Night of the Living Dead is such an Amazing Classic

Over the weekend, I fired of my Night of the Living Dead criterion. It was my first time viewing this film, and I was blown away at how well this movie stands the test of the time, and the low budget and black and white actually enhances the tension and drama.

One of the interesting tidbits I got from the criterion is that the filmmakers decide to cast a black man as the lead hero had nothing to do with making a race statement. He was simply cast because he gave the best audition. That's how it should be. And his performance was truly outstanding and authentic.

The thing I love about this movie is that once you get past the campy premise of radiation turning people into flesh eating ghouls, the movie does a great job of putting the viewer into their shoes with realism. I constantly keep asking myself what would I do in this situation. Well I probably would stay out in the open space, but then you wouldn't have much of a movie. Instead they board themselves in which plays on a feeling of claustrophobia.

I was surprised to see that one of the zombies was a completely naked woman. Would this have been very shocking to see in a movie back then? Granted, it was 1967 so maybe it wasn't taboo by then. I also learned that Keith Wayne, the guy who played Tom, committed suicide not long after recording the audio commentary for the criterion. Kinda makes things more chilling.

Submitted May 29, 2018 at 08:36PM by TWD41 https://ift.tt/2xoeSSL