Rating: NR
Genre:
Horror
Release Date: 07/20/1998
Run Time: 96 Minutes
Distributor/Studio: Madacy
When unexpected radiation raises the dead, a microcosm of Average America has to battle flesh-eating zombies in
George A. Romero's landmark cheapie
horror film. Siblings
Johnny (
Russ Streiner) and
Barbara (
Judith O'Dea) whine and pout their way through a graveside visit in a small Pennsylvania town, but it all takes a turn for the worse when a zombie kills
Johnny.
Barbara flees to an isolated farmhouse where a group of people are already holed up. Bickering and panic ensue as the group tries to figure out how best to escape, while hoards of undead converge on the house; news reports reveal that fire wards them off, while a local sheriff-led posse discovers that if you "kill the brain, you kill the ghoul." After a night of immolation and parricide, one survivor is left in the house....
Romero's grainy black-and-white cinematography and casting of locals emphasize the terror lurking in ordinary life; as in
Alfred Hitchcock's
The Birds (1963),
Romero's victims are not attacked because they did anything wrong, and the randomness makes the attacks all the more horrifying. Nothing holds the key to salvation, either, whether it's family, love, or law. Topping off the existential dread is
Romero's then-extreme use of gore, as zombies nibble on limbs and viscera. Initially distributed by a Manhattan theater chain owner,
Night, made for about 100,000 dollars, was dismissed as exploitation, but after a 1969 re-release, it began to attract favorable attention for scarily tapping into Vietnam-era uncertainty and nihilistic anxiety. By 1979, it had grossed over 12 million, inspired a cycle of apocalyptic splatter films like
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), and set the standard for finding
horror in the mundane. However cheesy the film may look, few
horror movies reach a conclusion as desolately unsettling.
~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
