angelapillsbury If you watch this film and wonder...what exactly is the big deal...well you could not be more wrong. This is where the zombie genre began...with a film shot in black and white for less than a 150,000 dollars. The atmosphere is amazing which is what sold the film really and the actors are also good considering most were just side characters actors. George Romero started a franchise with this and even directed many other zombie films but this is where it all began. Its funny how the film is in public domain and anyone really can make a version of this and yet many have tried and failed to match the intensity and horror of the original. This is a must watch if you are a horror fan.

dougdoepke No need to echo consensus points. What a tribute to a bunch of non-Hollywood folks getting together to make a movie, (Romero's first). Seems like everyone in the cast already knew someone else there. The production was certainly a long way from the usual Hollywood spore, and one of the first really successful indies. Things just seem to come magically together, from casting, to great camera work, to spooky effects. My knuckles are still white from the latest viewing. I keep thinking there is some provocative subtext to the story, especially with Afro-American Jones in the lead role and playing a real hero. But I still can't find one. Instead, I think it's exactly what it appears to be: one heckuva fright film. The first and last parts are the best, concentrating on shudders the way they do. The middle part is more like human interest, random characters thrown together having to sort things out. Anyway, Romero did for Zombie films what Lugosi did for vampires. No, it's not as gory as most fright films of today. But the technique is perfect for the material, so catch how a bunch of near-amateurs manage to trump the professional Hollywood crowd.

lukechong Here is the cult classic of independent horror films, the 1968 "Night of the Living Dead". How low budget is low budget? Basically all you need is some extras, a few cars, an abandoned rural farmhouse and a great story spun around a few characters and a possibly radiation causing the unburied dead to rise. No big name stars, a masterful spine-tingling script which derives straight from your nightmare, and an imaginative director and cinematographer, coupled with a make-up artist who works well on tens of "zombie" extras. Especially fine are Duane Jones's performance as the leader of the gang, and Karl Hardman's as the cowardly, selfish father of the stricken child.The narrative is well structured, the ending in particular is grisly and the body count is high, in essence the denouement is ultra pessimistic, but all in all this is a very worthy entry into the zombie horror film. Not to be watched with any kids under the age of 12.

J Besser This movie shouldn't be as watchable as it is. You look up and you're an hour into it. Romero and company hit a homerun with their first at bat. The gross out stuff is not as gross as it used to be. In fact, it almost seems like a distraction now. Repeated viewing may have dulled the shocks for me but not the enjoyment...I'm old enough to remember when Living Dead aired on broadcast television the tv stations would put words on the screen during the news reports. They wanted the audience to understand it was not a real newscast and that it was just a movie.