Well, it's October, so it's time for another Masterpiece of Horror Theatre, and it's a special one. This is the 5th anniversary since I decided to rip-off Linkara and make a series of horror film reviews to do while I was in fall break on my Facebook. I decided to honor this anniversary by starting this year with a film that I reviewed back then, and a film that has its own 50th Anniversary this year: Night of the Living Dead.
After graduating from Carnegie Mellon in 1960, George Romero started out his film career in the local Pittsburgh area. He mostly specialized in industrial films and TV commercials (To tie in to the recent resurgence of Mr. Rogers in culture in the wake of the new documentary and his own 50th anniversary for his show, one of Romero's earliest films was actually a segment on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood while it was a local Pittsburgh show). Eventually, he and friends John Russo and Russell Steiner formed Image Ten and for its first film, decided to make a horror movie, since that was still in vogue. Image Ten got support from Pittsburgh based industrial firm Hardware Associates, which raised $114,000 (around $825,000 in 2018 dollars) for the film. The name was not pinned down despite this. Romero and Russo's original script was called Monster Flick, and played more of a horror comedy, focusing on teenage aliens meeting human ones. The second draft brought in the idea of the aliens being flesh eaters, and eventually, the final draft (heavily influenced by Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, itself adapted into film several times before and after) had the villains as the resurrected dead (whom the script calls "ghouls"). The leading role of Ben was given to local theatre actor Duane Jones. The casting of an African American in the lead proved controversial in the late 60's, especially in the more niche, mostly white horror genre. In another Mr. Rogers connection, Romero originally wanted Betty Aberlin (aka Lady Aberlin) in the lead female role of Barbara, but Fred Rogers refused to allow it. The role was instead given to Judith O'Dea. Much of the film was shot in remote locations around rural Evan City, Pennsylvania, with its cemetery being the opening scene due to it being isolated from any onlookers or police, and the house setting from a house scheduled for demolition. Because of the low budget of the film, the actors were largely local actors or even the producers and investors in the film, and the effects was cheap (chocolate syrup was used for the blood, as was common practice at the time, and meat and clay, among others, were used to simulate body parts.) Even while filming, the name largely changed, first to Night of Anubis and then to Night of the Flesh Eaters. The first zombie to appear was S. William Hinzman, one of the investors in the film, who based his now iconic walk on a Boris Karloff performance. After the shocking content caused both Columbia and American International Pictures to decline distribution, finally, the New York based Walter Reade Organization agreed to distribute, though with addition edits (ten minutes by some accounts), and having to change the name to Night of the Living Dead (since The Flesh Eaters had been made in 1964). The film premiered at the Fulton Theater in Pittsburgh on October 1st, 1968, and would go on to make $30 million at the box office, a massive success for a low budget independent film, and would garner critical acclaim, with even Pauline Kael praising the film. The film would come to define and influence the "New Horror" period of the late 60's, 70's, and 80's. However, the biggest impact of the film came when the Walter Reade Organization, while changing the title card of the film, forgot to put the copyright notice on it (which was on the title card when the film was called Night of the Flesh Eaters), meaning the film immediately fell into the public domain. This mistake would allow others to use the creatures and elements used in the film, leading to the zombie genre we know of today.
The film begins with Barbara (Judith O'Dea) and her brother Johnny (Russell Steiner) driving to a cemetery to visit their father's grave. Johnny lightly teases her, especially when a strange man (S. William Hinzman) comes around. However, the man immediately attacks Barbara, and Johnny promptly comes to her defense, allowing to flee, while the man chases her. She comes to a farmhouse, where she finds a corpse. Soon, other strange people pop out, and slowly move towards her, prompting her to flee further. She eventually reaches a home, which she safely enters away from the creatures. There, she meets Ben (Duane Jones), who barricades the house. Ben had come to the house after finding more of the creatures at the door. They soon find Harry (Karl Hardman) and Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman), in the cellar of the house, where they fled after the creatures overturned their car and bit their daughter Karen (Kyra Schon), who has a strange illness. Teenagers Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith.... Ridley) also come after hearing on the radio that more of these creatures are popping up all over the East Coast, causing mass murder all over. These seven people are beseiged by these mysterious ghouls, who wander outside the house, and only increase in number. Even the talking heads in radio and TV are baffled, with only a vague hint of an irradiated NASA probe (likely a remnant of the earlier script). As tensions rise between the occupants, it seems they are living on borrowed time.
I decided to see this on my TV, since the last time I saw this years ago, it was on a small screen Youtube video. On a larger screen, I can finally appreciate the lighting of the film. Romero manages to effectively use shadows in both subtle and explicit ways, emphasizing the claustrophobic situation for the characters, and the creeping terror outside. It also increases the horror, as the lighting shows the full extent of the brutality on screen (the shadows make it look like real blood.) This is very effective in black-and-white, since it fully displays this contrast. For how low budget the film is, the effects and settings are very unsettling. The main innovation often cited of the film was setting a classic gothic living dead scenario in what was then contemporary America. (Even Targets from a year earlier, despite being similarly set in the then modern day, had elements of a gothic film in the form of the in-universe film) Thus, the setting (including a cemetery and an abandoned house) signal a more modern feel for the film, especially since they gain info from radio and television broadcasts. The zombies, in their make-up and tattered clothes, look very unsettling, but unlike modern zombies, they still look relatively normal, which makes them even more terrifying when they begin the killings. The actors do great, with Duane Jones and Karl Hardman (the latter another investor who was in the film) particular highlights. The sheer claustrophobia of the film increases as the zombies come in, and the characters are killed off one by one. The ending was especially chilling, when Ben, having managed to survive, is killed by a group of vigilantes hunting zombies. If there were a more explicit message in that, I can't find it any.
I remember I didn't like that much of the film was focused on the people in the house. Obviously, I've turned around on it, but I think I had a particular problem around the hour-ish mark, where it did kind of slow down, and feels like a repetition of previous scenes. I also feel the film could've been slightly longer, like that ten minutes that was cut (which has been lost due to a flood), or maybe more focus on the large scenario through the TV or the radio.
When I first saw this film years ago, I didn't much like it. It took years for me to turn around on it, and you can consider this a reevaluation of the film with hindsight behind it. While I prefer Dawn of the Dead, this is an excellent feature, and I highly recommend it for horror and zombie fans, or people who like black-and-white films for their look.
Which brings me to tomorrow, where I will look at this film's color remake from 1990.
After graduating from Carnegie Mellon in 1960, George Romero started out his film career in the local Pittsburgh area. He mostly specialized in industrial films and TV commercials (To tie in to the recent resurgence of Mr. Rogers in culture in the wake of the new documentary and his own 50th anniversary for his show, one of Romero's earliest films was actually a segment on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood while it was a local Pittsburgh show). Eventually, he and friends John Russo and Russell Steiner formed Image Ten and for its first film, decided to make a horror movie, since that was still in vogue. Image Ten got support from Pittsburgh based industrial firm Hardware Associates, which raised $114,000 (around $825,000 in 2018 dollars) for the film. The name was not pinned down despite this. Romero and Russo's original script was called Monster Flick, and played more of a horror comedy, focusing on teenage aliens meeting human ones. The second draft brought in the idea of the aliens being flesh eaters, and eventually, the final draft (heavily influenced by Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, itself adapted into film several times before and after) had the villains as the resurrected dead (whom the script calls "ghouls"). The leading role of Ben was given to local theatre actor Duane Jones. The casting of an African American in the lead proved controversial in the late 60's, especially in the more niche, mostly white horror genre. In another Mr. Rogers connection, Romero originally wanted Betty Aberlin (aka Lady Aberlin) in the lead female role of Barbara, but Fred Rogers refused to allow it. The role was instead given to Judith O'Dea. Much of the film was shot in remote locations around rural Evan City, Pennsylvania, with its cemetery being the opening scene due to it being isolated from any onlookers or police, and the house setting from a house scheduled for demolition. Because of the low budget of the film, the actors were largely local actors or even the producers and investors in the film, and the effects was cheap (chocolate syrup was used for the blood, as was common practice at the time, and meat and clay, among others, were used to simulate body parts.) Even while filming, the name largely changed, first to Night of Anubis and then to Night of the Flesh Eaters. The first zombie to appear was S. William Hinzman, one of the investors in the film, who based his now iconic walk on a Boris Karloff performance. After the shocking content caused both Columbia and American International Pictures to decline distribution, finally, the New York based Walter Reade Organization agreed to distribute, though with addition edits (ten minutes by some accounts), and having to change the name to Night of the Living Dead (since The Flesh Eaters had been made in 1964). The film premiered at the Fulton Theater in Pittsburgh on October 1st, 1968, and would go on to make $30 million at the box office, a massive success for a low budget independent film, and would garner critical acclaim, with even Pauline Kael praising the film. The film would come to define and influence the "New Horror" period of the late 60's, 70's, and 80's. However, the biggest impact of the film came when the Walter Reade Organization, while changing the title card of the film, forgot to put the copyright notice on it (which was on the title card when the film was called Night of the Flesh Eaters), meaning the film immediately fell into the public domain. This mistake would allow others to use the creatures and elements used in the film, leading to the zombie genre we know of today.
The film begins with Barbara (Judith O'Dea) and her brother Johnny (Russell Steiner) driving to a cemetery to visit their father's grave. Johnny lightly teases her, especially when a strange man (S. William Hinzman) comes around. However, the man immediately attacks Barbara, and Johnny promptly comes to her defense, allowing to flee, while the man chases her. She comes to a farmhouse, where she finds a corpse. Soon, other strange people pop out, and slowly move towards her, prompting her to flee further. She eventually reaches a home, which she safely enters away from the creatures. There, she meets Ben (Duane Jones), who barricades the house. Ben had come to the house after finding more of the creatures at the door. They soon find Harry (Karl Hardman) and Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman), in the cellar of the house, where they fled after the creatures overturned their car and bit their daughter Karen (Kyra Schon), who has a strange illness. Teenagers Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith.... Ridley) also come after hearing on the radio that more of these creatures are popping up all over the East Coast, causing mass murder all over. These seven people are beseiged by these mysterious ghouls, who wander outside the house, and only increase in number. Even the talking heads in radio and TV are baffled, with only a vague hint of an irradiated NASA probe (likely a remnant of the earlier script). As tensions rise between the occupants, it seems they are living on borrowed time.
I decided to see this on my TV, since the last time I saw this years ago, it was on a small screen Youtube video. On a larger screen, I can finally appreciate the lighting of the film. Romero manages to effectively use shadows in both subtle and explicit ways, emphasizing the claustrophobic situation for the characters, and the creeping terror outside. It also increases the horror, as the lighting shows the full extent of the brutality on screen (the shadows make it look like real blood.) This is very effective in black-and-white, since it fully displays this contrast. For how low budget the film is, the effects and settings are very unsettling. The main innovation often cited of the film was setting a classic gothic living dead scenario in what was then contemporary America. (Even Targets from a year earlier, despite being similarly set in the then modern day, had elements of a gothic film in the form of the in-universe film) Thus, the setting (including a cemetery and an abandoned house) signal a more modern feel for the film, especially since they gain info from radio and television broadcasts. The zombies, in their make-up and tattered clothes, look very unsettling, but unlike modern zombies, they still look relatively normal, which makes them even more terrifying when they begin the killings. The actors do great, with Duane Jones and Karl Hardman (the latter another investor who was in the film) particular highlights. The sheer claustrophobia of the film increases as the zombies come in, and the characters are killed off one by one. The ending was especially chilling, when Ben, having managed to survive, is killed by a group of vigilantes hunting zombies. If there were a more explicit message in that, I can't find it any.
I remember I didn't like that much of the film was focused on the people in the house. Obviously, I've turned around on it, but I think I had a particular problem around the hour-ish mark, where it did kind of slow down, and feels like a repetition of previous scenes. I also feel the film could've been slightly longer, like that ten minutes that was cut (which has been lost due to a flood), or maybe more focus on the large scenario through the TV or the radio.
When I first saw this film years ago, I didn't much like it. It took years for me to turn around on it, and you can consider this a reevaluation of the film with hindsight behind it. While I prefer Dawn of the Dead, this is an excellent feature, and I highly recommend it for horror and zombie fans, or people who like black-and-white films for their look.
Which brings me to tomorrow, where I will look at this film's color remake from 1990.
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