NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
This has never been my favourite instalment in George A. Romero's original walking dead trilogy. It was slow, the picture quality was always second rate, and the special effects were limited. But that's why I need to revisit it every so often. Despite these short comings, or at least my memory of them, it's a movie that can never be forgotten. It does more with less and the results are a more nightmarish story than its sequels offer. Plus the home video release restored by the Criterion Collection looks way sharper than ever before. The grittiness of the film is now crystal clear, its long dark shadows are darker than ever, and the rotten flesh and dripping blood is more pungent.
It's still a slow moving picture of course. But that's what makes it all so powerful when things go awry. Barbra (Judith O'Dea) is separated from her brother Johnny (Russell Streiner) when a stranger attacks them during a cemetery visit. The man is apparently in a trance, and it's soon clear that he's not alone. These are flesh eating ghouls, straight from the local mortuary. You know it, and I know it. But the story plays it straight and drip feeds the viewer clues as things go on. It lacks a self-knowing sense of irony, which is hard to imagine these days. It's also hard to imagine this being watched by audiences in a time before age ratings. The shock value from seeing a dessicated corpse is one thing. The cannibalism reveal is something else entirely.
But before we get to all of that we've got to consider the cast of characters. Those shambling strangers outside are an enigmatic mass. The folks hiding from them indoors on the other hand, are all too familiar. As Barbra goes into a catatonic state of trauma, she's rescued by chance when Ben (Duane Jones) runs out of gas outside. Beyond the gruesome remains in the house they're forced to shelter in, it's a pretty stagy first act. The dripping corpse is still kind of amazing today, even if there's a continuity gaffe later when Ben moves it. Still, it's a perfectly mysterious portent of death. But the two new acquaintances giving their back stories does feel a bit like amateur theatre for a while. The first act is uneven like this, but things quickly improve.
Harry Cooper (Karl Hardman) soon lights things up by causing an immediate character conflict. Perhaps parts of his delivery aren't totally believable, particularly when he declares there could be 'fifteen million' ghouls outside. But it's a believably twitchy and cowardly performance, from someone was in reality one of the movie's producers. As Ben and Harry start to argue over how to protect themselves the core of the story becomes obvious. It can be read as an allegory for racial tensions or simply as a tale of communication breakdowns and clashing human egos. With the end of the world on their doorstep it turns in a dysfunctional domestic dispute. There could be any kind of unknown threat outside the door, and people somewhere would act like this.
Harry's wife Helen (Marilyn Eastman) provides a counter point to all his paranoid posturing. She's clearly sick of his nonsense, and delivers a lot of acerbic jibes at his attitude. Judy (Judith Ridley) and Tom (Keith Wayne) are the least memorable characters. They're here just to provide a bland teenage romance element that isn't compelling. Although they do provide some literal fireworks during one of the main set pieces. So in a way they're also some of the most memorable ingredients, just for other reasons. However this mixture of different voices means that Barbra's inert mental state is just one part of the situation. Rather than being a 1960s cliché she's just one part of the bigger picture, as everyone reacts differently to the crisis.
But enough of this textured character driven narrative, what about the gory monster action? It's true that there are no mind blowing (often literally) Tom Savini effects here. But again less is more. It's a very sinister film, and there's a bleak atmosphere pervading every scene. It's less White Zombie and more Last Man On Earth. The ever hungry undead themselves, some disfigured, some naked, some strangely curious, don't get a lot of screen time. Action is reported rather than seen, and they shamble about aimlessly for long stretches. However, this means that when their true nature is finally revealed it remains a gruelling sequence. Perhaps it's the electronic noise heard in those parts of the score, perhaps it's just the way their victims are already immobilised.
The shocks only get compounded as the story reaches it's climax, with the fate of Harry's daughter and various other survivors. Maybe that slow easy going pace from the first half wasn't so bad after all. Of course what's in the movie may be less important than its long lasting impact on popular culture. It would be certainly be felt ten years later. But nothing that came after has the same kind of eerie sci-fi Outer Limits vibe. The sequel is a classic for other reasons, but it doesn't include the same kind of monochromatic gloom, or the echoing music. There are certainly no references to radiation from Venus. Some things can just never be imitated, including this unique space age atmosphere. It's not a fun movie, but it is a classic one.
4/5
BONUS REVIEW
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990)
Meanwhile here's one that does try to repeat the original, sometimes to a fault. But this time around it definitely is a fun movie. The zombie effects are some of the most decayed looking ever done by Tom Savini. The pacing is better and they've made Barbra (now Barbara, played by Patricia Tallman) a more energetic character. It has several new elements without straying too far from the source material. So why isn't this as exciting? In some ways this is a forgotten remake, left behind in the wake of remake effects extravaganzas like The Thing and The Blob. But compared to these radical re-imaginings perhaps it's just too slavish to the original. It's never overblown in terms of horror spectacle, which means it's sort of redundant.
There's no real shock value coming after the truly grotesque Day of the Dead. Meanwhile the character dynamics are basically the same. Now we are told who's house it is that everyone is trapped in. Now the gross cadaver upstairs is given a name. But it's irrelevant when the same conflict between Harry and the others plays out. Only now he's a real villainous jerk instead of a scared loser. In fact everyone is more aggressive and loud all the time for some reason. All these moments are tweaked slightly, and they all lose something in the process. Harry's daughter looks older, which diminishes the horror. Barbara is more proactive, which does the same thing. The zombies look super gnarly right from the start, which means that there's no build up or suspense before their nature becomes clear.
I know they're dead, and so do you. But the story should still have a slow reveal if they're keeping so closely to the plot Romero, and supposedly Russo, put together all those years earlier. Less is more, but this sits in a strange middle ground. The chilled graveyard atmosphere is gone, but it hasn't been replaced by any super explosive action or spectacle. It's a restrained affair so you can enjoy this as a prequel before moving onto Dawn and Day. The effects will ramp up accordingly, which in some ways is pretty interesting. But the mystery elements have been lost, which means you'd probably want watch this out of sequence anyway. All the atmosphere and nuance is missing. So while it's watchable, in the end it's just another horror movie, instead of an essential.
3/5
