The dead have come back to life - and they are very hungry.
As the walking corpses gather outside, a group of survivors barricade themselves in an isolated farmhouse, waiting for the nightmare to end…
One of the key horror texts.
I do not know if I can add anything.
Because of its status, I took it for granted for decades. I only watched it for the first time earlier this year.
Because its conventions have become so foundational, you have to keep reminding yourself that this film invented the modern understanding of zombies as flesh-eating ghouls.
The film is completely contemporary. There is nothing supernatural attached to the rise of the dead.
Experienced with making industrial films, Romero applies a similar sensibility to his debut feature, bringing Elements of cinema verite that adds to the film’s disturbing sense of verisimilitude.
Indeed, there is no real explanation for the outbreak beyond some sound-bytes about a probe returning from Venus.
Released a year after the Production Code was finally put in the grave, this film breaks with conventions of the time - our assumed lead (Judith O’Dea’s Barbara) is rendered catatonic, with the central role taken by Ben (Duane Jones).
The first black lead of an American horror film, Jones’s Ben finds himself struggling against the people inside the farmhouse as much as the ghouls outside.
His casting adds another dynamic to the ensemble, particularly the interactions between Ben and Cooper (Karl Hardman), a WASP who attempts to present himself as the figure of authority - he is a cowardly blowhard with bad ideas.
The third act is a glorious rug pull.
Once the group' s escape plan fails, they fall apart.
Ben beats Cooper for abandoning him and shoots him dead.
Barbara is carried away by her undead brother, in a gruesome parody of embrace (which also reinforces the incestual subtext of the siblings’ early interactions).
The Cooper’s little girl, who has been kept safe in the basement, has transformed into one of the undead. Breaking yet another taboo, she feasts on her father and murders her mother.
The final tragedy is Ben’s fate - murdered by the cavalry riding to the rescue.
The film ends with the zombies vanquished, but at what cost?
The outbreak may be contained but Ben’s death highlights the ways in which this sense of safety feels illusionary. Despite the confident tone of the film’s no-nonsense news anchors attempting to conclude the story, this lack of closure would be expanded upon in Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, released ten years later…
If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour.
No comments:
Post a Comment