They had been taking shelter there with their young daughter Karen after a group of the same monsters overturned their car and bit Karen, leaving her seriously ill. Also sheltering there are Tom and Judy, a teenage couple who came to the house after hearing an emergency broadcast about a series of brutal killings. Read More. Miller admits that "Night of the Living Dead takes greater relish in mocking these military operations through the general's pompous demeanor" and the government's inability to source the zombie epidemic or protect the citizenry. Her argument to Ben that they could get away from the slow moving zombies is sound because she is able to negotiate past fear to assess the situation accurately. She told an interviewer, "I don't know if there was an actual working script! [20] He and Streiner contacted Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman, president and vice president respectively of a Pittsburgh-based industrial film firm called Hardman Associates, Inc. Johnny tries to rescue his sister, but is then presumably killed when the man shoves him head-first onto a tombstone. I said we got to start at the beginning and tweak it up a little bit. Ben devises a plan to obtain medical supplies for Karen and transport the group to a rescue center by refuelling his truck. [22] Another ten investors were found when it was found that another $6,000 was required but this was also soon found to be inadequate. That's really all [the zombies] ever represented to me. You'll live forever! Night of the Living Dead is the first of six ... of the Dead films directed by George Romero. Over the other night sounds is added the gravel-rumble of a ... Barbara continues to primp and straighten her outfit. [92], In February 2020, Netflix revealed that it responded to a German request in 2017 to remove the film from its service in that country because, as stated in their report, "a version of the film is banned in that country. This castration of Ben’s power is especially interesting because it is a result of the combination of both his feminine (fear) and masculine (machismo doggedness) traits. [88], The film received a VHS release in 1993 through Tempe Video. The film appealed to a large and diverse audience due to its sensational nature. [122], The second remake was in 3-D and released in September 2006 under the title Night of the Living Dead 3D, directed by Jeff Broadstreet. Film historian Barry Grant saw the new Barbra as a corrective on the part of Romero. She flees and takes shelter in a farmhouse, but finds the woman who lived there dead and half-eaten. The Horror Fiction and Dark Illustration of Jesse W. Campbell! Barbra’s willingness to fight back is evident in the graveyard scene. "; whereupon they are attacked by a strange man (Bill Hinzman). [3] In 1999, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. [123] Broadstreet's film was followed in 2012 by the prequel Night of the Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation. Ridley later played the lead in Romero's second feature. [147] The deaths of Ben, Barbra and the supporting cast offered audiences an uncomfortable, nihilistic glimpse unusual for the genre. Siblings Barbra and Johnny drive to a cemetery in rural Pennsylvania to visit their father's grave. Night of the Living Dead (1990) is available streaming from Amazon: [i] Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr., Back from the Dead: Remakes of the Romero Zombie Films as Markers of Their Times (North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2011), 47-63. At the suggestion of Bill Hinzman (the actor who played the zombie which first attacks Barbra in the graveyard and kills her brother Johnny at the beginning of the original film), composers Todd Goodman and Stephen Catanzarite composed an opera Night of the Living Dead based on the film. [20] According to lead actress Judith O'Dea, much of the dialogue was improvised. Everyone want[ed] a Hollywood ending, but we stuck to our guns". Columbia and American International Pictures declined after requests to soften it and re-shoot the final scene were rejected by producers. Her first moment of unabashed looking occurs when she examines the zombie she first kills in the house before rolling him in the carpet. Variety labeled Night of the Living Dead an "unrelieved orgy of sadism" and questioned the "integrity and social responsibility of its Pittsburgh-based makers". Night of the Living Dead. "They were used to going to movies, sure, and they'd seen some horror movies before, sure, but this was something else." Linda Williams extends this claim by arguing that the male gaze too victimizes female characters within the text. Eastman also played a female ghoul eating an insect. She is played by Judith O'Dea. . "[70], Night of the Living Dead was awarded two distinguished honors decades after its debut. Maddrey adds, it "seem[s] as much like a documentary on the loss of social stability as an exploitation film". He took the helm of the sequels as well as Season of the Witch (1972), The Crazies (1973), Martin (1978), Creepshow (1982) and The Dark Half (1993). In [a] mere 90 minutes this horror film (pun intended) casts serious aspersions on the integrity and social responsibility of its Pittsburgh-based makers, distributor Walter Reade, the film industry as a whole and [exhibitors] who book [the picture], as well as raising doubts about the future of the regional cinema movement and about the moral health of film goers who cheerfully opt for this unrelieved orgy of sadism ..."[59], One commentator asserts that the film garnered little attention from critics, "except to provoke argument about censoring its grisly scenes". Romero drew inspiration from Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (1954), a horror novel about a plague that ravages a futuristic Los Angeles. Unlike Savini's 1990 film, Broadstreet's project was not affiliated with Romero. Told primarily through flashbacks to the events immediately following Night Of The Living Dead, Barbara's Zombie Chronicles tells of how Barbara escaped from the horde of flesh-eating ghouls at the farmhouse, and hooked up with a band of survivors that have fortified an elaborate compound. Directed by George A. Romero", "To Save and Project: The 14th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation", "George Romero's Son Announces 'Rise of the Living Dead, "Night of the Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation – New Stills and L.A. Shop with confidence. [65] The New York Times also placed the film on their Best 1000 Movies Ever list. And Karen, in the film, offers a particularly vivid opportunity to commit the forbidden deed vicariously. 397 of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. It is also a complete departure from the original Night of the Living Dead in which Barbra did nothing but scream and look on in horrified paralysis. They confirm that the ghouls can be stopped with a bullet or heavy blow to the head, or by being burned, as Ben discovered, and that various rescue centers are offering refuge and safety. It is Barbra’s monstrosity staring at us unblinkingly. We filmed it once. [41][42] The small budget led Romero to shoot on 35 mm black-and-white film. Your brother is dead. [46] Critics saw the influence of the horror and science-fiction films of the 1950s in Romero's directorial style. It is also our first glimpse at how Barbra’s metamorphosis will be visible through her appearance. "[29] Romero further explained: I thought I Am Legend was about revolution. Marilyn Eastman as Helen Cooper. He also came up with the idea that they would be "flesh-eaters". This release was also not authorized or licensed by Image Ten. Between the two, there is ”recognition of their status as potent threats to a vulnerable male power.” In this case, the monster is unable to have such recognition as zombies are by their nature devoid of reasoning. Having gained experience through directing television commercials and industrial films for their Pittsburgh-based production company The Latent Image, Romero and his friends Russo and Russell Streiner decided to fulfil their ambitions to make a feature film. Russo and Romero revised the screenplay while filming. Although the film was his directorial debut, Romero utilized many of the guerrilla filmmaking techniques he had honed in his commercial and industrial work to complete the film on a budget of US$114,000. In the original Night of the Living Dead (1968), Romero’s core group of survivors battle each other as well as the zombies in a film which very much reflects the time in which it was made. [23], Co-written as a horror comedy by John Russo and George A. Romero under the title Monster Flick,[24] an early screenplay draft concerned the exploits of adolescent aliens who visit Earth and befriend human teenagers. Their car radio goes off the air due to technical difficulties. [34], The lead role was originally written for someone of Caucasian descent, but upon casting African-American actor Duane Jones, Romero intentionally did not alter the script to reflect this. Barbara: One of the main protagonist in the 1968 horror film, Night of the Living Dead. Barbra’s physical transformation complete, she now has access to what Laura Mulvey labeled “the male gaze.”[ii] Mulvey contends that audiences automatically default to the heterosexual, male view when watching horror films. With Sarah Snyder, Mike Lord Sr., David S. Witt, Cyrus Samson. [67] Rolling Stone named Night of the Living Dead one of The 100 Maverick Movies in the Last 100 Years. Although our updated heroine calls out to her brother for assistance, she does so while physically assaulting the zombie. "Greek Gifts: Vision and Revision in Two Versions of, This page was last edited on 4 March 2021, at 12:21. Non-zombie "zombie" news (re: banks, computers) will be deleted. Something that was forever, something that was really at the heart of it. Sound tech R. Lococo's choices worked well, as film historian Sumiko Higashi believes that the music "signifies the nature of events that await". In this moment, she surpasses Ben as the hero of the film since his inability to see has undermined his power. Rather, she argues against his claims and even calls his diatribe “bullshit.”. The anger and attitude and all that's there is just because it was the Sixties. Electing to make a horror film that would capitalize on contemporary commercial interest in the genre, they formed a partnership with Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman of Hardman Associates called Image Ten. It is unthinkable for anyone seriously interested in horror movies not to see it. "[e] While Roger Ebert criticized the matinée screening, he admitted that he "admires the movie itself". [53], Despite the controversy, five years after the premiere Paul McCullough of Take One observed that Night of the Living Dead was the "most profitable horror film ever ... produced outside the walls of a major studio". They were set in locations far removed from rural and suburban America. Ben runs back to the house on his own, and has to break down the door when Harry does not let him back in. [55] Nationally, it was shown as a Saturday afternoon matinée – as was typical for horror films at the time – and attracted an audience consisting of pre-teens and adolescents. [145] Romero revealed the power behind exploitation and setting horror in ordinary, unexceptional locations and offered a template for making an "effective and lucrative" film on a "minuscule budget". Each film traces the evolution of the living dead epidemic in the United States and humanity's desperate attempts to cope with it. As she walks along, the viewer catches a glimpse of a pig roast, which mirrors the zombie devouring of the burned flesh of Judy Rose and Johnny after the fire. [141] The film has also effectively redefined the use of the term "zombie". [117] The fully restored version was shown at MoMA in November 2016 as part of To Save and Project: The 14th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation. Return of the Living Dead sparked a legal battle with Romero, who believed Russo marketed his film in direct competition with Day of the Dead as a sequel to the original film. The site is now a turf farm. [94][95] Another colorized version appeared in 1997 from Anchor Bay Entertainment with grey-skinned zombies. Jones' casting was potentially controversial in 1968, when it was rare for a black man to be cast as the hero of an American film primarily composed of white actors, but Romero said that Jones simply performed the best in his auditi… [4][16][71][72] In 2001, the film was ranked No. Barbara : No! Becker, Matt. [60] The film had earned between $12 and $15 million at the U.S. box office after a decade. [122], Since its release, some critics and film historians have interpreted Night of the Living Dead as a subversive film that critiques 1960s American society, international Cold War politics and domestic racism. Tom aids Ben in securing the farmhouse while Harry angrily protests that it is unsafe before returning to the cellar, which he believes is safer. As a horror film shot in the 1960s, the film’s inclusion of a Black protagonist was groundbreaking. Credit: Written by ... hundred years of death indicated in stones syllabic with their year and the status of the families they represent. Duane Jones was a very well educated man [and he] simply refused to do the role as it was written. These moments are significant because they suggest power derived from the masculine must be present in order to see the monster. George Cameron Romero, the son of director George A. Romero, has developed Rise of the Living Dead, a prelude to his father's classic pitched with the working title Origins. It's hard to remember what sort of effect this movie might have had on you when you were six or seven. Stephen Paul Miller, for instance, witnessed "a revival of fifties schlock shock ... and the army general's television discussion of military operations in the film echoes the often inevitable calling-in of the army in fifties horror films". [151], Other prevalent themes included "the flaws inherent in the media, local and federal government agencies, and the entire mechanism of civil defense". With Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman. Karl Hardman as Harry Cooper. It's just over, that's all. The movie had stopped being delightfully scary about halfway through, and had become unexpectedly terrifying. [84] The original film is available to view or download for free on various websites, such as the Internet Archive and YouTube. When we first meet Barbra, she is the quintessential ice princess. [146] Slasher films of the 1970s and 80s such as John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13th (1980), and Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) "owe much to the original Night of the Living Dead", according to author Barry Keith Grant. I said if you're going to do something about revolution, you should start at the beginning. [105][106], A collaborative animated project known as Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated was screened at several film festivals[107][108][109][110] and was released onto DVD on July 27, 2010, by Wild Eye Releasing. [152] Film historian Linda Badley explains that the film was so horrifying because the monsters were not creatures from outer space or some exotic environment, "They're us. In the ensuing chaos, Harry is shot dead by Ben, Karen dies from her injuries, reanimates, begins to eat her father's remains, and stabs Helen to death with a masonry trowel. 1968. The film's grainy, banal seriousness works for it – gives it a crude realism". [19] He directed and produced television commercials and industrial films for The Latent Image, in the 1960s, a company he co-founded with friends John Russo, and Russell Streiner. Johnny teases his sister, who is afraid of cemeteries, taunting, \"They're coming to get you, Barbara!\" A pale-faced man (S. William Hinzman) lumbers toward the pair. Romero was ultimately granted a restraining order that forced Russo to cease his advertising campaign. A second version of the script featured a young man who runs away from home and discovers rotting human corpses that aliens use for food scattered across a meadow. [69], The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives Night of the Living Dead a 97% approval rating based on 67 reviews, with an average rating of 8.94/10. Maye, Harun. [121] The film tracks a six-year period leading up to the story told by his father. Bickering siblings Johnny (Russell Streiner) and Barbara (Judith O'Dea) drive to a rural Pennsylvania cemetery to place a cross with flowers on their father's grave. I couldn't use vampires because he did, so I wanted something that would be an earth-shaking change. We couldn't imagine a happy ending. Night of the Living Dead, the 1960s horror film that first brought zombies to the forefront of horror cinema, used its relatively simple plotline, novel horrific concepts, and its blunt gore to bring a vast array of social issues to the attention of a wide audience. In a highly symbolic moment, the house seemingly baptizes her metamorphosis when blood drips from the ceiling onto Barbra’s person, staining both her face and clothes. "[48] According to film historian Carl Royer, Romero "employs chiaroscuro (film noir style) lighting to emphasize humanity's nightmare alienation from itself. You can read about Barbra’s androgyny in the remake here and about social commentary in the 1968 Night of the Living Dead here. ... And the stories are about how people respond or fail to respond to this. In the remake of 1990 barbara was portrayed by Patricia Tallman. He's wrong. The ultimate moment of seeing in Night of the Living Dead, the one that initiates Barbra’s metamorphosis into the monster, occurs when Barbra enters the camp set up by a posse of rednecks. According to WRS, "We chose a selection of music for each of the various scenes and then George made the final selections. Just as the dead zombie is powerless, Barbra too has not accessed yet her full independence from her learned gender role. [20] Scenes were filmed near Evans City, Pennsylvania, 30 miles (48 km) north of Pittsburgh in rural Butler County;[35] the opening sequence was shot at the Evans City Cemetery on Franklin Road, south of the borough. In the final moments of Night of the Living Dead, Barbra takes her knowledge that she is a monstrous and applies it in a practical sense when she kills an unarmed Harry. The best that we could do was to place our cast in a remote spot and then bring the horror to be visited on them in that spot". Barbara From Night of the Living Dead What to wear: A short red wig and a lacy white tank top under a denim jacket, with dark cargo pants and a rifle slung over your shoulder. During the visit, Johnny often teased Barbara about their childhood, in which Barbara was often subject to cruel scare-jokes. The Barbra in the 1990 remake is competent, unapologetic and, most importantly, the voice of reason. [116], Starting in 2015, and working from the original camera negatives and audio track elements, a 4K digital restoration of Night of the Living Dead was undertaken by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and The Film Foundation. [40] Consumed flesh consisted of roasted ham and entrails donated by one of the actors, who also owned a chain of butcher shops. "[48], While some critics dismissed Romero's film because of the graphic scenes, writer R. H. W. Dillard claimed that the "open-eyed detailing" of taboo heightened the film's success. This moment of choosing her own strength instead of the strength being offered by Ben is further magnified when she sets to deal silently with the cleanup of the zombie while Ben is shown to be washing his hands and verbally brainstorming ideas. In an interview with Fangoria magazine, Russo explained that he wanted to "give the movie a more modern pace". Her death, via consumption by her zombified brother, is almost a welcome reprieve from her complete ineffectualness. This distinction is important as it allows more fully an understanding of Barbra’s evolution from victim to monster. [89] In 1998, Russo's revised version of the film, Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition, was released on VHS and DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment. The act is at once personal and impersonal. While the word "zombie" itself is never used—the word used in the film is ghoul—Romero's film introduced the theme of zombies as reanimated, flesh-eating cannibals. His dialogue was that of a lower class / uneducated person. [47] Romero describes the mood he wished to establish: "The film opens with a situation that has already disintegrated to a point of little hope, and it moves progressively toward absolute despair and ultimate tragedy. As this house was scheduled for demolition, damage during filming was permitted. As one film historian points out, horror prior to Romero's film had mostly involved rubber masks and costumes, cardboard sets, or mysterious figures lurking in the shadows. He argues that the zombies' victims symbolized the repression of "the Other" in bourgeois American society, namely activists in the civil rights movement, feminists, homosexuals, and counterculturalists in general. I mean, Richard starts his book with one man left; everybody in the world has become a vampire. [149], While George Romero denied he considered race when casting Duane Jones, reviewer Mark Deming notes that "the grim fate of Duane Jones, the sole heroic figure and only African-American, had added resonance with the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X fresh in the minds of most Americans". "Rewriting the Dead: The Tension between Nostalgia and Perversion in George A. Romero's, Moreman, Christopher M. "A Modern Meditation on Death: Identifying Buddhist Teachings in George A. Romero's, Pharr, Mary. "A Point of Little Hope: Hippie Horror Films and the Politics of Ambivalence". The audience senses this kill is a result of her previous relationship with Harry but also that her newly discovered masculine ability to kill is but a harbinger of things to come. [113] Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated premiered theatrically on October 10, 2009, in Ramsey, New Jersey[114] at the Zombie Encounter and Film Festival. He was later director of the Maguire Theater at the State University of New York at Old Westbury, and the artistic director of the Richard Allen Center for Culture and Art in Manhattan Part one became Night of the Living Dead. The basement door (external view) shown in the film was cut into a wall by the production team and led nowhere. Night of the Living Dead (1968) Judith O'Dea: Barbra. Judith Ridley as Judy. It is this sight that allows her to realize their vulnerability. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. [42] While changing the title, the copyright notice was accidentally deleted from the early releases of the film. Hardman's daughter in real life, the 11-year-old daughter Schon also portrayed the mangled corpse on the house's upstairs floor that Ben drags away. She sees a multiplying number of strange ghouls, led by the man from the cemetery, approaching the house. "[144] She is able to look in that instance because the monster is no longer a threat. [61][c], Fifty years after its release, the film enjoys a reputation as a classic and still receives positive reviews, being regarded by many as one of the best films of 1968. [89] In 2002, Elite Entertainment released a special edition DVD featuring the original cut. [68] Reader's Digest found it to be the 12th scariest movie of all time. taking horror seriously so you don't have to, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) Review, Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984): Connecting Depravity with Childhood Trauma, Suburban Nightmare: Talking The Stepfather (1987), In the Earth: Ben Wheatley’s New Folk Horror, Viewer Participation and Decision Making in Would You Rather (2012). "[49] Romero featured social taboos as key themes, particularly cannibalism. . She points to aspects of the Vietnam War paralleled in the film: grainy black-and-white newsreels, search and destroy operations, helicopters, and graphic carnage. Premiere Details", "Danielle Harris to Topline 'Night of the Living Dead: Origins, "Exclusive: First Look at Night of the Living Dead: Origins", "BD Horror News – Awesome First Look at 'Night of the Living Dead: Origins, "Exclusive: First Look at Tony Todd as Ben – Night of the Living Dead: Origins | Horror Movie, DVD, & Book Reviews, News, Interviews at Dread Central", "Director Talks Mimesis: Night of the Living Dead", "Apocalypse is Trending: 'Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection", "Night of the Living Dead getting another remake", "Shambling Forward – Night of the Living Dead: Rebirth nearing May 2015 wrap date", "Another Night of the Living Dead Remake in 2012", "George A. Romero thought Night of the Living Dead would be a 'one-off, "The Dead Zones: 'George A. Romero' at the American Museum of the Moving Image", The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Dead On: The Life and Cinema of George A. Romero, Saturn Award for Best DVD or Blu-ray Special Edition Release, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, X-Men: Days of Future Past: The Rogue Cut, Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave, Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler's Green, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Night_of_the_Living_Dead&oldid=1010226102, United States National Film Registry films, Pages with non-numeric formatnum arguments, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Album articles lacking alt text for covers, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2019, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles containing potentially dated statements from March 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2020, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, "Discovery of TV/Preparing to Escape/Tom & Judy", "Truck on Fire/Ben Attacks Harry/Leg of Leg*", "Helen's Death*/Dawn/Posse in the Fields/Ben Awakes". George A. Romero interview, quoted at "George A. Romero Bio", Special Features, sfn error: no target: CITEREFDillardWaller1988 (, "Librarian of Congress Names 25 More Films to National Film Registry", November 16, 1999, at. As such, while Barbra loses a great deal of the qualities that rendered her weak in the original film, the updated version does not completely escape gender stereotyping. Entertainment Weekly reported "no bad blood" between Russo and Romero. Her death, via consumption by her zombified brother, is almost a welcome reprieve from her complete ineffectualness. [ii] Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Screen 16, no. [89] On October 3, 2017, Mill Creek Entertainment released a standard 1080p version of the film on Blu-ray in the United States, however, this was a transfer of an existing release print, and not a restoration. Yet, I disagree with his portrayal of Barbra in Night of the Living Dead‘s introductory scenes as “mousy” and “unassertive.” Rather, I believe that Barbra starts the film from a position of strength but without full knowledge of her capabilities due to societal conventions. Her costuming literally has her buttoned up to her neck which, when coupled with her long skirt, severe haircut, and eyeglasses, signals Barbra’s repressed state. After her first moment of violence in the graveyard, in which she breaks the societal edict that good girls don’t fight, she is stripped of her cardigan and her eyeglasses.