The Talking Pictures Film Club: Night of the Living Dead (1968)
What is The Talking Pictures Film Club?
We're a group who gather together over our shared love of movies to discuss our favorites, the themes, genres, and performances of each month's picks. Films will be available to borrow in DVD format at the circulation desk and, when available, we will also let you know where you can stream the films at home. After we've watched the movie, we'll meet on the second Thursday morning of each month for friendly conversation.
This month's pick: Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Genre: Horror
Streaming options:
Plot Summary:
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, written by Romero and John Russo, produced by Russell Streiner and Karl Hardman, and starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. The story follows seven people trapped in a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania, under assault by flesh-eating reanimated corpses. Although the monsters that appear in the film are referred to as "ghouls", they are credited with popularizing the modern portrayal of zombies in popular culture. Frequently identified as a touchstone in the development of the horror genre, retrospective scholarly analysis has focused on its reflection of the social and cultural changes in the United States during the 1960s, with particular attention towards the casting of Jones, an African-American, in the leading role. In 1999, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
