Night of the Living Dead - Revisited!

 

I had a brief encounter with George Romero, or as he's known to his fans "the Godfather of Zombies" - the creator behind the iconic "Night Of The Living Dead (1968)" and an ongoing onslaught of these shambling flesh eaters for the next four decades... "Dawn Of The Dead (1978)", "Day Of The Dead (1985)", "Land Of The Dead (2005)", "Diary Of The Dead (2007)" and "Survival Of The Dead (2009)"... 

It was at one of those comic conventions, Big Apple Con 2006? I think... not sure - where I also met Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark (Cassandra Peterson) and Major Healy from "I Dream Of Jeannie" (Bill Daily) - I would much rather had met Barbara Eden - but anyway... no doubt he's heard this a MILLION times - but as he was signing his autograph to the Night Of The Living Dead cast and crew photo you see above I said something like "You know, you scared the SHIT outta me with this movie!" and without missing a beat (as if he was taking what I just said LITERALLY) he looked at me through those big Sally Jessy Raphael glasses and apologetically quipped "Oh.... SORRY about that!!"

 

But yeah... okay, In reality I DID manage to retain bowel control - but he really DID scare me - - over and over and OVER again. And I can say with absolute certainty, and without hyperbole - he really DID create the modern day ZOMBIE. No one can argue that. Without George Romero there would be no Walking Dead comic or TV series of the same name - which in itself went on longer (and continues to go on in spin-offs) much longer than ANYONE had anticipated.

What IS IT with these zombies that captures the hearts and minds (not to mention, the brains and spleens) of so many? Back in 1967 when Romero set out with his film crew to that little farmhouse south of Pittsburgh he had absolutely no idea that HIS concept of zombies was going to be such a huge cult phenomenon - often copied, elaborated on, and cemented firmly into the eternal canon of unforgettable monster troves loved by millions.

 

PRE-ROMERO ZOMBIES

Prior to Romero's concept zombies were more "magic" than science. They were more or less, to put it plainly, arguably NOT dead at all - but helpless individuals... stripped of their free will... controlled by and repurposed to do the bidding of their captor. They were basically robots, put in their predicament by sometimes nothing more than mind control - other times via supernatural means? Ask anyone in monster circles worth their salt what the first pre-Romero zombie movie was, and they'll tell you "White Zombie" (1932)... and that's pretty much how they remained until about 35 years later.

A pre-Romero Zombie, 1932

 

ROMERO'S VISION

It's difficult to surmise if Romero set out to intentionally create a new genre of zombie - or if his "Night of the Flesh Eaters" (as it was originally titled) was just interpreted that way - and it stuck. Either way it certainly didn't hurt his career and he gladly accepted the notoriety. No matter whatever else he did he would always be known for his zombie pics.

 

ENTER ZOMBIE #1

When we're introduced to zombie #1 (as it was listed in Romero's script) it took EVERYONE by surprise. When Barbara and her brother Johnny go to the Evans City Cemetery to pay their respects to their recently departed mother, Johnny (being somewhat of a jerk to his sister) insists on scaring her by pretending the dead all around them are after her, by saying the iconic line of the movie "They're coming to GET YOU, Barbara!" In the distant background we see a figure of a man walking through the cemetery - who is, at this point, seemingly just another "visitor". "Look! There's one of them NOW!" Johnny says. She tells Johnny to "stop it!" and warns, "he'll HEAR you!" They have NO IDEA what's about to happen...

When zombie #1 comes closer Barbara is too ashamed to look directly at him - and when it lunges at her Johnny intercedes and wrestles with it - falls backwards - and hits his head at the base of a tombstone. Zombie #1 seems more interested in Barbara and pursues her - leaving Johnny behind. At this point, we (the audience) are just scared witless - who IS this man? WHY is he acting like that?  Barbara flees, loses her car and shoes - and ends up running into a nearby farmhouse - crazy man in relentless pursuit. Something is DEFINITELY wrong with that guy - but no one knows .....WHAT!??

 

 

 

Barbara finds a half-eaten corpse on the second landing and goes to run from the house - where she meets Ben, who is also running from the dead, who are now appearing in greater numbers. They discover more people hiding in the basement. No one knows WHAT'S GOING ON or WHY...  Romero plays with the audience by leaving much of the horror off-screen. We only get to HEAR about the individual encounters with the dead that these people have gone through. Then there's the radio... that radio that plays an integral part in the movie.

As my buddy Joey pointed out years ago, the eerie news reports coming in over the radio add much to the movie's sense of anxiety. To hear the confirmation that the recently un-buried dead are coming back to life and attacking (and in EVERY instance, EATING) the living was a horrifying nightmare in which to come to terms with.

Joey pointed out that when he first saw NotLD when he was just 13 years old, during the radio broadcast scenes, the network showing the movie superimposed the disclaimer "A DRAMATIZATION" that scrolled across the bottom of the screen - as if ANY ONE tuning in might actually think the news reports were REAL... and that the dead were actually COMING BACK TO LIFE! Imagine that... as if the movie wasn't terrifying ENOUGH... NOW it had us imagining what could very well be just beyond our own window blinds!

 

TEAM SLOW or TEAM FAST?

Some years after the first NotLD, with the popularity of video games and their need to keep gamers engaged, a newer rendition of zombies have cropped up - or more accurately, a different variant... zombies moving at hyper speeds - running, chasing, darting at and tearing apart their victims like wild animals. This led to debates among zombie fans everywhere, splitting into two different camps. The zombie purists (like myself) preferring Romero's original SLOW moving zombies VS the FAST moving zombies as depicted in movies like "28 Days Later" and the 2004 remake of "Dawn Of The Dead" by Director Zack Snyder. You had to pick a side. I opted for SLOW moving zombies with a multitude of reasons to back me up (and yes... I know how sad that sounded just as it came out of my mouth...)

The OOBs pretending to be zombies.

 

DEAD or ALIVE?

Firstly, I argued that fast zombies could hardly be categorized as zombies at all. To me, they weren't so much reanimated dead as they were "infected". What other explanation could be given that would make someone move QUICKER "dead" than they could EVER have moved when they were "alive"? Throughout all of Romero's zombie movies (and in most ways even throughout The Walking Dead, which for the most part follows Romero's template) there is SOMEWHAT of a logic that remains intact. 

With Romero's slow-moving zombies, once you're re-animated you come back NO physically different (aside from black rings under your eyes and perhaps a pale complexion) than you were BEFORE - most notably NO additional strength, NO added vigor - and you DON'T suddenly become Usain Bolt! Your body moves as if some force is pulling you along - you move spastically.

With the fast-moving types - one might argue that they're not dead at all... they just caught some really bad "rage virus" that turns them all into Tasmanian Devils. Face one of those, let alone a whole bunch of those, and you'll quickly be outrun and torn to pieces. Sure, that might SOUND like a scary thing - but in my humble opinion something shambling towards you with racoon-eyes is much scarier. When I first heard about AMC's Walking Dead and learned that they were following George Romero's zombie guidelines, I knew it was going to be something I could get behind. Unfortunately, Romero himself - when asked to participate in the writing of a few episodes for The Walking Dead series, respectively declined.

ANOTHER LOOK

Watching NOTLD again just before writing this brings up a few things I should mention. I've already gone through the fact that Zombie #1 played by Bill Hinzman is one of the CREEPIEST zombies I've EVER seen. It's his depiction that beautifully sets the whole creepy tone for the rest of the movie - and creates somewhat of a zombie precedent for the whole franchise. Watching it again today I realized that he's really not all that slow. He actually pursues poor Barbara with a fair amount of speed and unwavering persistence. While Barbara manages to outrun him, it's not the speed that worries you - it's that these things don't tire. They don't need to sleep and quite frankly - besides chasing you they don't really have anything else to do! He stumbles, jerks, spins about stiffly - doesn't know where the hell he is - eeshh, even thinking about him now gives me the willies. Let's move on from zombie #1, shall we?

Another thing I realized while watching this again - these zombies in the FIRST NOTLD movie - there's not a single scene where they attack anyone and BITE. You only hear on the radio about them eating their victims. There is a scene where two victims blow up in a truck as they're trying to pump gas to make their escape - and after the fire subsides the zombies can be seen reaching into the smoldering truck and pulling out pieces of them and eating - but at this point it's more or less a barbecue, isn't it? Even the little girl who dies in the basement (I'm going to assume anyone reading this has already seen the movie) doesn't bite her mother, she actually picks up a trowel and plunges it into her chest. Okay, she does eat her dad's arm off - but that's mostly off-screen.

 

FROM NIGHT TO DAWN

By the time Romero gets to "Dawn Of The Dead" ten years later you DEFINITELY see things in that film that you simply can NOT unsee. The only time I've EVER found myself feeling queasy - and I'll never forget it - is that scene in the beginning of the movie where a woman runs up to her husband (not realizing he's dead) and he takes a BITE out of her throat! I saw this in the movie theater and I remember hearing the entire audience SCREAM!

I mean the whole audience actually SCREAMED!!!

Again.... full circle back to George Romero signing my picture. I should of added he almost made me toss my cookies! But that was Dawn Of The Dead - a much gorier picture - back to Night Of...

 

It's creepy - and the creepiness doesn't happen due to any excessive in-your-face gore - because yes, there is SOME, but to today's standards it's really subdued. The zombies, aside from their behavior, and a little dark make-up around their eyes - look just like your Aunt Matilda, and George your neighbor who lives down the road. Maybe that's what makes it creepy. They're people you know...

...but they're NOT.

 

There's also lots of social commentary that people can easily read into the movie, which was in part by design but mostly happenstance - as Romero explained - the real-life assassination of Martin Luther King Jr happened just prior to the film's release. Although the script never mentioned race, the lead character, Ben, played by actor Duane Jones, is black - and there is palatable discourse between him and Harry Cooper, played by Karl Hardman, the white father of the family featured in the film - who Ben ends up shooting.

NOT WHAT YOU WERE EXPECTING

The film's ending took many audiences at the time by surprise - Ben survives the night, only to be mistaken as a zombie in the morning and shot in the head by a gun toting posse sweeping the area. The movie ends with disturbing, grainy stills of zombies (including Ben) being impaled on meat hooks and thrown on a bonfire - while a canned, echoey soundtrack plays, intermixed with the sound of walkie talkies makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up on end. The End.

Now.... try going to sleep.

 

THANK YOU, MR. ROMERO...

 

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