Writer: John A Russo, George A Romero (Screenplay)
Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, Keith Wayne, Judith Ridley, Kyra Schon, Charles Craig, S William Hinzman
Plot: There is panic throughout the nation as the dead suddenly come back to life. The film follows a group of characters who barricade themselves in an old farmhouse in an attempt the remain safe from these flesh eating monsters.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: True Classic
Story: Night of the Living Dead starts when Barbra (O’Dea) and Johnny visiting their father’s grave when a stranger attacks them biting Johnny leaving Barbra running for her own life. Finding shelter Barbra works with Ben (Jones) to make the house safe from the undead that seems to be searching for their latest victims.
As the night continues we find out there are more survivors in the house with Harry (Hardman), Helen (Eastman), Tom (Wayne), Judy (Ridley) and Karen (Schon) which leads to both sides having to make the big decisions about whether they will make it through the night alive.
Night of the Living Dead is one of the most famous zombie movies in the history of film, it is also the start of one of the most well developed series of films that has evolved to keep up with the trends in horror. This one took risks with the low budget at for the time casting a well-spoken black lead actor. While that doesn’t look like anything that big now at the time Hollywood was still behind equality and this film didn’t care about that because the film is about the living needing to survive the dead. We also see the shocking moments happening through the film and with the brilliant use of music to amp the atmosphere within each and every scene this really is one of the all-time classics of the horror genre.
Overall: This is one of the greatest zombie movies ever made, one that built a franchise and gave us a new breed of horror creature.
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