Thursday 2 August 2012

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.

4 comments:

  1. Trivia Time: The word "Zombie" is never used in the film!

    However it still is a fantastic film that has led on to a fantastic series of films, however I have not seen the 1990 remake with Tony Todd.

    I'm going to have to watch the original tonight :)

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    1. LOL - I don't know how many films actually say zombie. I know when I was writing I did everything I could to avoid it as it just sounded so weird. I think I used it like 3 times *wanders off to document* *edit, find* *types, zombie* Okay, more than I thought. 14 times, but generally used in a non-serious way. Not bad though in 58,000 words though :P

      And I don't remember watching any of the remakes - the Tony Todd one is supposed to be the best of them though so I fancy watching the Candyman kicking zombie butt (or maybe getting his butt munched on *ponders*) I met him once, he's as scary in real life as in the movies LOL

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    2. The Candyman would kick all that zombie butt! Saw Tony Todd at a Collectormania once, he is a giant of a man!

      The remake of Dawn of the Dead is very very good but only because it has Ving Rhames in it....who is awesome in everything he does!

      I've thought about what to call 'them' too, we refer to them as 'zombies' but that's because they are not real...so if we didn't have zombie films or books what would we call them?

      Most film an TV series are trying to move away from the 'z' word...

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    3. Yeah, I saw him at the NEC for a memorabilia show :)
      I loved the remake (though it is really different to the original which has always been one of my favourites)- I love Jake Weber in the remake (my character Noah Weber was named after him LOL)
      Ving Rhames is indeed awesome, but not even his awesomeness could really help the Day of the Dead remake - so bad it almost got good LOL.
      I just couldn't use the Zed word without thinking how corny it sounded. In the end I used things like monsters, creatures, freaks, zombie-freaks, animated corpses, undead monsters, dead man, infected and various combinations of all of them lol

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