SUPPORT THE WORK
GetWiki
Night of the Living Dead
ARTICLE SUBJECTS
being →
database →
ethics →
fiction →
history →
internet →
language →
linux →
logic →
method →
news →
policy →
purpose →
religion →
science →
software →
truth →
unix →
wiki →
ARTICLE TYPES
essay →
feed →
help →
system →
wiki →
ARTICLE ORIGINS
critical →
forked →
imported →
original →
Night of the Living Dead
please note:
- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
- it has been imported raw for GetWiki
{{Short description|1968 American horror film}}{{Other uses}}{{Good article}}{{Use American English|date = April 2019}}{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2019}}- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
- it has been imported raw for GetWiki
| factoids | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| name | Night of the Living Dead| image = File:Night of the Living Dead (1968) poster.jpg| alt = Promotional poster with large text reading They Won't Stay Dead! Night of the Living Dead above stills of zombies and victims from the film.| caption = Theatrical release poster| director = George A. Romero
|
|
| Walter Reade>Continental Distributing | 1968 | 01 | 1968 | 04|United States}} | NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (X) >PUBLISHER=BRITISH BOARD OF FILM CLASSIFICATION | ACCESS-DATE=JUNE 7, 2016 | ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20160805083344/HTTP://WWW.BBFC.CO.UK/RELEASES/NIGHT-LIVING-DEAD-FILM, live, | country = United States| language = English | LAST=HUGHES | MAGAZINE=FORBES | ACCESS-DATE=DECEMBER 27, 2014 | ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20141227062644/HTTP://WWW.FORBES.COM/SITES/MARKHUGHES/2013/10/30/THE-TOP-TEN-BEST-LOW-BUDGET-HORROR-MOVIES-OF-ALL-TIME/ | TITLE=NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) | AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE >DATE=DECEMBER 21, 2021 | ARCHIVE-DATE=DECEMBER 20, 2021 | URL-STATUS=LIVE, | 30,236,452 | Night of the Living Dead{{'}}s worldwide box office:
Plot(File:Night of the Living Dead (1968).webm|thumb|thumbtime=44|Night of the Living Dead (full film))Siblings Barbra and Johnny drive to a cemetery in rural Pennsylvania to visit their father's grave, where a pale man in a tattered suit kills Johnny and attacks Barbra. She flees to a nearby farmhouse but finds the resident's corpse lying half-eaten on the stairs. A growing horde of ghouls soon surround the house as a stranger, Ben, arrives and initially mistakes Barbra for the homeowner. After driving back several ghouls, he boards the windows and doors. While searching the home for supplies, he locates a lever-action rifle.A nearly catatonic Barbra is surprised to find people already taking shelter in the home's cellar. Harry, his wife Helen, and their young daughter Karen fled there after a group of the same monsters overturned their car and bit Karen on the arm, leaving her seriously ill. A couple, Tom and Judy, took shelter after hearing an emergency broadcast about a series of brutal killings. Tom and Ben secure the farmhouse while Harry protests that it is unsafe aboveground before returning to the cellar. Ghouls continue to besiege the farmhouse in increasing numbers.The refugees listen to radio and television reports of an army of cannibalistic corpses committing mass murder across the East Coast of the United States and of the posses of armed men patrolling the countryside to exterminate the living dead. Reports confirm that the ghouls can die again from heavy blows to the head, bullets to the brain, or being burned. Various rescue centers offer refuge and safety, and scientists theorize that radiation from an exploding space probe returning from Venus caused the reanimations.(File:JudithRidley.jpg|alt=Judy peers from an open truck window.|Judith Ridley as Judy, near the gas pump|thumb|left)Ben devises a plan to obtain medical supplies for Karen and transport the group to a rescue center by refueling his truck at a pump on the farm. Ben, Tom, and Judy drive there together, holding the ghouls off with torches and Molotov cocktails. However, the gas from the pump spills and causes the truck to catch fire and explode, killing Tom and Judy. Ben returns and breaks down the door when Harry does not let him in.The remaining survivors attempt to figure a way out. They pause their discussion to watch the 3 a.m. news update until the power cuts out. The ghouls soon break through the doors and windows of the unlit home. In the chaos, Harry grabs Ben's gun but is disarmed and shot by Ben. Harry staggers down to the cellar and dies next to his daughter.Karen dies from her injuries, becomes a ghoul, and eats her father's remains. She stabs her mother to death with a masonry trowel. Barbra tries to help Ben keep the ghouls out, but a reanimated Johnny drags her away. As the horde breaks in, Ben takes refuge in the cellar, where he shoots Harry's and Helen's ghouls.In the morning, an armed posse arrives to dispatch the remaining ghouls. Awoken by their gunfire and sirens, Ben emerges from the cellar, but they shoot him, mistaking Ben for a ghoul. His body is thrown onto a bonfire and burned with the rest of the ghouls.CastFile:Duane Jones NLD.jpg|thumb|alt=Ben holds a rifle in the farmhouse living room.|Ben, played by Duane JonesDuane JonesThe low-budget film included no well-known actors,NEWS, Sandell, Scott, Classic Hollywood: George Romero, Mr. Rogers and the Pittsburgh connection,weblink Los Angeles Times, 22 October 2023,weblink 22 October 2023, 21 July 2017, but propelled the careers of some cast members.{{sfn|Kane|2010|loc=ch. 4}} Two independent film companies from Pittsburgh—Hardman Associates and director George A. Romero's The Latent Image—combined to form Image Ten, a production company chartered only to create Night of the Living Dead.{{sfn|Kane|2010|pp=20-23}} The cast consisted of members of Image Ten, actors previously cast for their commercials, acquaintances of Romero, and Pittsburgh stage actors.{{sfn|Kane|2010|loc=ch. 4, pp. 42–48}}
ProductionDevelopment and pre-production{{external media| width = 210px | The Calgon Story The creation of a high-budget television commercial for Calgon>Calgon brand detergent spurred the film's producers to create a horror movie.{{sfn | 2010|p=28}}}}George Romero embarked upon his career in the film industry while attending Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.{{sfn|Kane|2010|p=25}} He directed and produced television commercials and industrial films for The Latent Image, a company he co-founded with his friend Russell Streiner.{{sfn|Kane|2010|pp=26-27}} The Latent Image started small, but after producing a high-budget Calgon commercial spoofing Fantastic Voyage (1966), Romero felt that The Latent Image had the experience and equipment to produce a feature film.{{sfn|Kane|2010|p=28}} They wanted to capitalize on the film industry's "thirst for the bizarre", according to Romero.NEWS,weblink George A Romero, godfather of zombie horror – obituary, The Telegraph, July 17, 2017, August 27, 2023, August 27, 2023,weblink live, He, Streiner, and John A. Russo contacted Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman, president, and vice president respectively, of a Pittsburgh-based industrial film firm called Hardman Associates, Inc. The Latent Image pitched their idea for a then-untitled horror film.INTERVIEW, Hardman, Karl; Eastman, Marilyn, etal,weblink Homepage of the Dead, Interview with Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman, October 16, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20151107014220weblink">weblink November 7, 2015, These discussions led to the creation of Image Ten, a production company chartered to produce a single feature film. The initial budget was $6,000;{{sfn|Kane|2010|pp=20-23}} each member of the production company invested $600 for a share of the profits.NEWS,weblink 'Night of the Living Dead' Actor George Kosana Dies at 81, Thorne, Will, January 3, 2017, Variety, January 4, 2017, January 4, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170104114404weblink">weblink live, {{efn|The initial ten members for which Image Ten gets its name are:
WritingFile:Zombies NightoftheLivingDead.jpg|thumb |alt=A group of actors in zombie makeup shamble across the unlit lawn of the farmhouse. |Ghouls swarm around the house, searching for living human flesh.]]The script was co-written by Russo and Romero. They abandoned an early horror comedy concept about adolescent aliens,{{sfn|Kane|2010|p=23}} after realizing they would not have the budget to create a convincing spaceship.{{sfn|Kane|2010|p=21}} Russo proposed a more constrained narrative where a young man runs away from home and discovers aliens harvesting human corpses for food in a cemetery.{{sfn|Russo|1985|pages=31, 61}}{{sfn|Kane|2010|pp=20-24}} Romero combined this idea with an unpublished short story about flesh-eating ghouls,{{sfn|Bishop|2006|p=199}} and they began filming with an incomplete script.{{sfn|Peary|1981|p=227}}{{sfn|Kane|2010|p=23}} According to Russo, the screenplay written prior to filming only covered events up to the emergence of the Cooper family.{{sfn|Surmacz|1975|p=16}} Russo completed the script while filming and Romero later expanded the final pages of his short story into the sequels Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985).INTERVIEW, Romero, George A., George A. Romero interview, Forbidden Weekend, BBC2, February 2, 1997, Romero drew inspiration from Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (1954),{{sfn|Dinello|2006|p=257}}{{efn|Official film adaptations of Matheson's novel include The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971), and the 2007 release I Am Legend.}} a horror novel about a plague that ravages a futuristic Los Angeles. The infected in I Am Legend become vampire-like creatures and prey on the uninfected.{{sfn|Paffenroth|2006|pp=138-143}}{{sfn|Russo|1985|pages=6–7}}BOOK, Matheson, Richard, Richard Matheson, I Am Legend, 1954, Orb Books, 1995, 978-0-312-86504-7, Matheson described Romero's interpretation as "kind of cornball",{{sfn|Weaver|1999|p=307}} and more theft than homage.MAGAZINE, Clark, Collis, An Author You Can't Refuse,weblink Entertainment Weekly, December 7, 2007,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20180731002331weblink">weblink July 31, 2018, In an interview, Romero contrasted Night of the Living Dead with I Am Legend. He explained that Matheson wrote about the aftermath of a complete global upheaval; Romero wanted to explore how people would respond to that kind of disaster as it developed.WEB, Marianna, McConnell,weblink Interview: George A. Romero On Diary of the Dead, Cinema Blend, January 24, 2008,weblink December 26, 2019, Much of the dialogue was altered, rewritten, or improvised by the cast.{{sfn|Kane|2010|pp=33-34, 40, 45}} Lead actress Judith O'Dea told an interviewer, "I don't know if there was an actual working script! We would go over what basically had to be done, then just did it the way we each felt it should be done".{{sfn|Collum|2004|p=4}} One example offered by O'Dea concerns a scene where Barbra tells Ben about Johnny's death. O'Dea said that the script vaguely had Barbra talk about riding in the car with Johnny before they were attacked. She described Barbra's dialogue for the scene as entirely improv.{{sfn|Collum|2004|pages=3–4}} Eastman modified the scenes written for Helen and Harry Cooper in the cellar. Karl Hardman attributed Ben's lines to lead actor Duane Jones. Ben was an uneducated truck driver in the script until Jones began to rewrite his character.{{sfn|Kane|2010|pp=32-35}}The lead role was initially written for a white actor, but upon casting black actor Duane Jones, Romero intentionally did not alter the script to reflect this. The film appeared in theaters at a time when very few black actors played leading roles. The rare exceptions, like the consciously black heroes played by Sidney Poitier, were written as subservient to make those characters palatable to white audiences.MAGAZINE, McGreevy, Nora, January 7, 2022, How Sidney Poitier Rewrote the Script for Black Actors in Hollywood,weblink Smithsonian Magazine, January 8, 2022, January 8, 2022,weblink live, {{sfn|Harper|2005}} Asked in 2013 if he took inspiration from the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in the same year that the movie was made, Romero responded in the negative, noting that he only heard about the shooting when he was on his way to find distribution for the finished film.FilmingPrincipal photography{{multiple image
| direction = vertical
}}The small budget dictated much of the production process.{{sfn|Newman|2000|p=57}} Scenes were filmed near Evans City, Pennsylvania, {{convert|30|mi|km}} north of Pittsburgh in rural Butler County;{{sfn|Kane|2010|p=46}} the opening sequence was shot at the Evans City Cemetery on Franklin Road, south of the borough.{{sfn|Kane|2010|pages=55–6}}{{efn|In 2011, when the cemetery chapel was under warrant for demolition, Gary R. Steiner led a successful effort to raise funding to restore the building.WEB,weblink Save the Evans City Cemetery Chapel, October 4, 2013, October 5, 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20131005173755weblink">weblink Living Dead Festival, LLC, NEWS, Farkas, Rachel, August 31, 2013,weblink Zombie fans celebrate iconic 'Night of the Living Dead', October 4, 2013, November 16, 2018,weblink live, TribLIVE, Trib Total Media, }} Lacking the money to build or purchase a house for the main set, the filmmakers rented a nearby farmhouse scheduled for demolition. Though it lacked running water, some crew members slept there during the shooting, taking baths in a nearby creek.{{sfn|Hervey|2008|pp=10-11}} The building's neglected cellar was not a viable location for filming, so the few basement scenes were shot beneath The Latent Image offices.{{sfn|Kane|2010|pp=28, 29, 59}} The basement door shown in the film was cut into a wall by the production team and led nowhere.WEB,weblink 10 Hidden Details Everyone Missed In Night Of The Living Dead, Colin, McCormick, February 4, 2021, ScreenRant, September 2, 2023, September 2, 2023,weblink live, Props and special effects were simple and limited by the budget. The blood, for example, was Bosco Chocolate Syrup drizzled over cast members' bodies.{{sfn|Kane|2010|p=n184}} The human flesh consumed by ghouls consisted of meat and offal donated by an investor's butcher shop.{{sfn|Hoberman|Rosenbaum|1983|p=121}}WEB,weblink The D-I-Y Origins of Night of the Living Dead, Elizabeth, Winterhalter, November 5, 2020, JSTOR Daily, September 2, 2023, September 2, 2023,weblink live, Zombie makeup varied during the film. Initially, makeup was limited to white skin with blackened eyes. As filming progressed, mortician's wax simulated wounds and decaying flesh.{{sfn|Kane|2010|pp=47-49, 58}} Filming took place between July 1967 and January 1968 under various titles. Work began under the generic working title Monster Flick, was changed to Night of Anubis after Romero's short story that provided the basis for the script, and was completed as Night of the Flesh Eaters, a title not used in the final release due to a potential conflict with a similarly named film.AV MEDIA, Romero, George A., etal, Scrapbook, Night of the Living Dead, Elite Entertainment, 2002, DVD, Millennium Edition, {{sfn|Heffernan|2004|p=219}}WEB,weblink Night of the Flesh Eaters mini-banners, Horror Studies Collection, University of Pittsburgh Library Systems, Hart, Adam Charles, September 2, 2023, September 2, 2023,weblink live, The small budget led Romero to shoot on 35 mm black-and-white film. The completed film ultimately benefited from the decision, as film historian Joseph Maddrey describes the black-and-white filming as "guerrilla-style", resembling "the unflinching authority of a wartime newsreel". He found the exploitation film to resemble a documentary on social instability.{{sfn|Maddrey|2004|p=51}}| width = 220 | image1 = EvansCityCemetery PA.jpg | caption1 = Evans City Cemetery in 2007 | alt1 = Color photograph of tombstones from the film. | image2 = Evans City Cemetery Chapel, Evans City, PA - February 2009.jpg | caption2 = Cemetery Chapel in 2009 | alt2 = Color photograph of the cemetery chapel seen in the film, now with all windows boarded over. Directing(File:Girl zombie eating her victim Night of the Living Dead bw.jpg |alt=Karen Cooper leans over her father's bloody corpse holding two handfuls of meat in a still from the film.|thumb|Living dead Karen Cooper, eating her father's corpse)Night of the Living Dead was the first feature-length film directed by George A. Romero. His initial work involved filming advertisements, industrial films, and shorts for Pittsburgh public broadcaster WQED's children's series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.AV MEDIA, Dawn of the Dead, DVD, 2004, George A. Romero Bio, Anchor Bay, Special Divimax, .{{multiref2 | AUTHOR-LINK=GEORGE A. ROMERO | BLOODY DIARY: PART 1 >WEBSITE=DIAMONDDEAD.COM | ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20070214070123/HTTP://WWW.DIAMONDDEAD.COM/DIARY/VIEW.PHP?S=YTOYONTZOJM6IMFPZCI7CZOXOIIZIJTZOJI6IMLKIJTZOJI6IJE2IJT9 | REF=NONE, | AUTHOR-LINK=GEORGE A. ROMERO | BLOODY DIARY: PART 2 >WEBSITE=DIAMONDDEAD.COM | ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20070216005517/HTTP://WWW.DIAMONDDEAD.COM/DIARY/VIEW.PHP?S=YTOYONTZOJM6IMFPZCI7CZOXOIIZIJTZOJI6IMLKIJTZOJI6IJI4IJT9 | REF=NONE, | AUTHOR-LINK=GEORGE A. ROMERO | BLOODY DIARY: PART 3 >WEBSITE=DIAMONDDEAD.COM | ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20061026095318/HTTP://WWW.DIAMONDDEAD.COM/DIARY/VIEW.PHP?S=YTOYONTZOJM6IMFPZCI7CZOXOIIZIJTZOJI6IMLKIJTZOJI6IJM1IJT9 | REF=NONE, }}WEB,weblink How Mr Rogers Gave Night Of The Living Dead Director George Romero His Start, Matt, Reigle, March 30, 2022, Grunge, September 4, 2023, September 4, 2023,weblink live, Romero's decision to direct Night of the Living Dead launched his career as a horror director. 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).WEB,weblink George Romero movies, ranked, Declan, Gallagher, August 17, 2023, EW.com, September 4, 2023, September 4, 2023,weblink live, WEB,weblink George A. Romero, Pennsylvania State University Libraries, Pennsylvania, Center for the Book, September 4, 2023, September 4, 2023,weblink live, Critics saw the influence of the horror and science-fiction films of the 1950s in Romero's directorial style. 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". 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.{{sfn|Miller|1999|p=81}} Romero described the film's intended mood as a downward arc from near hopelessness to complete tragedy. Film historian Carl Royer praised the film's sophistication—especially considering Romero's limited experience—and noted the use of chiaroscuro (film noir style) lighting to create a mood of increasing alienation.{{sfn|Royer|2005|p=15}}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. He asked, "What girl has not, at one time or another, wished to kill her mother? And Karen, in the film, offers a particularly vivid opportunity to commit the forbidden deed vicariously."{{sfn|Dillard|Waller|1988|p=15}} Romero featured social taboos as key themes, especially cannibalism. Film historian Robin Wood interprets the flesh-eating scenes of Night of the Living Dead as a late-1960s critique of American capitalism. Wood argues that the zombies' consumption of people represents the logical endpoint of human interactions under capitalism.{{sfn|Wood|1985|p=213}}Post-productionMembers of Image Ten were involved in filming and post-production, participating in loading camera magazines, gaffing, constructing props, recording sounds and editing.{{sfn|Russo|1985|p=7}} Production stills were shot and printed by Karl Hardman, assisted by a "production line" of other cast members. Upon completion of post-production, Image Ten found it difficult to secure a distributor willing to show the film with the gruesome scenes intact. Columbia rejected the film for its lack of color, and American International Pictures declined after requests to soften it and re-shoot the final scene were rejected by producers.{{sfn|Peary|1981|p=227}} The Walter Reade Organization agreed to show the film uncensored but changed the title from Night of the Flesh Eaters to Night of the Living Dead because of an existing film with a similar title. While changing the title, the copyright notice was accidentally deleted from the early releases of the film.{{sfn|Boluk|Lenz|2011|p=5}}WEB,weblink Legacy of the Dead: Zombie Redux, Carnegie Mellon University, CMU Libraries, September 4, 2023, September 4, 2023,weblink live, Mulligan, Rikk, Prisbylla, Andy, Scherer, David,Soundtrack(File:0752 Fallout When and How to Protect Yourself Against It 12 01 05 00.ogg |thumbtime=114 |thumb |alt=|start=6|end=28|Drawn from pre-existing recordings, the music in Night of the Living Dead appears in many other films. The composition from the end credits previously appeared during this 1959 nuclear fallout public service video.JOURNAL, New Children of War: On the Iconography of the Zombie Archetype in the Context of the Vietnam War, Des Krieges neue Kinder. Ãœberlegungen zur Ikonografie des Zombiearchetyps im Kontext des Vietnamkriegs, Drogla, Paul, 2015, Zeitschrift für Fantastikforschung, German, 2, 31:24, [...] Lehrfilms FALLOUT: WHEN AND HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST IT (USA 1959, produziert von Creative Arts Studio Inc. im Auftrag des Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization). Was im Aufklärungsfilm einleitend Aufnahmen von Nuklearexplosionen begleitet, unterlegt in NIGHT die dokumentierte Katastrophe im Abspann (vgl. Höltgen 23)., [...]educational film FALLOUT: WHEN AND HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST IT (USA 1959, produced by Creative Arts Studio Inc. on behalf of the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization). What accompanies the introductory shots of nuclear explosions in the educational film is accompanied by the documented catastrophe in the end credits in NIGHT (cf. Höltgen 23)., )The film's music consisted of existing pieces that were mixed or modified for the film. Much of the soundtrack had been used by previous films.{{efn|The opening title music with the car on the road had been used in a 1961 episode of the TV series Ben Casey entitled "I Remember a Lemon Tree" and is also featured in an episode of (Naked City (TV series)#Season 1: 1958–59|Naked City) entitled "Bullets Cost Too Much". Most of the music in the film had previously been used on the soundtrack for the science-fiction B-movie Teenagers from Outer Space (1959), as well as several pieces used in the classic Steve McQueen western series Wanted Dead or Alive (1958–61). The piece playing when Ben finds the rifle can be heard in a more complete form during the beginning of The Devil's Messenger (1961) starring Lon Chaney Jr. Another piece, accompanying Barbra's flight from the cemetery zombie, was taken from the score for The Hideous Sun Demon (1959) {{harv|Kane|2010|pp=71–72}}.}} Romero selected tracks from the Hi-Q music library, and Hardman cut them to match the scenes and augmented them with electronic effects.{{sfn|Kane|2010|pp=71-72}} A soundtrack album featuring music and dialogue cues from the film was compiled and released on LP by Varèse Sarabande in 1982. In 2008, the recording group 400 Lonely Things released the album Tonight of the Living Dead, an instrumental album with music and sounds sampled from the 1968 film.JOURNAL, Corupe, Paul, They're Coming to Remix You, Barbra, Rue Morgue, 92, August 2009, 63, {{clear}}{{Track listing| headline = Side one| title1 = Driveway to the Cemetery (Main Theme)| note1 =| writer1 = Spencer Moore| length1 = 02:19| title2 = At the Gravesite/Flight/Refuge| note2 = | William Loose/William Loose>Loose—Seely/W. Loose| length2 = 03:42| title3 = Farmhouse/First Approach| note3 =| writer3 = Geordie Hormel| length3 = 01:16| title4 = Ghoulash (J.R.'s Demise)| note4 =| writer4 = Ib Glindemann| length4 = 03:30| title5 = Boarding Up| note5 = | Geordie Hormel>G. Hormel/Loose—Seely/Glindemann| length5 = 03:00| title6 = First Radio Report/Torch on the Porch| note6 = | Philip Green (composer)>Phil Green/G. Hormel| length6 = 02:27| title7 = Boarding Up 2/Discovery: Gun 'n Ammo| note7 =| writer7 = G. Hormel| length7 = 02:07| title8 = Cleaning House| note8 =| writer8 = S. Moore| length8 = 01:36}}{{Track listing| headline = Side two| title9 = First Advance| note9 =| writer9 = Ib Glindemann| length9 = 02:43| title10 = Discovery of TV/Preparing to Escape/Tom & Judy| note10 = All the samples of the track were composed by Geordie Hormel| writer10 = G. Hormel/J. Meakin/J. Meakin| length10 = 04:20| title11 = Attempted Escape| note11 =| writer11 = G. Hormel| length11 = 01:29| title12 = Truck on Fire/Ben Attacks Harry/Leg of Leg*| note12 = *electronic sound effects by Karl Hardman| writer12 = G. Hormel| length12 = 03:41| title13 = Beat 'Em or Burn 'Em/Final Advance| note13 = Final Advance was composed by Harry Bluestone and Emil Cadkin| writer13 = G. Hormel| length13 = 02:50| title14 = Helen's Death*/Dawn/Posse in the Fields/Ben Awakes| note14 = *electronic sound effects by Karl Hardman| writer14 = S. Moore| length14 = 03:05| title15 = O.K. Vince/Funeral Pyre (End Title)| note15 =| writer15 = S. Moore| length15 = 01:10}}ReleasePremiere controversy(File:Night Of The Living Dead (1968) - trailer.webm|thumb|start=2|thumbtime=102|Night of the Living Dead trailer highlighting the film's gore and violence)Night of the Living Dead premiered on October 1, 1968, at the Fulton Theater in Pittsburgh.{{sfn|Collum|2004|p=3}} Nationally, it was a Saturday afternoon matinée—typical for horror films at the time—and attracted the usual horror film audience of mainly pre-teens and adolescents.{{sfn|Russo|1985|p=70}}{{sfn|Heffernan|2002|pp=59-60}}NEWS, Ebert, Roger, Roger Ebert, Night of the Living Dead, Chicago, Chicago Sun-Times, January 5, 1969,weblink March 20, 2015, March 14, 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150314213621weblink">weblink live, The MPAA film rating system was not in place until the following month, so children were able to purchase tickets. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times chided theater owners and parents who allowed children access to a film they were entirely unprepared for. Ebert noted that the children in the audience initially displayed typical reactions to '60s horror films, including shouting when ghouls appeared on the screen. He said that the atmosphere in the theater shifted to grim silence as the protagonists each began to fail, die, and be consumed—either by fire or the undead. The deaths of Ben, Barbra, and the supporting cast showed audiences an uncomfortable, nihilistic outlook that was unusual for the genre.{{sfn|Jones|2005|pages=117–18}} According to Ebert:{{blockquote|The kids in the audience were stunned. There was almost complete silence. The movie had stopped being delightfully scary about halfway through, and had become unexpectedly terrifying. There was a little girl across the aisle from me, maybe nine years old, who was sitting very still in her seat and crying ... It's hard to remember what sort of effect this movie might have had on you when you were six or seven. But try to remember. At that age, kids take the events on the screen seriously, and they identify fiercely with the hero. When the hero is killed, that's not an unhappy ending but a tragic one: Nobody got out alive. It's just over, that's all.}}A review in Variety denounced the movie as a moral failing of the film's makers, the horror genre, and regional cinema. The reviewer claimed that the "unrelieved orgy of sadism" was effectively pornography due to its extreme violence.{{sfn|Russell|2008|p=65}} These early denouncements would not limit the film's commercial success or later critical recognition.{{sfn|Paffenroth|2006|pp=27-28}}Critical reception(File:StateTheatreAnnArborMarquee.jpg|thumb|alt=The neon marquee of a theater lists several notable cult films including Donnie Darko, Reanimator, and Night of the Living Dead. |Decades after its initial release, a theater runs a midnight showing of the cult classic)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".NEWS, McCullough, Paul, A Pittsburgh Horror Story, Take One, 4, 6, July–August 1973, 8, In the decade after its release, the film grossed over $15 million at the U.S. box office. It was translated into over 25 languages.{{sfn|Higashi|1990|p=175}} The Wall Street Journal reported that it was the top-grossing film in Europe in 1968.{{sfn|Dillard|Waller|1988|p=15}}{{sfn|Dillard|Waller|1988|p=15}} In a 1971 Newsweek article, Paul D. Zimmerman noted that the film had "become a bona fide cult movie for a burgeoning band of blood-lusting cinema buffs".MAGAZINE, Zimmerman, Paul D., Paul D. Zimmerman, We Killed 'Em in Pittsburgh, Newsweek, November 8, 1971, 118, Decades after its release, the film enjoys a reputation as a classic and still receives positive reviews.NEWS, 'Night of the Living Dead': What a zombie classic says about death in America, Rouner, Jef, July 3, 2018, Hearst Newspapers, LLC, Houston Chronicle,weblink NEWS,weblink 'Night of the Living Dead': Zombies Restored to Their Full Beauty, Glenn, Kenny, February 16, 2018, New York Times, September 7, 2023, August 23, 2018,weblink live, NEWS, Mann, Brian, December 23, 2018, NPR, When An Undead Apocalypse First Swept America In The 'Night Of The Living Dead',weblink September 7, 2023, April 17, 2023,weblink live, In 2008, the film was ranked by Empire magazine No. 397 of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.MAGAZINE,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120118222018weblink">weblinkweblink January 18, 2012, The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time, Empire (magazine), Empire, August 5, 2010, The New York Times also placed the film on their Best 1000 Movies Ever list.NEWS,weblinkweblink The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, The New York Times, April 29, 2003, June 12, 2008, June 12, 2008, In January 2010, Total Film included the film on its list of The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.WEB,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110519171047weblink">weblinkweblink May 19, 2011, 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time, Total Film, Features, January 25, 2010, 7, Rolling Stone named Night of the Living Dead one of The 100 Maverick Movies in the Last 100 Years.MAGAZINE,weblink 100 Maverick Movies in the Last 100 Years, Rolling Stone. Published by AMC (TV channel), AMC Filmsite.org, January 15, 2011, June 5, 2021,weblink live, Reader's Digest found it to be the 12th scariest movie of all time.WEB,weblink The 31 Scariest Movies of All Time, Reader's Digest, December 31, 2020, December 21, 2020,weblink#slideshow=slide12, live, {{Rotten Tomatoes prose|95|8.9|84|George A. Romero's debut set the template for the zombie film, and features tight editing, realistic gore, and a sly political undercurrent.|ref=yes|access-date=October 12, 2023 |archive-date=August 3, 2020 |archive-url=https:web.archive.org/web/20200803094113weblink |url-status=live}} {{Metacritic film prose|89|17|ref=yes|access-date=October 31, 2023}}Night of the Living Dead was awarded two distinguished honors decades after its debut. The Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry in 1999 with other films deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".NEWS,weblink U.S. film registry adds 25 new titles, Allen, Jamie, November 16, 1999, November 20, 2017, CNN, Entertainment, June 16, 2020,weblink live, WEB, Librarian of Congress Names 25 More Films to National Film Registry, November 16, 1999,weblink Library of Congress,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160707074055weblink">weblink July 7, 2016, . Retrieved June 24, 2006.WEB, Complete National Film Registry Listing,weblink 2020-05-06, Library of Congress, March 5, 2016,weblink live, In 2001, the film was ranked No. 93 by the American Film Institute on their AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Thrills list, a list of America's most heart-pounding movies.WEB, AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Thrills,weblink American Film Institute,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20190514033323weblink">weblink May 14, 2019, June 24, 2006, The zombies in the picture were also a candidate for AFI's AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Heroes & Villains, in the villains category, but failed to make the official list.WEB,weblink AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Heroes and Villains: The 400 Nominated Characters, afi.com, June 6, 2010, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110807135603weblink">weblink August 7, 2011, The Chicago Film Critics Association named it the 5th scariest film ever made.WEB,weblink Chicago Critics' Scariest Films, AltFilmGuide.com, May 21, 2010, February 26, 2021,weblink live, The film also ranked No. 9 on Bravo's The 100 Scariest Movie Moments.WEB,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20071030070540weblink">weblink October 30, 2007, Bravo's The 100 Scariest Movie Moments, May 21, 2010, {{Anchor|Reviews|Critics}}New Yorker critic Pauline Kael called the film "one of the most gruesomely terrifying movies ever made – and when you leave the theatre you may wish you could forget the whole horrible experience. ... The film's grainy, banal seriousness works for it – gives it a crude realism".{{sfn|Kael|1991|p=526}} A Film Daily critic commented, "This is a pearl of a horror picture that exhibits all the earmarks of a sleeper."{{sfn|Higashi|1990|p=175 | loc = Film Daily, review of Night of the Living Dead}} While Roger Ebert criticized the matinée screening, he admitted that he "admires the movie itself". Critic Rex Reed wrote, "If you want to see what turns a B movie into a classic ... don't miss Night of the Living Dead. It is unthinkable for anyone seriously interested in horror movies not to see it."{{sfn|Petsko|2011|page=108}}Copyright status and home mediaIn the United States, Night of the Living Dead was mistakenly released into the public domain because the original distributor failed to replace the copyright notice when changing the film's name.{{sfn|Boluk|Lenz|2011|p=5}}{{sfn|Kane|2010|pp=93-94}} Image Ten displayed a notice on the title frames of the film beneath the original title, Night of the Flesh Eaters, but the Walter Reade Organization removed it when changing the title.{{sfn|Boluk|Lenz|2011|p=5}}United States Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Technology and the Law, Legal Issues that Arise when Color is Added to Films Originally Produced, Sold and Distributed in Black and White (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1988), p. 83. At that time, United States copyright law held that public dissemination required copyright notice to maintain a copyright.BOOK, Copyright Law of the United States, Copyright Notice, Deposit, and Registration, U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 92,weblinkweblink December 18, 2020, § Omission of notice on certain copies and phonorecords, Several years after the film's release, its creators discovered that the original prints distributed to theaters had no copyright protection.{{sfn|Kane|2010|pp=93-94}}Because Night of the Living Dead was not copyrighted, it has received hundreds of home video releases on VHS, Betamax, DVD, Blu-ray, and other formats.{{sfn|Hervey|2008|p=14}} Over two hundred distinct versions of the film have been released on tapes alone.{{multiref2 | DATE=SEPTEMBER 16, 2021 | NEWSPAPER=NEXTPITTSBURGH | REF=NONE | ARCHIVE-DATE=JUNE 6, 2023 | URL-STATUS=LIVE, | TITLE=NIGHT OF THE LIVING TAPES | ISBN=979-8598529812 | REF=NONE, | DATE=2021 | FIRST=GEOFF | REF=NONE | ARCHIVE-DATE=JULY 6, 2022 | URL-STATUS=LIVE, }} Numerous versions of the film have appeared on DVD, Blu-ray, and LaserDisc with varying quality.WEB,weblink DVD Review: Night of the Living Dead 40th Anniversary Edition, Fangoria, September 8, 2023, March 26, 2023,weblink live, Gingold, Michael, May 19, 2019, The original film is available to view or download for free on many websites.{{efn|Online hosts include:
RevisionsThere are numerous revised versions of the film with content added, deleted, rearranged, or more heavily modified. From its initial release into the public domain, Night of the Living Dead was widely screened from inferior prints in grindhouse theaters, a trend that continued among the bottom-tier home video companies. The first major revisions of Night of the Living Dead involved colorization by home video distributors. Hal Roach Studios released a colorized version in 1986 that featured ghouls with pale green skin.{{sfn|Kane|2010|p=157}}WEB,weblink Night of the living dead. Detailed Record View, June 14, 1991, July 17, 2013, United States Copyright Office, July 18, 2023,weblink live, Another colorized version appeared in 1997 from Anchor Bay Entertainment with grey-skinned zombies.Night of the Living Dead (VHS, Anchor Bay Entertainment, 1997), ASIN 6301231864. In 2009, Legend Films co-produced a colorized 3D version of the film with PassmoreLab, a company that converts 2-D film into 3-D format.WEB,weblink Johnny Ramone Tribute Includes Night of the Living Dead in 3D, Dread Central, March 26, 2010, September 24, 2009,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20090924025810weblink">weblink live, The film was theatrically released on October 14, 2010.NEWS, Zombie Classic "Night of the Living Dead, Now in 3D!" Begins Its First Theatrical Run,weblink Vocus (software), PRWeb, Vocus (software), Vocus, October 17, 2010, September 4, 2011, June 3, 2011,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110603093634weblink">weblink live, According to Legend Films founder Barry Sandrew, Night of the Living Dead is the first entirely live action 2-D film to be converted to 3-D.NEWS, "Night of the Living Dead" to Be Released in Color and 3D,weblink Business Wire, December 23, 2008, January 2, 2009, dead, December 26, 2008,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20081226073613weblink">weblink In 1999, co-writer Russo released a modified version called Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition.AV MEDIA, Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition, DVD, 1999, He filmed additional scenes and recorded a revised soundtrack composed by Scott Vladimir Licina. In an interview with Fangoria magazine, Russo explained that he wanted to "give the movie a more modern pace".{{sfn|Kane|2010|p=174}} Russo took liberties with the original script. The additions are neither clearly identified nor even listed. Entertainment Weekly reported "no bad blood" between Russo and Romero. The magazine quoted Romero as saying, "I didn't want to touch Night of the Living Dead".MAGAZINE,weblink Return to the Night of the Living Dead, Pinsker, Beth, 23 April 1999, Entertainment Weekly, September 8, 2023, September 8, 2023,weblink live, Critics disliked the revised film, notably Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, who promised to permanently ban anyone from his publication who offered positive criticism of the film.{{sfn|Kane|2010|p=177}}WEB, Knowles, Harry, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD – 30th Anniversary DVD Special Edition, September 19, 1999,weblink Ain't It Cool News, October 17, 2017, March 5, 2019,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20190305131457weblink">weblink live, A collaborative animated project known as Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated was screened at several film festivals{{multiref2 |WEB,weblink Night of the Living Dead Reanimated, Metro Cinema, March 26, 2010,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160314093324weblink">weblink March 14, 2016, dead, |WEB,weblink Tempe Film: Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated on Thursday 1/28, Events.getoutaz.com, January 28, 2010, March 26, 2010,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160807115433weblink">weblink August 7, 2016, dead, |NEWS, MOHAI's zombie film fest to feature Port Gamble movie,weblink The Seattle Times, 25 September 2009, }} and was released onto DVD on July 27, 2010, by Wild Eye Releasing.WEB,weblink Sneak Peek, Wild Eye and MVD Resurrect "Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated", June 18, 2010, October 17, 2017, Stevens, Michael, October 19, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20171019111834weblink">weblink live, WEB, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20131105230417weblink">weblink November 5, 2013,weblink Interview with Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated's Mike Schneider, Shoot for the Head, June 6, 2013, This project aims to "reanimate" the 1968 film by replacing Romero's celluloid images with animation done in a wide variety of styles by artists from around the world, laid over the original audio from Romero's version.WEB, Official NOTLD:Reanimated Site,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20090331092426weblink">weblink March 31, 2009, October 16, 2009, Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated was nominated in the category of Best Independent Production (film, documentary or short) for the 8th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards.WEB,weblink Rondoaward.com, January 19, 2013, Rondo Hatton Awards 2009 Winners, February 26, 2018,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20180226154039weblink">weblink live, 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.WEB,weblink Night of the Living Dead has always looked awful, but the 4K restoration is terrific, Bramesco, Charles, November 4, 2016, theverge.com, The Verge, January 5, 2017, January 5, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170105181123weblink">weblink live, The fully restored version was shown in November 2016 as part of To Save and Project: The 14th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation.WEB,weblink Night of the Living Dead. 1968. Directed by George A. Romero., moma.org, Museum of Modern Art, January 5, 2017, January 6, 2017,weblink live, WEB,weblink To Save and Project: The 14th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation, moma.org, Museum of Modern Art, January 5, 2017, January 6, 2017,weblink live, This same restoration was released on Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection on February 13, 2018, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray on October 4, 2022.WEB, Squires, John,weblink 'Night of the Living Dead' Getting 4K Ultra HD Upgrade from Criterion Collection This Halloween, August 2, 2022, Bloody Disgusting, July 17, 2023, July 18, 2023,weblink live,Related worksRomero's Dead films(File:Dawn of the Dead image cover.jpg|thumb|alt=An album with illustrations of hands bursting through the ground, above the words "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth."|Cover for Dawn of the Dead album)Night of the Living Dead is the first of six ... of the Dead films directed by George Romero. Following the 1968 film, Romero released Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead.WEB,weblink This Day in Horror: DIARY OF THE DEAD Was Released 12 Years Ago, Josh, Millican, February 15, 2020, Dread Central, September 8, 2023, October 30, 2020,weblink live, Each film traces the evolution of the living dead epidemic in the United States and humanity's desperate attempts to cope with it. As in Night of the Living Dead, Romero peppered the other films in the series with critiques specific to the periods in which they were released.JOURNAL,weblink SCHOTT, GARETH, Dawn of the Digital Dead: The Zombie as Interactive Social Satire in American Popular Culture, Australasian Journal of American Studies, September 8, 2023, 29, 1, 61–75, 41054186, JSTOR, September 8, 2023, February 11, 2023,weblink live, WEB,weblink Why George Romero Movies Aren't Just About the Horror of Zombies, Katie, Cusson, March 27, 2023, MovieWeb, September 8, 2023, September 1, 2023,weblink live, JOURNAL,weblink The Defining Feature of George Romero's Movies Wasn't Their Zombies. It Was Their Brains., Caetlin, Benson-Allott, Slate, July 18, 2017, slate.com, September 8, 2023, April 23, 2023,weblink live, Romero died with several "Dead" projects unfinished, including the posthumously completed novel The Living DeadWEB,weblink George Romero's final project unites all his zombie movies, Noel, Murray, Polygon (website), Polygon, August 3, 2020, September 8, 2023, June 9, 2023,weblink live, and the upcoming film The Twilight of the Dead.WEB,weblink 'Twilight of the Dead,' George A. Romero's Final Zombie Movie, in the Works (Exclusive), Aaron, Couch, The Hollywood Reporter, April 30, 2021, September 8, 2023, May 20, 2021,weblink live,Return of the Living Dead seriesThe Return of the Living Dead series takes place in an alternate continuity where both the original film and the titular living dead exist. The series has a complicated relationship with Romero's Dead films.{{sfn|Kane|2010|pp=147-153}} Co-writer John Russo wrote the novel Return of the Living Dead (1978) as a sequel to the original film and collaborated with Night alumni Russ Streiner and Rudy Ricci on a screenplay under the same title. In 1981, investment banker Tom Fox bought the rights to the story. Fox brought in Dan O'Bannon to direct and rewrite the script, changing nearly everything but the title.{{sfn|Kane|2010|p=147}} O'Bannon's The Return of the Living Dead arrived in theaters in 1985 alongside Day of the Dead. Romero and his associates attempted to block Fox from marketing his film as a sequel and demanded the name be changed. In a previous court case, Dawn Associates v. Links (1978), they had prevented Illinois-based film distributor William Links from re-releasing an unrelated film under the title Return of the Living Dead. Fox was forced to cease his advertising campaign but allowed to retain the title.{{sfn|Kane|2010|loc=ch. 10}}NEWS, Fordy, Tom, 19 December 2020, The horror film that won't die: how Night of the Living Dead spawned a spin-off zombie army, The Telegraph,weblink 23 September 2023, October 2, 2023,weblink live, Patrick J. Flinn, Handbook of Intellectual Property Claims and Remedies: 2004 Supplement (New York: Aspen Publishers, 1999), pp. 24–25, {{ISBN|978-0-7355-1125-5}}.JOURNAL, Dowell, Jonathan, 1998, Bytes and Pieces: Fragmented Copies, Licensing, and Fair Use in a Digital World, California Law Review, 86, 4, 871–872, California Law Review, Inc, 10.2307/3481141, 3481141,weblinkRise of the Living DeadGeorge Cameron Romero, the son of director George A. Romero, wrote a prequel to his father's classic, under the working titles Origins and Rise of the Living Dead. George Cameron Romero said that he created Rise of the Living Dead as an homage to his father's work, a glimpse into the political turmoil of the mid-to-late 1960s, and a bookend piece to his father's original story. Despite raising funds for the film on Indiegogo in 2014,WEB,weblink George Romero's Son Announces 'Rise of the Living Dead', Squires, John, November 1, 2017, November 1, 2017, November 2, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20171102052047weblink">weblink live, as of 2023 the film has yet to go into production.WEB,weblink Production Diary, November 26, 2019, Films Used to be Dangerous, September 9, 2023, October 2, 2023,weblink live, In April 2021, Heavy Metal magazine published the first issue of a graphic novel adaptation of the story titled The Rise from Romero's script and with art by Diego Yapur.WEB,weblink 'The Rise': Preview George C. Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead' Prologue Comic from Heavy Metal Magazine! [Exclusive], Squires, John, March 22, 2021, May 6, 2021, May 7, 2021,weblink live, COMIC, Romero, George Cameron, Yapur, Diego, 1, The Rise, April 7, 2021, Heavy Metal (magazine), Heavy Metal,Remakes and other related filmsMany remakes have attempted to reimagine the original film's story, most notably the 1990 remake written by Romero and directed by special effects artist Tom Savini. Savini had planned to work on the 1968 film before being drafted into the Vietnam War,{{sfn|Skal|1993|pp=307-309}}WEB,weblink The New York Times, October 19, 1990, The Zombies Return, in Living (or Is It Dead?) Color, Caryn, James, and, after the war, worked with Romero on the sequels.{{sfn|Grant|2015|p=230}} The remake was based on the original screenplay but included a revised plot that portrayed Barbra (Patricia Tallman) as a capable and active heroine.{{sfn|Grant|2015|pp=228, 230-231}} Film historian Barry Grant interprets the new Barbara as a reversal of the original film's portrayal of feminine passivity.{{sfn|Grant|2015|p=228}} He explores how the 1990 Barbra embodies—arguably masculine—virtuous professionalism, as depicted in the works of classic Hollywood director Howard Hawks, a major influence on Romero.{{sfn|Grant|2015|pp=232, 234}} Grant describes her as the film's only Hawksian professional. After changing from a mousy outfit that mirrors the original into the visually militaristic clothing she discovers in the farmhouse, Barbra is the lone character able to separate her emotions from the objective necessity to exterminate the living dead.{{sfn|Grant|2015|p= 234}} According to Grant, Romero is able to offer one of the most important feminist outlooks in horror because the undead disrupt all traditional values including patriarchy.{{sfn|Grant|2015|p=239}}Due to its public domain status, many independent producers have created remakes of Night of the Living Dead.{{sfn|Boluk|Lenz|2011|p=5}}{{sfn|Kane|2010|pp=93-94}} The film has been remade more than any other movie. Independent remakes have used the film's titular "living dead" as an allegory for racial tension, terrorism, nuclear war, and beyond.MAGAZINE, Ramella, Brynne, 2020-11-19, Why There Are So Many Night of the Living Dead Remakes,weblink Screen Rant,In other mediaAt the suggestion of Bill Hinzman (the actor who played the zombie that 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.WEB, Podurgiel, Bob, 'Night of the Living Dead' opera arrives in time for Halloween,weblink Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 30, 2015, September 8, 2020, October 31, 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20151031135459weblink">weblink live, The Microscopic Opera Company produced its world premiere, which was performed at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh, in October 2013.WEB, Night of the Living Dead – The Opera,weblink Carnegie Mellon University, September 8, 2020, December 4, 2020,weblink live, The opera was awarded the American Prize for Theater Composition in 2014.WEB, Composition Winners 2014,weblink 2021-05-07, www.theamericanprize.org, July 15, 2019,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20190715192808weblink">weblink live, A play called Night of the Living Dead Live! was published in 2017BOOK, Bond, Christopher,weblink Night of the Living Dead Live, Boyer, Dale, Martin (Screenwriter), Trevor, Lamb, Jamie, Harrison, Christopher, Pattison, Phil, 2017, Samuel French, 978-0-573-70595-3, en, and has been performed in major cities including Toronto, Leeds and Auckland.WEB, Night Of the Living Dead Live!,weblink 2021-08-03, www.nightofthelivingdeadlive.com, August 2, 2021,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20210802091802weblink">weblink live, WEB, Wiegand, Chris, 2020-01-14, Cue the zombies! Night of the Living Dead remade in real time on stage,weblink live, 2021-08-03, The Guardian, en, August 3, 2021,weblink WEB, Tuesday, 3 August 2021, Ultimate Collision Of Form Brings Zombies And Cinema To Silo {{!, Scoop News |url=https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU2108/S00020/ultimate-collision-of-form-brings-zombies-and-cinema-to-silo.htm |url-status=live |access-date=2021-08-03 |website=www.scoop.co.nz |archive-date=August 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803165019weblink}}Legacy{{See also|Zombie}}File:Zombie walk Pittsburgh 29 Oct 2006.png|thumb|alt=A packed crowd in zombie makeup hold a banner reading, "World Record Zombie Walk, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 26, 2006, The It's Alive Show, Pittsburgh East Nissan, Monroeville Mall"|A zombie walk in Monroeville MallMonroeville MallRomero revolutionized the horror film genre with Night of the Living Dead; according to Almar Haflidason of the BBC, the film represented "a new dawn in horror film-making".NEWS, Almar, Haflidason, Night of the Living Dead (1968), March 20, 2001,weblink BBC,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20200818092337weblink">weblink August 18, 2020, June 24, 2006, The film ushered in the splatter film subgenre. Earlier horror films had largely involved rubber masks, costumes, cardboard sets, and mysterious figures lurking in the shadows. They were set in locations far removed from rural and suburban America.{{sfn|Jones|2005|p=117}} Romero revealed the power behind exploitation and setting horror in ordinary, unexceptional locations and offered a template for making an effective film on a small budget.{{sfn|Rockoff|2002|p=35}} Night spawned countless imitators in cinema, television, and video gaming. According to author Barry Keith Grant, the slasher films of the 1970s and 1980s 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) are indebted to Romero's use of gore in a familiar setting.{{sfn|Grant|2015|p=229}}The film is regarded as one of the launching pads for the modern zombie movie,{{sfn|Paffenroth|2006|pp=2-3}} and effectively redefined the "zombie".{{sfn|Stommel|2013}} Before the film's release, the term "zombie" described a concept from Haitian folklore whereby a bokor could reanimate a corpse into an insensate slave.{{sfn|Bishop|2006|pp=198-199}} Early zombie films like White Zombie (1932) combined this with racial and postcolonial anxieties.{{sfn|Boluk|Lenz|2011|pp=27, 32-34, 44}} Romero never used the word "zombie" in the 1968 film or its script—using instead, ghoul—because he said that his flesh-eaters were something new.{{sfn|Collum|2004|p=3}}{{sfn|Tudor|1989|p=101}}{{sfn|Poole|2011|pp=194-195}}WEB, Robey, Tim, George A Romero: Why I don't like The Walking Dead,weblink The Daily Telegraph, November 8, 2013, February 13, 2017, December 7, 2020,weblink live, The term "zombie" was retroactively applied to Night after its cannibalistic undead became the dominant zombie concept in the United States,{{sfn|Zimmerman|2013|p=78}} to such an extent that zombie has become a byword for concepts that failed to "die".{{sfn|Petsko|2011}}According to professor of religious studies Kim Paffenroth, Romero's antagonists broke with earlier traditions of "voodoo zombies" by having no human villain in control of the zombie and thus no potential to ever restore the monsters' humanity.{{sfn|Paffenroth|2006|p=3}} Compared to the vampires and Haitian zombies that served as inspiration, Romero's antagonists derive more horror from abjection, the disgust that arises from an inability to separate clean from corrupt. While the vampire myth offers a potential escape from mundane life, the zombie offers an infinite decay more abject than conventional death.{{sfn|Zimmerman|2013|p=78-80}} Cultural critic Steven Shaviro has remarked that—unlike with other movie characters—audiences cannot identify with the zombies because there is no identity left within their bodies, and that they instead provide audiences a combination of disgust and fascinated attraction.{{sfn|Stommel|2013}}{{sfn|Shaviro|2017|loc=§ The Seductiveness of Horror}}Critical analysis(File:Ben giving Barbra slippers in Night of the Living Dead bw.jpg|alt=Ben crouches to give shoes to Barbra who is sitting on the couch barefoot|thumb|Barbra and Ben after their first meeting)Since its release, many 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.{{sfn|Harper|2005}} Film historian Robin Wood organized "The American Nightmare"—a sixty-film retrospective combining screenings and director interviews to frame horror in terms of oppression and repression—for the 1979 Toronto International Film Festival. His essay from the program notes, "An Introduction to the American Horror Film", was highly influential, especially in film criticism where horror as a genre had not previously been considered a topic for serious analysis.{{sfn|Lowenstein|2022|loc=ch. 1}}{{sfn|Wood|Lippe|2018|p=181}} Wood interprets notable horror films including Night through a psychoanalytic framework.{{sfn|Wood|1985|loc=§ I}} He discusses how traits deemed unacceptable are repressed on the personal level or when not repressed, oppressed on the societal level.{{sfn|Wood|1985|loc=§ I}} He identifies repressed taboos and othered groups as the psychological basis for horror monsters.{{sfn|Wood|1985|loc=§ I}} Wood and later critics used this framework to discuss Night as a commentary on repressed sexuality, the marginalized groups of 1960s America, and the disruption to societal norms resulting from the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War.{{sfn|Higashi|1990|p=176-178}}{{sfn|Wood|1985|loc=§ II: Since Psycho, ¶ 4}}Elliot Stein of The Village Voice sees the film as an ardent critique of American involvement in the Vietnam War, arguing that it "was not set in Transylvania, but Pennsylvania – this was Middle America at war, and the zombie carnage seemed a grotesque echo of the conflict then raging in Vietnam".WEB, Elliot, Stein,weblink The Dead Zones: 'George A. Romero' at the American Museum of the Moving Image, The Village Voice, January 7, 2003, December 21, 2015, October 19, 2017,weblink live, Film historian Sumiko Higashi concurs, arguing that Night of the Living Dead draws from the visual vocabulary the media used to report on the war, noting especially that the photographs of the napalm girl and the execution of Nguyá»…n Văn Lém would be fresh in the minds of the film's creators and audience.{{sfn|Higashi|1990|p=184}} 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.{{sfn|Higashi|1990|p=181}} In 1968, the news was still broadcast in black and white, and the graphic photographs that appear during the closing credits resemble the contemporary Vietnam War photojournalism.{{sfn|Harper|2005}}Critics have compared the shooting of the film's black protagonist to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.{{sfn|Harper|2005}}{{sfn|Paffenroth|2006|pp=38, 157-158|loc=§ 39}}{{sfn|Kane|2010|p=36}} Stein explains, "In this first-ever subversive horror movie, the resourceful black hero survives the zombies only to be surprised by a redneck posse". In 2018, on the film's 50th anniversary, Mark Lager of CineAction noted a clear parallel between the killing and destruction of Ben's body by white police and the violence directed at African Americans during the civil rights movement. Lager described it as a more honest exploration of 1960s America than anything produced by Hollywood.WEB,weblink Night of the Living Dead & Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Race and Capitalism in Trump's America, Lager, Mark, CineAction, 2018, July 29, 2023, July 29, 2023,weblink live, Film historian Gregory Waller identifies broad-ranging critiques of American institutions including the nuclear family, private homes, media, government, and "the entire mechanism of civil defense".{{sfn|Dillard|Waller|1988|p=4}} Film historian Linda Badley explains that the film was so horrifying because the monsters were not creatures from outer space or some exotic environment, but rather that "They're us."{{sfn|Badley|1995|p=25}} In the 2009 documentary film Nightmares in Red, White and Blue, the zombies in the film are compared to the "silent majority" of the U.S. in the late 1960s.AV MEDIA, Monument, Andrew (director), 2009, Nightmares in Red, White and Blue, Nightmares in Red, White and Blue, motion picture, en,See also{{clear}}Notes{{anchor|Explanatory notes}}{{notelist|30em}}Citations{{reflist}}References
Further reading
External links{{Commons category}}{{Wikisource}}
| ||||||||||
- content above as imported from Wikipedia
- "Night of the Living Dead" does not exist on GetWiki (yet)
- time: 9:21am EDT - Sat, May 18 2024
- "Night of the Living Dead" does not exist on GetWiki (yet)
- time: 9:21am EDT - Sat, May 18 2024
[ this remote article is provided by Wikipedia ]
LATEST EDITS [ see all ]
GETWIKI 23 MAY 2022
The Illusion of Choice
Culture
Culture
GETWIKI 09 JUL 2019
Eastern Philosophy
History of Philosophy
History of Philosophy
GETWIKI 09 MAY 2016
GetMeta:About
GetWiki
GetWiki
GETWIKI 18 OCT 2015
M.R.M. Parrott
Biographies
Biographies
GETWIKI 20 AUG 2014
GetMeta:News
GetWiki
GetWiki
CONNECT
© 2024 M.R.M. PARROTT | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED