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Cast: Judith O'Dea, Russ Streiner, Duane Jones, Karl Hardman, Keith Wayne, Judith Ridley, Marilyn Eastman, Kyra Schon
Running Time: 95 mins.
Vault: FEATURES
WARNING: Contains scenes of gore, graphic violence and gruesome ghouls! When unexpected radiation raises the dead, a microcosm of Average America has to battle flesh-eating zombies in George Romero's landmark cult classic horror film. Siblings Johnny and Barbara whine and pout their way through a visit to their father's grave in a small Pennsylvania town, but it all takes a turn for the worse when a zombie kills Johnny. Barbara flees to an isolated farmhouse where a family, a teen couple, and a lone man named Ben (Duane Jones) are already holed up. Bickering and panic ensue as the group tries to figure out how best to escape, while hoards of undead converge on the house; news reports reveal that fire wards them off, while a local sheriff-led posse discovers that if you "kill the brain, you kill the ghoul." After a night of immolation and parricide, one survivor is left in the house ... . Romero's grainy black-and-white cinematography and casting of locals emphasize the terror lurking in ordinary life; as in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), Romero's victims are not attacked because they did anything wrong, and the randomness makes the attacks all the more horrifying. Nothing holds the key to salvation, either, whether it's family, love, or Law. Topping off the existential dread is Romero's then-extreme use of gore, as zombies nibble on limbs and viscera.
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