30 Days of Horror: George A Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Is there really any better movie than Night of the Living Dead? Seriously?! Night of the Living Dead is everything you want in a horror movie. The original B&W classic is a simple idea perfectly executed.

Gore aficionado, writer/director George A. Romero is innovative and masterful here. From the start with Barbara and her brother visiting their mother's grave, the two are attacked by horde of zombie. The fright begins and never let's up.

So what makes Night of the Living Dead so great? Let's break it down:

• B&W cinematography ~ Screw Technicolor! What Romero does, playing up the negative spaces with grace. The unfolding cinematography without choppy edits raises the bar. He successfully builds a isolated, claustrophobic feel that terrorizes as much as the zombies.
• Effects/Gore ~ The splattering, limb gnawing, impalement, fire--it's all effective and horrifying.
• Human elements ~ First the collective strangers in the farmhouse--they have to come together for survival, but at the same time there are all these sub-sets of people. Whether divided by race, age, or an unknown suspicion, it plays on the audience's fear--acceptance.
• Social commentary ~ Night of the Living Dead works on two levels. One is simple full-on horror. But you could also take it in context of the 60s decade and Romero would seem to address political issues of the day head-on as well.
• Farmhouse ~ It becomes a character unto itself--as a barricade between the living and the dead, but it also becomes a crutch for our characters
• Cast, both dead and alive ~ Sure, they are virtual no-names. A definitive plus; however, there are genuine performances from them all. These zombies set the bar by which all others are measured. Perfection.
• Sound/Score ~ Even watching Night of the Living Dead with the sound turned off is hair-raising. The ominous score adds another haunting touch, but notice how Romero slowly removes forms of communication from the picture furthering the isolation.

Finally, the ending. Night of the Living Dead leaves you breathless from start to finish Fear and tension mounting, climaxing to an unfolding of one of the greatest mind f^cks you've ever seen--one that begs a rewind, again and again.

Night of the Living Dead is THE movie to see for any self-professing cinephile or horror fan. A low budget masterpiece, this is the movie that started it all.