NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
Note: from Oct 2021-June 2022, the podcast was known as 21 Jump Scare and was organized in a slightly different fashion, with different awards.
Background (spoiler-free) 0:00-14:55
Discussion (spoiler-heavy) 14:56-47:34
Awards (spoilers for days) 47:35
Director George A. Romero
Screenplay George A. Romero & John Russo
Featuring Marilyn Eastman, Karl Hardman, Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea, Judith Ridley, Kyra Schoen, Russell Streiner, Keith Wayne
Opened: October 4, 1968
Budget: $114,000
Gross USA: $236,452 (Note: “Following its theatrical premiere, Night of the Living Dead eventually grossed $12 million domestically and $18 million internationally, earning more than 250 times its budget and making it one of the most profitable film productions ever made at the time.”)
SPOILER-FREE SYNOPSIS
The late Sixties. Somewhere in rural Pennsylvania. Siblings Johnny and Barbra are visiting their father’s grave in order to place a wreath on it, a yearly ritual that brings out the worst in both of them. This year’s trip, however, will be interrupted by the presence of a slowly moving human with a dead, thousand-mile stare who kills Johnny and almost does in Barbra, who manages to escape by disengaging the emergency brake of their car. With the strange man relentlessly pursuing her, Barbra takes refuge in a nearby farmhouse, where she finds the corpse of a dead woman, and where she is soon joined by Ben, a tall and resourceful African-American man also seeking shelter from what is quickly becoming a horde of strange shambling individuals, hellbent on murdering any human in their path. Boarding up the windows and doors, Ben tries to engage Barbra but she has been rendered near-catatonic by the death of her brother, and by their situation, which is described on the radio as a freak event possibly caused by radiation from a satellite recently returned from Venus. Soon, the pair receive another surprise when five people emerge from the cellar of the house: a family of three, the Coopers, and lovebirds Tom and Judy. As Ben details his plan to secure them on the ground floor, Mr. Cooper argues the cellar will be a far better hiding place. Meanwhile, the TV details more atrocities: the slow-walking ghouls are in fact flesh-eaters and are causing mayhem up and down the entire east coast. Will Ben, Barbra and their new friends/adversaries make it out of the house? Will the government get its act together in time to conquer the demented plague of cannibals? For all of them, the long dark night of the soul is only getting stranger, and more deadly.
EPISODE NOTES
Music from the “NOTLD” original soundtrack by William Loose. Read Roger Ebert’s classic essay on seeing the film in a cinema full of children.
TRAILER
AWARDS
The Tom Six Award for Most Disturbing Scene
Bradford: Shooting of Ben at end of film
Eric: Flesh eaters feast on Tom and Judy following truck explosion
The Seth Brundle Award for Most Likable Character
Bradford: Judy
Eric: Ben
The Ellen Ripley Award for Character that Most Deserved to Live
Bradford: Ben
Eric: Karen Cooper
The John Doe Award for Character that Most Deserved to Die
Bradford: Johnny
Eric: Harry Cooper
The Gaspar Noe Award/Ken Russell Award for Most Gratuitous Screen Moment
Bradford: Flesh eaters devour cooked bodies after truck explosion
Eric: Tom and Judy love scene before their death