Published in 1968 Night of the Living Dead a certain George A. Romero, still unknown. The feature film, which caused a stir when it first premiered, will change horror films forever…
It all started on October 1, 1968 in a movie theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That afternoon, the usual time for horror films at the time, the theater was full of children. For what? Because the MPAA ratings have not yet come into effect. Back then, horror films were neither violent nor bloody. In fact, the young people are traumatized when the protagonists of “Night of the Living Dead” die one after the other. The scandal is so big that Variety magazine calls it an “orgy of sadism” and demands that the Supreme Court “set clear guidelines for regulating violent pornography”!
Duane Jones and Judith O’Dea in the film Night of the Living Dead. PHOTO SUPPLIED BY IMAGE TEN/KOBAL/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
Beyond the “Blood”
But it’s not just the violence that’s unusual in George Romero’s feature film. The story itself, largely dictated by the paltry $125,000 budget, is unheard of in racist America. Because Ben, the hero who doesn’t die by the way, is black, which is a happy coincidence since Duane Jones was chosen for the role while the main character had to be white. And despite this change, George Romero does not rewrite anything or make Ben the foil for a white character, as was the case in most productions of the time.
Another innovation: flesh-eating monsters, although the term “zombies” is never spoken on screen. Because the filmmaker and co-author’s original idea was to write a horror comedy with… teenage aliens in the lead role. However, since it was impossible to recreate a realistic spaceship on such a low budget, Romero abandoned the idea.
PHOTO SUPPLIED BY IMAGE TEN/KOBAL/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
He also moves away from the traditional depiction of the “living dead” as they exist in voodoo folklore and takes inspiration from the 1954 novel “I am a legend” by Richard Matheson, which tells the story of the annihilation of the Population of Los Angeles, victims of a devastating epidemic. “Night of the Living Dead” quickly becomes an allegory for capitalism and consumerism in the post-war period.
Such was the success of Night of the Living Dead, grossing more than $30 million, that Romero built his career on horror, making sequels and even new versions of his classic. After his death in 2017, Romero’s artistic legacy lives on; the University of Pittsburgh purchased his entire archives in 2019 and plans to soon make them available to researchers and historians.
“Night of the Living Dead” belongs to no one!
It’s hard to make it up, but know that “Night of the Living Dead” should actually be called “Night of the Flesh Eaters,” in other words, “The Night of the Flesh Eaters.” And copies of the film bore that title. At the time of the change, the distributor Walter Reade Organization changes the title…but forgets to add the copyright notice under the title. And this failure means that George Romero’s feature film enters the public domain upon its release: anyone can therefore distribute and copy it at will.
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And no one will be deprived of it! Since its release, “Night of the Living Dead” has therefore been the subject of editions and reissues in all possible formats, from Betamax to Blu-ray. What’s even more surprising is that this horror classic is ranked second on the Internet Archive’s list of most popular films as of May 2023 with 3.4 million downloads. Because first and foremost is – of course – “Sex Madness”… a feature film from 1938 that has been downloaded 3.5 million times!