Night of the Living Dead 4K 1968

Any 'ancestor of the genre' film becomes more and more of a 'collection of clichés' as time goes on. It's unfair, because the current stamp is a lucky find at the time, a top ten hit, but, alas, it's hard to seriously watch as it's unclear why the revived corpses roam and munch on the living for the umpteenth time. Yes, that was the first time they did it, but it's been years since then.

The ridiculous reason for bringing corpses back to life back in 1968, at the height of the space program, was very relevant. A few years ago Gagarin had been in space, Armstrong was due to set foot on the Moon the following year... Fears about 'what we will find in space' were hitting a nerve. From a momentary point of view, Romero was right to include this fear in the film. Of course, he wasn't counting on the long term, but still... because the other fears - of corpses, of cannibalism, of betrayal of loved ones (I mean Barbara's brother - even if unwittingly, he betrayed his sister), of disunity, of the state machine (the final scenes) - are practically eternal.

As in subsequent zombie-movies, the characters figure out the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents pretty quickly. This is one of the highlights of films like this: the ability to work with the characters to come up with ways to counter a clearly delineated danger. To Romero's credit, the characters act quite sensibly and are quite forgivably wrong. The practicality of the main character, Negro Ben, is generally above praise, not much of him in terms of practicality (not courage), lags behind the head of the family - in fact, he eventually turns out to be right, it is in the basement and the monsters do not get through. True, based on stereotypes, the women in the film are of little use. As Stephen King said in 'The Dance of Death': 'How much like Hollywood screenwriters - male chauvinistic pigs. Rumor has it that the remake of 'Night' corrected the situation - Barbara performs as well as men, but here the women are either passively waiting for their fate, or do little that corresponds to common sense, and all the decisions are made by men. Not the most optimal, of course, but it is good to talk about optimality, sitting in a cozy chair. More or less rational, in general, decisions.

A plus of the painting is the ending, which even gives the film some social connotations. However, even now it does not seem too original. As well as all the 'nastiness and horror', so shocking to society at the time of the movie's release. We, who have seen 'Hellraiser' and 'Jigsaw', are no longer frightened by some innocent, week-old corpses, people being eaten and people being beaten to death with a trowel.

It might be worth watching - 'for the sake of general erudition'. But a sophisticated viewer will not be particularly delighted by the film.