Zombies! #2

2. Night of the Living Dead.

Ah, a classic.

Johnny: They're coming to get you, Barbara, there's one of them now!

This must be the oldest zombie movie I've ever seen (or that I at least remember seeing), but it definately wasn't the first. Even today, forty odd years on, it's still a decent movie. Okay, for the Hostel generation it might not be quite enough gore and guts, but there are still some pretty decent scares/tension and death/being eaten scenes.

Field Reporter: Chief, if I were surrounded by eight or ten of these things, would I stand a chance with them?
Sheriff McClelland: Well, there's no problem. If you have a gun, shoot 'em in the head. That's a sure way to kill 'em. If you don't, get yourself a club or a torch. Beat 'em or burn 'em. They go up pretty easy

The zombies are slow - but strong and gradually more and more of them. They are menacing just because they won't go away and linger around looking hungry, and as is the unfortunate case with human beings, the people trying to survive make mistakes. Just happens that make a mistake in this movie and you turn yourself into a snack before you can say 'zombie apoalypse'! I really like how 'real' it's made to feel with the documentary style addition of reports from newscasters and interviews with scientists and the groups going out to try and kill the zombies as our survivors watch the TV and listen on the radio. The group themselves is a crazy mix of men and women, each is a little sterotypical, the hero, the coward, the sick one, the hysterical one, the silly bloody woman that should have stayed inside *shakes fist* but I suppose being stuck in a farmhouse with a bunch of people you don't know and surrounded by a zombie horde might make you a little gaga.

Ben: They know we're in here now.

Ben, the hero, is certainly the standout character for me - he is the one most in control of himself and obviously back in the day, having a black guy playing the lead was an exceptional thing indeed. 
Anyone who cals themselves a zombie or horror fan will have seen or needs to see this movie. It's great stroy telling and first in a fantastic series by Romero. A must for all fans. It's harrowing and has an ending that seriously, in it's own messed up way, is bloody brilliant.