31 Days of Horror: Night of the Living Dead (1968)
“They’re coming to get you Barbara…”
Every year on Halloween, I watch Night of the Living Dead (1968). It’s a tradition of mine. I absolutely love this film. For so many reasons, this film tops my list of favorite horror films. It’s easily in my top five films of all time.
If you’ve been living under a rock for the past 55 years, Night of the Living Dead is the film that started the entire Zombie genre. Directed by George A. Romero and written by John A. Russo and Romero, this film invented the slow walking, reanimated corpses that had one purpose in unlife: eat every living human.
The film starts with Barbara (played by Judith O’Dea) and brother Johnny (played by Russell Streiner) going to place flowers at the grave of their father. While doing that, they come upon a zombie that attacks them. Johnny dies in the conflict and the zombie chases Barbara to an abandoned farmhouse. She’s soon joined by Ben (played by Duane Jones), Harry and Helen Cooper, and couple Tom and Judy. As a group, they have to work together to survive…. THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.
Spoiler alert, they don’t.
Not because the zombies kill and eat them all. Oh no. It’s because they can’t work as a team.
