"NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD" LIVES AGAIN

     Halloween has given this critic a chance to watch "Night of the Living Dead "again on TV. Imagine my surprise to see a scene with radio broadcasts warning the public of 

 Zombies on the loose: one such location was Cumberland, Maryland, a small, remote town where my father's family lived, including his cousin ( a judge ) and his nephew ( a pharmacist ). Not to mention a friend who was a cardiologist at the local hospital. While professional people existed in real life there, things were very different amidst the fictional world of Pittsburgh director George Romaro who explored an area where ordinary residents did their worse. (What is it with my Maryland hometown that also recalled another horror movie shot in a nearby isolated place: "The Blair Witch Project" ?)

     However, there are other questions to consider about this particular film, even  53 years after it was made: namely, is there anything relevant today that makes the work significant? Let's start with the obvious: for one example, Covid 19 and the deadly, unpredictable threat it represents could certainly suggest infringement by the zombies. How about the role of the black protagonist, an individual who must still fight for his survival in a white world? In a word, a one - person participant / leader of the "Black Lives Matter" movement which did not exist when this movie was made.

     There are political themes, too, in the work, recalling "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" where pods from outer space became an analogy for the Cold War take-over by the Soviet Union. Let's also consider this encroachment as another unpredictable event, where kindly, familiar neighbors, family and friends suddenly became evildoers out to destroy us.

Such a phenomenon soon evolved into a convention of the horror film: normally innocent, ideal citizens became "monsters," especially characters you would never suspect, like children. Remember the attractive teenager, "Carrie," and adorable youngster in "The Omen."  

     A child in " Night of the Living Dead" was also responsible for killing the hero, an Afro American protagonist who gave his life saving fellow victims.  

     The point might be this : we really don't know who we can trust any more. Certainly not cute children or up-standing neighbors or family members. Certainly not American citizens who march to the US Capitol in the name of democracy.