Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition

The version of the movie I have is the 30th Anniversary edition which is the original black and white with some extra scenes that bookends the beginning and end and depicted the 1st zombie seen in the movie and a creepy TV evangelist with teeth as big and white as chiclets. I won’t go into any real detail on that part as it’s not really all that relevant to Romeros original vision. and the acting was unfreaking unbelievably HORRIBLE!!!

Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is as legendary as the Wolfman, The Invisible Man, Frankenstein and all the other Universal Monsters. It would the the birth of what would become a genre all on its own. The original movie follows a group of people as they try to survive the onslaught of cannibalistic zombies in an old farm house. The movie itself is less about the zombies as it’s more about the will to survive along with a social message to the subtext of the story about racism which was relevant to the time. The fact that a black man was cast in the lead role is also influential and inspiring back then.

It’s amazing to think about how big such a small movie with a shoestring budget became. It is THE defacto standard for which all zombie movies, games and stories alike come from and its easy to see why. The acting was better than average but the sheer horror of hordes of people attacking other people and eating them coupled with the feeling of being cornered and in such a confined space is paramount to what made this movie so good. I can’t pretend to be frightened by this movie but I can empathize with what they’re experiencing. The scariest part is not knowing why this is happening unlike other horror flicks where there is a true explanation and outcome.

I’m a hue fan of Romero and zombie fan. There’s nothing zombie related that I don’t want to watch, play or read at least once. If black and white movies aren’t your thing then i highly stress that you you check out the 1990 remake with Tony Todd as it’s almost a direct scene for scene remake and VERY GOOD movie. This is must see for anyone.

“They’re coming to get you Barbara…”
1968 Trailer

1990 Remake trailer