HALLOWEEN REVIEW OF THE DAY: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Night of the Living Dead is often considered the essential zombie movie. I am not sure if it is the first but what I do know is that it is definitley one of the most famous. When I saw this film for the first time, I have to say I had a pretty interesting experience. For one, most of the characters, I CANNOT stand! There's a family with the father who thinks he's the smartest person in the hiding house, and is completely obssesed with basement, even though hiding in the basement wouldn't be such a good idea. But the biggest idiot out of them all is the girl who does nothing but cry, sit, and do nothing. Even though there are millions of zombies wandering around outside, she STILL wants to go outside and find her brother, even though it's obvious to everybody else and especially to the audience that he probably got turned into a zombie. And you know what, that does happen...AND SHE STILL GOES TO EMBRACE HIM, EVEN THOUGH HE CLEARLY IS A ZOMBIE!! I'm starting to think this film started usual horror cliches about stupid people getting themselves into trouble, which to be honest, I can't stand. I can't stand when the cliches are used to death and you can see the upcoming events in the film from a mile away. I'm usually a fan of horror films that don't use those cliches or jump scares, but instead ones that uses the method of messing with the audience's head, ones that have clever ideas about the supernatural, ones that are successful in being dark and gothic, and overall treats the audience with respect instead of giving them cheap gimicks.  But maybe I'm a little harsh because I do really like this film for a couple of reasons. One is the suspense and feel of the film. Despite the stupidity of the side characters, the film's tone succeeds in still being suspenseful and gothic. It really makes you think about being put in the shoes of these characters. It makes you think how would you act and what would you do in a situation like this. Like I said, I love films that decides to be adult and serious about situations like this and in effect makes the audience, especially myself, to ponder about these things. The scenes with the zombies are great too, and due to the suspense built throughout this movie, the zombies come out in the right scenes at the right time, making them the absolute show stealers. The other and probably the most prominent reason why I like this movie, is the main character. He is the ONLY character that actually has a brain in this film. I wonder if the zombies already ate the brains of the other characters, because clearly they have none. The main character is smart, likeable, brave, wise, and a leader. And the fact that he is a black African-American makes this film stand out from the rest of cliched horror films where, you know "the black guy always dies first". I have to admit after the first time watching this, I was highly upset about the ending, which I will NOT spoil, because as time passed I realized how truly and geniusly effective it was and the feeling director George Romero wanted the audience to feel. This film may have started many of the cliches seen in cheesy horror films we see these days, but George Romero did in fact make an adult and supsenseful zombie horror film, with little budget too, despite it's flaws and side characters. Definite brain food on how a horror film or especially how a zombie film should be made. Grade: P+