Product: Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Rating: 5.0
classic
This and the Exorcist are the only two horror films that still scare me. Night Of The Living Dead for different reasons.If black and white was ever essential, it is here. Even in the opening scene, the cloudy, grainy cinamatography gives the absolute creeps. The plot-which I won't deal with-only gets doomier, and so the tention gets heavier throughout the film. The lights go out, it is dark outside, and the camera makes the house look claustraphobic. Shadows, big, deep ones, lurk all over this film: the icing on this nuance cake. In color, you could not achieve this effect with this ecconomy.The acting is great. From what I know, these were not professionals. So Ramero is able to set up an unthinkable situation, then see how ordinary people would react.Subtext also adds to creepiness here. 1968: race riots, slaughter in Vietnam, nuclear threat. Is it accidental that Night Of The Living Dead has a black and a white antagonist, random killing in open fields, radiation induced madness? Absolutely not.Watch how, in the TV sequences, the news reader reports with cold, old style objectivity. This makes the events just out the window all the more chilling.You could write a book on this film. See it.