Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, with a screenplay by John Russo and Romero, and starring Duane Jones and Judith O’Dea. The story follows seven people who are trapped in a rural farmhouse in western Pennsylvania, which is under assault by an enlarging group of flesh-eating, undead ghouls.
Director – George A. Romero
Writers – John A. Russo (screenplay by), George A. Romero (screenplay by)
Cast –
Duane Jones as Ben
Judith O’Dea as Barbra
Karl Hardman as Harry Cooper
Marilyn Eastman as Helen Cooper
Keith Wayne as Tom
Judith Ridley as Judy. Ridley
Kyra Schon as Karen Cooper
Charles Craig as TV Newscaster / Ghoul
Bill Hinzman as The ghoul encountered by Barbra and Johnny in the cemetery
George Kosana as Sheriff McClelland
Russell Streiner (uncredited) as Johnny
Bill “Chilly Billy” Cardille as Himself
Steve Hutsko as Steve, Cardille’s Cameraman
Scott Vladimir Licina as Reverend John Hicks
Grant Cramer as Dan
Adam Knox as Mike
Debbie Rochon as Darlene Davis
Heidi Hinzman as Rosie
Scott Kerschbaumer as Prison Guard
George Drennen as Arthur Krantz
Julie Wallace as Hilda Krantz
Dan Abraham as Garage Mechanic
Diana Michelucci as Mom
Dawn Michelucci as Daughter #1
Jessica Streiner as Daughter #2
Moshu as Moshu the Dog
Grant Sullivan as Dan
Aric Cushing as Andrew
Mary Lou Russo as Armless Waitress Zombie
Watch “Night of the Living Dead” (1968)
Plot
Siblings Barbra and Johnny drive to a cemetery in rural Pennsylvania to visit their father’s grave. Their car radio goes off the air due to technical difficulties. As they are leaving, a strange, ashen-faced, stumbling man wearing a tattered suit kills Johnny and attacks Barbra. She flees and takes shelter in a farmhouse but finds the woman who lived there dead and half-eaten. She sees a multiplying number of strange ghouls, led by the man from the cemetery, approaching the house. A man named Ben arrives, secures the farmhouse by boarding the windows and doors, and drives away the ghouls with a lever-action rifle he finds in the closet and with fire, which the ghouls fear.
Barbra, in a catatonic state from shock, is surprised when Harry Cooper and Tom emerge from the cellar. Harry has been taking shelter there with his wife Helen and their young daughter Karen after a group of the same monsters overturned their car and bit Karen on the arm, leaving her seriously ill. Tom arrived with his girlfriend Judy after hearing an emergency broadcast about a series of brutal killings. Tom aids Ben in securing the farmhouse while Harry angrily protests that it is unsafe before returning to the cellar, which he believes is safer. Ghouls continue to besiege the farmhouse in ever-increasing numbers.
The refugees listen to radio and television reports of a wave of mass murder being committed across the east coast of the United States by an army of cannibalistic, reanimating corpses, and posses of armed men patrolling the countryside to kill the ghouls. They confirm that the ghouls can be stopped with a bullet or heavy blow to the head or by being burned, as Ben discovered, and that various rescue centers are offering refuge and safety. Scientists theorize that the reanimations are occurring due to radiation from a space probe that exploded in Earth’s atmosphere on the way back from Venus.
Ben devises a plan to obtain medical supplies for Karen and transport the group to a rescue center by refueling his truck. Ben, Tom, and Judy drive to a nearby gas pump, holding the ghouls off with torches and Molotov cocktails. However, the gas from the pump spills and causes the truck to catch fire and explode, killing Tom and Judy. Ben runs back to the house on his own and breaks down the door when Harry does not let him back in. Ben beats Harry for his cowardice. While the ghouls feast on the remains of Tom and Judy, the remaining survivors attempt to find a way out. However, the ghouls break through the barricades. In the ensuing chaos, Harry is shot dead by Ben. Karen dies from her injuries, reanimates, begins to eat her father’s remains, and stabs Helen to death with a masonry trowel. Barbra recovers from her catatonic state and tries to help Ben keep the ghouls out but is dragged away by a reanimated Johnny and the other ghouls.
As the horde breaks into the house, Ben takes refuge in the cellar, where he shoots Harry and Helen’s reanimating corpses. The next morning, an armed posse arrives and begins dispatching the remaining ghouls in the area. Awoken by their gunfire and sirens, Ben emerges from the cellar but is shot and killed when they mistake him for a ghoul. His body is thrown onto a bonfire and burned with the rest of the ghouls.