🧟‍♂️ Night of the Living Dead (1968)

“The one that built the graveyard” 🧟‍♀️🪦

Let’s start by showing y’all the trailer, shall we? 🎥

A Personal Pittsburgh Connection 🏙️
One small thing that does make me soften up a little toward Night of the Living Dead is its roots. George A. Romero was born in the Bronx, but he made his career in Pittsburgh — and the movie itself was shot right outside the city in Evans City. That’s probably the one thread of connection I have to this film. I genuinely like Pittsburgh, and now that I live here, it’s hard not to at least acknowledge the local legacy. Even if the movie itself doesn’t click with me, I can respect the way Romero turned this city into ground zero for a whole new genre.


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Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is often hailed as the birthplace of the modern zombie. Before 1968, “zombies” in film were more mystical or voodoo-based. Romero shifted the paradigm: reanimated corpses that crave flesh, spread infection, and slowly overwhelm society.

The movie follows a group of strangers trapped in a rural farmhouse as the dead rise outside. Their fragile alliance crumbles as much from infighting as from the monsters. It’s a bottle story of fear, mistrust, and survival when civilization collapses overnight.


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Character Rundown

Ben (Duane Jones) – Resourceful and practical, he naturally takes charge. His performance remains one of the film’s strongest points.

Barbara (Judith O’Dea) – Shell-shocked, quiet, and traumatized after the loss of her brother.

Harry Cooper (Karl Hardman) – Obstinate and paranoid, constantly clashing with Ben.

Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman) – Trapped between her husband’s stubbornness and their daughter’s fate.

Tom & Judy (Keith Wayne & Judith Ridley) – The young couple trying to help but caught in the chaos.



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Pacing / Episode Flow

The film is claustrophobic, mostly confined to the farmhouse, with tension rising as news reports roll in and the zombies outside multiply. Dialogue-heavy stretches alternate with sudden bursts of violence. For 1968, this was brutal stuff—grotesque corpse-munching and stark, unflinching deaths.


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Pros

🎬 Genre-defining: Without this film, there is no Walking Dead, no 28 Days Later, no World War Z. Romero set the rules: bites, barricades, hordes, and “shoot them in the head.”

🖤 Atmosphere: Grainy black-and-white cinematography adds grit and realism, almost like newsreel footage.

👏 Ben’s performance: Duane Jones brings gravitas, intelligence, and dignity—still powerful decades later.

💀 Bleak ending: Shocking for its time and still haunting.



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Cons (Softly Put)

⏳ The pacing can drag. Long stretches of arguing in the farmhouse may feel repetitive to modern viewers.

🎭 Some performances (Barbara in particular) lean heavily into “hysterical,” which can date the film.

🧟 Limited effects: By today’s standards, the zombies are tame. Back then, it was bold; now, it may come off a little stiff.

Con – Makeup? What Makeup?
Here’s the thing… people love to say “oh they had pale zombie makeup on.” But let’s be honest here: the movie’s in black and white. You can’t tell if they actually had makeup, powdered faces, or if it was just some intern told “hey, stumble around and look dead.” It’s redundant to even call it makeup when nothing stands out. The zombies just look like regular townsfolk pulling weird faces. Revolutionary film in concept, sure—but visually, the “horror” is nonexistent.


📝 Narrative simplicity: Once you know the setup, the story doesn’t expand much beyond “barricade and survive.”



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Final Thoughts

I respect Night of the Living Dead enormously for what it accomplished. It redefined horror, challenged censorship, and introduced social commentary (especially with its casting of a Black lead in 1968). It deserves its classic status, no question.

But… respect doesn’t always equal enjoyment. Personally, while I admire its place in history, the film doesn’t grab me the way other zombie stories do. It’s slower, more repetitive, and less engaging for me compared to later evolutions of the genre.

So my feelings are mixed: I appreciate it, I acknowledge its genius—but I don’t love it.


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Rating

6/10 – Iconic, groundbreaking, but not my cup of tea.


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Spoiler Warning ⚠️

Full spoilers for Night of the Living Dead below.


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Spoilers

The film begins with Barbara and her brother Johnny visiting their father’s grave, where Johnny teases her: “They’re coming to get you, Barbara!”—right before a zombie actually attacks. Johnny dies, Barbara flees to a farmhouse, and the nightmare begins.

Inside, she meets Ben, who quickly boards up the windows and establishes leadership. The tension really comes not from the zombies, but from Harry Cooper, the man hiding in the cellar with his wife and bitten daughter. He wants everyone to stay underground, while Ben insists the house must be fortified. Their rivalry escalates, and mistrust infects the survivors faster than the bites.

When Tom and Judy attempt a gas run to escape, their truck catches fire, killing them both. The Coopers’ daughter turns into a zombie and kills her mother with a trowel in one of the film’s most infamous scenes. Meanwhile, Harry and Ben’s feud ends violently—Ben shoots Harry in a moment of brutal finality.

Ben becomes the last survivor, enduring the night. But in the film’s devastating final twist, at dawn he’s mistaken for a zombie by a posse of armed men sweeping the countryside. Without hesitation, they shoot him dead, then toss his body onto a pile of burning corpses.

It’s not just a bleak ending—it’s nihilistic. Humanity is scarier than the monsters.