Night of the Living Dead (1968)

The American independent horror film, Night of the Living Dead (1968), was directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero and written by Romero and John Russo. On a night in rural Pennsylvania, siblings Barbra and Johnny went to visit their father’s grave but were suddenly confronted by a pale man in a tattered suit. After Johnny is killed and Barbra is attacked, she escapes to a nearby farmhouse where she discovers a half-eaten corpse on the stairs. As more ghouls begin to gather outside the house, a stranger named Ben arrives and mistakes Barbra for the homeowner at first. Working together, they manage to secure the windows and doors against the growing horde. While searching for supplies in the house, Ben finds a lever-action rifle. To Barbra’s surprise, they also find people hiding in the cellar: Harry, his wife Helen, and their young daughter Karen had fled there after their car was overturned by the same monsters.

After receiving an emergency broadcast about a series of brutal killings, Tom and Judy sought shelter. They secured the farmhouse with the help of Ben while Harry expressed concerns about the safety of staying aboveground and eventually returned to the cellar. The number of ghouls attacking the farmhouse continued to grow. As refugees, they kept up with news reports through radio and television, learning that an army of cannibalistic corpses was wreaking havoc on the East Coast. They also heard about armed posses patrolling the countryside in an effort to exterminate the living dead. These reports confirmed that ghouls could be killed again by heavy blows to the head, bullets to the brain, or being burned. Luckily, there were various rescue centers offering refuge and safety for those seeking it. Scientists had a theory that radiation from an exploding space probe returning from Venus may have caused these reanimations.