Night of the Living Dead - 1968

I just finished watching this movie...  Obviously seen before, but you know what?  It's not obvious.  Because I watched it with someone only a few years younger than me, and they had not seen it before.

Night of the Living Dead is of course essential.  I was watching this with several different "horror glasses" on as I saw it.  Number one I listen to Paul Sheer and Amy Nicholson's podcast Unspooled, which is reviewing the AFI top 100 films.  I like that they grade them, in part, on how innovative, imitated, and newness the movies on there brought to the proverbial table.  And holy shit, did this bring a lot to the table, the table being horror as a genre.

Black main character, black sole survivor, nudity, blood and guts, squibs, dialogue, the entire zombie genre as we know it.  Zombies that not only ran and walked and were intelligent, but ate flesh and spread the disease through biting.  This movie invented an entire lore, and straight out of the gate nailed it. Not only that, it invented an entire sub genre of movie.  Also, the handheld camera work, the character driven plotline and the minimalism in setting and idea.  The list is too long to name.

This movie would be good no matter what genre it was in, and be that it's horror, it really pushes the envelope.  There is so many things to talk about, whether it's the strongly defined and strongly acted main character, or the use of silence as a tool for fear, or the lack of explanation as to the "reason" this is happening.  Whether it's the real human interaction that defines the characters, or their realistically failing most of their attempts to do anything.  I think there was a ton here that was so insanely realistic, that in a way that itself was innovative.

George A. Romero became a somewhat household name, horror got thousands of movies and TV shows and books and ideas, and in 2020, 28 year old Rashida Ali saw it for the first time and enjoyed it, everything except the acting from some people which was theatrical and didn't age well.  Duane Jones though, is awesome.

It's movies like this that make me wish I rarely had used the five star rating in this blog.  I wonder how many 5 star reviews I've given out anyways.  And then, what is my most common review?  Anyways, movies like this deserve so much more than a simple five star rating.  This deserves to be in the AFI top 100.  The top innovative movies of all time.  Best independent movies ever.  Best horror movies list, naturally.  Either way.... 5 stars.