NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)

Truly one of the most economical films in any genre, George Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is a nightmare captured on celluloid. Shot in stark black and white with a small budget and a cast of unknowns and never-will-bes, the film tells the story of 7 people trapped in an isolated house surrounded by flesh-eating zombies. While it may seem at times like an allegorical tale, make no mistake - this movie is as unpretentious as they come. All it wants to do is scare you, and it does.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD begins with Johnny and Barbara, a brother and sister, driving three hours to the middle of nowhere to leave flowers at the grave of their father. While Johnny teases Barbara about her fear of cemeteries, a mysterious figure walks slowly around in the background. Closer and closer he gets, this harmless wandering soul. But when he suddenly lunges at Barbara and bear his teeth, we discover he is not just another mourner, but... well, who knows what he is?

What he is becomes apparent later when Barbara makes it to the abandoned house (Johnny having struck his head on a gravestone and been left for dead) and joins up with several people. The band of castaways tune into a radio and later a television and find out that the bodies of the recent dead are rising up and devouring the flesh of the living. This is all revealed in a series of brilliantly written, directed and acted news reports that have the immediacy and urgency of any real life tragedy. Had these sections been phony in any way, the entire film might have fallen apart. But they are depicted realistically, with information being endlessly repeated for lack of fresh news, and little pieces of information being added as the bulletins come in. This technique not only allows large amounts of exposition and backstory to be presented smoothly, it also makes the film seem like a documentary at times.

Also adding to the realistic nature of the film is the cast. According to the Internet Movie Database, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is the only film on the resume of nearly half the cast. Of the rest, only Bill Winzman (the cemetery zombie who eerily resembles Boris Karloff) had anything approaching even an on-again, off-again career in films. Duane Jones, who plays the lead character, made his next film only after a hiatus of twenty years! Far from being a drawback, the lack of a "name" star only makes the movie seem that much

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