Cast of Night of the Living Dead:
Duane Jones as Ben
Judith O’Dea as Barbra
Karl Hardman as Harry Cooper
Marilyn Eastman as Helen Cooper
Keith Wayne as Tom
Judith Ridley as Judy
Kyra Schon as Karen
Radiation from a fallen satellite has caused the dead to come back to life as zombies, and walk the earth, hungry for human flesh, letting nothing stand in the way of having their hunger filled. Any person that dies, whether from the hands of the zombies, or other causes, becomes a zombie as well.
The film begins with Barbara and her brother Tom making a trip to a cemetary to put flowers on their father’s grave. Barbara has a fear of cemetaries, and her brother teases her unmercifully about this, chanting ’’They are coming to get you, Barbara...’’ Barbara begins to walk away from Tom when he notices a man coming towards them, slowly walking. Tom begins to tease more intently: ’’He’s coming to get you Barbara!’’ As Barbara continues to walk away, she approaches the strange man. As she begins to apologize for her brother’s action, the man grabs her, a strange look in his eyes.
No longer laughing, Tom rushes to his sister’s rescue, only to be killed by the zombie. Barbara flees for her life and seeks shelter in a farmhouse, where she slowly begins to go insane.
It turns out she wasn’t alone in that farmhouse. Other people have holed up for refuge there, forming their own small army against the ever growing large army of flesh-eating zombies outside their door. As they try to come together to fight as one, the tensions rise, making their army unstable.
Though several pale comparisons of this movie has been made, the original 1968 black and white version is by far the best. The filming almost appears to have been done by a home video camera, and the affect of this is incredible!
Night of the Living Dead is famous for its cinematography, savagery, grim humor, and the fact that it doesn’t adhere to any of the ’’rules’’ that horror motion pictures adhere to today. A combination of all of those elements caused this movie to be banned in many countries, and it will gnaw you to the bone. Literally.