A short review this time guys for George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, the original zombie flick that was actually quite good. This film, vastly superior to the 1990 Tom Savini version, doesn�t resort to tons of gore and well known stars to make it good, it's just really coolly done.
A group of ordinary Joes like you and I are trapped in a small, isolated farmhouse, as zombies try to kill them. The tension is great, not knowing when one of the fragile characters will crack, or when a zombie will break through the feeble defences. These guys have to board up windows, fighting the zombies off with all the resources they can muster, and this is what gives the movie a raw and real feel to it. A true battle for survival.
Hardcore horror movie maniacs might not like this film, as the gore is kept to a bare minimum. All we get are some dreary looking dead people, broken necks, an eaten body and some gun shot wounds - not much. However this film doesn�t really need all that gore, it is more a thriller than anything, very similar to another great film, Assault on Precinct 13.
As I said at the start this was the first good zombie flick, however nowadays there isn�t much to say for it. Braindead, The Evil Dead and Dawn of the Dead have all surpassed it in terms of gore, thrills and in Dawn's case, social satire. This doesn�t make Night of the Living Dead a bad film, just not one for people who expect too much. Instead it's one for people that enjoy a simple, nerve wracking film. |
