Watch Night Of The Living Dead 1967

OTV commentary 1967, $27,000 and who knew? As a lark and love for making horror movies, then young director George C. Romero took a rough script, went up to rural-ish Pennsylvania with amateur actors and for a quarter of the amount of money in the 60's it took targ David Whales to make Frankenstein with Clive & Karloff back in 1931, Romero, surprising himself, came up with ths black and white cult movie of all time starring a Leslsy Gore lookaliks, Judith O'Dea and ketchup covered cold cuts as guts food for the zombies. So little faith did creator George or the initial distributor, Walter Reade Films div., have in the Visa/Mastercard budgeted monochromer, neither bothered to get the film formally copyrighted in the Library of Congress and for years, when "Night Of The Living Dead" became a windfall midnight movie house box office blockbuster, it was a free for all, for television stations late night runs and VHS homs video pirates. This kept up even after Romero and Ted Turner endeavored to copyright a colorized version...no one wanted Turner's colored zombies anymore than they wanted Turner's colorized Cassablanca or Ralph Kramden.It took MGM copyright lawyer specialists to straighten out the rights mess in the turn of the DVD 80's. High def grain was fine.

George Romero and franchisers tried to equal the huge cult/horror success of "Night Of The Living Dead" as presented in it's original au naturalr form here at Xoteria TV's Cinema Theater. "Dawn Of The Dead," "Day Of The Dead" "Return Of The Dead" on and on ad nauseam couldn't come near the rave of Romero's 1967 original and the\ 80's shockem attempts, major studio's Jason, Freddies, or Michaels, nor the daredevil indie attempts, here and in Italy, such as those found at the Xoteria Cult Horror Picture Show could come close, virgin sacrifices included. Blood Sucking Freaks, anyone?

About Director George Romero

This Pittsburgh-based independent filmmaker was a pivotal figure in the development of the contemporary horror film. Beginning with his first feature, "Night of the Living Dead" (1968), Romero not only upped the ante on explicit screen violence and gore but also offered an often satirical critique of American society that reflected the cultural upheavals of the late 1960s and early 70s. Ethnically and sexually integrated, pro-feminist, gay-friendly, anti-macho and skeptical about capitalism, his work represents the progressive wing of a sometimes reactionary genre. In Romero's films, the source of the horror can be found, more often than not, deep in the heart of the bourgeois family.

Inspired by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's "Tales of Hoffmann" (1951), Romero made 8mm shorts, industrial films and commercials before co-writing, editing, shooting and directing his first feature, "Night of the Flesh Eaters". Produced for $114,000 and renamed "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) by its distributor, the film became a landmark cult film and a significant social document. A stark parable of the American family consuming itself, the film's influences encompassed the EC horror comics of the 1950s, the cheapie gore exploitation flicks of Hershell Gordon Lewis, Hitchcock's "The Birds" (1963) and Rod Serling's talky allegorical dramas. Its intense scenes of violence--low-tech but convincing--which still have power to shock. Shot with a handheld camera in grainy high contrast black-and-white, "Night" could be a cinema-verite documentary of a nightmare.

Romero made several more low-budget privately financed features in his beloved Pittsburgh before securing his cult status with two remarkable films: "Martin" (1978) and "Dawn of the Dead" (1979). The former, Romero's favorite, was a lyrical, poignant, and deeply disturbing tale of a shy quiet boy who is convinced that he is a vampire. Produced by his partner, Richard Rubinstein, "Martin" was Romero's first project for their company, Laurel Entertainment. It also began an important collaboration with Tom Savini, a brilliant special makeup effects designer who provided cheap but astonishing gore effects for many of Romero's subsequent features. Their next project, the expansive sequel "Dawn of the Dead", was primarily set in a deserted suburban shopping mall where a hardy band of survivors are beset by zombies, bikers and their own personal demons. A powerful apocalyptic action film leavened with pitch black comedy, "Dawn" critiqued bourgeois culture, consumerism and machismo while spraying the screen with outrageous comic-book carnage. This classic of the horror film became one of the most profitable indies in US film history.

George Romero continued to do interesting work for much of the the 80s. A rare respite from things gruesome, "Knightriders" (1981) was a quirky, leisurely paced take on Arthurian legend. Ed Harris functions as King Arthur for a traveling band that stages medieval fairs with "knights" jousting on motorcycles. Clearly a personal film, "Knightriders" can be viewed as an allegory about working as an independent filmmaker. Scripted by Stephen King, "Creepshow" (1982) was a more blunt and commercial work featuring higher production values and a cast of seasoned professionals. This smart and boldly stylized homage to EC horror comics also contained a sly critique of patriarchy. "Day of the Dead" (1985), the ostensible conclusion to the "Living Dead" trilogy, was brutally undermined by last-minute budget cuts but still emerged as Romero's strongest horror film of the decade. Claustrophobic, talky, progressive and amazingly bloody, "Day" was Romero's last film as a director for Laurel Entertainment.

While still a partner at Laurel, Romero also worked in TV as the creator, co-executive producer and occasional writer of "Tales from the Dark Side". The thematic and stylistic concerns of "Creepshow" helped shape the early episodes. Frequent Spike Lee collaborator Ernest Dickerson photographed the first season of this visually striking low-budget syndicated horror/fantasy series.

Romero's first project as a journeyman writer-director was the uneven psychological thriller, "Monkey Shines: An Experiment in Fear" (1988), which was marred by a studio-imposed happy ending. For his next feature, "Two Evil Eyes" (1990), Romero and the celebrated Italian horror filmmaker Dario Argento each wrote and directed a story inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. Released widely in Europe, the film barely opened in the U.S. before being shunted off to the video stores. Romero fared better with the medium budget Stephen King adaptation, "The Dark Half" (1993), garnering enthusiastic reviews and lackluster box office. Hailed as a return to form for the horror master, this well-crafted film featured a strong dual performance by Timothy Hutton. "The Dark Half" numbers among the most thoughtful of the films made from King's works

After a long hiatus from the screen, Romero returned with the unusual , cheaply made thriller "Bruiser" (2000), the lurid tale of a rule-following man who wakes up one day to discover his face transformed into a smooth, featureless mask; empowered by his new anonymity, he sets out on a path of revenge against everyone he believes has wronged him. Another lengthy absence from film work ensured, but suddenly, after audiences discovered a new taste for zombie films with such new entries as "28 Days Later" (2003) and a 2004 remake of Romero's "Dawn of the Dead," the writer-director returned to familiar territory with yet another sequel, "Land of the Dead" (2005), in which his relentless undead have finally taken control of most of the world, and the few surviving humans live in walled cities hoping to fend off extinction. Yet again, Romero made his formula work well, on a viscerally creepy, scarefest level as well as making a statement about the widening gap between the rich and the poor in modern society.

classic-horror.com revue t's rare when a movie transcends pop culture's usual 15 minutes of fame and becomes a time-tested classic. It's rarer still when the movie is a low-budget, black and white independent feature produced so far off Hollywood's radar that it didn't receive national distribution. What this particular little movie had going for it was a fresh, talented director and the public's hitherto undiscovered phobia about and fascination with flesh eating zombies! Filmed in 1967 by then fledgling director George A. Romero, Night of the Living Dead is a film that while raw in some of its production, was and is spot-on in evoking the most dreadful and deep-seeded of frights. It redefined a lackluster monster and gave rise to both a new genre in horror and a new image in the public consciousness. There's no denying it, Night of the Living Dead is THE archetypal zombie film.

The story is simple; a group of strangers take refuge in an isolated Pennsylvania farmhouse from the re-animated dead, mindless and hungry for human flesh. Mmmmm, that's good eatin'! When Barbara (Judith O'Dea) and her brother Johnny (co-producer Russell Streiner) visit the countryside grave of their father, a wild-eyed, crazed man suddenly attacks them, leaving Johnny dead and Barabra fleeing. The nearby farmhouse draws not only Barbara but another seeking its seeming security, an African-American man named Ben (Duane Jones). Ben fights off a few "things" and tries to calm the bewildered Barabra. When a group of people who'd been hiding in the cellar come forth, instead of working together tempers flare and they struggle amongst themselves. The young couple Tommy and Judy (Keith Wayne and Romero's receptionist and later Russ Streiner's wife Judith Ridley) and older husband and wife, Harry and Helen Cooper (co-producers and later spouses, Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman) went into the basement with the Cooper's daughter Karen (Kyra Schon) for safety. Karen had been bitten by one of the "things" and was seriously ill. Their only hope is to get to the farm's gas pumps and fill Ben's truck with enough gas to make it to safety. The path to the pumps however is blocked by you guessed it, the ever-lovin' living-dead whose numbers only increase as the night wears on.

Budgetary restraints and a lack of experience may have added some rough edges to Night, but they don't really diminish the film; they actually add to its surreal atmosphere. For instance, the camera work is stationary, never changing position. Each shot is from the same, locked vantage point. Most of the shots are very tightly framed and from low and skewed angles. Sometimes you can see the ceiling. Sometimes the camera is unsteady and shaky. It all helps create the claustrophobia and unsteadiness that's so integral to the film's power and message. The walls are closing in; the wall of zombies outside, and the wall of mistrust and fear inside.

The other rough edge I'll mention, if you can even call it that, is the acting. It ranges from quite good to "I'm glad she didn't have more lines." Again, this only makes the proceedings of the film more odd and maybe a little more unsettling. If you can suspend your disbelief for the dead rising chances are some stilted acting won't bother you.

He really is coming to get you, Barbara. George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968). When speaking of the film's cast, Duane Jones is often mentioned. His casting in 1967 as the lead was unusual, against type, and thought provoking. Judged solely on performance however, I most appreciate the depth of range displayed by Marilyn Eastman. Her performance conveys a depth of emotion and gives a real sense of truth to her character's plight. The horror that overwhelms her face in her final scene is one of the key moments and images that make this movie a standard.

By adding a small sci-fi twist of insinuating the cause of the living dead could be radiation brought to Earth from a mission to outer space, George Romero elevated the zombie from black-magic slave to the horrible embodiment of science and society gone wrong. His voodoo-less image of the ceaselessly encroaching, mindlessly shuffling, people eaters who are "coming to get you" reflected many fears felt both yesterday and today.

In the post-World War II era of the Cold War and global threat, movie monsters evolved from the thief in the night, picking off one victim at a time monsters of old like Dracula and Frankenstein to threats to the very existence of mankind itself. You can draw a direct line to the thematic implications of the zombies in Night from those of the pod-people in the 1956 sci-fi thriller Invasion of the Body Snatchers and then to the Borg of Star Trek. All three represent overwhelming forces that will stop at nothing until they infiltrate everything and everyone. Those they assimilate become emissaries who spread out and convert others who convert others still. They instill an even deeper seeded psychological fear than destruction of the human race; they take away not just your life, they take away who you are. What the most frightening thing about those monsters is, we are the zombies, the pod-people, and the borg. They are us, distilled into not so flattering reflections of who we are and what we do. Society devours itself, subjugates itself, and fears itself. To paraphrase the late comic-strip artist Walt Kelly, "We have seen the enemy, and he is us."

Of course, the movie targets far more visceral fears too. So, if the social subtext of the zombies is interesting but not really scary on a gut level you say, remember, they are dead people who want to eat you. Dead-people-eating-you. If that's not enough to get the juices of primordial fear pumping through your veins, you stand to make a lot of money on either Fear Factor or the freak-show circuit.

Unless you've been in a vacuum, you know George Romero has gone on to film the extremely popular sequels to Night and a great many more successful (and not so successful) films. Night and its sequels Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead have been imitated by Lucio Fulci (Zombie) and Danny Boyle (28 Days Later), parlayed by Dan O'Bannon & co-writer of the original script John Russo (Return of the Living Dead), and inspiring to Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), Michael Jackson – no jokes please, John Landis, and Rick Baker (Thriller) and millions and millions of others who see what George Romero has done and view him as an inspiration to do something of the same themselves.

Night is not only a cult phenomena popular amongst the midnight movie crowd, oh no, it has some real credentials. It has been recognized by the American Film Institute and the U.S. National Film Registry. Unfortunately for its creator, a copyright loophole and an unintentionally omitted copyright notice on prints of the film have allowed it to become public domain, free for use and abuse of the public. While it is recognized as a praise-worth cinematic work and cultural phenomena, most all of the Night merchandise and copies of the film sold and broadcast earn nothing for Romero.

A remake, released in 1990 and directed by longtime Romero cohort and master of splatter makeup Tom Savini, adds new twists to the old story and is quite an enjoyable adaptation. Romero penned the script, adding to that film's overall quality and continuity with the original, something the recent remake of it's sequel Dawn did not have.

The fourth film in Romero's Dead series is currently in production. Titled Land of the Dead, it will surely continue the tradition of scaring, inspiring, and commenting on all of us.

So there you have it, George Romero's Night of the Living Dead is a bona-fide classic, inspirational, thought provoking, and most importantly still very scary after all these years. Thanks for the nightmares George!

Some of that blood was tasty Bosco chocolate syrup!

The official 40th Anniversary Special Edition DVD released by Dimension features a quote from this very review on the

Note From Lou @ oldiestelevision.com While it mat be easy (although not always, a la Fangoria magazine) for a low budget cult/horror exploitation movie to get a good review in a cult/horror fanzine, paper or online, "Night Of The Living Dead" garnered a five star rave from one of the toughest major daily paper reviewers known to mankind. Rex Reed, of The New York Daily News, who panned multi-million dollar big star movies such as "Airport" and "Heaven's Gate," loved Romero's monochrome gore sandwiches. Reed proclaimed the movie "genuinely scarey" and a "must see." We all did.

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