“They‘re coming to get you Barbara…”

Night of the Living Dead is George A Romero’s 1968 horror classic, which defined what we quintessentially know of as the ‘Zombie Genre’. Originally titled ‘Night of the Flesh Eaters’ (only to be re-named just before its release), this landmark film had a profound effect on the Horror genre. ‘Night’ would go on to spawn five sequels, a remake, and a revision.
Since the 1980’s several attempts to colourise the black and white classic have been made, including a recent full 2D to 3D conversion (the first of its kind). There have been countless imitations, spin offs and parodies that makes this firmly grounded in our recent modern pop culture. Not bad for a little film that cost a moderate $114,000 to make, by a small company from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania U.S.
The Plot
One summer evening in Pennsylvania a couple: Barbra (Judith O’Dea) and Johnny (Russell Streiner) drive to a grave yard when they are attacked by a ghoulish looking man (Bill Hinzman). As Johnny struggles with the ghoul he falls and smashes his head on a grave stone killing him, leaving Barbara running for her life. As darkness draws in, Barbara takes shelter in a farm house where she is surrounded, then she is pulled back into the house by Ben, played by (Duane Jones) who helps barricade them inside the apparent deserted home.

Barbara and Johnny in the graveyard in Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Struggling to seal the farmhouse and fathom what is going on, and why they are being attacked, a radio broadcast announces that the dead are returning to life and eating the flesh of their victims!
Ben and Barbara hear noises from inside the house, fearing that the walking dead have infiltrated the farm.
They are surprised to find out that a married couple Harry (Karl Hardman) and Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman) and their daughter Karen (Kyra Schon) have been held up in the cellar all along with Young couple Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley). Harry and Helen’s daughter got injured during a prior attack, leading to heated debate between the characters as to whether they should lock themselves in the cellar or try and hold the house in order to survive.
The characters try various attempts to flee their new prison resulting in the barn, and a truck exploding. As the walking dead break into the house our leads must not only battle the ghouls, but also Harry and Helen’s daughter. Karen, who we find out was bitten in a previous attack, has been resting in the cellar, unknown to the others she has died.
After Karen comes back from the dead and eats her mum, the rest of the cast are killed one by one leaving only Ben still holding his ground. The police that turn up to cull the dead, hear Ben moving around in the house and shoot him thinking he is a zombie. As the credits roll we see shots of the sheriffs shooting the ghouls and burning their bodies.

The Birth of the Modern Zombie
Night of the Living Dead is credited with creating the modern zombie archetype. Before this film, zombies in cinema were primarily based on Haitian folklore—supernatural creatures created by voodoo magic, often depicted as mindless slaves under the control of a malevolent force. However, Romero’s zombies were a different breed entirely. They were not controlled by anyone, and they represented a new kind of terror: the unrelenting, insatiable horde.
Romero never actually refers to the creatures in the film as “zombies”; he calls them “ghouls.” However, the term “zombie” became widely associated with Romero’s creatures due to their dead-but-animated nature, their mindless pursuit of human flesh, and their inability to be killed except by destroying their brain.
The concept of a global zombie apocalypse—where the dead rise en masse and humanity faces extinction—was born with Night of the Living Dead. This new breed of zombie would inspire countless films, books, and TV shows for decades to come, most notably in Romero’s own subsequent “Living Dead” series and contemporary works like The Walking Dead.
Innovation in Independent Filmmaking
Another important aspect of Night of the Living Dead is its role in shaping independent cinema. Romero made the film on a shoestring budget of around $114,000, with a small crew and mostly unknown actors. The film’s gritty, documentary-style look, shot in stark black-and-white, added to its sense of realism and immediacy. This raw, unpolished aesthetic was a far cry from the polished horror films of Hollywood’s golden age, and it contributed to the film’s unsettling atmosphere.

Night of the Living Dead demonstrated that a low-budget, independent film could achieve massive success and have a lasting cultural impact. Upon its release, it became a box office hit, earning over $30 million worldwide, an impressive feat for an independent production. The film also became a staple of the midnight movie circuit, solidifying its status as a cult classic. Its success paved the way for other independent filmmakers to take risks, and its DIY approach influenced countless horror directors in the years that followed.
Social and Political Commentary
One of the most significant elements of the film is its casting of Duane Jones, a Black actor, in the lead role of Ben. Romero has stated that Jones was cast simply because he was the best actor for the role, but the implications of his presence are impossible to ignore. In 1968, having a Black man as the central hero in a film—especially one where he takes charge and outsmarts his white counterparts—was groundbreaking.
The fact that Ben is killed at the end of the film by a group of armed white men is chillingly reminiscent of the racial violence and lynchings that were still very much a reality in the United States at the time. The stark, almost documentary-like imagery of Ben’s body being thrown onto a pile of burning corpses resonates with the racial tensions of the 1960s, making the film’s conclusion both tragic and socially poignant.

Beyond race, the film can also be seen as a critique of Cold War paranoia and societal breakdown. The survivors in the house are not only fighting the zombies outside but also each other. Harry Cooper’s insistence on hiding in the basement, against Ben’s more proactive plan to defend the house, leads to internal division, reflecting the era’s deep political and generational divides. The zombies themselves could be seen as a metaphor for the faceless masses, a fear of conformity, or the impending doom of nuclear war—an existential threat that mirrored the anxieties of the Cold War era.
The Legacy of the Dead
Fifty two years may have passed, but Romero’s zombie classic is still as powerful and scary as ever. Interestingly, the word “zombie” itself is never uttered; the word used to describe the dead by the characters in the film is ‘ghoul’.
Re-watching this classic, I am reminded that there is something special about the way it is shot, the eerie music and the black and white image it is presented in. The ‘zombies’ stylistically had not yet been as developed in look, certainly not as much as seen in the subsequent entries in the series.
After the first 15 minutes they are there as a barrier for our characters, keeping them confined, so they could then play off each other. Defiantly not as gory in explicit carnage as the following titles, the emphasis is more on how the characters and their different personalities react to each other, mirroring different politics.
The sequel Dawn of the Dead is well known for commenting on our expanding consumerism within society. The further entries in the franchise continued this tradition that is evident as a seen in Night of the Living Dead. Commenting on the segregation within the population, and its contemporary social politics about race within the U.S. is clearly hinted at in the background of the film.
The black and white look helps to almost swallow up the ghouls as they creep, groaning out of the night, and also allows the audience to focus on the main characters where they battle amongst themselves. It’s hard to imagine how effective this film must have been for the first 1968 audience. It’s even harder to look at the movie and appreciate it without the shadow of its much revered sequel.

As I mentioned earlier, there have been several attempts to colourize the classic, and in 1990 a remake was produced. Tom Savini, who further developed and enhanced the zombie effects for ‘Dawn’ and ‘Day’ was given the director’s chair, with the emphasis on making it in colour and a much more gory film.
The character of Barbara was toughened up and given the hero role over the original character of Ben. The first film was co-authored by Romero and John A. Russo. The remake was re-written by Romero alone, and although not a bad film, it has none of the noirish and creepy atmosphere that is present in the 1968 version.

Not critically well received on first release, ‘Night’ went on to become a very profitable film which did well at the box office and haunted audiences all over the globe. In 1999 Night of the Living Dead was added to the U.S. film registry.
On a closing note, Night of the Living Dead was originally titled Night of the Flesh Eaters, but this had to be changed just before the release, due to the name ‘Flesh Eaters’ already being in use elsewhere. As a result the copyright was never carried over to the film when released, and it has remained in the public domain until this day. Over the years hundreds of different distribution companies have been able to package and sell the film without the need to acquire the right to do so. This not only carried from VHS to DVD, but now also in the world of the internet the film can be freely viewed and enjoyed online.
Here is the full movie for you to enjoy for free…
Well, that’s our review of Night of the Living Dead
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