Night of the Living Dead is a low budget horror movie that was relased in 1968. It was written and directed by the great George A. Romero. Barbra (Judith O'dea) finds herself trapped in a farmhouse with a group of survivors as they try to protect themselves from hordes of flesh eating zombies. Barbra and her brother Johnny are in the cemetary visiting their fathers grave when Johnny starts teasing her and trying to scare her (They're coming to get you Barbra). They come across a man walking towards them very slowly, looking disheveled and like he's in a trance. Johnny runs past him while Barbra walks slowly and the man reaches out and grabs her. Johnny comes to her aid and tries to fight off the man. Johnny gets thrown to the ground and hits his head off of a grave stone and dies. Barbra runs away and finds a farmhouse in the woods. She runs inside while more zombies swarm the house.
There inside the house she meets Ben, and he tells her that he came from a diner that was surrounded by people that are like the ones outside of the farmhouse. By this time Barbra is totally out of it, acting strangely and insisting that her brother is still alive and they need to go find him. They trade a few slaps and Barbra passes out. Ben finds out that zombies are afraid of fire so he sets a few things on fire outside of the house to keep the zombies away. When Barbra wakes, two men (Mr. Cooper and Tom) emerge from the basement. They reveal they've been down there the whole time but were afraid to come up. Mr. Cooper tells Ben that he has a wife and a sick child in the basement and insists that they all go down there so they're safe.
Ben and the others decide to stay upstairs. They find a tv and watch the news to find out whats happening. They discover that the dead are coming back to life and feeding on human flesh and the only way to kill them is to shoot them in the head or burn them. There is a theory that radiation from a probe from NASA is causing the mutation and making people come back from the dead. They make a plan to try and escape by having Mr.Cooper throw malotov cocktails from the window to distract the zombies. Ben, Tom, and Judy (Tom's girlfriend) take the truck that Ben stole and go to the gas pump out back. They make it there but while Tom is trying to put gas in, he sprays it on the truck and the torch Ben had catches the truck on fire and it blows up with Tom and Judy in it. Zombies find the truck and start eating the remains of Tom and Judy. Ben makes it back to the house and boards up the doors and windows.
Ben finds out that Mr. and Mrs. Coopers daughter got bitten by a zombie and is worried that she may be carrying a disease. Mr. Coopers spazzes out and takes the gun while Ben is boarding up windows. They wrestle and Ben gets the gun back and shoots Mr. Cooper in the side. Finally Barbra snaps out of her haze and helps try to board up the windows but the zombies get in and she sees her brother Johnny. She thinks he's alive and tries to hug him but he takes her outside to the rest of the zombies (Whos hungry??) Cooper stumbles into the basement to check on his daughter but dies from the gunshot wound.
Mrs. Cooper goes into the basement to find her daughter eating the arm of her husband. Her daughter walks towards and her Mrs. Cooper falls down (typical) and her daughter stabs her with a garden tool (major over kill of mommy). The little girl then comes upstairs and tries to attack Ben, he barracades himself in the basment with the dead bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Cooper. Mr. Cooper comes back to life first and Ben shoots him in the head. Mrs. Cooper comes back seconds later he shoots her also. There are citizens and policemen walking around killing and burning the zombies. They come across the farmhouse and Ben hears them outside. He comes upstairs and looks out the window. They spot something in the window and shoot Ben in the head (Aint life a bitch?)
So this movie is really kinda cheese ballish. The acting is sometimes a little too dramatic and not really believable. Barbra got on my nerves because she kept spacing out and spazzing and grabbing at her hands and face throughout most of the movie..blahh! Some of the scenes where the zombies are getting killed aren't that good, but it did come out in 1968 soo...we've come a long way since then. There was a good amount of dead bodies, mostly zombies and a few unfortunate humans. There wasn't much blood, though there was a good bit when Helen Cooper got offed by her flesh eating daughter. There was a bit of nakedness, there was a butt shot of a naked lady zombie which actually kind of surprised me a little. I didn't remember that part.
But overall, I'd give this movie a 3 outta 5, you have to love the classic zombie movies. And I think I'd give it a 4 out of 5 on the it's so good it's bad scale. This is actually one of my favorite zombie movies. It's really old school but I love it. So thats that faithful readers. Don't forget to check out Zombie Zanes list of movie titles that are so bad they're good && his 7 nights of the best of the worst horror movies. And as always, check back next week for all new stuff at Dead End Horror.
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