Night of the Living Dead Review
By Stacy Cacciatore
In Night of the Living Dead (1968), words are not only unpersuasive, but the lack of communication among the living leads to their demise. As Jancovich (1994) points out in Horror, “the zombies outside are responsible for hardly any of the main characters’ deaths’. Most of the deaths occur between the survivors cannot agree among themselves,” (90). Ben and Mr. Cooper cannot agree upon the strategy to defend themselves against the zombies, one wanting to stay in the house and the other wanting to hide in the cellar. Their argument culminates in a struggle over the gun, which leads to Mr. Cooper becoming injured. Barbara is killed by her brother, who tracked her down after becoming a zombie himself. The Cooper family parents are killed and eaten by their own daughter. And of course, the protagonist Ben, is not killed by zombies, but rather a shot from the band of zombie hunters who mistook him for a zombie.
In Rhetoric of Modern Death in American Living Dead Films, Hakola points out that “Night of the Living Dead was among the apocalyptic visions that set in motion a nihilistic vogue in Hollywood films of the late 1960s and the 1970s” (92). The film represents the cultural transformation occurring in the 1960s, which I interpreted this to represent the racial struggles occurring in the 1960s. The protagonist was African-American, in a house full of white people with white zombies coming to attack him. We see Ben attempting to rally the group together to establish an approach to defeat the enemy, but he finds enemies within the house itself. For one, him and Mr. Cooper struggle for power rather than working together. Ben also has to deal with Barbara, who is so scared from the zombie attacking her and her brother, that she is in a zombie-like trance herself. Ben slaps her to try to snap her out of it, but instead of rising to action, she lay like a slug, clutching her face in shock. In the essay Rhetorical Conditioning: The Manchurian Candidate(2003) Krajewski states, “The gaze of the “brainwashed” is an innocent, yet frightening, spectacle” and “Here staring is a loss of self, superseded by another vision, the conditioned, implanted training” (218). We see this “gaze” among the living and the dead. The zombies have the frightening gaze representing a loss of their living self. However, we also see this gaze in Barbara. She is detached, immobile with shock and grief. This detachment makes it impossible for Ben to permeate her conscious to spur her into action to help defeat the zombies. In the end, Ben’s failure to persuade his housemates to contribute to the fight against the zombies leads to his death. This wasn’t a war he could fight on his own, similar to the civil rights movement.
Hakola, Outi. Rhetoric of Modern Death in American Living Dead Films. Intellect, 2015.
Jancovich, Mark. Horror. Batsford, 1992.
Krajewski, Bruce. “Rhetorical Conditioning: The Manchurian Candidate.” The Terministic Screen: Rhetorical Perspectives on Film, Southern Illinois University Press, 2003, pp. 213–233.
Romero, George A, director. Night of the Living Dead. Continental Distributing, 1968.
Thriller and Night of the Living Dead
I watched Night of the Living Dead (1968)for the first time this week and my first reaction was that I saw many correlations between the film and Michael Jackson’s Thrillervideo. I did a cursory search and only found one minute reference to the correlation between this film and Thriller. What I find interesting, and that I wrote about in my canvas post, is that I believe Night of the Living Dead represents the cultural transformation occurring in the 1960s, specifically the civil rights movement and race relations. I read an interview with George Romero where he claims the film was not about race relations. Romero states “Duane Jones was the best actor we met to play Ben. If there was a film with a black actor in it, it usually had a racial theme, like ‘The Defiant Ones.’ Consciously I resisted writing new dialogue ‘cause he happens to be black. We just shot the script. Perhaps ‘Night of the Living Dead’ is the first film to have a black man playing the lead role regardless of, rather than because of, his race.” (Please note, however, Romero’s claim is incorrect, Jones was not the first black actor to be cast in a role without a racial theme). However, whether Romero meant for this film to portray race relations or not, it certainly reflects American society, culture, and racial issues in the 1960s. Ben is an African-American male in a house full of white people, who largely disagree with him on the approach to defeat the zombies. All of the zombies coming after him are white and the zombie hunters, who incidentally kill him, are also white. This brings up the question, “who is the TRUE enemy?” Ben struggles with Mr. Cooper, which ends with Mr. Cooper getting shot. Ben is ultimately killed by the white zombie hunters. The entire movie he is focused on killing the zombies, but are the zombies his true enemies?
Night of the Living Dead-inspired many other films, including Jordan Peele’s film, Get Out, which is overtly related to race relations (Ericson, 2017).
This leads me to the correlation between Michael Jackson’s Thriller video and Night of the Living Dead. Thriller came out in 1983, which is 15 years after Night of the Living Dead. What I find interesting is the juxtaposition between Ben being the ‘hunted’ in Night of the Living Dead and Michael Jackson portraying the ‘hunter’ (zombie) in Thriller. The portrayal of zombies in both films are similar, however, Michael Jackson reclaims the power of the African-American narrative by not being a victim. I believe he is essentially saying, through visual rhetoric, is that he refuses to be a victim. He has a place at the table and he will not sit back in a locked house, trembling in fear for what the enemy may bring upon him. I may be reading too much into it though, possibly Michael just really liked the stiff movements of the zombies and the vacant looks in their eyes and wanted to translate that into dance. What do you think?
Works Cited
Ericson, Amanda. “Visualizing Racism in ‘Get Out’ & ‘Night of the Living Dead’.” Outtake by Tribeca Shortlist, 23 Feb. 2017, outtake.tribecashortlist.com/visualizing-racism-in-get-out-night-of-the-living-dead-b3a604213dd2.
Jackson, Michael. “Michael Jackson – Thriller (Official Music Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 2 Oct. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA.
Romero, George A, director. Night of the Living Dead. Continental Distributing, 1968.
Staff, The Wrap. “How Casting a Black Actor Changed ‘Night of the Living Dead’.” The Wrap, 1 Sept. 2010, www.thewrap.com/night-living-dead-casting-cult-classic-20545/.