Night of the Living Dead ( film)
Night of the Living Dead is a
seminal 1968 black-and-white independent horror film directed by George A. Romero.
Early drafts of the script were titled Monster Flick, but it was known as Night
of Anubis and Night of the Flesh Eaters during production. The film stars Duane
Jones as Ben and Judith O'Dea as Barbra. The plot revolves around the mysterious
reanimation of the dead and the efforts of Ben, Barbra and five others to survive
the night while trapped in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse.
Cast
Duane
Jones - Ben
Judith O'Dea - Barbra
Karl Hardman - Harry Cooper
Marilyn
Eastman - Helen Cooper / Bug-eating zombie
Keith Wayne - Tom
Judith
Ridley - Judy
Kyra Schon - Karen Cooper
Charles Craig - Newscaster /
Zombie
S. William Hinzman - Cemetery Zombie (original and new scenes) (as
Bill Heinzman)
George Kosana - Sheriff McClelland
Frank Doak - Scientist
Bill 'Chilly Billy' Cardille - Field reporter
A.C.
McDonald - Zombie / Posse Member
Samuel R. Solito - Zombie / Posse Member
Mark Ricci - Washington scientist
Lee Hartman - Zombie / News reporter
Jack Givens - Zombie
Rudy Ricci - Zombie (as R.J. Ricci)
Paula
Richards - Zombie
John Simpson - Zombie
Herbert Summer - Zombie
Richard Ricci - Zombie
William Burchinal - Zombie
Ross Harris - Zombie
Al Croft - Zombie
Jason Richards - Zombie
Dave James - Zombie
Sharon Carroll - Zombie
William Mogush - Zombie
Steve Hutsko - Zombie
Joann Michaels - Zombie
Phillip Smith - Zombie / Posse Member
Ella
Mae Smith - Zombie
Randy Burr - Zombie / Posse Member
Scott Vladimir
Licina - Rev. Hicks (30th Anniversary 1999 scenes)
Grant Cramer - Dan (30th
Anniversary 1999 scenes) (as Grant Kramer)
Adam Knox - Mike (30th Anniversary
1999 scenes)
Debbie Rochon - Darlene Davis (30th Anniversary
1999 scenes)
Heidi Hinzman - Rosie (30th Anniversary 1999 scenes)
Scott
Kerschbaumer - Prison Guard (30th Anniversary 1999 scenes)
George Drennen
- Arthur Krantz (30th Anniversary 1999 scenes)
Julie Wallace Deklavon - Hilda
Krantz (30th Anniversary 1999 scenes) (as Julie Wallace)
Dan Abraham - Garage
Mechanic (30th Anniversary 1999 scenes)
Diana Michelucci - Mother, car crash
victim (30th Anniversary 1999 scenes)
Dawn Michelucci - Daughter #1, car
crash victim (30th Anniversary 1999 scenes)
Jessica Streiner - Daughter #2,
car crash victim (30th Anniversary 1999 scenes)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tommy Goodwin - Zombie (30th Anniversary 1999 scenes)
David Barber - Posse Member (30th Anniversary 1999 scenes) (uncredited)
Betty
Ellen - Zombie (30th Anniversary 1999 scenes) (uncredited)
Roger McGovern
- Zombie (30th Anniversary 1999 scenes) (uncredited)
George
A. Romero - Washington reporter (uncredited)
John A. Russo - Washington military
reporter (uncredited)
Russell Streiner - Johnny (uncredited)
Vincent
D. Survinski - Vince, Posse gunman (uncredited)
Romero produced the film on the small budget of $114,000, but after a decade of theatrical re-releases it had grossed an estimated $12 million in the US and $30 million internationally. Night of the Living Dead was strongly criticized at the time of its release for its graphic content. In 1999 the Library of Congress entered it into the United States National Film Registry with other films deemed "historically, culturally or aesthetically important."
The film had a tremendous impact on the
culture of Vietnam-era America. It is so thoroughly laden with critiques of late-1960s
American society that one historian described the film as "subversive on
many levels." While not the first zombie film made, Night of the Living Dead
influenced countless films and is perhaps the defining influence on the modern
pop-culture zombie archetype. The film is the first of five Dead films (completed
or pending) directed by Romero. It has been remade twice, in 1990 and in 2006.
Plot
Bickering siblings Johnny (Russell Streiner) and Barbra drive to a rural Pennsylvania cemetery to place a wreath on their father's grave. Johnny teases his sister, who is afraid of cemeteries, taunting, "They're coming to get you, Barbra!" A pale-faced man (S. William Hinzman) lumbers toward the pair. The man suddenly grabs Barbra as Johnny rushes to save her. While fighting the man, Johnny falls and smashes his head on a gravestone, rendering himself unconscious. Barbra flees in Johnny's car, driving it into a tree. She abandons the car and runs into a nearby farmhouse to hide and soon discovers that others like the man are outside. While exploring the empty house, she discovers a hideously mutilated corpse at the top of the stairs.
In a panic and attempting to flee
the house, Barbra is intercepted by Ben, who arrives in a pickup truck and attacks
the mysterious figures with a tire iron. Ben boards up the doors and windows from
the inside with dismantled furniture and scraps of wood as Barbra becomes hysterical.
Ben finds a rifle and a radio as Barbra lies incapacitated on a couch in the living
room. The two are unaware that Harry and Helen Cooper (Karl Hardman and Marilyn
Eastman), their daughter Karen (Kyra Schon), and teenage couple Tom (Keith Wayne)
and Judy (Judith Ridley) have been hiding in the cellar. One of the attackers
bit Karen earlier and she has fallen ill. Harry wants the group to barricade themselves
in the cellar, but Ben argues that they would, effectively, be trapping themselves
down there. Ben carries the argument, and the group cooperates (begrudgingly,
in Harry's case) to reinforce the main part of the house.
Radio reports explain that an epidemic of mass murder is sweeping across the eastern seaboard of the United States. Later, Ben discovers a television upstairs and the emergency broadcaster reveals that the murderers are consuming their victims' flesh. A subsequent broadcast reports that the murders are being perpetrated by the recently deceased who have returned to life. Experts — scientists and military generals — are not sure of the cause of the reanimation, but one scientist is certain that it is the result of radiation emanating from a Venus space probe that exploded in the Earth's atmosphere. A final report instructs that a gunshot or heavy blow to the head will stop the "ghouls" and that posses of armed men are patrolling the countryside to restore order.
The Living Dead.Ben devises
a plan to escape using his truck, but it needs refueling. He exits the house armed
with the rifle and a torch. Tom and Judy offer assistance, but when they arrive
at a fuel pump near the house, Tom carelessly splashes gasoline on the torch,
starting a grass fire that quickly spreads to cover the truck. The truck explodes
with Tom and Judy inside. Ben runs back to the house to find that Harry locked
him out. He kicks the door open and punches Harry repeatedly. Some of the living
dead begin eating Tom and Judy's charred remains, while others try to break through
the doors and windows of the house. Ben manages to hold them back, but drops his
rifle. Harry seizes the fallen rifle and turns it on Ben, who wrests it away from
Harry and then shoots him. Harry stumbles into the cellar and dies.
Shortly after, Helen discovers that her daughter has been transformed into one of the living dead and is consuming her father's corpse. Karen stabs her mother with a cement trowel, killing her, before going upstairs. Meanwhile, the undead finally break into the house and Barbra sees her brother Johnny among them. The resultant shock causes her to lower her defenses and she is carried away into the zombie horde. Ben retreats into the cellar, locking the door behind him (which, ironically, was Harry's plan all along). He shoots the reanimated Harry and Helen Cooper. In the morning, a posse approaches the house and proceeds to kill the remaining zombies. Hearing the commotion, Ben ambles up the cellar stairs into the living room and is shot in the head by a posse member who mistakes him for a zombie (this is seen by many as a reference to racial segregation and racism in general in that racism is a far greater threat than zombies). His body is carried from the house and burned with the zombie corpses.
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