Where The Undead Genre Really Started: George Romero's Night Of The Living Dead

 

In more ways than you can imagine, George Romero's Night Of The Living Dead continues to be shocking, more than 53 years after its initial 1968 release.
 

And no, it wasn't the first appearance of the living dead. That privilege goes to the 1932 release of White Zombie starring none other than Bela Lugosi. But the zombie genre, in and of itself, really came into its own with Night Of The Living Dead.

But before we get things rolling, two things need to be stated from the get-go.

First, a warning: If you’ve never seen NotLD (and, if you haven’t, you’re either terrified of it and don’t want to watch it alone or you’ve been living under a rock all your life) let it be said that no good comes from this film. No good whatsoever.

The other thing: BIG FAT SPOILER ALERT! If indeed you have not seen the film and don’t want your experience ruined, read no further than the exclamation point at the end of this sentence!

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Hokay, then … here’s the spoiler: EVERYBODY DIES ... !!! 

Yep, you read right … every one of the main cast in the film dies a pretty gruesome death.

Following is the actual death count (undead ghouls not included):

 

• Death #1: Barbra’s brother Johnny (Russel Streiner) is killed by the first ghoul encountered in the film, a mysterious, gaunt and frightening stranger meandering about the cemetery they visit. Johnny struggles with the man who eventually tosses him to the ground, causing him to slam his head on a tombstone.
• Deaths #2 & 3: Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley) are killed in an explosion when Tom attempts to get a flame-engulfed truck away from a gas pump.
• Death #4: Barbra (Judith O’Dea) is swarmed and pulled from the house she and the others are sheltered in by an attack of undead ghouls ironically led by her dead, reanimated brother Johnny.
• Death #5: Karen, Harry and Helen’s daughter who was bitten earlier in the film by the undead we learn, ends up becoming one of the reanimated dead.
• Death #6: While Harry (Karl Hardman) is shot by Ben during a struggle well into the film, it’s actually Harry’s daughter, Karen (Kyra Schon), who finishes him off once and for all. Shortly thereafter, Harry’s wife Helen (Marilyn Eastman) finds reanimated Karen munching away at her husband when she retreats to the basement in the midst of an undead siege.
• Death #7: Helen gets a trowel buried in her torso by Karen for interrupting her late daddy snack.
  
• Death #8, The Final Death: In the waning moments of the film, lone survivor Ben (Duane Jones) hears noises coming from above his basement sanctuary. As he ventures upstairs to see if it is the living or the dead, he is killed by a shot to the head, mistakenly believed to be one of the many reanimated ghouls.

Man… what a way to go. Chased, terrorized and eventually done in by resuscitated corpses who either indirectly cause your demise or take care of you face to face.

 

This particularly gruesome piece of celluloid was my introduction to Zombiedom. It’s a film standard and has, over the years, become a classic. I honestly cannot think of a better film to have started off my love affair with the genre. NotLD, to me, is my A Christmas Carol as December 25th approaches. It’s lighting sparklers during the 4th of July, ringing in the New Year with champagne. It’s The Ten Commandments around Easter and it’s attending the Dodgers’ Opening Day.

In other words: It’s tradition.

It never gets old. (Yes… I used “never.”) It still brings gasps and frights. You cannot help but get caught up in the stock musical tracks which accent the panic and dread being played out on the screen. You can feel the fire flare in the face of Ben as the truck Tom drives away from the gas pump explodes with he and Judy inside. You can feel your revulsion as you watch that one particular ghoul snatch an insect off a tree, put it to its lips and crunch into it. You spew loathing at Harry and all his faux-bravado time and again when he blusters. The urgency Ben emotes as he boards up the house in an effort to ward off the undead from outside? You can actually feel it unfolding.

If you’ve never seen George Romero’s masterpiece, you haven’t experienced the kind of fear a good black and white can inject into you. I guarantee you’ll be as overwhelmed as Barbra as she witnesses the undead horde led by her brother Johnny. You’ll be transfixed at the news reports which continually crop up throughout the film, detailing the horrors taking place in nearby towns and counties. You’ll even marvel at Sheriff McClelland uttering “Yeah, they’re dead … they’re all messed up.” (One of my favorite lines from the movie.)

 

This film is all that and a bag of your chips, let me tell you. (And, just in case you need proof, elements of NotLD were used as the basis for AMC’s popular The Walking Dead. So there.)

Look: Do yourself a favor. View this piece of genre history once again for the thirtieth time … or for the very first. It’s available in its entirety on YouTube for Pete’s sake, so you don’t even have to venture out and rent it. After all, free of charge is good. And free of charge from the comfort of your very own computer screen or television set … all the better.

The only thing I ask in return is that you enjoy it … and don’t forget the popcorn.

 

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )