Posted on Friday, 11 November 2011

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (Romero, 1968) - BF and I have a fairly dreadful cold, so we decided to make it a zombie double feature. This one’s more interesting as a historical artifant than as an independant movie, to be honest: not only does it set up all the rules for dozens of zombie films to come, but it already features many of the now standard tropes of the genre: little children that cannot be trusted, sudden zombiefications, and the surviving humans being each others worst enemy. Some things are even more progressive here than since: in most horror movies, the black guy (if present) is one of the first to die, but here, he’s the only purely heroic figure. The movie was also even more cynical and gruesome than I’d expected, though the 40+ years distance dulled the impact somewhat. 

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (Romero, 1968) - BF and I have a fairly dreadful cold, so we decided to make it a zombie double feature. This one’s more interesting as a historical artifant than as an independant movie, to be honest: not only does it set up all the rules for dozens of zombie films to come, but it already features many of the now standard tropes of the genre: little children that cannot be trusted, sudden zombiefications, and the surviving humans being each others worst enemy. Some things are even more progressive here than since: in most horror movies, the black guy (if present) is one of the first to die, but here, he’s the only purely heroic figure. The movie was also even more cynical and gruesome than I’d expected, though the 40+ years distance dulled the impact somewhat. 

2 notes

  1. notesonfilms posted this