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The dead start to come back to life. A group of people take refuge in an old farm house and argue over what the right course of action might be. Soon it becomes obvious that the greatest threat to everyone isn't the zombies outside, but the arguing and strife within the house. NOTLD remains a classic to this day. Most horror movie fans admire it and anyone who calls themselves a zombie fan holds it in the highest admiration. This movie also broke some of the racial barriers in movies at the time with the character of Ben, who is one of the first Black protagonists in movie history. Ben is who most audience members will identify with, and so when he is killed at the end of the movie we, the audience, are disappointed. Every horror movie needs to have a character that we sympathize with and that we want to see survive, and Ben is that character in NOTLD. Another positive in NOTLD is that is isn’t just about zombies. The people Ben is trapped in the house with are just as dangerous as the living dead outside. This formula is common place in most zombie movies these days, but it was ground breaking when NOTLD was released. Most horror/sci-fi movies at the time featured a monster or monsters, which were the greatest threat to the main characters.
As NOTLD unfolds, Cooper turns out to be the greatest threat to Ben and the others. Cooper is one dimensional in terms of characterization, but what saves him as a character is that he was right in what he was saying. We learn near the end of the movie that the basement was the safest place for them. The irony of Ben taking refuge in the basement as zombies overrun the house is a thing of beauty. The greatest irony though is when Ben emerges from the basement and is shot by white people who think he is a zombie. If that isn’t a social commentary for the time, I don’t know what would be.
This movie was made in black and white, and while I don’t mind that at all, some people might find that to be a turn off. As well, colorized versions of the movie tend to look lame and lose a lot of the good creepy atmosphere present in the black and white version. If you hate black and white movies, then this one isn’t for you. Another drawback to the movie is that it was a low budget movie, meaning some of the makeup and gore effects aren’t that great. However, there are other gore effects in this movie that are amazing considering the budget. Another side effect of the low budget is that some of the acting isn’t very good. For example, the actor who played Cooper seems to just yell a lot, which just adds to his character being one dimensional.
I wouldn’t be doing this movie justice if I didn’t talk about how another character is one dimensional as well. In the remake, the character of Barbara has a lot more lines and actions than in the original. Here Barbara plays a woman who spends a lot of the movie in shock from seeing the dead walking. It’s almost the typical “weak woman who is in need of saving role” that a lot of horror/sci-fi movies from the time are filled with. The more I watch this movie, the more I find myself pleased every time she is pulled out the door and presumably torn apart outside the house by a pack of hungry zombies. Her character just annoys me, but she does eventually wake up and help Ben and others at the most crucial time. So I guess her character could be seen as more social commentary by Romero, since most female characters at the time in this genre would have just stayed in shock and been killed without any struggle. Even if this is true, her character still annoys the hell out of me.
Regardless what anyone thinks, this movie set the standard for almost every zombie movie to come after it. No longer were zombies a product of voodoo, but they were just a gang of flesh craving bad-asses, who didn’t need a reason for being. As well, it became the trend in most zombie movies after this to have humans being the main threat with the zombies in the background ready to feast as soon as the humans were done screwing each other over. In other words, I would recommend this movie to anyone.
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