Night of The Living Dead (1968)

Disclaimer: I have different standards when it comes to movies versus writing, so bear with this review.

We start off on this wild journey with Barbara and Johnnie, two siblings putting a memorial on their father's grave. Johnnie notes how annoying it is that they buy the same grave marker every year, and the following year, it is no longer there. Am I the only one that did not draw a connection here? Barb says something about it being the caretaker, but it seemed to hint at maybe their father was some sort of zombie. However, later in the film, it is noted the monsters are only reanimated recently deceased or unburied dead. So, I guess I wanted to make a connection that may not have even been there? Am I overthinking into the first few minutes?

Johnnie was a short-lived asshole, but I thought it was funny when he was teasing his sister and then boom, a random zombie just happens to be strolling by. Now, throughout the movie, the viewers develop a sense of mayhem and chaos, which is substantially achieved through the constant radio, and eventually TV, broadcasts. The characters were learning as they went, just as the viewers learned with them. The pandamonium the radio caused throughout the film worked marvelously. Through the radio, Ben, and the TV, we watched and developed an understanding of the zombies, they don't like light, eat flesh, and despise fire. So, circling this back to the beginning, why was mister zombie wandering in the graveyard during the day? I know there is implied overcast with the thunder and in the end, most of the zombies are taken down by the army/police in broad daylight, but why flash one of their weaknesses as light when they are perfectly fine with it?

There are a set of very unreliable characters here. Mr. and Mrs. Cooper hiding the fact their daughter was bitten until the end, granted they both get it from her, but still sketchy considering they acted like they knew nothing. Plus, Mr. Cooper is flakier than dandruff when it comes to what he is actually going to do (I promise it is always the thing you are yelling at him not to do that he does). Harry Cooper, I feel, is entirely delusional and his delusions are so far shoved somewhere that he couldn't get them out with laxatives. He is just the walking nightmare of poor and idiotic choices. The most priceless of them all: let's lock ourselves in the cellar with my kid that is turning into one of those things. Judy and her boyfriend, rational idiots. The popped like popcorn - who didn't see that coming when she ran out and screwed the plan for escaping up? Barbara's whole shock insanity got extremely old, very fast. She is irrational and not entirely there for the entire movie. Do something for the love of all humanity, woman! The kid? Who didn't guess she was bitten and going to be a problem later on the first time she appeared laid out on camera? If you didn't, sorry if that made you feel stupid.

Ben. He is the only likable character in this film. He is terrified but is the only one doing what he can about it. He thinks logically, except in the last scene. He is the backbone to the group until they all cluster fuck themselves. Ben held it together for me. I also cheered when he finally shot Harry after giving him so many passes. SPOILER: Ben gets it right between the eyes after being mistaken for a zombie in the end. Perfect ending. Everyone dies. (As much as I liked Ben, I like it better when they all die.)

Let's get into the slightly terrifying zombies in this film. Yes, it is 1968, so black and white. When I first turned it on, I knew my gore desire was not going to be satisfied because I want to see red, not black. However, the zombies in this film are rather intelligent. From the start, the one follows Barb all the way to the house. He runs at a pretty decent speed too. We also watch as the living dead pick up objects and use them to their advantage. These are not the moaning and groaning wanderers that most zombies are portrayed as. These zombies think and use some form of their radioactive brain to function. They flinch from fire, beat lights with rocks, break windows, and grab people. What they lack-lustered in looks (everything frightening), they made up for in ability. So, to touch briefly on their looks, they were clearly recently deceased based on the wear of the clothing most of them had. Many also only had crooked or drooped mouths/jaws, and a sluggish way of movement. Those were the two defining characteristics of what made them monsters. (I know in the end some had blood on them, but for the majority, they seemed reasonably concerned with their hygiene.) They were not fleshy, blood dripping, rotting creatures terrifying the viewers by their looks. They were, I guess, the higher end of zombies terrorizing with their ability. Another point here: why did the zombie kid stab her mother instead of eating her? Seems outlandish considering the mother walked in on the kid munching on one of her father's organs. There was so much hysteria and confusion here. Did the zombies want to eat or just cause bedlam by mass homicide? If the latter, there is some other deep form of intelligence being sparked, that I cannot tell is either horrifying or ridiculous.

In all honesty, I can't talk. You should see what I make my zombies do when I use them in writing. Overall, for the time, I'll give the movie a 7/10 for it being a classic horror. I wanted color because of blood, and some things I established were overdone, ridiculous, or confusing. But, yes. It is classic horror, and if you like zombie flicks, horror flicks even, it is always good to be familiar with the classics.