Night of the Living Dead (1968): The Original Zombie Blueprint That Still Creeps Us Out

Night of the Living Dead (1968) movie review

Film Synopsis

In Night of the Living Dead, a group of strangers finds themselves trapped in a remote farmhouse as an inexplicable outbreak of the undead begins to consume the countryside. As tensions rise and fear escalates, the survivors must navigate their differences and work together to fend off relentless waves of flesh-eating zombies. With each passing moment, the threat outside intensifies, forcing them to confront not only the horrors lurking in the darkness but also their own humanity. This chilling tale of survival highlights the fragility of social order in the face of chaos.

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Reasons to Watch

• Lasting Impact on Pop Culture: Night of the Living Dead completely redefined zombies as a horror trope, transforming them from Haitian folklore creatures into flesh-eating ghouls that would dominate horror cinema for decades to come. The film established virtually every zombie movie convention that audiences now take for granted, from the shambling walk to the headshot kills to the apocalyptic spread of infection, creating the template that everything from Dawn of the Dead to The Walking Dead would follow. Romero’s influence extends far beyond horror into television shows, video games, and popular culture references, with terms like “zombie apocalypse” becoming part of everyday language and making this low-budget independent film one of the most culturally significant movies ever made.

• Independent Filmmaking: The film proved that low-budget independent productions could compete with major studio releases, demonstrating how creative storytelling and practical effects could overcome financial limitations to create lasting art. Night of the Living Dead was made for approximately $114,000 and became a massive commercial success, inspiring countless independent filmmakers to pursue their own horror projects without studio backing. This breakthrough showed the industry that audiences would embrace innovative content regardless of production budget, paving the way for the independent film movement that followed.

• Ben’s Character Breakthrough: Duane Jones’s casting as Ben created a revolutionary moment in cinema history, placing an African American actor in the lead hero role during the height of the civil rights movement when such representation was virtually nonexistent in mainstream films. The character of Ben serves as the group’s natural leader, making rational decisions and showing courage throughout the crisis, subverting audience expectations about race and heroism in 1960s America. What made this casting even more remarkable was that Ben wasn’t written as a specifically Black character – Jones simply gave the best audition, proving that talent could transcend racial barriers when filmmakers were willing to look beyond conventional casting choices. This groundbreaking decision was revolutionary not just for horror but for American cinema as a whole.