantasy tales produced in the '60s by Corman and Hammer.

It's amazing, really, that a film made on an extremely low budget (with locals as extras) and basically set in just one location can have such an excellent reputation. The reason this film works is that everything is perfect: the scares, the acting, the camera-work, the makeup. The black and white photography is a virtue in this case; instead of dating the film (keep your distance from any suspicious colourised versions you see floating around) it emphasises the fear of the unknown, the fact that in the shadows something horrible could be waiting to pounce.

The opening of the film sets the scene admirably and is the creepiest part. After a bit of dialogue between a brother and sister in a cemetery (including the infamous line "I'm coming to get you, Barbara!"),we see a man stumbling across the graves in the distance, quiet, slowly closing in. This is our first sighting of a zombie and remains one of the most subtle and chilling moments in the history of the genre.

Of course, with a film of this status, there have got to be flaws, one being the character of Barbara, who is quite simply an idiot. She doesn't help, she looks stupid, and she acts badly with it. Frankly I could have done without her character completely, she adds nothing to the film, does nothing apart from sit around and be simple. Thankfully this atrocity is countered by Duane Jones, who plays the hero of the piece; he's believable and one of those characters you really feel you can turn to and rely on in moments of need. Karl Hardman makes a good and slimy antagonist, and the rest of the cast all do well, considering the fact that they were amateurs.

As well as the gently creepy moments, there are plenty of sudden shocks, hands bursting through windows, a close up of a rotted face. These counter the quieter and more psychological shocks well. The way that the number of zombies outside the farmhouse gradually builds up is a gradual slide into hopelessness, portrayed very well and preparing us for the final horrific moments where the zombies invade the building. I love films with siege situations, everything from DOG DAY AFTERNOON to ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, and this is one of the very best.

Although it was made in the '60s, the gore level is high for this film; today I would say it isn't suitable for the squeamish although obviously in the wake of the slasher overdrive it's not quite as shocking as it was on first release. A trowel murder is particularly nasty (and you have to admire the ingenuity of using chocolate sauce as a substitute for blood!),as are some scenes of cannibalism, which have been oft-copied. Action fans should also give this film a go, as there's plenty of shooting and Molatov cocktails being thrown around, although this film is more dialogue-concentrated than, say, DAWN OF THE DEAD. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is one of those rare beasts, a horror film which actually does deserve its own reputation and shouldn't be missed.