Before The Walking Dead, 28 Days Later, Resident Evil and decades of zombie movies, there was Night of the Living Dead.
This week on Radness Rewind, Nick and I go back to 1968 to revisit George A. Romero's legendary Night of the Living Dead and talk about just how much of the modern zombie genre can be traced back to this movie.Barbara and her brother Johnny visit their father's grave when they're suddenly attacked by a mysterious man. Johnny is killed, Barbara escapes to an isolated farmhouse, and before long she meets Ben—who quickly realizes something is very wrong outside. The dead are getting back up. From there, we're talking boarded-up windows, people mysteriously hiding in the cellar, news broadcasts explaining the outbreak, questionable survival decisions, exploding trucks, zombies eating people, the Cooper family from hell and one of the bleakest endings in horror history.We also get into how Romero was still figuring out the rules of his creatures. They use objects, they're afraid of fire, some of them behave differently than the zombies we'd see in later movies, and the mythology audiences now take for granted was still being developed.And despite the low budget, there is a LOT here that works.Duane Jones is excellent as Ben, the confined farmhouse creates a great atmosphere, the characters constantly fighting among themselves keeps the tension high, and the black-and-white photography gives the entire movie an eerie quality that still works decades later.Some effects have definitely aged.And Barbara... Well... Barbara spends a lot of this movie looking like she mentally left the building several hours ago. But Night of the Living Dead is a classic for a reason. It's fascinating watching so many pieces of the modern zombie movie coming together before anyone really knew what the rules were supposed to be.Rest in peace, George Romero. This one's for you.🎬 Watch Radness Rewind:https://linktr.ee/retroradfilms📅 New Radness Rewind episodes every Friday📚 New Goosebumps reviews every Monday⚡ New Shorts throughout the week#NightOfTheLivingDead #GeorgeRomero #ZombieMovies #RadnessRewind #RetroRadFilms