Horror, which almost became a comedy

It happens that a film, shot, literally for a pack of crackers, "shoots" and turns out to be a cult. "Night of the Living Dead" (1968), even in this case, stands apart - having removed it, then still unknown to anyone director George Romero raised a layer of the horror genre and opened a new direction - zombie movies.

"Night of the Living Dead" will certainly disappoint the modern generation, because the events in it are developing too slowly, and the dead are not at all like the fast, calculating killers they now depict. But nobody canceled its high status. Now it is more a symbol, passed into rjazryad undoubted classics of cinema. In addition, then, in the late sixties, the tape looked quite frightening.

So, when Brother Johnny and Sister Barbara visit their father's grave, they are attacked by a man who looks like a zombie. Johnny is killed, and Barbara, running away, hides in the abandoned house on the farm.

Soon the farm is surrounded by dragging their feet, walking dead. Black guy Ben joins Barbara, and as it later turns out, the family couple hiding in the basement, whose daughter was bitten by a zombie, and she is unconscious. On the radio, people learn that the appearance of walking dead has taken the scale of the disaster. The dead have risen because of the radioactivity of the spacecraft returning from Venus ...

Next, we will see how the recluses desperately try to survive in a house surrounded by zombies. Those who are in desperate situation will have quarrels and concerted actions, and classical moments will everywhere be observed - a mass of zombies moving like puppets and bursting into barricades, a dead and then resurrected daughter eating a daddy, as well as other delicious things.

As Romero said, he was inspired by Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend (1954) to create the film. Nevertheless, "Night of the Living Dead" is quite an independent work, this book does not look like this in any way. Romero intended to shoot the film in color, but the budget was not enough, because of what he was for a long time black and white. And only in 2005 the film was completely transferred to color. So now there are two options.

Because of the same lack of money, the actors were selected from local provincial theaters and from the curious local population, who were paid for a symbolic dollar and handed T-shirts with the inscription "I was a zombie in the movie" Night of the Living Dead ". For suits of the deceased, second-hand clothes were worn. Simple makeup and wax were applied from the makeup.

By the way, first Romero was generally in search, and initially created the script in a comic key, calling him "Kinoshka about monsters." The plot told about the friendship of aliens-teenagers with the population of the Earth. The second version of the script was called "Anubis' Night" and the third "Night of the Flesh Eaters", under which Romero also wanted to launch the film in the rental. But many studios refused to distribute the film, including the giant Columbia Pictures, citing the fact that the film has a number of very violent scenes (modern meat lovers laugh, but at that time the films were not so cruel, and even Romero as blood that you can see in the movie, used chocolate syrup). Finally, the company Walter Reade Organization undertook this, but on condition that the film will be called "Night of the Living Dead" instead of "Night of the Flesh Eaters". Also, at first, she demanded to cut the bloody scenes with scissors, but subsequently abandoned her demands. This was due to the fact that the film became a real hit of the hire, and especially - in open-air cinemas, very common in America.

Currently, the film is in the public domain, since Romero was at that time an independent director, and did not design copyrights to the film. But his co-author-screenwriter John Russo still managed to gain additional benefit, in 1974, having made the Night of the Living Dead. On the Internet there is, you can read.