Night of the living dead
Possibly one of the most important horror movies made. along with Psycho it dragged horror kicking & screaming from gothic melodrama & atomic monsters into the modern era with a level of brutality and rawness that had been missing from modern horror. Shot with a team of people more used to shooting commercials, the ability to shoot quickly and effectively benefits the film immensly. The opening scene of Johhny and barbara going to visit the cemetary only to be suddenly attacked and throwing the world into chaos is still effective today. Little clues are thrown, like the emergency broadcast that Johnny switches off. We see the Lurxching ghoul in the background of the scene. At first he seems to be someone who accidentally wandered into shot. It's only when he gets near we realise somethings wrong. The colourised version ruined things by making the lurching 'zombie' (they are never reffered to as that) played by Bill Heinzman luminescent green, so its clear he's some kind of monster from the start.
While Romero always seemed play down or dismiss the politics of the film, stating duane jones was simply the best actor in the Pittsburgh area, its hard to ignore his casting adds a lot to the film. The whole disperate group of characters who find themselves trapped in the remote farmhouse are ultimately doomed by their inability to work together. Given the political turmoil of the time with civil rights its almost hard not to draw paralells. If Mr Cooper and Ben could simply listen to each other the whole group might have lived.
Ultimately, if it had been the only film romero ever made it would have sealed his reputation as a master of horror. Its still a favourite of mine and never ceases to entertain me.
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