Night of the Living Dead

Movie Title--  Night of the Living Dead

Release Year--  1968

Running Time--  1 Hour and 36 Minutes

Director--  George A. Romero

Cast--  Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Russell Streiner, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, Keith Wayne, Judith Ridley, Kyra Schon, Charles, Craig, George Kosana, Bill Cardille

A group of people seek shelter in a farmhouse while under siege by blood thirsty zombies.

Brother and sister, Johnny (Russell Streiner) and Barbara (Judith O'Dea), are driving through the country for their annual visit to their father's grave.  Johnny begins to pick on Barbara and as he does, he notices that a man is on the other side of the graveyard shambling toward them.  This only causes Johnny to tease Barbara worse saying to her "They're coming to get you Barbara", which causes Barbara to call him names.  Johnny then acts as if he is afraid of the man that is almost at them and he runs toward the car but Barbara approaches the man to apologize at which point the man attacks her. 

Johnny runs back to help Barbara and gets in a physical altercation with the man which ends when Johnny stumbles and hits his head on a tombstone, killing him.  Barbara tries to flee by car but crashes it and has to run away on foot.  She finds an abandoned farmhouse and closes herself inside.  She has a look around and when she makes her way upstairs, she finds the body of a dead woman, which sends her further in to shock.

Barbara tries to flee the house but is met by the same creatures that she first saw in the cemetery.  A truck pulls up and the man inside, Ben (Duane Jones), rescues Barbara and takes her back into the house.  Ben tries to ask Barbara if the house belongs to her or if she knows anything about the gas pump outside but he gets no answers from her.  He then decides to board up the windows and doors to keep the monsters out.

Soon Ben and Barbara find that the house has a cellar and the whole time they have been boarding up the house and dealing with the growing threat outside, a young couple Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley) and a family, Harry (Karl Hardman), Helen (Marilyn Eastman) and Karen Cooper (Kyra Schon) have been hiding downstairs.  Harry insists that it is the safest place to be but Ben disagrees, calling the cellar a "deathtrap" and suggesting they only go into the cellar as the last line of defense.  Together they all sit, listening to the radio and watching the televised news reports as they unfold about the impending threat, trying to figure out a way to survive.

Before I watched Thursday's documentary "Birth of the Living Dead" I really had no interest in seeing this film but now I am glad I have seen it.  George A. Romero is credited with being the "Father" of the modern day zombie so if you was ever curious about why a zombie moves how it does or why it just aimlessly feeds with no thought of anything else, this is the man that started it all with this film.

Duane Jones goes an awesome job of keeping a level head in the midst of all the panic.  I will say, I hated Barbara.  To me, Barbara was just worthless.  I do understand that in this moment and time, it is too much for her to handle and she slips into shock because she is going through a very traumatic situation but at what point to do you finally snap out of it and try to save yourself?  Barbara is the kind of character that modern day horror fans wishes would bite it right in the beginning so that they wouldn't have to listen to her the rest of the film.

When Johnny says the phrase (and my favorite line in the film, as well as one of the most recognized) "They're coming to get you Barbara.", you can't help but cringe.  Even before anything starts to happen, when you hear that phrase, you just know that something is getting ready to go terribly wrong, you just have no idea what and how big of a threat it truly is.

I recommend this film to anyone that is a horror and/or zombie fan.  Although it is older and black and white, I really think that it is worth the watch, just Don't Forget the Popcorn!