The Routine Activities Theory In Night Of The Living Dead

(Griffin Shea) 65 Sentences

The ‘Night of the living dead” starts out in a graveyard with Barbara and Johnny. Johnny spots the zombie slowly approaching and tries to run while barbara stays behind and slowly walks towards the zombie. The zombie then grabs her and Johnny jumps in to try and break the zombie away from his sister. Doing so he falls and hits his head on a gravestone. Barbara then runs and starts to make her escape with the zombie following close behind. She makes her way to a house and finds her way inside. Running frantically around the house she spots a dead body at the top of the stairs. Barbara is then frightened and runs out of the house only to be greeted by headlights and a man standing tall in front of her.

In silence they both look at the zombie and rush into the house. Ben and Barbara begin to board up all of the doors and prepare for survival. They search the house and find a working radio. It comes to there attention that the dead are coming back to life and eating flesh off of human beings. Out of nowhere a few more survivors come out of the cellar. Ben was quite angered that they didn't help board up the windows or even say anything at all. There appeared to be conflict between Tom and Ben from the moment they met. Ben was trying to do what was best for everyone and help everyone out and tom was trying to save himself the whole time and lock himself in the basement. The movie take place in about a 24 hour period. The group deals with various tasks that needed to be done to protect them from the zombies. During the night time Ben, Judy, and Tom try and take the truck down to the gas pump to they can get everybody out safely, During their excursion to get the gas judy and tom were killed in an explosion. Harry watched in amazement and watched as the zombies came closer and closer to the door. Harry then shuts the door on Ben, leaving him outside with the zombies. Ben then enters the house and shoots Harry for leaving him to the zombies. Shortly after that zombies started to invade the house and break down the doors and windows despite being boarded up. Barbara is killed by the surge along with Johnny. During the surge of zombies, Ben locks himself in the basement, and remains out of zombie reach. The next morning Ben is shot and killed mistaken for a zombie by a group of hunters out looking to kill the zombies surrounding the house.

The Routine Activities Theory relates to “Night of the Living Dead” in a very specific way.

The routine activities theory states “ The Routine activities theory is the notion that criminal victimization increases when motivated offenders and suitable targets converge”. In my own words this means that a crime is only committed if the attacker sees a suitable target. In this scenario the attacker will get stronger as the victim gets weaker. This relates to the movie in a pretty clear manner. When Ben has the rifle in his possession. This makes him a clear attacker to the mindless zombies. Now, it may appear at first glance that the zombies are the attacker, and in certain scenarios they are. However when Ben has his rifle aimed at the zombies head, and pulls the trigger without the zombie attacking him, That turns him into the “Committed Attacker” and turns the zombie into the “suitable targets”. However the end of the movie changes. Once the number of zombies grow, ben is weakened and the zombies overrun the

house.
There are a few cases of punishment during the movie. Punishment is result of doing something morally wrong or frowned upon. This means that if i blatantly break the rules or harm another human, I will be punished accordingly by the inflicting power. The point i have chosen to highlight is quite an extreme one. When Harry locks Ben outside of the house surrounded by zombies, Ben was understandably furious. He forced away the zombies using a torch and made his way to the door that he then knocked down. When he steps inside the house he raises his rifle, and looks at harry's frightened face. Due to Harry's malicious action towards Ben, threatening his life. Ben shot Harry in the chest and went on with his life.
Hedonism isn't found much in this movie.

However there are some scenes where you can find small glimpses of the adjective. Hedonism is the devotion to pleasure, especially pleasuring the senses. Hedonism brings a “must have” feeling towards an action or object. In some ways it can be compared to addiction. The only example I was able to find was in the very first scene of the movie. The zombie that approaches Barbara and Johnny felt a need to go attack them. All the zombie wants to do is eat their flesh, And that's what satisfies him
The Academic research I decided to do was on the Routine Activity Theories. In 1979, 2 men questioned urban crime rates. Doing so they found that every crime had 3 things. First is someone who is willing to commit the offense. Next is a suitable target, and finally the absence of a guardian capable of preventing the crime. I thought this tied in throughout the entire film. Never is there a guardian capable of preventing the outbreak, Zombies were willing to commit the offense of murder and all sorts of other heinous crimes. And to them Humans were the perfect

target.
Learning about and studying old films has always been something that intrigued me. After researching the topics in this paper I feel as if this film was way ahead of its time and it's very impressive. I learned that this film was actually George Romero's first ever film and he is a director i happen to like a lot. The Social problems portrayed in this film were very minor, probably due to the fact that everyone was scared for their lives. With any film from this time period there is going to be some sort of segregation just due to the time period. Thankfully the world has changed over time and most of the racial issues have dissipated while racism as a whole has not, And probably never will.

Works Cited
"Film Analysis Rubric -." Film Analysis Rubric Comments. 24 Sept. 2015. Web. 14 Sept. 2017.
"Primary Source Analysis Tool."“Routine Activities Theory (Criminology Theories) IResearchNet.” Criminal Justice, criminal-justice.iresearchnet.com/criminology/theories/routine-activities-theory/2/.
"Routine Activities Theory - Defined at The-definition.com." The-definition.com. Web. 14 Sept. 2017.
"Hedonist." The Free Dictionary. Farlex. Web. 14 Sept. 2017.
"Punishment." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. Web. 14 Sept. 2017.

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