So you like gory and scary films eh? Do you anticipate and watch with glee or close your eyes and look away when that zombie creature is about to pluck the visceral organs of its screaming and squirming victim? Either way, you would still want to watch and see what’s going to happen next because zombie films are that good. It is soooo damn bad that it is THAT good. George A. Romero is regarded as the person responsible for the whole zombie genre and all of its sub-genre because of Night of the Living Dead, a low-budget black-and-white film which he co-wrote and directed on 1968. Night of the Living Dead heavily influences the modern pop-culture zombie films and spawned several sequels and countless knockoffs and remakes. It tells of the story of the efforts of Ben and Barbra (yes, spelled just like the Streisand) and five other people to survive the night from the recently dead while trapped in a rural farmhouse in Pennsylvania. Sounds familiar? Yes. Because this is also the same plot of most zombie films that you have already seen or will see in the future.
You can watch Night of the Living Dead in full over at YouTube because of a copyright brouhaha way back then. You can read all about it here. Also, you can download it at archive.org.
This film won’t be in the National Film Registry and be deemed “historically, culturally or aesthetically important” for nothing. Watch it. Don’t forget to turn off the lights.