Night of the Living Dead

⭐ 7.5/10

(Originally written by Joseph)

It's spooky season so it's time to break into one of my favorite genres: post-apocalyptic zombie movies! And where better to start than essentially the first one? This movie was made in 1968, but it was an indie movie made on a shoestring budget and so it honestly looks and feels like an early 50s movie. But this movie was massively influential on the horror genre and brought zombies to the big screen so I had to see it!

This movie is important for history, but is it actually good today? Hard to say. It's certainly not too scary by modern standards, though some of the "gory" scenes are still a little disturbing. This movie was widely criticized for being too graphic and violent back then, and although it would be super tame today, it's still just a little yucky seeing zombies eat intestines and organs, even if they look super fake. Still, they build up suspense pretty well, always having the radio or tv going in the background showing the world falling apart. It's also a one-location movie which I always enjoy.

This movie was also known for being one of the first blockbusters featuring a black lead, and while that's cool, the movie is also a bit problematic in other ways. It's maybe minor, but the lead punches the girl in the face for being whiney, and also that girl is super annoying and is the classic 60s woman who faints when things get a little scawy.

Altogether though, this is a cool history lesson and that always gets baked into the final score. I was kinda meh on it while watching, but wiring about it made me excited about it again. So yeah, it's fun, but maybe not worth watching if you want a modern spooky season zombie experience. But if you like watching classic cinema and want to check this one off, it's a pretty enjoyable 90 minutes of your time.