Joe Kane - Night of the Living Dead

George A. Romeros debut set the template for the zombie film, and features tight editing, realistic gore, and a sly political undercurrent.

Rotten Tomatoes

Romeros grainy black-and-white cinematography and casting of locals emphasize the terror lurking in ordinary life; as in Alfred Hitchcocks The Birds (1963), Romeros victims are not attacked because they did anything wrong, and the randomness makes the attacks all the more horrifying.

American Movie Classics

I saw Night of the Living Dead first-run at a drive-in. Night of the Living Dead was scary.

John Waters

Theres never been anything quite like it. Night of the Living Dead establishes savagery as a necessary condition of life. Marked by fatality and a grim humor, the film gnaws through to the bone, then proceeds on to the marrow.

Jim Gay, Amazon.com

If you want to see what turns a B movie into a classic, dont miss Night of the Living Dead .

Rex Reed

Since this was twenty years before CNN would be showing body parts during prime-time television, I was totally blown away by how graphic Romeros movie was.

Lloyd Kaufman, president of Troma Entertainment

Over its short, furious course, the picture violates so many strong tabooscannibalism, incest, necrophiliathat it leaves audiences giddy and hysterical.

Village Voice

One of the best films ever made, and possibly the most influential horror movie of all time.

Time Out

Theres a brute force in Night of the Living Dead that catches one in the throat.

Lucius Gore, ESplatter

A doozie.

Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.com

Graphically gruesome!

Fandango.com

At AM, we love a good zombie movie, and we are eternally grateful for this classic piece of celluloid. Its true horror , plain and simple.

AskMen.com

If the American Film Institutes list of the classic movie quotes had been voted on by Pittsburghers, somewhere among those one hundred would have been Theyre coming to get you, Barbara.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Second only to Psycho among influential horror films.

Entertainment Weekly

The best thing is that Night of the Living Dead isnt over-composedit just hurtles ahead with all its gruesomeness.

Los Angeles Times

Minted in chilling black-and-white, George A. Romeros indie classic manages to be scary as hell, funny, and political all at once.

Premiere

Its rare when a movie transcends pop cultures usual fifteen minutes of fame and becomes a time-tested classic. Night of the Living Dead redefined a lackluster monster and gave rise to both a new genre in horror and a new image in the public consciousness. Theres no denying it, Night of the Living Dead is THE archetypal zombie filma bona fide classic, inspirational, thought-provoking, and most important, still very scary after all these years. Thanks for the nightmares, George!

Classic-Horror.com

Night of the Living Dead is one of my first favorite movies. Every week, for the first six years of my life, I watched Night of the Living Dead. It was the first film that I had memorized. It scared me away from wanting to ever frequent cemeteries. I DECLARE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD IS ONE OF THE GREATEST HORROR MOVIES OF ALL TIME!!

Harry Knowles, Aint It Cool News

Night of the Living Dead establishes savagery as a necessary condition of life. Marked by fatality and a grim humor, the film gnaws through to the bone, then proceeds on to the marrow.

Amazon.com

One of the best and most influential horror films ever made. George Romero packed Night of the Living Dead with shocking horror, brilliant filmmaking, complex themes, and a controversial social commentary of the times.

Bloody Disgusting.com

With its radical rewriting of a genre in which good had always triumphed over evil, Romeros first feature shattered the conventions of horror and paved the way for the subversive visions of directors like David Cronenberg, Tobe Hooper, and Sam Raimi.

Time Out

Nobody could have imagined when Night of the Living Dead was playing off unheralded second feature drive-in dates in 1968 that going on fifty years later it would have become a cultural touchstone every bit as potent as the most famous mainstream movies of the era. Its partly the lack of slickness, the newsreelish presentation with unknown actors that still gives it its power. Its like a documentary about the end of the world.

Joe Dante

BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE MOST TERRIFYING ZOMBIE MOVIE EVER

THE PHANTOM OF THE MOVIES

CITADEL PRESS

Kensingon Publishing Corp.

www.kensingtonbooks.com

For Nancy Naglin,

Without whose indefatigable love,

assistance, and support

Fughedaboudit!