MOVIE DETAILS
Rating: 7.8 out of 10
Director: George A. Romero
Writer: John A. Russo, George A. Romero
Star: Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea, Karl Hardman
Genres: Horror/Thriller
Release Date: October 4, 1968 (United States)
Movies of the horror genre existed before Night of the Living Dead, but this film was unique in having characters who represented their times and its disturbingly graphic depiction of gore. In general terms, it is about a crowd that shut themselves inside a house hoping to get away from packs of ghouls prowling around for people to eat.
You may be thinking based on previous movies I’ve reviewed that this isn’t a movie about any Black person or with mostly Black actors. But it’s similar in nature to The Walking Dead where Night of the Walking Dead is just as much about the living relating with each other as they try to escape from the undead.
A man appears out of nowhere and starts walking towards them while Johnny jokes with Barbara about being scared at her father’s grave in a secluded cemetery. They don’t immediately realize he’s a ghoul until he gets really close and they touch him.
This leads into what I would call an “inevitable death sequence” which made me giggle. We have a middle-aged man in a somewhat dusty suit fighting a pretty nicely dressed younger guy wearing some very unattractive glasses. This was probably considered good acting at the time but now it just looks silly. The two men are literally holding onto each other and rocking back and forth while the camera moves with them trying to make it look like they’re fighting or something. It was pretty cheesy but over-the-top campy acting seems like it was just the style at that time when I look back on old movies.
I will never understand why in horror movies there will be situations where you have women running full speed and the monster or zombie is shuffling along yet somehow manages to catch up even if she doesn’t fall (10% chance). I liked how these ghouls weren’t quite mindless and could use tools though; that made things more interesting. Kinda like World War Z where zombies could run fast and pile themselves up to get over things.
Barbara gets away from the ghoul and takes refuge in an abandoned farmhouse nearby, but the ghoul follows her and is joined by a few more. Just when she seems done for, a Black guy shows up out of nowhere and helps her back inside to safety.
Ben arrives only moments after Barbara has entered the house, having been occupied with checking its rooms and the amount of zombies outside. He immediately springs into action asking about getting gas for his truck, trying to dial out with the phone, and searching for supplies around the house that could aid their escape. He fights back against them and plans how they can defend themselves if his idea of immediate escape becomes unworkable.
The character of Ben is one of the most iconic in film history, and particularly in the horror genre. According to director and screenwriter George A. Romero, Ben was not written as a Black character; Duane Jones was simply the best actor for the part, and so the character became Black. Normally and arguably still the hero of horror movies (and most movies) is white. That certainly was true until the ’60s and still holds true to some extent now, when even in films about a Black person or events from Black history there tends to be a White savior.
Having a Black man portray someone who is intelligent, well-spoken and brave was new. We don’t know much about Ben’s backstory; he seems harmless enough. But he and Barbara are alone in a seemingly empty house surrounded by danger outside of it. Traditionally speaking, Barbara might also be seen as vulnerable in the house with Ben. I can only imagine being in a theater watching Night of the Living Dead, seeing Barbara come apart, slapping Ben Ben slaps her back! People must have clutched their pearls and fainted.
Ben spends much time boarding up windows, lighting fires to keep ghouls away and clearing rooms out. When he’s almost done doing this, having woken from her unplanned nap upstairs, it turns out there are people hiding downstairs: local young couple Tom and Judy, Cooper family Henry (a middle-aged guy), Helen (his wife) and their injured daughter Karen (who looks about 9). Cowardice or self-preservation they heard all that noise upstairs plus a woman screaming but never went up or said anything.
They argue over whether they should hide back down here or stay on defense “upstairs.” The cellar is strong, there’s only one door to guard down here. But it cuts you off from outside life no one could escape if ghouls broke in whereas if you’re above-ground in the house, you can listen to the radio, see out and signal any help that might pass by or respond to attacks on ghouls. There are more doors to guard and more ways to escape.
Tom is the voice of reason who tries to mediate between Henry and Ben. Henry ultimately decides that he and his family will go down into the basement; he says he’s taking food and Barbara with him. Ben refuses to give him food or Barbara (though he doesn’t ask Barbara). They continue to argue, it escalates. Ben yells at Cooper, calls him stupid for wanting a plan like this. From a Black man at this time, Ben calling Cooper stupid would be considered “risque” speech.
According to Ben, Tom is right in suggesting that they stay upstairs and calls Judy from the top floor before Henry locks the door, yet he doesn’t give her a say. When Henry comes back downstairs Helen interrogates him about where he has been and then orders that they go back upstairs with everyone else so they can listen to the news reports. Like Henry, Helen proves to be opinionated but not a person of action.
From this point forward the group starts using the whole house as an element of their strategy to defend their current position while trying to create an escape to a local help station that has been set up.
The three young adults leave the house in order to gas up the truck so that they can try to reach one of the aid centers. The Coopers stay behind in order to keep attention on themselves and keep the house safe. Once their plan fails Henry has a moment where he seals himself and his family inside safety; leaving them outside. Ben gains entrance and re-secures the house with Henry’s help. But when Tom doesn’t intervene, the two factions start fighting again and end up turning on each other.
Ben is still willing to go out and try to find help even if it means walking a mile with Karen on his back. As for Helen and Barbara, one minute they are scared then next minute worried about their family members. Meanwhile, Henry offers nothing new while once again pushing for hiding in cellar. Throughout this film he tries being leader only because he wants control but his plan is always just hide he shows himself as willing ghoul-fodder for self-preservation.
The group watches news report that says government isn’t just waiting for people to get local safety/aid centers anymore; law enforcement has created local militias moving through community eliminating any ghouls they come across; people advised can prevent wakening living dead by lighting dead bodies fire before reanimate; shot in head destroys ghoul. In essence best plan moving forward not just run hide but defend yourself. So Ben was right.
Everything goes to shit and Ben finds himself fighting for his life inside the house as well as against the ghouls outside. Eventually he is able to regain control of the situation and in an ironic twist has to hide in the cellar overnight for safety. But the cellar has already been foreshadowed as a death trap. When morning arrives so does the militia and they clear out the zombies; however, as feared Ben is cut off from outside and upon emerging from cellar he is immediately shot down in a wild but true plot twist.
The last version I saw, the militia sees movement in the house and shoots Ben through an open window. But I know that when I first saw it a few years ago, Ben stepped out the front door and was relieved to be saved and shot down. The curtain blows and you can’t see Ben very well so this is still shocking but makes the militia seem jumpy. He’s clearly visible and walking just fine in the other one but gets gunned down as soon as he steps outside. This bothered me even more because of what’s under it; like they came out on purpose.
Night Of The Living Dead constantly puts Ben under attack from two fronts: ghouls that should be his allies who he has to save himself from.
When Ben is trying to help Barbara early in the film she attacks him in her hysteria so he has to defend himself against her. They accidentally leave him while he’s trying to put out a fire outside with Tom and Judy, who don’t listen when he tells them to get out of the truck until it’s too late. Henry locks the door which puts him at risk of getting trapped outside with ghouls when he tries to get back inside after them. So then Ben physically attacks Henry back into line after this betrayal by him not letting him in, but instead of backing off Henry goes for a gun.
It sticks out that Tom, Judy, and Barbara are all eaten by ghouls but all of the Coopers die safe within their cellar “home” only to become undead themselves. Ben ends up having to kill them all since they’re reanimated and still defending “home.”
He tried saving everyone while they fought him every step of the way but eventually ended up alone left there against his will where he didn’t want to be buried alive until morning coming out surviving death again:D . And once again those bastards killed him people supposed! who should have represented safety and security for him.
There’s a part where Ben tells Barbara they need to get away from the house and ghouls to someplace with more people. It doesn’t say it, but regular people. You can tell Ben sees safety in people still after everything that happened, he never loses hope in them no matter what he’s been through. Henry is an antagonist because he sees Ben as a threat to his authority while the militia also serves as an antagonist due to their dehumanization of him. What this shows is that by the end of this thing we know the living will ultimately prove just as deadly if not more so than any zombie ever could!
One thing that is interesting in Night of the Living Dead is that, though there are women present they’re are mostly useless. Ben, Henry, Tom and the militia for that matter are the ones who come up with most of the defense against zombies as well as ideas. For a lot of when we see them on screen they’re just scared and not really doing anything to help or participate at all. But at one point she does show some courage and actually more than him rushes outside to help Tom and Ben.
At the beginning of the movie Barbara is hysterical while Ben boards up all the windows and doors himself. They go upstairs from the cellar to see what’s going on when they first reveal themselves, Tom and Henry do. Where they’ll put themselves within The House in addition to where they’ll put Women within The House is planned by the men. They plan it out, assign roles and women don’t really play any kind of part in leadership.
Later we find out that not only is the militia all white but it’s also all male. In situations like this men would traditionally be expected to defend against attackers therefore protecting women and children. And so we see here throughout this film. But some men are more fleshed out there’s more detail to them whereas with females—they don’t serve much purpose really They’re just plot devices.
Also Ben wasn’t supposed to be Black but he ended up being played by a black actor which was significant for many reasons I think ultimately led or at least contributed heavily towards making Night of The Living Dead a cult classic later on down history line somewhere along those lines probably maybe if not definitely these words might one day come true possibly who knows?? If he had instead been another young white male character named Ben… I feel like this wouldn’t have been as complex because there wouldn’t be much talk about it let alone debate over different interpretations regarding its meaning like we can do now so yeah it would’ve just been a regular horror movie.
Night of the Living Dead isn’t great but casting one black actor in this lead role did add some undertones, implications and complexity to it. It really changed things up for the movie and what it meant to film as well as brought out certain connotations within story itself.
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