Night of the Living Dead (1968) Review

"They're coming to get you, Barbra!"

-Johnny

While visiting their father's grave, Barbara (Judith O'Dea) and her brother, Johnny (Russell Streiner), are attacked by a murderous ghoul, which kills Johnny.  Barbara is forced to seek shelter in a farm house where she runs into several other survivors.  The group clashes with their different ideas on how to survive the night and as the crowd of ghouls outside gets larger, their odds of survival quickly diminish.

What Works:

Night of the Living Dead is the first modern zombie movie and the impact this film has had our our culture cannot be overstated.  The monsters in this movie are called ghouls, but they are what we know as zombies, re-animated corpses with a taste for flesh.  Without this film, we wouldn't have things like The Walking Dead or Left 4 Dead.  This film is extremely influential and it was fun to go back and revisit it.

Duane Jones plays the protagonist, Ben, and he works well in this role.  Jones gives a great performance, especially with his monologue about his first encounter with the creatures.  He's also pretty competent, manages to keep his cool and makes mostly smart decisions.  He's very easy to root for.

Even though this film is very low-budget and we've seen way more impressive zombie attack sequences in recent years, the attack scenes in this film work very well and are exciting.  The music, the acting, the lighting, and the cinematography all come together to give us some exciting and intense sequences.

Finally, the ending of the film is a major downer, but in a good way.  Ben, our hero, who we've been rooting for this entire time, gets shot in the head by a mob of men out hunting the ghouls and mistake him for one.  It's a major bummer, but it gives the film something to say about race, whether it was intentional or not.

What Sucks:

The biggest problem in the film is the second act.  It's very boring.  Once Ben and Barbara start boarding up the house, we go a very long time without anything exciting happening.  It's painfully dull.

To go along with that, most of of the dialogue in the second act is repetitive.  It's mostly just Ben yelling at Harry Cooper (Karl Hardman) and Cooper calling everyone else a fool.

Finally, Barbara is possibly the most worthless character ever.  Once Ben arrives at the house, Barbara spends the rest of the film in shock or in hysterics.  She contributes virtually nothing to the film and is very annoying.


Verdict:

Night of the Living Dead is a classic and hugely influential film, but it's not without its flaws.  Barbara is an awful character and the second act is very dull and repetitive, but Ben is a solid protagonist, the attack sequences are exciting, and the ending is wonderfully tragic.  This film is a classic for a reason and, for the most part, has got it going on.

 7/10: Good