Night+of+the+Living+Dead+and+its+effect+on+popular+culture

George Romero's __Night of the Living Dead__ is a very popular zombie movie. It came out in 1968 and was only made for a cost of $114,000. While it isn't the first film to feature zombies, it is considered the first modern zombie movie. ==

=**PLOT OVERVIEW**=

The film begins as one of the main characters, Barbra, and her brother, Johnny, are driving to the cemetery to put flowers on their fathers grave. Johnny is making fun of his sister for being afraid of cemeteries. His teasing continues as a pale skinned man slowly walks towards them. He grabs hold of her and Johnny runs over to help her. The man pushes him down, causing him to hit his head on a gravestone, knocking him out. Barbra runs to Johnny's car, but runs it into a tree. *Insert women driver jokes here* She gets out of the car and runs over to a farmhouse. While in the house, she notices there are others like the man who attacked her at the cemetery. She discovers a corpse in the house and proceeds to run out. Outside, a pickup truck arrives, carrying the main protagonist, Ben. He stabs the man and lights the body on fire, scaring away the other zombies. They both go back inside, and Ben starts to board up the windows and doors. Barbra sits around and cries about her brother, not helping at all. Little do they know, there are people held up in the cellar. Harry, Helen, and their daughter Karen, along with a couple, Tom and Judy. Karen had been bitten by a zombie earlier, and she is sick.

Ben talks to the group, and convinces them to come out of the cellar and help reinforce the house. After everyone is out, Ben turns on the radio and they listen to a news broadcast that says mass murders are happening on the East Coast. They also find out the "infected" are eating their victims flesh. The radio broadcasters also say that shooting the head of the afflicted will stop them. Ben thinks up a plan to get out of the farm safely. The truck needs fuel, so Ben and Tom leave to get some, which Harry throws molotov cocktails from a window. When they arrive at the gas pump, Ben places a torch next to the truck, and Tom accidentally splashes gas on the torch. The truck catches fire and Tom tries to drive it away to avoid any more damage. When he exits the truck, Judy(she chased after Tom when they started leaving for the gas pump) gets stuck. He goes to help her, but the truck violently explodes, killing both of them. Ben makes it back to the house, only to discover Harry had locked him out. He finally gets in by kicking the door, and proceeds to punch Harry in a fit. Zombies advance onto the truck and begin to devour Tom and Judy's remains. Back at the farmhouse, other zombies are trying to break into the house. Ben keeps the zombies at bay with the rifle, but then drops it. Harry picks it up and aims it at Ben. Ben manages to wrestle him to the ground and get the rifle. He shoots Harry, who dies.

After this happens, Helen discovers her daughter Karen has transformed into a zombie, and is eating her fathers corpse. Karen stabs her mother and walks upstairs. The zombies break into the house, and Barbra's brother is among them. She is shocked, and unable to do anything. The zombies overtake her. Ben goes into the cellar, where he shoots Helen, who had transformed into a zombie, and Karen. In the morning, a group armed with guns arrives at the farmhouse, killing any remaining zombies. Ben runs up to the living room and looks out the window. The people outside mistake him for a zombie, and he is shot in the head. They then take his body and burn it along with the other zombies. media type="youtube" key="DXJrzCheiXw" height="344" width="425"
 * Video of the film ending**

=Zombies in Popular culture = Various films and works of literature influenced __Night of the Living Dead__, and for this, we must start from the beginning....

Believe it or not, zombies have "been around" for thousands of years. Of course they aren't real, but they are mentioned in mythology and folklore from a long time ago, such as in the __Epic of Gilgamesh__. In Norse mythology, a draugr is an undead creature, and a version of the Japanese undead is the Jikininki. = =



In some ways, Mary Shelly's __Frankenstein__ is some what of a zombie story. Something not alive brought to life, by means of science. Writers such as H.P. Lovecraft also greatly affected the way zombies would be portrayed. Many of his short stories, such as __The Outsider__, __Herbert West---Reanimator__, and __In the Vault__ all dealt with the issue of the undead. __In the Vault__ is often thought to be the first time a zombie biting a normal human is mentioned. In __Herbert West__, a scientist tries to revive the dead, and the resulting creatures are very violent and uncontrollable.



__White Zombie__. The first film to feature a zombie. This is a very significant movie and it lays the groundwork for all future zombie movies. Other important films to feature zombies in this time period were __I Walked With a Zombie__, __Things to Come,__ and __Plan 9 from Outer Space__. __Things to Come__ was especially important because it featured a plague that spread throughout the human race, transforming them into mindless creatures. This idea can be seen in more modern zombie movies, like __28 Days Later__ and its sequel, __28 Weeks Later__.

And then, there was __I am Legend__, published in 1954. George Romero said that this book had a huge influence on him while writing the script for __Night of the Living Dead__. __I am Legend__ portrays an apocalypse in which a disease spreads throughout humanity. It would be adapted into 3 movies (so far), __The Last Man on Earth__, released in 1964, __The Omega Man__ in 1971, and notably the remake, the 2007 hit __I am Legend__.

__Night of the Living Dead__ was released in 1968 and instantly became a pop culture classic. Many see __Night of the Living Dead__ as an allegory for all the things happening in America at the time. Liz Cole of Greencine.com says that the movie was a vehicle "to criticize real-world social ills - such as government ineptitude, bioengineering, slavery, greed and exploitation - while indulging our post-apocalyptic fantasies".__Night of the Living Dead__ was the first of 5 films in the //Living Dead// series. George Romero's vision of zombies completely changed the way zombies would be portrayed in later films. __Night of the Living Dead__ also the slasher sub-genre of horror movies, as seen in __Halloween__ and __Friday the 13th__.

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