Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Average Rating: 8.6/10
Reviews Counted: 50
Fresh: 48 | Rotten: 2
George A. Romero's debut set the template for the zombie film, and features tight editing, realistic gore, and a sly political undercurrent.
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 1
George A. Romero's debut set the template for the zombie film, and features tight editing, realistic gore, and a sly political undercurrent.
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 115,649
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Movie Info
When unexpected radiation raises the dead, a microcosm of Average America has to battle flesh-eating zombies in George A. Romero's landmark cheapie horror film. Siblings Johnny (Russ Streiner) and Barbara (Judith O'Dea) whine and pout their way through a graveside visit 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 group of people are already holed up. Bickering and panic ensue as the group tries to
Oct 1, 1968 Wide
Apr 12, 2005
Continental Distributing Inc.
Watch It Now
Cast
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Judith O'Dea
Barbara -
Russell Streiner
Johnny -
Duane Jones
Ben -
Karl Hardman
Harry -
Keith Wayne
Tom -
Judith Ridley
Judy -
Marilyn Eastman
Helen -
Kyra Schon
Karen -
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S. William Hinzman
Cemetery Zombie -
George A. Romero
Washington Reporter (un... -
John A. Russo
Washington Military Aid... -
Charles Craig
Newscaster -
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Night of the Living Dead Trailer & Photos
All Critics (50) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (55) | Rotten (3) | DVD (37)
Although pic's basic premise is repellent -- recently dead bodies are resurrected and begin killing human beings in order to eat their flesh -- it is in execution that the film distastefully excels.
George Romero's remarkably assured debut, made on a shoestring, about a group of people barricaded inside a farmhouse while an army of flesh-eating zombies roams the countryside, deflates all genre clichés.
Over its short, furious course, the picture violates so many strong taboos -- cannibalism, incest, necrophilia -- that it leaves audiences giddy and hysterical.
I felt real terror in that neighborhood theater last Saturday afternoon. I saw kids who had no resources they could draw upon to protect themselves from the dread and fear they felt.
Chuckle, if you can, during the first few minutes; because after that laughter catches in the throat as the clammy hand of terror tightens its grip.
Top CriticThe dialogue and background music sound hollow, as if they had been recorded in an empty swimming pool, and the wobbly camera seems to have a fetishist's interest in hands.
Subjects us to the kind of unrelenting nightmare we only wish we could wake up from.
It's pitch perfect in writing, mood, and scares, and still holds up to scrutiny, no matter how harsh.
It's a virulent portrait of an America in flux and decay, from the flag billowing near the graveyard at the start to its disturbing depiction of a lynch-mob mentality. But Night also transcends its period through sheer intensity.
The original and the best.
"Night of the Living Dead" became a seminal film without being a particularly good one. It nudged horror movies away from creepy-but-family-friendly into adult films featuring gruesome violence and nihilistic overtones.
Oft-copied zombie classic is still intense and gory.
The racial subtext spoke volumes in 1968. Once the zombies start knocking, only a fool would cling to segregation.
Romero saw the enemy, and they are the zombie masses among us. There is nowhere safe to hide.
The Rifftrax DVD (adding humorous audio commentary to George Romero's classic) is not the disaster one might have feared.... Even if you are vaguely offended by their choice of target, you will have to laugh...
One of the most nightmarish films ever made, and one that's still hard to laugh off today.
George Romero set a new standard for horror with this low-budget opus.
This little seat-of-the-pants regional production chewed up and spit out taboos like raw meat in a feral feeding frenzy.
Arguably the greatest horror film ever made - and one of the greatest in any genre - 'Night' is also the ultimate B-movie.
This shocker from 1968 is a time capsule of our fears from yesteryear.
There's a brute force in Night of the Living Dead that catches one in the throat.
It is an amazing achievement considering the dozens of like minded efforts that crammed their way into drive-ins and dives during the same period.
Seldom have so many pundit parses and public praises owed so much to so little as in the case of the career-launching 'Night of the Living Dead.'
A quarter of a century old and it is still absolutely terrifying.
Audience Reviews for Night of the Living Dead
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Johnny: They're coming to get you Barbara.
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- Ben: I ought to drag you out there and FEED you to those things!
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- Newscaster: It has been established that persons who have recently died have been returning to life and committing acts of murder. A widespread investigation of funeral homes, morgues, and hospitals has concluded that the unburied dead have been returning to life and seeking human victims. It's hard for us here to be reporting this to you, but it does seem to be a fact.
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- Ben: Now get the hell down in the cellar. You can be the boss down there, but I'm boss up here!
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- Johnny: They're coming to get you, Barbara, there's one of them now!
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- Johnny: [in a creepy voice] They're coming to get you, Barbara!
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Foreign Titles
- Night of the Living Dead (1968) (CA)
- La Nuit des morts-vivants (FR)
