Celebrating 50 years of Night of the Living Dead: A zombie masterpiece

It has been 50 years since Night of the Living Dead made its debut in movie theatres but the classic zombie movie forever changed the scope of TV and film.

It is hard to believe that 50 years have passed since George A. Romero’s zombie classic Night of the Living Dead was released in movie theaters. While it wasn’t the original zombie movie, it is credited with bringing the genre to the forefront and helping to make the undead more mainstream and is considered to be the “king of zombie flicks” among fans of the genre.

Released on Oct. 1, 1968 in the USA, Romero’s classic film was made with a budget of $114,000 and made $30 million at the box office, spawning multiple sequels as well as remakes of the classic films.

Going back and watching Night of the Living Dead, it’s a little freaky as to how well the film holds up. The sense of impending doom as the characters are trapped inside a farmhouse surrounded by zombies still has the same impact now as it did 50 years ago.

While the film isn’t a special effects masterpiece and the film lacks the polish of a more high-budget work, it told a story well and gave viewers something different to experience at the movie theater.

While there were some cheesy performances from supporting cast members, it is not enough to detract from the final product, which currently has a rating of 7.9 on IMDB and an amazing 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.

To release a movie like this in a time of heavy political pressure, especially when it comes to civil rights. Equality is something stressed in the Romero zombie films, presenting a world of us vs them, where “us” meant humanity as a whole.

But it isn’t just Romero and his zombie franchise whos benefited from the success of Night of the Living Dead. The film has been the inspiration for many other content creators, including Robert Kirkman of The Walking Dead, to share a love for the genre.

"“The Walking Dead simply doesn’t exist without George A. Romero doing his movies first.” Kirkman wrote in the Letter Hacks portion of issue 171 of the comics."

That’s a bold statement from a man who is billed with creating such a massive zombie franchise, but his reasoning for praising Romero, especially Night of the Living Dead, is justified by his exposure to the undead.

"“I first encountered Night of the Living Dead on late-night network television. The FOX affiliate of the brand new fourth network channel in Lexington, Kentucky had airtime to fill, so they would run movies at night. One of those nights they ran Night of the Living Dead.”"

Even the way Kirkman got The Walking Dead published was an homage to Romero. Much like Night of the Living Dead, the original pitch for the comic book series involved aliens instead of zombies, but changes were made to include the undead instead of extra-terrestrials.

One thing is for certain, if not for this 50-year-old movie, zombies wouldn’t be the phenomenon they are today and shows and movies like The Walking Dead, Z-Nation, iZombie, World War Z, Santa Clarita Diet, Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days Later, and countless other fantastic properties wouldn’t exist.

With so many great zombie shows, movies, games, books, and comics out there for fans, it’s hard not to look back at a film like Night of the Living Dead and not have a huge appreciation for everything the film has done for the genre. If this movie somehow hasn’t made your watched list, there is no better time than now to go back and enjoy a true zombie classic.

R.I.P. George A. Romero