A Forty Year Old Film That Won't Stay Dead. Review on Night Of The Living Dead Movie

First of all I make no apologies, or excuses, for the content of this review. You, my dear reader, have chosen to read a review on the above titled review. So hold your stomach in and pray that nothing decides to devour it… especially if you are still alive. ;)

I have noticed that it has been years since anybody has reviewed this film and the reviews I have read are… missing the point! The very title of the film provokes a reaction but what's the history to the film. First off why was this film initially banned in the US and then remained banned for nearly 20 years? Well this film was a revolution in horror moves back in 1968, back then you could take the kids to your local Cinema to watch the Saturday afternoon matinee of B-movie thrillers, sci-fi and horror flicks. The horror flicks were quite tame by today's standard and apart from giving the kids a good containable scare without emotional scarring they were 'safe'. Well in comes 'Night of The Living Dead'. It took a while for parents in the audience to realise that there kids were petrified and in tears… and the censorship board realised that they'd let a new breed of horror movie go through unchecked. Instead of re-classifying the film it got banned. It remained banned because on review they noticed something else about the film… Right at the end of the film there was a social political comment on America's latent racism and this did not sit comfortably with the censors.

But the social politics of the film go much deeper than the blatant statement at the end of the film and that more than anything else is what I want to look into, but not just yet…

In terms of a horror flick this was groundbreaking stuff and even more amazing when you realise that the budget was next to nothing. Filming was done on a hand held camera, it was black and white because Romero couldn't afford colour film, the undead make-up was purchased from Woolworths, the gore was supplied by the local butcher and the blood was nothing but molasses (in black and white molasses looks gross! Glistening, and gunky. Hence it was chosen). It was ground breaking in terms of being graphic and explicit in it's portrayal of flesh eating ghouls and the remains of victims. It was ground breaking in creating the undead themselves; prior to this there were 'zombies' (of Voodoo fame) but not Undead. Zombies were re-animated corpses (or in real, heavily drugged victims in Haiti) that could be commanded and controlled. These Undead were not controllable, no longer displaying any human characteristics other than they resemble 'us', because they were once 'us'. But they now only have one motivation… to devour live human flesh. And that's the true, uncomfortable, horror of them that they look like 'us' dead but still 'living'. These are not Zombies… This was the very reason that this vehicle of horror was picked. Nothing like this was ever done before the making of this film. This film, along with 'Psycho' and 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is a Grandparent to the modern day horror film.

So what of the social politics I mentioned earlier? That's the core of the film. The BIG question of the film is this; If a group of strong willed, strong minded people band together against an initially defeat-able yet growing menace, can they co-operate and win? The answer is a resounding "NO!". As the film builds it concentrates on a group of survivors who have fled various 'nasty' situations to an old farm house. Their arrival at the house has been 'sensed' by a few Undead but as time goes by the numbers build up outside.

At first an organised fight would have been enough to buy time and make each build up of the Undead 'manageable'. But disagreements in strategy and continual disharmony within the group means that precious time is lost. With the background of the Vietnam war and international non-cooperation this all made sense and quite a bold statement. The fact that our former selves are the menace is no less a strong statement. But the boldest statement of all is to clearly show that the group's unwillingness to act as one is their eventual insurance of death. The Undead don't damn our hapless band to their fate, they do it to themselves. A clear comment on 1960's American society's (even our own societies) lack of initiative in cooperating to deal with real issues (you could call it pollution for our world today).

Before you all rush off to buy this film on DVD, I just want to warn you that it is graphic in places and that it is an 'unpleasant' topic without a Hollywood/Bollywood happy ending. If you are alone at night make sure your windows and doors are closed and reinforced!

Next time I will take you to a nicer place, in the meantime… try not to get bitten by anyone unpleasant! :)