Night of the Living Dead

A group of people hide from bloodthirsty zombies in a farmhouse.

• Director: George A. Romero
• Genre:Horror / Sci-Fi / Thriller
• Runtime:96 minutes

Cast

Tony Todd : Ben
Patricia Tallman: Barbara
Tom Towles : Harry Cooper
McKee Anderson : Helen Cooper
William Butler : Tom

Siblings Barbra (Judith O’Dea) and Johnny (Russell Streiner) drive to a rural Pennsylvania cemetery to place a cross with flowers on their father’s grave. Johnny teases his sister, who is afraid of cemeteries, taunting, “They’re coming to get you, Barbra!” Suddenly, a pale skinned man (S. William Hinzman) grabs Barbra and Johnny rushes to save her. A fight occurs, but Johnny is able to push the man to the ground, but he gets up and Johnny is killed when he falls and smashes his head into a tombstone. Barbra flees into the car, but the man chases her. Barbra attempts to flee in the car as the zombie attempts to break in, but she does not have the key. She releases the emergency brake, and the car rolls away from the man. Barbra soon crashes into a tree, then abandons the car and escapes into a nearby farmhouse to hide, still chased by the zombie. She soon finds, however, that others like the man are outside. While exploring the empty house, Barbra discovers a hideously mutilated corpse at the top of the stairs.

While attempting to flee the house, she encounters Ben (Duane Jones), who arrives in a pickup truck and defends the house against another pack of zombies. After subduing the pack, Ben sets the bodies on fire, scaring off the remaining zombies. Inside the house, Ben fights off another zombie that emerges from a side room. This is followed by an intense argument about Barbra’s desire to search for Johnny. After a brief struggle, Barbra collapses in shock, and Ben carries her to a couch. Ben boards up the doors and windows from the inside, and takes a chair outside and scares off the attackers by setting it afire. Ben finds a rifle and a radio as Barbra lies catatonic.

The two are unaware that Harry and Helen Cooper (Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman), their daughter Karen (Kyra Schon), and young couple Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley) have been hiding in the cellar until later. One of the attackers bit Karen earlier and she has fallen ill. Harry wants the group to barricade themselves in the cellar, but Ben argues that they would effectively be trapping themselves. Ben carries the argument, and the group cooperates to reinforce the main part of the house. Read more