Origin of the Zombie Obsession: Night of the Living Dead

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: 48: --: HRR:  I soon realized that I never reviewed probably one of the most influential and seminal zombie/ horror movies of all time.  The one that started it all with respect to zombies wandering around the living and looking for their flesh to devour.  The one that is currently in the National Film Registry because the way in which is inspired many other directors to emulate it's chilling and horrific depiction of death and dismemberment:  Night of the Living Dead.


Night of the Living Dead:  The one that started it all!

To say that the Night of the Living Dead is the sine qua non of the zombie genre is an understatement.  Before this, there were very few films that captured the eeriness and terror of having the dead come back to life with a hunger for live human body parts.  Not only did George Romero start a genre of horror, but he also utilized excellent techniques in film to add to the movie's s no holds barred feel and grit that make it especially memorable.  These techniques ended up in some other horror movies as well as movies in other genres.  

  
Night of the Living Dead was gritty and unapologetic in its delivery.

The opening segments reminded me of the segments in The Shining where there is a car approaching a destination with eerie music playing in the background which set the mood for the horror to come.  This is not a coincidence and was either an ode to Romero by Kubrick or an unintentional act of imitation.

   
Both The Shining  and Night of the Living Dead started out with a car approaching a destination with eerie music setting the tone for the movie.

Don't let the fact that this movie was made in the late 40s make you think that it isn't ground breaking and ahead of its time.  Also don't let this make you think that it will be old hat and not utterly impressive.  These statements could be further from the truth. There were no elements that looked like advancements in makeup or special effects could have improved their delivery and effect.  They were simple and to the point and brutally fiendish.  

Less was definitely more and the impact was dramatic.  The scenes were the zombies are eating the couple in the truck after it burned were disgusting, revolting, and utterly effective in producing elements of fear and outright terror.  No doubt this caught audiences at the time off guard and led them to squirm in their seats.  At the time of time of its release, there were no rating systems so 9 years olds were watching this a crying, screaming and running out of the theaters due to it's brutal imagery and gore.


This feeding scene was extremely graphic and revolutionary.

The emotions evoked during this scene were some in which I haven't felt in many years.  Sure the Saw movies could definitely disgust the audience and make the viewer uneasy, but these scenes had a certain brashness to them that made them extremely realistic. The music was also way ahead of its time and created a sense of dread and an appalling atmosphere.  It truly was horrific.  There wasn't anything amateurish about it.  It was brutal beauty in the eyes of a zombie lover.


The feeding orgy of the zombies in Night was one of kind.

The acting was also right on the money and the characters all interacted well with each other, creating disharmony in conflict with the main character and Mr. Cooper, as well as creating a synergy between the female character who hardly spoke.  I also respected the fact that an African American was the hero during a time where this was probably not the norm.  Another ground breaking feature demonstrating how ahead of its time this movie was.  


The characters all interacted well and lent a sense of realism to the movie.

Little touches that gave the movie credibility were the announcements from the television and radio which slowly made the viewer understand what might have created the outbreak of the zombies.  In addition, the boarding up of the house made for a crescendo of suspense because you often wondered if they would really hold up or not.  Spoiler alert, they didn't.


Just how long were those boards on the windows supposed to hold up?

Stand out scenes were the part when the little girl comes to life as a zombie and kills the mother.  That was really scary but foreshadowed effectively.  It should be noted the that camera angle and way in which the mother was stabbed was very much like the scene in Psycho in the shower.  


This part reminded me of Psycho, another coincidence?

Another scene is when the zombies finally come in and fill the house and wreak havoc while looking for the last remaining human in the house.  That was unnerving.  


The scares climaxed when the zombies finally enter the home in a mob.

It is clear that many prominent directors saw this movie and loved it enough to have it influence their subsequent techniques in directing. Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, but some of these were blatant. 


" I hate plagiarism, even in movies"

The action was non stop and there was not a single moment were the plot wasn't accelerating toward oblivion.  I will not give away the ending, although I'm sure that many of you have seen this classic.  I am embarrassed to say I hadn't, but I changed that by watching this three times in a row.  I was just enthralled by it and it took me back to college when I was dissecting Citizen Kane and other classics in film.  


This is a movie to sit back and enjoy or analyze to your hearts content.

Initially it was disregarded by critics as just having too much gratuitous violence and gore but slowly garnered a cult following to become of the highest grossing movies of it's time, bringing in over 15 million dollars.  It was the highest grossing film in Europe during its time.  

Long story short, all zombie shows, movies, video games, etc owe this movie a debt of gratitude.  There is no doubt in my mind that that movie paved the way for their creation.  The way the zombies moved, their appetites, their appearance, everything is virtually unchanged in new movies.  He took a big chance during this time to put so much gore and blood in this movie and I have nothing but utter respect for Romero.

  
There was no shortage of gore in Night of the Living Dead!

Take a moment and watch this excellent classic and realize that the modern day directors make enjoyable zombie flicks not because they created them in a vacuum, but because they were standing on the shoulders of a giant, George Romero.  It's on Netflix.  So make your sure you tilt off your hat to the one that started it all:  94%

PS:  The ending of Taxi Driver was also very similar to the ending of this movie because the scenes take an almost "outside looking in" quality and included depictions of newspaper clippings.  Even the music was very similar.  So at least three times other distinct directors emulated this movie.  


Watch this movie now, but lock your doors!

A Deeper Look into The Shining: ROOM 237

ROOM 237: -+: 2012: DOC:  What was really behind Kubrick's depiction of King's The Shining?  Was subliminal imagery utilized?  Were elements changed specifically by Kubrick from the novel to make a point?  Was The Shining in many ways the rubric by which most Kubrick's films can be understood?  Room 237 is the documentary that will answer these questions and will leave a few questions unanswered; the formula for an excellent documentary.

I want to be careful here and not give away many of the "Easter Eggs" that the many film historians and critics narrating this documentary detail.  Actually, it would take too long to do so.  I will say however, that I watched The Shining at least 7 times and I only knew about a few of them.  


Unraveling The Shining...ROOM 237

Something that I took away from this documentary is that The Shining is as complicated as the maze that Kubrick inserted  into the film.  I emphasize that word because King hadn't put the maze in the novel.  This is just one of the many elements Kubrick adds to the movie to make a point and to juxtapose his many demons and obsessions.  


Kubrick finding subtexts..

Did you know that Kubrick wanted to make a movie based on the holocaust?  Did you know that he focused on a German made typewriter with an eagle on it to hint at the holocaust?  Just a coincidence?  There are no coincidences in Kubrick land. Apparently, he had a 200 IQ.  YES, 200.  That's smarter than Picasso.  Danny's shirt has the number 42 on it, as do many other elements in the movie.  42 of course referring to the year of the holocaust.  These are only a few "coincidences".

Talking to Tony..the number 42.  After this scene, he sees blood..

Kubrick was obsessed with the Apollo 11 landing and he should have been after directing the breakthrough 2001 A Space Odyssey.  Apparently, he hadn't lost the obsession in The Shining because he constantly refers to it with clues.  I won't give these away but there are many. The one that I have to include, is that the ROOM 237 corresponds to the exact distance of earth to the moon, 237,000 miles.  Did he have something to do with the actual filming?  Was it staged?


APOLLO 11 is a hidden theme in THE SHINING

Possibly the most fascinating breakthrough about this documentary is the mind shattering premise that the movie is "supposed" to be seen forward and backward, like a mirror.  Mirrors, of course, are a huge symbol in this movie, as evidenced by REDRUM which has been lifted in many pop culture elements and even The Simpsons.  In other words, if you watch it backwards while watching it forward, NEW elements arise.



MSTERMND  http://www.mstrmnd.com/log/802  didn't want to be interviewed for this movie, which is unfortunate, because he really nails this part.  It was included in this movie, but wasn't found by any of the narrators.  Luckily, one was humble enough to include his name.  The best way to describe this is that scenes are framed incredibly exact, so that they juxtapose themselves and create sometimes horrific NEW scenes..see below:


          

THESE IMAGES ARE AMAZING AND REAL!

These aren't "coincidences" because there are some that show televisions as mouths, faces that turn into angels, and so on.  My favorite is this one but one of the most disturbing also:


The demon within..perfect juxtaposition

I'm going to stop here, because this review is not supposed to take the focus here.  WATCH this documentary if you are a Kubrick fan, if you love The Shining, or if you just want to rediscover a classic movie.  This is amazing and only shows how much of a genius Kubrick was::::96%

The QUESTion continues...

Stephen King's Horror Showcase

Since Damien asked me to take over his blog while he was on vacation, I informed him that I would only be rating horror movies. In the process, I realized that many of the movies that I enjoyed were originally novels by Stephen King, so I decided to devote an entire section to the movies inspired by his novels.

Never one to shy away from the limelight, he regularly played cameos in his movies, playing obscure characters in a similar fashion to Quentin Tarantino; He played a caretaker, a bartender, a driver etc.

If you haven't already seen my weekly horror showcase featuring King's Pet Semetary , the movie is definitely worth seeing again or seeing for the first time! Well, without further adieu, let's get going on some classic King..

THE SHINING: 1980:+-: HRR:  Starring Jack Nicholson, this movie is very difficult to rate since it's already been dissected by so many.  The only thing that I might add is the fact that the insanity portrayed in the movie builds steadily to create a moment of suspense, or moments of suspense that are probably the most tangible of ANY horror movie.  This movie had it all...

Not only is it a historical piece with plenty of supernatural elements, it also had that psychological element to it that made it extremely hard to watch unless you were ready for what it throws (check verb tense) it at you.  At some points, this movie wears you down and makes you easily impressionable to sudden attacks of stimulation, which differ from the obnoxious silent to loud sequences of most cheesy horror flicks.  This movie SCARES you and SCARES you in a realistic way.  Cabin Fever is real.

Then again, we are talking about a Stanley Kubrick film and therefore this is no ordinary film.  I actually ran into someone this weekend that didn't watch this movie and I was so utterly insulted that I suggested he watch it with his family!  LOL, just kidding, LOL I'm not..

Stand out scenes are the point where he was drooling by the typewriter, his tongue stuck out with the bat, when he was stuck in the freezer and of course when the two girls said..."Come play with me Danny!"  Not to mention the Soirée and the bathroom scene.  I can go on and on and on.  I won't talk about the axe scene...you know what I'm talking about or you wouldn't be reading my blog.

At some point, you need to talk about the sound and the music.  It was a PART of the movie that blended seamlessly.  The sound effects and the suspense were extremely related and at many points, you have to imagine the movie without the sound effects and know it wouldn't be the same. 

Mr. Holloran was great as was the bulgy eyed mother with extreme Thyroid problems, that also starred as ...well that was a LOOONG time ago.  No need to date myself.  Anyway, there was killing, blood, people dressed as stuffed up animals having sex, and basically, you need to watch this excellent ,but disturbing movie!  95%




IT: 1990:  +-: HRR:  Although not "technically" a horror movie, but a mini-series on television, it still earns a place in this segment.  Borrowing from Stand By Me, this movie deals with a ghost or apparition that takes different forms as the person's worst nightmare.

This is a concept that King deals with many times.  Pennywise, the clown, is both frightening and convincing as a horror figure and gives proof to the notion that clowns ARE in fact weird and people have an absolute right to fear them.

Honestly, watching this mini-series was a RARE treat and I wish I could get it on video or Blu-Ray.  I just can't find it yet.  I remember it being very convincing and I loved it.  If you can find it and haven't watched it like The Stand, get it and remember what television was meant to be.  I Can't rate it because I don't exactly remember every part of it..I know if was intriguing and I challenge you to find it!::::UNRATED!


THE CHILDREN OF THE CORN:  1984: +-: HRR:  Linda Hamilton, as seen in the better Terminator movies, is in this film which portrays the uprising of children against their parents because they are being spurred on by an entity in the corn...only King could make this believable, likeable and understandable..

This movie develops nicely, paces extremely well, and the casting is spot on.  It's a very short and sweet movie that takes itself as seriously as it needs to.  The main "baddy" is Malachi, an extremely odd looking man and the main mastermind is even weirder.  Don't believe me?  Watch it although you have probably seen the "South Park" treatment of the "Don't go down that Roooad part".

There are many parts of this movie which I love and it Easily gets in the 90s.  It was just that creepy and became a cult classic and was used in many adaptations and spoofs.  In terms of the scary aspect, it had it's blood as evidenced in the diner scene, the scene where Malachi and his buddies kills the mechanic. 

Much of the suspense is built organically, and the music is still in my head.  Da DA da Di Da DAaaaaa.  Very nice.

Watch it and get a good scare!  90%


CUJO: 190??:  -?:  Cujo was just such a visceral movie that there isn't much to be said about it but try to watch it because it will torment you. 

The star of this movie was definitely the dog, a magnificent St. Bernard whose drool and growling made this movie hard to watch.  This is one movie that you felt worse for the humans than the animals.  It should have almost read, "No humans were harmed in this film".

Not the most "successful" movie, it still holds the cult following.  Also, when there is a bad, menacing dog, don't you say, "It's not a Cujo is it?"

Stand out scenes are the whole time the dog tries to break into the car, little by little, bit by bit.  It's so realistic, it's as if King had this happen to him.  That's the magic of King!:::::87%



CARRIE:  1976: --:  Sissy Spacek, isn't that a great name?, was brilliant in this adaptation.  Again, this movie hit all the chords such as in the scene in the showers, the scene where the blood was poured on her, as copied in whatever that 70s movie was, it's a classic.  You don't believe me??

Watch it and let me know...it's great, builds suspense, has great characterization, and plus it's KING. Again the music was spot on, almost Quentin Tarantinoesque, Yes, I just used his name as an adjective...first time..SORRY... expect more PRAISE::89%