Let us first look at what the Oxford English Dictionary definition of a zombie is:
1. (In some African and Caribbean religions and in horror stories) a dead body that has been made alive again by magic.
2. A person who seems only partly alive, without any feeling or interest in what is happening.
NOTLD wasn't the first zombie movie, the first feature length zombie movie was the Bela Lugosi vehicle White Zombie that was released in 1932, Lugosi plays the wonderfully titled Murder Legendre, a white Haitian voodoo master.
Most of the early zombie flicks were based on the voodoo/magic plot, being controlled by someone with nefarious goals, also quite a few of them starred Bela Lugosi, he was prolific. These type of zombies would kill people either because they were ordered to or because someone got in their way whilst trying to complete a task, but they wouldn't eat their victims.
You did have a few zombie movies that have people being raised from the dead by science like in Creature with the Atomic Brain and Monstrosity, or by aliens as featured in Plan 9 from Outer Space and The Asto-Zombies (both classics by the way!).
NOTLD doesn't actually give a reason as to why the dead have risen though it is speculated that it could be radiation from a crashed NASA probe amongst other things like divine intervention!
Our story starts with Barbara and Johnny, siblings visiting their fathers grave to pay their respects, they spot a scruffy looking man shambling through the graveyard and Johnny starts teasing his sister, he also get to deliver one of the most memorable lines in the film (see clip above), and then the horror begins!
Barbara and Johnny are attacked by the shambling man, Johnny is knocked down and hits his head, the zombie then turns his attention to Barbara, strange point here is the zombie does not try to bite/eat Johnny, he immediately goes after Barbara.
Barbara has another problem though, she has locked herself in the car but Johnny has the keys so she can't get drive away.The zombie attacks the car trying to get to her and at one point picks up a brick to smash the car window, another strange point as normally zombies are shown as not being sentient, just attacking on instinct and not using tools (though Romero would expand on this in his 2005 movie Land of the Dead).
To escape her attacker Barbara releases the handbrake and coasts downhill leaving the zombie in her wake, but unfortunately she loses control of the car and crashes it!
In a dazed state she goes looking for help and ends up at a seemingly abandoned farmhouse, there she meets Ben (our hero), hiding in the basement are the not so heroic Harry, his wife Helen and injured daughter Karen, also a young couple Tom and Judy.
There's tense confrontations as the farmhouse is besieged by a herd of ravenous zombies and the occupants try to decide what's the best course of action for survival, and that fight for survival is a battle through the night as they get knocked off one by one.
The ending is a bit of a shock and gut wrenching, it's so matter of fact and not the usual Hollywood (I know it was shot in Pennsylvania) happy ending.
NOTLD was shot in 30 days on a budget of around $114,000 and grossed more than $30 million, Romero and co-writer John Russo made virtually nothing from the money due to their naivety with distribution deals., also due to this fact the film went into Public Domain as it wasn't copyrighted!
It was very shocking upon it's release for it's graphic depiction of of violent murders and the fact that there was a black man as the lead character, you have to remember that this was made at a time when the was still some segregation (even though it was illegal) and blacks were still marginalised.
The part of Ben was originally supposed to be an angry, rough and ready truck driver of no particular race but Duane Jones impressed so much in his audition that the part was rewritten for him, he then further tailored the character himself.
The 'blood' used in the film was actually chocolate syrup, and Karl Hardman who played Harry was also the make-up artist (Romero wanted to use Tom Salvini but he was actually serving in Vietnam as a combat photographer at the time) and co-producer.
There have been several versions of the movie released but they have normally maintained the same cut, there have been 2 colourised versions, both ok but just not quite sharp and vibrant enough.
There's also been a couple of restored releases, the most recent one being the 2018 4K restoration release to celebrate it's 50th anniversary (I own a copy of the above boxset), it looks fantastic and it would be the one I recommend watching.
In 1990 the TomSavini directed remake of NOTLD was released, it's a good remake, keeping enough of the original but also adding a bit extra, it also has a different ending.
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