Review #171: Night of the Living Dead (1968)


This review was originally written in 2022.

Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #26: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

I watched (and reviewed) this movie for the first time last year, after hearing about it for decades. I was pretty lukewarm on it then, and on this re-watch I landed pretty squarely in the same place.

Night of the Living Dead isn't a BAD movie, by any means. I can tell it was treading new ground and just because it might not hold up to modern sensibilities doesn't mean it's BAD. However, the word I would use to describe it before anything else is "lackluster". The first half of the film is incredibly slow, with basically no dialogue (plenty of people talking to themselves, or a radio broadcast giving atmosphere while the characters mill about), and then the dialogue in the second half feels improvised, or lazily-written. There seems to be very little going on, to the point where in my memory this movie was shorter than a typical film (but to my chagrin, it's a solid ninety minutes). It really feels like a very simple idea was stretched out into full-length, and that idea seems to be "What if there were zombies?" And when they needed to stretch it out, they came up with such action-packed scene ideas as "What if there were zombies... over here?" and "What if there were zombies... over THERE?"

There are some nice little touches in here (having Barbra's brother show up as a zombie near the end came as a surprise, and the ironic ending stung, even if it makes everyone involved seem so inept as to be seemingly unable to do any of the things the movie says they did) but overall I just really think this was a lackluster film, and I feel like its success came not from its own merits, but from the creators taking these ideas and doing much bigger, much better things with them in the future. I think it's hilarious that the first movie zombie apocalypse was started by SPACE RADIATION FROM VENUS, and I think it's hilarious that the zombie outbreak is seemingly defeated by a dozen yokels overnight. Despite being the progenitor of the subgenre this film feels like a parody in all the best ways.

Also, a huge recommendation for anyone planning on watching this movie- WATCH THE BLACK & WHITE VERSION! I watched the colorized version last year, and it looked AWFUL. The black & white version is the far superior version.

Overall Rating: 4/10 Exploding Trucks

Most Memorable Quote: "They're coming to get you, Barbra!"

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