This is my favorite horror film of all time, and one of my favorite movies, period. I watch it at least once or twice a year, and continue to enjoy it very much, year after year. Horror films so often disappoint me and so often fail to live up to their potential; Night of the Living Dead never does. I suppose what most makes this movie work as well as it does is the nightmarish atmosphere which George Romero and company managed to create. The tension inside the farm house feels so real that we, the viewers, are sucked right in. As the undead attacking the house multiply, and as the humans inside suffer various mishaps and are, ultimately, unable to pull together so as to survive, we come to share in their despair. As many times as I've seen this, the final scenes always manages to bring me down. And yet, the ending is so perfect, in that it brings the film's bleak tone to full circle.
I was fortunate enough to have seen this great movie when it first came out, and on a drive-in movie screen, no less. If only more horror movies could accomplish half of NOTLD's effectiveness, they would be so much more worthwhile.
I was fortunate enough to have seen this great movie when it first came out, and on a drive-in movie screen, no less. If only more horror movies could accomplish half of NOTLD's effectiveness, they would be so much more worthwhile.