Night of the Living Dead

The Night of the Living Dead' is a film about the dead returning from the grave after being exposed to high levels of radiation, and proceeding to walk the American landscape in search of human flesh. It was filmed on a low budget, with unknown actors and a library soundtrack. But it was directed by George A. Romero, a director of immense talent who turns what could have been B-Movie hokum into a modern masterpiece.

The film works for two reasons. Firstly because it is genuinely scary and disturbing. The ghoulish undead are terrifyingly relentless in their slow, mindless pursuit, and the photography is shadowy, menacing and unflinching in its matter-of-fact portrayal of violence. The violence in this film is shocking. Shocking because it is so real - not just in its depiction, but in its nature. Unlike many horror movies, where death is delivered mainly to those that in some way deserve it, or who have diced with it, 'Night of the Living Dead' avoids such moralising. People die in this film who do not deserve to die - and their deaths are random, cruel and unjustified. Just like real life.

The other reason this film works so well is that it is essentially the story of a group of people thrown together in a time of crisis, and of the tensions that arise as a result. As such it is a powerful snapshot of a period of American social history, and of the failings and strengths of human nature that have been around since the dawn of human kind. The house in which our protagonists find themselves trapped becomes a microcosm of the world they once knew outside. We see a family man hiding in the cellar while people are attacked above him - and remember how curtains close when trouble is heard on the street. We see the mistrust with which the group treat the leadership of Duane, the film's central black character. We see in every scene something which reflects what we know.

The film is paced well. It opens slowly, presenting us with a horrific encounter in a graveyard, then leaving us hanging, afraid and confused, before it reveals the scale of the horror which we are about to witness. And then all hell breaks loose in a frenzied, terrifying battle for survival.

But the worst horror is saved for last, in the most talked about scene of all, a climax which resonates with the same chilling power today as it would have done to audiences in 1968. It is a scene which leaves us wondering who the true monsters are - us or the zombies.