Happy Halloween!
Watching Night of the Living Dead is a bit of a Halloween tradition here at the Shattered Lens.
Check out Arleigh’s review here and enjoy the film!
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Through the Shattered Lens 
We here at the Shattered Lens have the best Halloween traditions.
LikeLike
Classic, still and always.
Watching it yet again, it struck me how much the radio and television emergency broadcasts contributed to the effectiveness of this film. As each update of the information obtained by public safety officials revealed increasingly bizarre and disturbing facts, they progressively intensified the atmosphere of surreal horror for both the characters and the viewer.
Also, those still photos near the end really drive home the shock and unsettling-ness of the ending.
I need to adopt this Halloween tradition myself.
LikeLike
The radio and tv broadcasts has become a major storytelling style for most of Romero’s zombie films. They actually get more and more useless with their info with each new film after night of the Living Dead. The twisted part of these broadcasts is that in the end they actually do give good advice on how to survive, but the way the newscasters deliver the info and the news with disbelief in their voice adds to the survivors disbelieving what they’re hearing.
Yeah, I have it as part of my Halloween Week ritual to watch Night, Dawn and Day three days in a row.
LikeLike
Yes, the incredulity of the reporters adds to the effect. I hadn’t thought about it causing the characters to doubt the veracity of the reports, but that makes sense.
“Night” had the one-time advantage of this manifestation of the zombie phenomenon being unheard of, again, to both the characters and the viewers. As the media broadcast technique was successively reused, it was inevitable that it would lose its punch.
It is fun to watch a movie series in succession, especially “ritually” 🙂
LikeLike
In Dawn of the Dead, Romero really gets to the meat of the role that the “Fourth Estate” has in a major crisis.
I think what Romero’s first three films really pointed out was how people tend to truly panic if and when they lose faith in the usefulness of the press.
LikeLike
That is one of the things I think “Dawn” did very well. Now I’m getting in the mood to watch that film. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow night, since I’m now on a ritualistic roll.
LikeLike
The best way to do it is just watch Night, Dawn and Day for three days in a row. They actually fit so well together thematically the way the next trilogy with Land, Diary and Survival just doesn’t. Which is a shame really.
LikeLike
Well, I completed the hat-trick, with a one day interruption.
I still think “Night” is the most effective and scary, and certainly most important of the three, in spite and because of its bare bones style, among other reasons. But I did recognize the things you pointed out about the latter two. They weren’t really supposed to be scary, in the traditional way, at least. If they are viewed without that expectation, it is easier to appreciate what they express. They don’t really seem related to “Night”, to me, but “Day” connects nicely to “Dawn”.
This was the second time I watched “Dawn”. The first time I saw it, I must have watched a director’s cut or otherwise extended version. The version I watched this week was somewhat shorter, and seemed to benefit from that. The longer version seemed to drag more. I think there were more scenes of the characters frolicking in the mall and things like that. So what I assume is the original version was somewhat more entertaining.
Two things about “Day” made an impression this time. I thought the technical details of Dr. Logan’s theories about zombie brain function were pretty interesting, and well-conceived by the screenplay writer (Romero, I assume) Also, I didn’t remember “Day” out-gore-ing “Dawn”, but I’d have to give it the crown. And while the devouring of Rhodes is the most “acclaimed kill scene from the film, the one just before just as memorable. That one stays with you awhile.
Do we know why Bub wanted to kill Rhodes? It was implied that he had been in the military, but he seemed to recognize Rhodes. Was he just a good judge of character, or had he been a subordinate of Rhodes?
Anyway, I’m glad I watched them all again. There is definitely enough to the material to enable one to glean something new from subsequent viewings.
LikeLike
I think Bub just can sense a douchebag. LOL
Oh, Day will remain the goriest of all of Romero’s zombie films. Some of the gags made up by Savini and Nicotero as his apprentice can still best most effects nowadays. I think only The Walking Dead can boast to having equaled or bested some of those gore gags.
LikeLike
Pingback: Ghosts of Christmas Past #20: Santa Claus Conquers The Martians | Through the Shattered Lens