For no apparent reason, corpses are rising from the dead and going on a rampage of murder throughout the Eastern United States. A group of seven people find themselves boarded up in a country house as these "ghouls" try to break in. The plot is ingeniously simple in it's structure, but subtly complex in its execution. Most of the drama takes place within the home and the conflict between the inhabitants. In a way, this is just 12 Angry Men (1957) with zombies.
Although these creatures are never actually referred to as zombies. They are called either "ghouls," "assassins," or some other title of that sort. Regardless of what they are actually called, they are in fact zombies. While not the first zombie movie by any means (that title goes to White Zombie), it is the one that really launched the sub-genre into mass appeal.
Night of the Living Dead is often considered to be the first modern horror film. Now what that means is that the way in which it was shot represented the sort of template from which future films followed. This includes the use of handheld camera work, deeply psychological horror that reflected the current political climate, heightened level of violence, and an overall more "aggressive" quality to it.
The zombies in the film are generally understood to be a metaphor or the atomic age. There was a constant fear that World War III was going to erupt and all civilization was going to be wiped out with nuclear weapons. The foreboding doom of the zombies waiting outside of the house while most of the town has already been wiped out is what most vividly represents this. The climax of the film also stands to illustrate a sort of explosion of death that would come with the dropping of the bomb. The image of walking corpses could also symbolize the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War. All of Romero's subsequent zombie flicks carry political allegory.
Shot in black and white, the photography heavily uses shadows to create the dark mood of the film. It almost looks noir-ish at times. This also helps to make the special effects just as believable now as they were in 1968. For the devoured corpses, the crew used real meat covered in chocolate syrup. Yummy. The special effects artist, Tom Savini would later go on to do the effects the the latter two Dead films, and directed a remake of the original in 1990. The remake seems pretty unnecessary. Especially since Savini has stated in interviews that black and white is scarier but shot the remake in color.
This is the sort of movie that is ideal for the drive-in or a midnight screening. It was shot for a super low budget and it looks it, but in a good way. The way it was shot gives it a sort of raw, here-and-now quality that the digital format allotted 28 Days Later. From the start, Night of the Living Dead is terrific fun that expertly paced throughout while run time. This is one of the fundamental classics of the genre and one that any fan absolutely must see.
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