Night Of The Living Dead Film Analysis

In the film Night of the Living Dead there were many unimaginable, grotesque things that are taking place throughout the film. We know that people are afraid of two things, death and the unknown. Johnny began by badgering his sister, Barbara just like he did when they were children by saying “they’re coming to get you Barbara” while visiting their father’s gravesite. This shows that Barbara, even as an adult, she is afraid of the unknown. Unbeknownst to Johnny, Barbara was actually attacked by the unknown. Johnny jumps on “the thing” to protect his sister. This is the first sighting of a “thing”. The sighting of the thing connotes fear and death. Barbara runs off and finds safety in a house not far from the graveyard. Barbara meets Ben when he enters the house for safety as well. The house is another connotation of safety and warmth. Ben jumps right in to protection mode because Barbara appear to be in a state of shock due to the gory sighting of “the thing” and its attack on her brother.
Although Ben and Barbara just met, he shows confidence that he can and will keep them both safe from the thing.
Ben began to search for items that may help them. Once he found a rifle and some bullets he continues to complete securing the house. While doing so he hears Barbara scream. Protection mode kicks back in and this is when they meet Mr. Cooper and Tom. They were also hiding in the cellar of this house for safety while in fear in fear of their lives. Ben and Mr. Cooper clashed from the beginning; they both have power struggles with who is going to be in charge. Tom tries hard to be the voice of reason. Even though they both have valid points, they are to macho to hear one another and come to a happy medium. Ben tells Mr. Cooper, “you can be the boss down there, but I’m the boss up
here”! Out of the darkness marched an army of ghouls. They surround the house and eventually swarm in and take over. As the film was nearing the end, Karen, Harry and Helen Cooper’s daughter began devouring her father’s corpse after he dies on the floor next to her. When Helen saw this she appeared to be in disbelief. Karen then brutally attacked her mother with a trowel, killed her, and also feasted on her. This scene

At the end after surviving “the ghouls” Ben was shot in the head and killed by a police officer. Although, Ben was not a “thing” or “ghoul”, the officers never investigated to see is he was a human or not. After killing they ferociously pierced his body with meat hooks and threw his body with the “ghouls” to be burned. In 1968, when racism was ubiquitous one may have thought that Ben was killed because he was an Afro-American man.

After watching the film in its entirety, I noticed that everyone were in fear of their lives. How did something that did not have a brain, could not speak, and was in a total trance state come about? This may have come about from the radioactivity left behind due to satellite going to Venus. Once the ghouls infect the humans by biting them they formed their own army and the vicious killing cycle began. One may compare this film to Vietnam like Tom Savini from The American Nightmare (Simon, 2000) did. Perhaps this film was consider a “Newsreel from 1968” because the violence going on was broadcasted on television and the radio just like the news in 1968 when reports of racism and war. The connotation of the film was fear of the living dead and living corpses was the denotation.