Halloween Horrors: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD  (1968)
Directed by George A. Romero
Starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman, Keith Wayne, Marilyn Eastman, Judith Ridley
Not Rated (probably R-level, or close to, with disturbing content and horror violence).
SCAREmeter: 6.5/10
GOREmeter: 6.5/10
OVERALL: 3.5 out of 4 stars

Prior to 1968, zombies were an idea still solidly grounded in voodoo culture, and had only just become popularly known about thanks to the 1929 novel The Magic Island by William Seabrook and the 1932 Bela Lugosi-starring vehicle, WHITE ZOMBIE.  They were merely the dead raised from their graves via witchcraft, and forced to fulfill the bidding of the master who reanimated them.
After 1968, zombies were still the dead brought back to life, but by way of a brain virus, and now compelled to consume human flesh.  Any uninfected person could be killed and subsequently brought back from the dead as one of the infected zombies if bitten by one, and the only method by which the zombie could be killed was a devastating infliction to the brain, i.e. a bullet to the head or bludgeoning.  The origins of the modern notions of what a "zombie" is, can easily be traced to George Romero's feature film-debut, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD; a movie in which the word zombie is not used once.  In the film, the closest thing to a settled label for what these undead menaces are is "ghouls," but the source which Romero cites as having drawn inspiration from, Richard Matheson's 1954 sci-fi novel, I Am Legend, featured a similar infectious menace which were written as a variation on vampires.  I Am Legend has been officially adapted three times; the first two, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, starring Vincent Price in 1964, and THE OMEGA MAN, starring Charlton Heston in 1971, featured vampire-slaying heroes, but in 2007, the whole thing kind of came full circle, when I AM LEGEND, starring Will Smith, turned the vampiric monsters into something more closely resembling zombies.
The ultra-low budget film (one of many in contention for claim to the title of most successful independent film ever made, especially when accounting for the sequels and franchise that followed) takes place in one of the most classic of horror movie settings: a rural cabin.  Barbra (Judith O'Dea) is paying a visit to her father's grave with her brother (Russell Streiner) when they encounter one of the ghouls, which kills her brother, and Barbra manages to escape.  She arrives at the cabin, a farmhouse, in the middle of the countryside, catatonic and in shock, where she meets Ben, who, while frustrated with her hysteria, helps her, boarding up the house and cleaning out the mangled remains of the previous inhabitants.  After a while, Ben and Barbra discover other survivors hiding out in the cellar; teenage couple Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley), and a family, led by the hot-headed patriarch, Harry (Karl Hardman), and his wife Helen (Marilyn Eastman) and their daughter Karen (Kyra Schon), who's been bitten by one of the ghouls.  As the ghoulish hordes swarm outside the house, bringing impending doom, cool-headed Ben is consistently thwarted by self-righteous Harry, as they debate over what's to be done, while the radio and television provide updates on the happens of the outside world.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD has been analyzed time and again over the years, with much debate over the political subtexts of the film, identifying the ghouls as representations of capitalists, communists, counter-culturalists, bourgeoisie society, the military-industrial complex and what have you.  Whatever the intended or otherwise "true" political subtext of the film is, it would be hard to argue that there isn't one, considering ow obviously it suggests such things to viewers.  It speaks to whatever your sentiments may be.  Watching it recently, I couldn't help but consider how, in the context of the current government shutdown and deadlock between political factions in the federal government, Ben is the cool-headed but stubborn and frustrated "leader" in the house and not unlike Barack Obama and the Democratic faction, while Harry, in his passionate designs to be proved "right," no matter the collateral damage, and to see Ben fail, is not unlike the farther right realms of the GOP, particularly the so-called Tea Party.

My personal political sentiments aside, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was undoubtedly a politically significant film for placing an actor of African descent, Duane Jones, in the lead role, in a cast otherwise inhabited by white actors.  As Ben, Jones is the natural leader of the group, giving instructions and attempting to call everyone to their senses, a role that was unheard of for black persons even as the Civil Rights Movement was broiling.  Romero claims he had no such significant intentions, but that Jones had simply given the best audition, but the role was rewritten for Jones, who was a real-life academic, to make Ben more distinguished than the everyman truck driver he was in earlier drafts of the script.
Perhaps NIGHT OF LIVING DEAD's most significant contribution to the film industry, however, was its introduction of "realistic," graphic violence and gore that had simply not been dared prior.  At the time of its release, the Production Code of earlier years, which restricted the themes and content that could be depicted in studio releases since 1934 (it was instituted in 1930, but not enforced until four years later), had run its course, with movies like the graphically violent BONNIE AND CLYDE, the sexually-themed THE GRADUATE and the mature-themed IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT having all made big splashes at the Academy Awards for 1967.  NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD first showed in October 1968, and as was usual for horror movies (considered juvenile affair), was mostly shown as a matinee to draw in younger crowds.  What a big mistake.
By today's standards, the film is still pretty gruesome, even if the makeup effects aren't up to par with today's technology, but in 1968, it was just about the goriest movie people had ever seen.  There are grossly-mutilated bodies, ghouls devouring human organs, meaty bones and limbs, and a horrific moment in which a child murders her mother with a gardening spade, complete with splatters of blood (today's colorized version (which are mostly made for terrible people anyway) are even more graphic).  While today, the film is regarded as a classic, it was lambasted upon its release for its gory violence, with critics labeling it "an orgy of sadism," and citing it as an example of material that would be acceptably censored by a government-instituted film classification board.  Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, and America's rabid disdain for censorship balanced out that effect as the month following NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD's release finally saw the institution of the first MPAA rating system.  While colorized versions today are easily in R-rated territory, the original black-and-white versions still somewhat straddle the line between our PG-13 and R, with the latter ultimately gaining the upper hand.  The gore, not to mention some of the acting, is pretty corny nowadays, though.
For having had such a profound impact on cinema, not to mention pop culture itself, Romero has had a relatively unimpressive career, with nineteen directorial credits to his name and all of them firmly grounded in the horror genre, most them zombie films, and only the much gorier DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) held in nearly as high esteem.  But for as constrained as his talents proved to be, he managed to go farther than most with just a couple of hits.