Night of the Living Dead Review Night of the Living Dead is a movie released in 1968 in America directed by George Romero premiering on October 1st of the same year (Romero). The movie follows the character of Barbra and Ben and other five persons trapped in a certain farmhouse in a rural town in Pennsylvania which is attacked by a large of group non-living human beings which are not named with characterized features of a monster (Romero). In the onset of the film, the main character Barbra and her brother Johnny drive to the rural town of Pennsylvania for a customary visit to the father’s grave. When in the cemetery, Barbra is attacked a strange looking man who had been walking around the cemetery. An encounter with strange persons who aggressively …show more content…
The state of the world under the portrayal by Romero is that which is not best suited for living persons to live as such the film makes it as a dystopian horror movie. The movie has implored on some themes which helps its overall portrayal of a horror film which rationally depicts a world in chaos. An example of some of the issues addressed in the movie is racial segregation which is brought about by the protagonist death by the red-neck people of the town at the end of the film. The main thematic concept developed by the film is that of pessimism and despair which one great characterized gesture of most horror films is. The pessimism and despair are brought to the fore when the heroic main characters at the end of the films such as Ben who is shot dead when he is confused to be one of the zombies, and subsequently his body burned with the other zombies. Further, at the beginning of the film, the audience is treated to a flattering American flag on foreground which has successively demonstrated that America is a dying nation as a result of the
The Grateful Dead spread their message of peace love and mind expansion across the globe for the better part of three decades. Few believe that there has ever been a more influential band in modern history. But all of this didn't come without great strife. From the beginning there have been several ups and downs with the band and its various members, from personal problems, to lable issues, to the issues they have always had with being on tour for so long. Very few bands are able to keep the same sound to their
Both White Zombie and “Dead Men Walking in the Cane Fields” represent the early zombie and both of them embody Cohen’s first thesis “The Monster is a Cultural Body” Both the story and the film have zombies and both of these works make their zombies appear scary with dead like characteristics, however the real reason why they are scary is that, at the time, they tried to change society and that scared people. The people that liked society the way it was didn’t want another group to gain power or righ...
has a knack for being able to portray an erratic man who in one instant is
Romero’s cult classic work “Night of the Living Dead” displayed characters enacting their stereotypes, portraying men and women in their stereotypical sexist behaviors. Themes of such stereotypes are hinted within the movie, hidden underneath the idea of carnal, flesh eating ghouls. The character Barbra, is the embodiment of the helpless woman in horror films. Ben, the power controlling domineering male of the remaining survivors in the farmhouse. Harry, another male figure who try to apply his strength and ego amongst the group. Helen, is depicted as the unhappy housewife who is semi-defiant to her husband. These portrayals accurately depicted the stereotypes America held during the 1960s, effectively mirroring the time in which it was
In the film, after Tom and Judy’s car explodes, Ben is left to fend for himself in the middle of the group of zombies. The zombies encroaching on Ben from all sides is reminiscent of a lynch mob. They loom in on Ben from all sides, trying to rip his flesh off. In retaliation, Ben uses a torch to fend off the zombies and run to the house. The zombies are white oppression; the mindlessness and murderous nature of the zombies is similar to the blind stupidity, violence, and sheep-like mentality of
Awakening the Zombies “Everybody was finally equal. They were not only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” This is a short, but powerful excerpt from the short story Harrison Bergeron. Not only does it make you wonder why everyone is equal, but as well makes you wonder how did everyone become equal? In the short story and the movie, Kurt Vonnegut presents a scary view of human society in the United States in the future, in which United States citizens are all uniform. This then leads to their loss of individuality, and therefore to the absolute deformity of humanness. Both the movie and the short story share these themes, they also have a multitude of other similarities, but also have just as many differences. These differences, irony and the symbolism between the two, are what I will be attempting to explore. The first apparent difference between the movie and the short story is that the short story takes place in 2081. In the story the government regulates everything, not just intelligence, but strength and beauty as well, and handicap people appropriately. The strong are forced to wear bags filled with lead balls; beautiful people are forced to wear masks so others would not feel unequal to them in looks. The overly intelligent are forced to wear radio transmitters in their ears, that are tuned to a government station that constantly bombards them with horrible sounds to scramble their thoughts. In the movie, the year is 2053 and everyone is forced to wear mind-altering headbands that rest on their temples. These headbands electronically modify intelligence, effectively decreasing everyone’s IQ to the desired “average” point. Unlike the story, in the movie, no one wears masks to conceal their looks and some are better looking than other making them unequal in appearance to everyone else. Also the only “weight bags” that are worn, is by one dancer on the television that wore a small ankle weight with no resemblance to the enormous weight bags that are described in the story. Another difference is that in the story Harrison Bergeron had the apparent status of a god among these average people. He was fourteen years old, seven feet tall, athletic, good looking, and a genius.
As said in the previous discussion regarding the second chapter of Better Off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie as Post-Human, zombies and their culture are examined and broken down in order to understand their motives for the progression of zombies globally. Through different perspectives from individuals based around the world, the discussion of the zombie culture debates over the idea that zombies have not just evolved within the narratives that have brought them to life, but they have evolved in such a way that ultimately transforms the narrative itself. However, in this specific chapter, “They are not men.they are dead bodies!” : From Cannibal to Zombie and Back Again, Chera Kee breaks down the introduction of zombies into mainstream consciousness, and eventually cinema.
George Romero's reinvention of the zombie in night of the Living Dead (1968) is clearly a critique of elements of the American society, and the film as a whole is easily twisted into a warped view on the 'American Dream'. Themes throughout Romero’s film, dealing with controversial topics during the time that the film was made, are still, to this day debated by critics and film historians. Themes of racism and war are defined within the movie, hidden underneath the idea of carnal, cannibalistic zombies and over the top heroes who, eventually, succumb to the reanimated; despite their every effort. These themes are colored over and painted to hide beneath subtle references to the typical American Dream during this time, and Romero does quite the good job at it too. This dream, whilst continuously changing in the everyday lives of modern Americans, can be loosely defined as a national ethos of the United States, or a set of ideals dealing with freedom and the opportunity for success - an upward social status that can be achieved through hard work and effort.
The ¨Night of the Living Dead¨ started with Johnny and Barbara driving down a long dirt road, through a rural area. Their destination, the graveyard their father was buried in. As they arrived at the desolate graveyard, Johnny complained about having to deliver flowers to his own father´s grave. Johnny then decided to try to scare his sister for his amusement. He taunted her with ¨Theyŕe coming to get you, Barbara¨, until his sister ran from him. As she wove through the graves, and navigated through the fog, a mangled man who seemed as if in a trance grabbed her. Johnny managed to rip the man off of his sister but was shoved, and hit his head on stone, knocking him unconscious/ or dead.
The true test of a film’s greatness is time. The 1984 science-fiction/comedy classic, Ghostbusters, has stood the test of time, producing both a sequel (in 1989) and a hit cartoon series. Ghostbusters is the story of three offbeat scientists interested in paranormal matters: Peter Venkman (played by Bill Murray), Raymond Stanz (played by Dan Aykroyd), and Egon Spengler (played by Harold Ramis), who have just lost their university grant, and are suddenly forced out onto the streets of New York. What will they do now to survive? After taking a third mortgage out on Ray’s family home, Peter, Ray, and Egon decide to pursue the idea of catching and containing ghosts in the private sector. Their business, fittingly named: “Ghostbusters”, starts out slow, but quickly the word spreads of their ghost investigation and extraction services. Within seemingly no time at all, the Ghostbusters are a hot commodity in New York where ghost activity is on the rise.
Night of the Living Dead represents more complex issues such as race, politics, and war and Ben was fighting the undead not just for himself, but also for the good of the collective. The 60s sparked a counter-culture that grew and spread throughout the Western world and according to the book by historian Terry Anderson titled “The Movements and the Sixties;” “ [t]he aggregate movement gained momentum as the Civil Rights Movement continued to grow, and would later become revolutionary with the expansion of the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam” (Anderson, 254). The film emerged from the some of the most turbulent years in American history and Night of the Living Dead becomes the embodiment of the cultural revolution of the 1960s. Shaun of the Dead, on the other hand, embodies a more individualistic and narcissistic society. You can even say that characters portrayed in the film are socially unaware. Shaun and his friends do not seem to care about issues such as social injustices, politics or war. They take an active role of ignorance and entitlement and are apathetic towards causes outside the individual. Just as the Vietnam War was happening in 1968, the war in Iraq was happening in 2004, but the government no longer enforces the draft system (which is a positive change), and enlisting to fight for your country has become a voluntary decision of the individual. Our generation’s narcissistic and selfish behavior can perhaps be attributed to the idea that social issues are no longer dire than that of our personal responsibilities such as having a job, raising children, the day-to-day activity that consumes all our energy. Who wants to think about police brutality when a
There were many differences in the films. For example in the white zombie movie, the zombies were working zombies. The mill owner would use voodoo to control the zombies. Also these zombies were not aggressive at all, humans can walk among and not be attacked. Contrast to the white zombies the zombies from the night of the living dead, these zombies were aggressive. Therefore night of the living dead zombies were very aggressive and would attack humans and
George A. Romero, the director of Night of the Living Dead accidently created the zombie genre that we are familiar with today. Night of the Living Dead reshaped the entire genre with its bitter realism. Romero established verisimilitude unintentionally by focusing on how people react to crisis. The first zombie movies relied on semi-terrifying dress codes (of their time) and the conventional diegetic scream of a female. Whereas Romero’s film is an interpretation of humankind’s collapse. Romero drew inspiration from the infamous Vietnam War spiralling at the time and the American civil war. The verisimilitude lies within the human condition in dire times, like war. Therefore, in the Night of the Living Dead the zombie/ghoul stands as a symbol for the enemy contriving those dire times. This consequently makes the genre actually terrifying because representations have altered. Zombies are no longer an otherworldly or scientific monster e.g. White Zombie but a
Film Review of Lord of the Rings In the film the “Lord Of The Rings”, there is a great evil called
The Conjuring is a “real” Hollywood horror film based on possession of the human kind by demonic figures. There's a dog that ends up doing the usual thing dogs do in horror films (they act scared and bark constantly or end up dying unknowingly). There's a doll that end up doing what dolls usually do in horror films (taunt the human body). There's some doors banging, some ghost hunters with motion detectors and UV lights, eerie TV static, and some creepy ghosts who appear out of the blue when you expect to least expect them, and to top it off they add creepy music and the spooky makeup that all ghosts wear so you can identify them or recognize them.