Night of the living dead (1968)

	Also Known As: Die Nacht der lebenden Toten
	Year of first release: 1968
	Director: George A. Romero
	Actors: Judith O'Dea, Duane Jones, Marylin Eastman, Karl Hartman, Judith Ridley, Keith Wayne
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 09.09.2017, DVD, English version
Synopsis: Barbra (O'Dea) and her brother are in the cemetery of his father when they are attacked by a slow man. She runs away and finds a house where Ben (Jones) arrives soon. It seems like walking dead people are everywhere. Several people were also hidden in the cellar.
Review: I was fascinated by some dialogues of the movie that I am listening since years in some songs by Microfilm. This French band has taken also some pieces of La ragazza che sapeva troppo for their album. And this might be why I have been very sensitive to the voices and sound track of Night of the living dead. And actually the first scene with the long shot of the road and then the car passing by is already bringing some atmosphere. I believe I have seen this shot in many movies but this one has again a very special sound track with a silence that is not really silent. The story itself is quite basic and settles indeed the classical plot of the zombie movie. Few people are healthy and surrounded by a world disease and flesh eating people. The announcement on TV are quite impressive as well, the warnings, the "a shot in the head" as solution to get rid of the zombies, the examples of good men hunting and killing the zombies. The acting is hectic and looks exaggerated compared to the very mild acting nowadays. But I like it because it is to me more natural to express panic and fears like they do in Night of the living dead. The dialogues and reaction of the hunters is also very naturally expressed. It does not look like fake or acted but almost like a documentary or like news. And this is for me the major positive point of the movie, the observation of natural human reaction to fear without any exaggeration to gore nor to comedy.  The sound track is great whereas it does not use much music but rather tones. These manage to create an atmosphere of fear, of suspiscion, of paranoia that is really thrilling and fits to the story.  This movie is a must see not only because it is the first zombie movie or because it made George Romero so famous, but also because it was a revolution at that time for the directing and the sound track. As Sergio Leone did for the Western, George Romero set new rules for the Horror genre by giving to the sound track and to the atmosphere a rank that it did not have yet.
Rating: 9 /10