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Judith O'Dea, Russell Streiner, Duane Jones, Karl Hardman, Keith Wayne ... see more see more... , Judith Ridley , Marilyn Eastman , Kyra Schon , Rossie Harris , John Simpson , S. William Hinzman , George A. Romero , John A. Russo , Charles Craig , George Kosana

When unexpected radiation raises the dead, a microcosm of Average America has to battle flesh-eating zombies in George A. Romero's landmark cheapie horror film. Siblings Johnny (Russ Streiner) and Bar... read more read more...bara (Judith O'Dea) whine and pout their way through a graveside visit in a small Pennsylvania town, but it all takes a turn for the worse when a zombie kills Johnny. Barbara flees to an isolated farmhouse where a group of people are already holed up. Bickering and panic ensue as the group tries to figure out how best to escape, while hoards of undead converge on the house; news reports reveal that fire wards them off, while a local sheriff-led posse discovers that if you "kill the brain, you kill the ghoul." After a night of immolation and parricide, one survivor is left in the house.... Romero's grainy black-and-white cinematography and casting of locals emphasize the terror lurking in ordinary life; as in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), Romero's victims are not attacked because they did anything wrong, and the randomness makes the attacks all the more horrifying. Nothing holds the key to salvation, either, whether it's family, love, or law. Topping off the existential dread is Romero's then-extreme use of gore, as zombies nibble on limbs and viscera. Initially distributed by a Manhattan theater chain owner, Night, made for about 100,000 dollars, was dismissed as exploitation, but after a 1969 re-release, it began to attract favorable attention for scarily tapping into Vietnam-era uncertainty and nihilistic anxiety. By 1979, it had grossed over 12 million, inspired a cycle of apocalyptic splatter films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), and set the standard for finding horror in the mundane. However cheesy the film may look, few horror movies reach a conclusion as desolately unsettling. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

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R, 1 hr. 30 min.

Directed by: George A. Romero

Release Date: October 1, 1968

Keywords: white, horror, scary, zombie

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DVD Release Date: April 12, 2005

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Flixster Reviews (7,375)

  • mumby1988
    May 21, 2012
    mumby1988
    When John Landis was being interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live for his new book Monsters at the Movies, he commented that zombies have become the main monsters of the early-21st century. From the re-tooling of Down of the Dead and political, 'infected' movies like 28 Days Later, to s... read morepoofs like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland, zombies have become the go-to monster for popular horror. Zombies are cheap to create, easy to direct, and can be overladen with all manner of social commentary, or played for all kinds of laughs.

    With this in mind, you might think that Night of the Living Dead could not hold up to modern expectations of a zombie movie. George A. Romero's low-budget debut effort, shot entirely in black-and-white, is not as slick or grossly shocking as either its sequels or modern-day equivalents. What it is, however, is a really terrifying, deeply unnerving film, whose substance still rings true and whose scares still deliver even after 44 years.

    It's very difficult for us to imagine the kind of outcry Romero's film created the first time round. When it was first released, it played in matinee screenings alongside classic Hollywood horror movies such as James Whale's Frankenstein and Val Newton's The Curse of the Cat-People. Because the MPAA rating system was not in place until a month after it arrived, there were reports of young children going to see a fun old-fashioned horror film and coming out completely traumatised. After much public outcry, with Variety calling it an "unrelieved orgy of sadism", the film was pulled from mainstream theatres, only to find a second, more devoted audience on the midnight movie circuit.

    Looking at the film today, its terror derives from two completely different sources. One is the same kind of fear or shock that greeted audiences in 1968, namely the shock of seeing monsters that looked exactly like them, preying upon innocent people and eating human flesh. The other kind comes from the continuing political resonance, with its themes of racism, revolution and the Vietnam War still striking a chord in today's society.

    Up to Night of the Living Dead, popular horror had by and large externalised or marginalised its monsters or enemies. The War of the Worlds and Invasion of the Body-Snatchers used alien invasions as a double for communist infiltration, depicting the enemy as something that was totally un-human, something that had to be eradicated rather than understood. Whether they were tripods or pod people, the aliens were so clearly different to our heroic American protagonists that the films were never quite as scary as they could have been.

    Romero's film incorporates many classic B-movie elements into its storyline. There is the hapless heroine, the expository radio broadcast, the phone lines being completely down and alien radiation being blamed for what is unfolding. But none of these elements are ever allowed to become the centrepiece, pushing the zombies into the background for the sake of pulpy fun. Romero is too good to let that happen, and instead uses the B-movie riffs as a comfort zone to provide relief from an enemy that is like us in every detail. His "blue collar" monsters come at us head-on, relentlessly questioning our perceptions about our fellow man.

    One of the creepiest scenes in Night of the Living Dead, which reinforces this technique, comes in the very first scene. Johnny (Russell Streiner) attempts to wind up Barbara (Judith O'Dea) by playing on her childhood fear of ghosts: he jumps around, pulling hokey faces and hollering: "They're coming to get you, Barbara!". While they are larking around, we see a strange man shambling around in the background; because he looks exactly like them, we assume he's a passing stranger and take no notice. Then, out of nowhere, the stranger attacks Johnny and Barbara: he gets his head smashed in, she runs for cover, and the ordinary has become the terrifying.

    The film is on one level a brilliant examination of racism. It tackles the stereotypes associated with black people in American society, showing the tension and prejudice among the characters in a far more effective way than mainstream efforts like In The Heat of the Night. The interactions between Ben (Duane Jones) and Harry (Karl Hardman) belie a continuing distrust between blacks and whites, resulting in the latter's betrayal of the former in favour of base self-interest.

    Much of the racial politics of Night of the Living Dead are rooted in the Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend. Both the novel and its 1964 adaptation The Last Man on Earth were big influences on Romero, and while Matheson dismissed the film as "cornball" he bore Romero no ill will. Running through all three works is the theme of protagonists realising their inferior position, letting the old ways pass and submitting to the new order. But while John Neville becomes philosophical about his impending execution, Ben has no such choice. In an appropriately shocking and subversive ending, he survives the zombie onslaught, only to be mistaken for a zombie and is shot in cold blood by a white police officer.

    Romero described Night of the Living Dead as a film principally about revolution. The idea of the dead no longer being dead is a huge challenge to the preconceptions of the main characters, with Romero playing for scares what Landis played for laughs in An American Werewolf in London. Less frivolously, the zombies are characterised as an unstoppable wave, a counter-culture of death descending on, quite literally, the old way of life. The traditional family unit is destroyed, first by Barbara and Johnny being separated and then the young daughter becoming undead. The creepy scene of the child killing its mother reflects both the rise of the young generation and the erosion of family bonds in favour of pure greed.

    Like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre a few years later, Night of the Living Dead also touches on the impact of the Vietnam War. In this interpretation the zombies become the brain-dead soldiers returning home in their droves, being unable to reintegrate into polite society to the point where normal citizens feel the need to isolate themselves entirely and ignore the problem. Alternatively, they are the embodiment of war guilt, representing all the 'gooks' on the consciences of American troops, refusing to go away and tormenting the Americans to the point where they literally lose their minds.

    What makes Night of the Living Dead so effective as a horror movie is how invasive it is. By confining the action to a few rooms, Romero achieves a natural sense of claustrophobia which is exacerbated by the intimate and intrusive camerawork. The recurring images of hands clawing through the barricades are akin to the hallucinations in Repulsion, in which Catherine Deneuve imagines thousands of male hands reaching out along a corridor to grope her. In both films the threat is breaking in rather than exploding out; the threat is endemic and yet is being concentrated in a manner which becomes thrillingly unbearable.

    The performances in Night of the Living Dead are the key to cementing the level of tension achieved by both camerawork and allegory. Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea improvised much of their dialogue, adding another layer of chilling realism to an already unsettling picture. Karl Hardman's character may be the loudest and brashest in the building, but his performance is one of subtle shifts and gestures which perfectly convey his cowardice and frustration. But it's not just the heroes who are well-fleshed out. The zombies seem to take on personalities of their own, with make-up supervisor Marilyn Eastman making the best of the low-budget effects on offer.

    Night of the Living Dead remains a huge horror milestone and as cracking a debut feature as you could possibly hope for. While its dialogue is occasionally repetitive and its female characters are never properly fleshed out, its political and social significance remains writ large and it can still scare every bit as well as its gorier cousins. Romero's later zombie movies would push the boundaries of what could be shown on screen, but if pure and simple terror is what you're after, the original is still the best.
  • fb100002384654145
    May 13, 2012
    fb100002384654145
    An above average schlocky horror movie that was lucky to be the first zombie movie, even though nobody in the film says the z-word. The film starts out pretty good with the famous graveyard scene, and the ending is a pretty clever anti-Hollywood ending. However, this film simpl... read morey has not aged well. Most of the plot feels like the last 20 minutes of "The Birds" if it was extended to feature length. This would not be too much of a problem if the characters had been a little more interesting, and some instances of questionable acting do not help matters. Duane Jones ends up stealing the show because he is the most level-headed out of the characters and the most relatable. The gore, which made this film so infamous when it first hit audiences 1968, is pretty tame by todays standards. Despite some of these flaws, George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" stills manages to have just enough claustrophobic atmosphere and some decently gritty black and white cinematography to keep things going. This film is interesting just to see how the zombie sub-genre was spawned, but beyond it's historical significants it is just a merely passable horror movie.
  • fb100002359227440
    April 21, 2012
    fb100002359227440
    A, not just scary and realist zombie gore film, but an underground political classic. Night of the Living Dead is a unique horror movie.
  • LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    April 14, 2012
    LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    "They're coming to get you, Barbara, there's one of them now!"

    The radiation from a fallen satellite might have caused the recently deceased to rise from the grave and seek the living to use as food. This is the situation that a group of people penned up in an old farmhou... read morese must deal with.

    REVIEW

    Night of the Living Dead wasn't the first film to ever use the idea of an apocalypse; The Last Man on Earth did almost the same thing four years earlier - but it was Romero's film that popularised it, and this film is pretty much responsible for every zombie film ever made post-1968. Through excellent black and white cinematography, a claustrophobic atmosphere and some shocking scenes of zombie slaughter; Night of the Living Dead is an out and out horror classic. This film upset many people upon it's release in 1968, and despite being over four decades old - the film has lost none of it's nastiness. The plot is very simple, and it follows the idea of the dead returning to life and feasting upon the living. We follow a farmhouse full of people trying to evade the carnage. There is never any solid explanation given about why the dead are returning to life - only an idea about radiation from space. This actually helps the film, though, because there is never an attempt to save humanity or discover why it is happening; we just follow the people in trouble, and that immensely adds to the horror.

    Romero constantly makes sure that the audience is aware that we're following a group of people without much hope. The scene is always isolated, and the sparing use of radio and television gives the protagonists their only window into the wider world. Romero's use of the camera enforces the isolation in the farmhouse. He uses a lot of close-up's and angled shots, which adequately show the closed space. One of the things that this low budget zombie flick will always be remembered for is the fact that it was the first horror film to feature an African-American. This casting is just one example of Romero's lust for rule breaking, and there are many moments of zombie carnage in the film that seem to be there just to upset the more conservative groups. These scenes also serve the film in it's bid to be frightening, and when combined with the hopeless, downbeat aura of the film; it's all very horrific. Many of the 'zombie rules' were created in this film, and the build up to the ending that sees two of the main characters killed is absolute pure brilliance. On the whole; horror cinema wouldn't be the same without this film. The fact that it's aged so well is no coincidence.
  • spielberg00
    February 4, 2012
    spielberg00
    Cult horror at its greatest.
  • LoughnerWasLucid
    December 4, 2011
    LoughnerWasLucid
    not a real big deal for me. i think the fundamental reason this movie was worshipped so much when it was released was because it was competing with films that mainly used 2-D mega-rays and 8-ft "giant" rubber tarantulas and ketchupy blood. so people thought, "fuck yea, ill see a ... read morehorror movie without ugly ass wooden shark fins sticking out of a fake 10-ft wide ocean!" and, voila! a masterpiece was introduced to America. Its the same situation as when everyone was kissing Metallica's balls for being the most hardcore band in the 80's. you know, because its so hard to earn that title when you're running against men wearing parachute-colored spandex and goddamn bandanas on their mic-stands. go fuck yourself, Night of the Living Dead.
  • moonrivers
    November 1, 2011
    moonrivers
    Landmark in so many ways, still capable of inducing horror and to do so after countless years, after countless viewings, one of the greatest horror films ever. The cheapie production values only add to the sense of unescapable doom.
  • fb1664868775
    October 25, 2011
    fb1664868775
    Classic zombiefest.
  • cosmo313
    September 18, 2011
    cosmo313
    This little low-budget classic the standard for future horror films. The undertones about racism (intentional or not), add a nice little social commentary to the terrifying and gruesome scenes filled with shocks and suspense, making this film pretty much required viewing (I think... read more so at least) for any person claiming to be a film buff.
  • blkbomb
    August 20, 2011
    blkbomb
    Sheriff McClelland: Put that thing all away on the fire! We don't want it getting up again! 

    "If it doesn't scare you, you're already dead!"

    Night of the Living Dead is George A. Romero's first zombie movie. It's also widely considered to be his best and the best of the zombie/... read morehorror genre. It's a low budget, black and white film. This really adds to the creepiness level. The whole movie has a great eerie atmosphere engulfing the settings and the characters. Ben(Duane Jones) is one of my favorite horror movie heroes ever. His character is great.

    The story takes place in a house where some survivors hold up and try to keep the zombies out. They board up the windows and doors in an attempt to keep the zombies out. The coolest thing about this movie is the radio and television broadcasts that let's the characters find out what is going on. Also, the television interview with the Sheriff is awesome too. 

    Everything leads up to what I consider a cool and pretty ironic ending; if not a bleak and depressing one. I can't say it's my favorite zombie movie, as I've seen others that I had a better time watching. But I can't and won't argue that it's not the best zombie film ever. When talking and ranking horror films; Night of the Living Dead, along with Dawn of the Living Dead are the only zombie movies you can really throw in as some of the best of the horror genre.

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Critic Reviews

Variety Staff
October 3, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

Although pic's basic premise is repellent -- recently dead bodies are resurrected and begin killing human beings in order to eat their flesh -- it is in execution that the film distastefully excels. Full Review

Elliott Stein
September 19, 2007
Elliott Stein, Village Voice

George Romero's remarkably assured debut, made on a shoestring, about a group of people barricaded inside a farmhouse while an army of flesh-eating zombies roams the countryside, deflates all genre cl... Full Review

Dave Kehr
September 19, 2007
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

Over its short, furious course, the picture violates so many strong taboos -- cannibalism, incest, necrophilia -- that it leaves audiences giddy and hysterical. Full Review

Roger Ebert
September 19, 2007
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

I felt real terror in that neighborhood theater last Saturday afternoon. I saw kids who had no resources they could draw upon to protect themselves from the dread and fear they felt. Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 20, 2003
Vincent Canby, New York Times

The dialogue and background music sound hollow, as if they had been recorded in an empty swimming pool, and the wobbly camera seems to have a fetishist's interest in hands. Full Review

Kim Newman
October 14, 2011
Kim Newman, Empire Magazine

The original and the best. Full Review

Christopher Lloyd
February 7, 2011
Christopher Lloyd, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

"Night of the Living Dead" became a seminal film without being a particularly good one. It nudged horror movies away from creepy-but-family-friendly into adult films featuring gruesome violence and ni... Full Review

Charles Cassady
December 15, 2010
Charles Cassady, Common Sense Media

Oft-copied zombie classic is still intense and gory. Full Review

Josh Larsen
May 31, 2010
Josh Larsen, LarsenOnFilm

The racial subtext spoke volumes in 1968. Once the zombies start knocking, only a fool would cling to segregation. Full Review

Cole Smithey
February 5, 2010
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com

Romero saw the enemy, and they are the zombie masses among us. There is nowhere safe to hide. Full Review

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    • Newscaster: It has been established that persons who have recently died have been returning to life and committing acts of murder. A widespread investigation of funeral homes, morgues, and hospitals has concluded that the unburied dead have been returning to life and seeking human victims. It's hard for us here to be reporting this to you, but it does seem to be a fact.
    • Ben: Now get the hell down in the cellar. You can be the boss down there, but I'm boss up here!
    • Johnny: They're coming to get you, Barbara, there's one of them now!
    • Johnny: [in a creepy voice] They're coming to get you, Barbara!
    • Johnny: [in a creepy voice] They're coming to get you, Barbara!
    • Barbara: Stop it! You're ignorant!
    • Johnny: They're coming for you, Barbara!
    • Barbara: Stop it! You're acting like a child!
    • Johnny: [points to the cemetery zombie] Look, there comes one of them now!
    • Barbara: He'll hear you!
    • Johnny: Here he comes now! I'm getting out of here!
    • Johnny: They're coming to get you, Barbara!
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Night of the Living Dead Trivia

  • "They're coming to get you, Barbara, there's one of them now!" is a quote from what zombie film?  Answer »
  • In What World Famous Zombie Film Was The Word Zombie Never Mentioned?  Answer »
  • What film is the quote, "they're coming for you Barbera...." in it?  Answer »
  • Johnny: [in a creepy voice] They're coming to get you, Barbara! Barbara: Stop it! You're ignorant! Johnny: They're coming for you, Barbara! Barbara: Stop it! You're acting like a child! Johnny: They're coming for you! Name the 1968 movie the above dialog is from.  Answer »
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