Line #25 Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nightofthelivingdead1968.jpg]]
2	->''"They're coming to get you, Barbara."''
3	-->--'''Johnny'''
4
5	''Night of the Living Dead'' is a 1968 horror film directed by Creator/GeorgeARomero, who co-wrote the screenplay with John Russo. Romero's first feature film and the first entry in the ''Film/LivingDeadSeries'', it became one of the most influential horror films ever produced, while inaugurating the ZombieApocalypse subgenre in the process.
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7	It's worth noting that these "Living Dead" aren't ''called'' zombies yet. The film identifies them as "[[OurGhoulsAreDifferent ghouls]]", a corpse-eating creature adapted into Western culture since ''Literature/ArabianNights'' with on-and-off popularity. The "Living Dead" are different from traditional ghouls in that they're the flesh-eating dead whose brains have been reactivated, presumably due to the radioactive fallout from an exploding space probe. It would be Romero's next film, ''[[Film/DawnOfTheDead1978 Dawn of the Dead]]'' that would first drop the word "[[VoodooZombie zombie]]", still not actually referring to his "Living Dead", but playing a huge role in getting the public to perceive zombies as flesh-eating corpses. Romero also commented on the increasing social tensions manifest in America during the [[TheSixties 1960s]]--as the film demonstrates, the living had as much to fear from each other as they did from the undead.
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9	This film is in the PublicDomain despite its relatively recent vintage due to a screwup. In 1968, U.S. copyright law required a properly displayed copyright notice in order for a work to properly secure and maintain its copyright. While this film did display such a notice on the title frames of its original title--''Night of the Flesh Eaters''--the initial distributor, The Walter Reade Organization, neglected to place a copyright notice on the title card after it became ''Night of the Living Dead''. By the time the filmmakers noticed the oversight, they could do nothing about it. As a consequence, anyone with the resources to distribute the film can do so without legal repercussions; this means you can legally view or download the film for free on Internet sites such as [[http://www.archive.org/details/night_of_the_living_dead the Internet Archive]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H91BxkBXttE YouTube]].
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11	After ''Night of the Living Dead'' became an unexpected success, Romero and Russo discussed making a {{sequel}}; after disagreeing on the direction it should take, they each decided to do their own version. Romero made the equally-successful ''[[Film/DawnOfTheDead1978 Dawn of the Dead]]'' and not-quite-as-successful ''[[Film/DayOfTheDead1985 Day of the Dead]]''. Russo took more of a BlackComedy approach with the ''[[Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead Return of the Living Dead]]'' pentalogy, which single-handedly introduced the concept of [[BrainFood zombies eating brains]]. Both series have modern sequels: Romero directed the fourth film of his franchise (''Film/LandOfTheDead'') in 2005, then made a quasi-reboot (''Film/DiaryOfTheDead'') and its sequel (''Film/SurvivalOfTheDead''), while Russo's ''Return of the Living Dead'' films strayed from the "comedic" angle to {{Gorn}}. In 1999, Russo--again without Romero's involvement--re-edited the original 1968 film for a 30th anniversary release, incorporating newly-shot footage and a new music score. This altered version received its own sequel, ''Children of the Living Dead'', in 2001.
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13	All three films in the original ''Living Dead'' trilogy have received remakes, each with varying degrees of success. Romero himself wrote and produced a faithful [[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1990 remake]] of ''Night'' in 1990, with his close friend Creator/TomSavini directing. ''Night'' also received a second remake, [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie filmed in 3-D]], in 2006, although Romero had no involvement with this version, which departs fairly radically from the original film. In November 2018, it was reported that a direct sequel to the 1968 film (adapted from an unproduced script written by Romero and Russo) had entered development, but nothing has been heard since.
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15	''Night of the Living Dead'' remains one of the most iconic horror films of all time. Numerous [[Film/ShaunOfTheDead movies]], [[Series/{{Angel}} television shows]], [[Franchise/ResidentEvil video games]], [[Literature/WorldWarZ novels]], and [[Comicbook/TheWalkingDead comic books]] owe their origin to this pioneering work of zombie horror. And you know you made an excellent horror film when ''[[Creator/FredRogers Mister Rogers]]'', of all people, thought of it as a fun movie.
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17	The movie has also received a [[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1990 number]] of [[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead2006 remakes]], and [[WesternAnimation/NightOfTheAnimatedDead an]] AnimatedAdaptation.
18
19	----
20	!!''Night of the Living Dead'' contains the following tropes:
21	* AccidentalTruth: Johnny, teasing Barbra in the cemetery, keeps telling her "They're coming for you!" and then points at the shambling man and says "There's one of them now!" Sure enough, the man turns out to be a ghoul and attacks Barbra.
22	* ActorAllusion: In the 2021 Japanese dub, this is not the first time we hear Creator/JunichiSuwabe (Ben) [[Manga/HighschoolOfTheDead having to deal once again with the undead]].
23	* AllAreEqualInDeath: During the end credits, we see [[spoiler:Ben's body laid next to that of the cemetery ghoul as they're prepared for burning.]]
24	* AmbiguouslyJewish: Barbara and Johnny place a cross on their father's grave and talk about going to church, but Johnny's imitation of their grandfather has a strong [[AlterKocker Yiddish accent]], suggesting that they might have Jewish ancestry, perhaps on their mother's side.
25	* AnimatedAdaptation: ''WesternAnimation/NightOfTheAnimatedDead'', released in 2021. Featuring {{retraux}} character designs modeled after the 1968 cast, it's BloodierAndGorier than the original and adds a few new sequences, notably showing a flashback to Ben's escape before arriving at the house, but cuts the film down from 90 minutes to 60.
26	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Harry Cooper]], by the end of the movie.
27	* BaitTheDog: Sheriff [=McClelland=] and his posse seem like a good thing when they're first seen on the news but end up [[spoiler:thinking the SoleSurvivor is a ghoul, and shoot him]].
28	* BarrierBustingBlow: In the climax, as a mob of ghouls enter the house to pull Barbra away and drive Ben to the cellar.
29	* BerserkBoardBarricade: Ben picks up spare pieces of wood around the house and nails them to the windows and doors.
30	* BewareTheLiving: Codified here with [[spoiler:Ben's death at the hands of the redneck ghoul-hunting posse.]]
31	* BickeringCouplePeacefulCouple: The Coopers (bickering), Tom and Judy (peaceful).
32	* BigBrotherInstinct: Johnny bitches about having to make the trip to the cemetery and teases Barbra mercilessly, but when she's attacked by the first ghoul he immediately springs to her defense.
33	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Everyone is killed by the ghouls, except for Ben. Ben himself is mistaken for a ghoul and shot dead by the militia group mopping up the last of the ghouls. On the bright side, the ghoul apocalypse gets cleaned up pretty easily. Unless you consider the subsequent ''Living Dead'' films to be in the same universe as this one, in which case it doesn't.]]
34	* BottleEpisode: Made for a small budget, and almost the entire film takes place in or around a single house.
35	* BreakTheCutie: Barbra, an attractive [[TheIngenue Ingenue]] who's endearing despite her uptight personality, gets attacked by a ghoul, watches her brother die, finds a skeletonized corpse, and then finally goes into a panicked daze.
36	* BriefAccentImitation: When Johnny tells the story of scaring Barbara when they were children, he imitates their grandfather with an AlterKocker accent.
37	* BurnTheUndead: Fire is an effective means of dispatching the living dead and is recommended by the radio emergency broadcasts.
38	* CavalryBetrayal: An accidental version. [[spoiler:Ben manages to survive the night in a house besieged by ghouls. In the morning, the Sheriff's posse that systematically kills the ghouls is approaching. Ben comes out and is shot down because the members of the posse think that he is a ghoul.]]
39	* ChekhovsGun: When Barbra is first approaching the farmhouse at the start of the film, she pauses to briefly lean on the gas pump which will become a major plot point later on.
40	* ComicBookAdaptation: [=FantaCo=] Enterprises released a four-issue adaptation in 1991.
41	* CreatorCameo:
42	** George Romero appears as one of the TV reporters interviewing the military spokesmen in Washington.
43	** Screenwriter John Russo plays the ghoul that Ben kills with a tire iron.
44	* CreepyBasement: Subverted. The cellar is the one truly safe place... at least [[spoiler:until Karen turns]].
45	* CreepyCemetery: The film opens with Johnny and Barbra arriving at an isolated rural cemetery to put a wreath on their father's grave. Even before the first ghoul shows up, the place seems very sinister and unsettling with all the shadowy trees and old gravestones jutting out of the ground.
46	* CruelTwistEnding: [[spoiler:Ben, the SoleSurvivor, is killed after being mistaken for a ghoul.]]
47	* CueTheSun: Subverted in the final scene.
48	* DarkerAndEdgier: Arguably the first film in the horror genre to establish the unrelentingly bleak atmosphere of violence and chaos that future horror films would become (in)famous for. Most horror films, before and at the time, were silly and often badly-acted with cardboard level special effects. It was also highly uncommon to find a horror movie with a genuine DownerEnding (or at least one that actually made sense).[[note]]Well, it's more of a BittersweetEnding in this film's case, but it leaned more towards the bitter side.[[/note]]
49	* DamselInDistress: Barbra is often accused of being this, though she does succeed in running away from most of the ghouls. It's just that when things calm down, she goes slightly catatonic. Trauma can do that to a person.
50	* DeathByFallingOver: Johnny is knocked down by a ghoul and hits his head on a gravestone, killing him.
51	* DeathGlare: Ben gives the cowardly Cooper a withering one after kicking in the locked door after Cooper refused to open it for him. With the ghoul horde right behind him, Ben waits long enough to lock and barricade the door again before acting on it.
52	* DecoyProtagonist: For the first quarter of the movie, it looks like Barbra's the protagonist. Then Ben shows up and she turns into TheLoad.
53	* {{Deconstruction}}: Ironically, the work that codified the ZombieApocalypse was also a deconstruction. Outside of the farmhouse; once the military, police, and general public are able to understand and accept what's going on; the hordes of the undead are put down pretty easily.
54	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Romero later went back and forth in interviews on whether the black-and-white photography was for artistic or purely budgetary reasons. It does give the film a kind of documentary feel.
55	* DoorHandleScare: Barbra is sitting in the living room while Ben busies himself boarding up the windows without her. She listens to the radio report about the flesh eaters roaming the countryside. The radio almost increases in volume with no other sound in the scene. She then hears a couple of bangs behind the unchecked door beside her. The camera cuts back and forth between her face and the door. The knob doesn't turn, but the music swells as Harry and Tom suddenly emerge from the cellar, causing Barbra to scream and bring Ben running.
56	* DramaticThunder: The appearance of the first ghoul in the cemetery is heralded by this.
57	* DutchAngle: Used quite a bit by Romero, who tilts his camera to emphasize the unsettled feelings experienced by the characters.
58	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
59	** Unlike the subsequent films in the ''Film/LivingDeadSeries'', this one is in black and white and lacks the subtle humor and action elements of the sequels. More notably, there is at least a HandWave given for the ghouls' existence (exotic radiation from an exploding space probe) while the sequels don't even bother with that. The first ghoul seen is also able to move fast (for a corpse) in contrast to the later ghouls, who have an obvious ZombieGait.
60	** The very first ghoul in the film picks up a rock and uses it to break open a car window to get to Barbara. Every other instance of ghouls interacting with inanimate objects in the sequels are done with no real reason outside of muscle-memory, and even then that's just a theory that survivors are working with. The only exceptions to this were Bub from ''Day of the Dead'' (who was being domesticated) and Big Daddy from ''Land of the Dead'' (whose intelligence went beyond mindlessly hunting living humans).
61	** For that matter, unless you shove fire in their faces (which causes them to snarl), the ghouls are [[TheQuietOne completely silent]]. This is in stark contrast to the loud, ghostly moans or feral growls they make in the sequels and other subsequent zombie fiction.
62	** While Ben is fending off a small group of ghouls, he strikes one in the face with a tire iron. The ghoul in question clutches at its face, as if in pain, or even just acting upon reflex. They also back away in fear in the presence of fire. All later films in the series depict ghouls as having no survival instincts of their own, completely indifferent to any sort of damage (enacted or potential) their bodies receive.
63	** The ghouls' eating habits have them either closing their eyes to chew their food or look around rather than the sequels where they have JabbaTableManners and often messily eat.
64	** The ghouls have a way of giving up on pursuing their victims, even when they knew the living were inside the house, none of them try to break inside or even walk up on to the front porch, instead keeping their distance, even when there isn't fire around. Later when Ben flees inside after the failed escape attempt and he and Cooper close and barricade the door again, the ghouls are battering on the door to get inside. Not long later, they seem to give up and wander away. They only attack the house en mass at the end. A far cry from the relentless zombies in ''Dawn of the Dead'' who are still trying to get into the mall as the weeks and months pass, or the zombies in ''Day of the Dead'' outside surrounding the military base's fence and gates still trying to get in.
65	** By the time morning rolls around [[spoiler:the situation seems pretty much under control, compared to the ZombieApocalypse of the later films]].
66	** Due to the convoluted film history of ghouls and zombies, the Living Dead are identified as ghouls in this film.
67	* EmergencyRefuelling: The film has a group of people trapped in TheSiege with the ghouls outside, who have a truck that could help them escape. Unfortunately the truck has no fuel and the gas pump on the outside of the house is locked shut, so a significant side-plot is the frantic search for the keys to the pump's lock all over the house. Once a set of keys that may be the pump's have been found, the survivors implement a plan to refuel the truck. [[spoiler:Except they discover, too late, that the keys are ''not'' for the pump.]]
68	* EventTitle: One of the most famous in history. Just about every modern film that uses "Night of.." or "..of the Dead" in its title are referencing either this movie or its just as famous sequel.
69	* EverybodyDiesEnding: None of the main characters make it through the film alive.
70	* EverybodySmokes: Ben, Harry, and Helen all light up cigarettes to ease their tension.
71	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: It's a movie about a single night during which the dead become alive.
72	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The title does not use the word "night" in a figurative sense.
73	* FanserviceExtra: There's a naked, undead woman shown prominently in two shots... but then again, [[FanDisservice she's undead]].
74	* FearIsNormal: In one scene of the movie, Ben tries to comfort Barbara by saying that he knows she's afraid and that he's afraid of the ZombieApocalypse which is taking place as well.
75	* FireKeepsItDead: At the end, after the locals have gained control of the situation, they burn the bodies of killed humans so they can't rise as ghouls and "killed" ghouls so they can't rise ''again''.
76	* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Johnny and Barbra have shades of this in the beginning when they visit their father's grave with the former complaining about how long it took for them to drive up there and acting rather childishly when taunting Barbra about how the undead is coming to get her and the latter acting more mature and calm, even referring to Johnny as "ignorant" at one point.
77	* FriendOrFoe: In the end, [[spoiler:Ben is shot down because the members of the posse think that he is a ghoul]].
78	* FromBadToWorse: Things ''really'' start going to hell beginning with [[spoiler:Tom and Judy's death]].
79	* FullFrontalAssault: As shown in the poster, there's a brief scene of a naked female ghoul among the horde that invade the house. It's shown from behind so you don't really see much.
80	* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: In part because of its public domain status, this film has been a popular choice for computer colorization. There are actually ''three'' known colorized versions, all radically different from each other, and each tending to be inaccurate in different ways. For instance the version Hal Roach produced in 1985 colored Barbra and Johnny's car yellow, the Anchor Bay version in 1997 colored it blue, and the 2005 version from Legend Films colored it red. The real color of the car? Green. The 1985 and 2005 versions also featured green-skinned ghouls while the 1997 version went with regular flesh tones.
81	* GoryDiscretionShot: Sometimes used, sometimes averted. Especially in the original, this shocked audiences who weren't expecting to see so much gore.
82	* GutPunch:
83	** The [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath Family-Unfriendly Deaths]] of [[spoiler: Tom and Judy]] provides the page quote for this trope.
84	** The ghoul attacking Barbra and Johnny in the cemetery also counts. The first few minutes of the film are just a brother and sister bickering. We know it's a horror film, but we just assume that the shocks will come later on and this opening scene is going to be PlayedForLaughs... except, no, that creepy guy really is a murderous ghoul. Even if you've seen it multiple times, it's still very jarring.
85	** In the cellar, [[spoiler:Karen eating her father and stabbing her mother. A totally shocking case of EnfantTerrible, chillingly presented, that horrifies Helen as much as it does the audience]].
86	* HateAtFirstSight: Ben and Harry Cooper take an instantaneous dislike to one another that never abates over the course of the film. In-universe, this is mainly due to their incompatible viewpoints regarding the proper course of action to take.
87	* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Ben is mistakenly shot by ghoul hunters.]]
88	* HeroicBSOD: Barbra, who spends half the movie in a catatonic daze.
89	* HollywoodDarkness: When the TV reporter is interviewing Sheriff [=McClelland=], they're in bright sunlight even though it's supposed to be the middle of the night. Less blatantly, the scene where Tom and Judy ride out to the gas pump with Ben was clearly shot either just after dawn or just before dusk.
90	* HopeSpot:
91	** [[spoiler: The group finds what they believe to be the keys to the gas pump, and Ben devises an elaborate plan for them to hold off the ghouls so they can fill up his truck and then take everyone to a rescue center. But a combination of panic and unforeseen snags leads to the truck exploding with Tom and Judy inside.]]
92	** [[spoiler: Ben survives the night in the basement, comes up the stairs to find the house empty of ghouls, and it seems clear he's about to be rescued by Sheriff [=McClelland=] and his ghoul-hunting posse. Then they mistake him for a ghoul and shoot him through the head.]]
93	* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: The film takes place the night after the dreaded switch to gasp daylight savings time.[[note]]Based on the December 1966 calendar seen on the wall in the house, some fans have determined that the movie is supposed to take place on April 30, 1967, the "spring forward" day that year.[[/note]]
94	* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: The living characters seem to prefer either being at each other's throats, lacking any common sense, or both to mount any credible offense against the ghouls. [[spoiler:And then there's the ending where Ben, the SoleSurvivor, gets shot by a posse of policemen who couldn't bother to check if he's still alive]].
95	* HungryMenace: The ghouls seem to exist only to devour the flesh of the living.
96	* HystericalWoman: Barbra spends half of her time being hysterical until she is knocked out by Ben. She then spends rest of her time in quiet near-catatonia.
97	* IgnoredVitalNewsReports: Played with. Just before Johnny gets out of the car at the cemetery, the radio comes back on after having been off the air due to "[[WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties technical problems]]". He immediately switches it off before learning anything more.
98	* IncongruouslyDressedZombie: Undressed, rather: Romero had a nude model wandering around with a morgue ID tag tied to her wrist.
99	* {{Irony}}: Cooper orders Helen to go back down into the cellar in the third act, wanting to keep her safe. [[spoiler: At this point their daughter has become a ghoul.]] The irony comes that if Helen had stayed upstairs [[spoiler: she probably would have survived]].
100	** And of course, the biggest one of all. [[spoiler: After spending the majority of the film flatly refusing to consider holing up in the basement as Cooper suggests, and deriding Cooper as an idiot for wanting to do so, when his boarding up of the house completely fails, not only is that where Ben finds safety, but we discover that Cooper was right all along, and even though a horde of ghouls swarmed the house, they were unable to break through the door to get to Ben.]]
101	* ItCanThink: In contrast to the usual pop-culture depiction of Romero zombies, the ghouls here actually show a fair amount of animalistic intelligence. They understand simple tools (they use rocks and clubs to smash through obstructions like windows and doors, others use rocks to clumsily smash the lights on Ben's truck, [[spoiler:Karen uses a trowel to stab her mom to death after turning]]) and have the ability to move quickly (for the undead, at least) to pursue food. They don't feel pain, as shown when several ghoul hands are cut to pieces by the defenders during one attack, but they clearly recognize obvious dangers and have some limited degree of self-preservation, recoiling from bright lights and especially from fire.
102	* {{Jerkass}}: Cooper, who is loud and abrasive toward everyone. Johnny seems to be a bit of one as well.
103	* JerkassHasAPoint: Cooper was right about barricading the basement, [[spoiler:as evidenced when Ben (the one most against it) survives the night that way]].
104	* JumpCut: There's a blatant one when Harry and Helen are talking in the cellar, because the distributor felt that scene was too long, and Romero was forced to trim it awkwardly.
105	* KillItWithFire: Fire is one of the only things ghouls are afraid of, and is one of the methods used to make sure they either stay dead or the recently deceased don't become them.
106	* KillTheCutie: And how. Poor, poor [[spoiler:Barbra]]...
107	* KillTheLights: Toward the end of the film, the power suddenly goes out. Shortly thereafter, the ghouls begin their final attack on the house.
108	* TheLoad: Barbra, Judy, and Helen are generally useless in the original, though Helen does try, and does try to call out Harry Cooper and get him to stop being an asshole and help the situation rather than harming it.
109	* LosingAShoeInTheStruggle: Barbra loses ''both'' shoes while fleeing the cemetery ghoul.
110	* MadnessMantra:
111	** "You can't start the car, Johnny has the key."
112	** "Oh, is it ten to three? We won't have long to wait, now, it's ten to three..."
113	* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: The very first ghoul in the movie can be seen shambling around the cemetery well before it attacks Barbra and Johnny.
114	* MenOfSherwood: The heroes turn on the TV and watch a redneck posse shooting their way through ghouls to clear the area for survivors. The posse eventually reaches the house, no worse for the wear, and kills all of the ghouls surrounding the house. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, they also mistake the last survivor for a ghoul and shoot him, too]].
115	* MolotovCocktail: Harry tosses Molotov cocktails to clear a path to the truck when Ben and Tom make a break for it.
116	* NegatedMomentOfAwesome: Barbra finally snaps out of her catatonia and runs to save Mrs. Cooper from the ghoul horde breaking into the house, but [[spoiler: goes back into her catatonia the moment she sees her zombified brother Johnny, who drags her outside into the horde, where she is presumably devoured almost immediately afterward]].
117	* NewscasterCameo:
118	** Bill Cardille, a Pittsburgh TV personality best known as HorrorHost "Chilly Billy", appears as the TV reporter interviewing Sheriff [=McClelland=].
119	** Charles Craig, who plays the primary newscaster in the film, had real-life experience reporting the news on a Cincinnati radio station.
120	* NotAZombie: The first ghoul we see in the film is supposed to look like just some random person wandering around the cemetery, until he attacks Barbra.
121	* NotQuiteSavedEnough: This film is perhaps the prototypical example. In a movie filled with groundbreaking departures from tradition, this trope was perhaps the most significant. [[spoiler: After a heroic struggle, Ben is left the only survivor of a night of mayhem and horror in the farmhouse. The next morning he awakes to the sound of a rescue party approaching the house, but as he peers through the boarded-up windows for a glimpse of his potential saviors, they mistake him for just another ghoul and perfunctorily shoot him in the head. The movie ends with a sequence of still images of Ben's lifeless, anonymous corpse impaled on a meat hook and dragged to a human bonfire. No one ever knows who he was or what he went through to survive the night . . . of the living dead.]]
122	* {{Novelization}}: Written by John Russo. Russo also wrote a sequel novel titled ''Literature/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'' where the ghouls return following a catastrophic bus crash, which was later the (very loose) basis for the [[Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead film of the same name]].
123	* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Ben's story of running down ghouls with a truck and his clash with them at Beekman's Diner, which would clearly have been far beyond the film's budget to actually show.
124	* OhCrap: Barbra's reaction after the graveyard zombie kills Johnny then looks up at her, knowing she's next.
125	* OminousMusicBoxTune: Barbra finds a music box, which plays a soothing little tune that seems completely at odds with the chaos happening outside the house.
126	* OnlySaneMan: There's been serious debate about who fits this trope, if anyone does. Ben is the most level-headed and competent character in the movie, who does the most to fight back against the ghouls and survive... but he's also ''wrong'' about what to do, and his decisions [[spoiler:get everyone but him killed]]. Cooper is an angry, irrational, [[DirtyCoward cowardly]] {{Jerkass}} who at one point threatens Ben with a gun... but he was ''right'' about hiding in the basement, even though nobody listened to him. It could be argued, then, that ''no one'' in the film is perfectly sane -- which is a big reason for the DownerEnding.
127	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: ''Night of the Living Dead'' has a key place in the history of how zombies changed from semi-dead servants to cannibalistic undead in mainstream perception. The "zombies" of the film are only referred to as ghouls and audiences at the time did not perceive them otherwise, but starting around 1980 ''Night of the Living Dead'' came to be seen as being about zombies and part of an emerging horror subgenre. As an early "zombie" film, the ghouls don't fit the "slow, dumb shambler" model that is associated with Romero's zombies. Among others, they reach for a car's door handle, they pick up a rock to smash against a window, they deliberately smash a car's headlights, and one of them runs. [[spoiler:The Coopers' zombified daughter]] also uses a garden shovel to kill [[spoiler:her mother]] and several zombies pick up tools, such as the aforementioned rock, and one uses Ben's discarded makeshift torch to break down the door.
128	* PeekABooCorpse: After escaping the ghoul from the cemetery by entering a house, Barbra tactically explores her impromptu shelter. She finds the chewed corpse of the house's owner upstairs, which sends her into a near-catatonic state.
129	* PoliceAreUseless: Subverted with the sheriff's posse effectively taking down the ghouls with very little problems. Also an inversion in proving they're a little ''too'' good at it when they [[spoiler:mistakenly shoot Ben and never realize he wasn't a ghoul]].
130	* PracticalVoiceover: Radio and television broadcasts are used throughout the film to outline the contours and extent of the ghoul outbreak.
131	* PrecautionaryCorpseDisposal: A TropeCodifier -- a news broadcast directs the viewers to drag any corpse out into the street and burn it lest they rise up as a "flesh-eating ghoul".
132	* ProtectThisHouse: The protagonists end up in a house that is besieged by ghouls. They try to prevent the ghouls from entering.
133	* RecycledSoundtrack: The score consists of stock music from Creator/CapitolRecords' "Hi-Q" production library, much of which had previously been used in such earlier B-movies as ''Film/TeenagersFromOuterSpace'', ''Film/TheDevilsMessenger'', ''Film/TheHideousSunDemon'', and ''Film/TheKillerShrews''.
134	* RedHerring: Barbra is near-catatonic and then spacey. She feels warm, says so and takes her jacket off. She flinches at the fire when Mrs. Cooper lights her cigarette. Despite all this, she doesn't turn into a ghoul before getting dragged out of the house.
135	* RuleOfSymbolism: While Romero always maintained that Duane Jones had simply given the best audition and the story was [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical never meant to be a political statement]], there's something to say for sure about a story filmed right around the time of the Civil Rights Movement, about the breakdown of societal norms, where the (debatably) OnlySaneMan is an intelligent and pragmatic black man, who [[spoiler:outlives his companions only to be killed by the police.]]
136	* ScareChord: A number of them are used throughout the film.
137	* ScreamingWoman: Barbra.
138	* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler:Ghoul Karen eats her father's corpse, then kills and (presumably) eats her mother.]]
139	* ShadowDiscretionShot: [[spoiler:Karen's murder of her mother]] features both this and GoryDiscretionShot.
140	* TheSheriff: Sheriff [=McClelland=], who heads the local ghoul-hunting posse.
141	* ShootOutTheLock: Upon arrival at the gas pump, the key does not work. Ben simply shoots the lock.
142	* ShoutOut:
143	** Johnny imitates Creator/BorisKarloff for his "They're coming to get you, Barbra!" line.
144	** Bill Hinzman, who played the cemetery ghoul, based his shambling gait on Karloff's in ''Film/TheWalkingDead1936''.
145	* TheSiege: The characters board themselves inside from the ghouls outside.
146	* SoleSurvivor: Probably the best-known ''subversion'' in film history, though technically Ben is the only one to survive the eponymous night.
147	* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler:In ''ComicBook/EmpireOfTheDead'', commissioned by Romero himself, we learn Barbra was ''saved'' by Ghoul Johnny, who dragged her away from the rest of the undead horde to keep them from eating her.]]
148	* SpinOff: 20 years after ''Night'', ''Film/{{Flesheater}}'' was released with Bill Hinzman pretty much reprising his role as the cemetery ghoul as well as being the film's editor, producer, writer, and director. Even though the titular Flesheater is freed from a buried coffin, it is clearly intended to be the same character, uttering the same growls and groans, retaining enough intellect to use things as weapons, and even wearing a very similar suit.
149	* SplatterHorror: Romero's efforts to replicate the violence and atmosphere of Creator/ECComics on the big screen shocked audiences of the day and popularized the splatter subgenre.
150	* TheStinger: A shot of a burning pile of bodies follows the end credits.
151	* TaxidermyTerror: Barbra wanders into the house's trophy room, where the mounted heads [[CatScare seriously freak her out]]. Although not as much as the corpse. Or the ghoul. Or Ben. (Of course, given all that Barbra has just been through in the previous few minutes, the trophies of dead animals would be a justifiably startling sight.)
152	* TeethClenchedTeamwork:
153	** The houseful of strangers are forced to work together until conflict ultimately [[AHouseDivided breaks them apart]]. This became a defining point of zombie movies, as the living's lack of ability to work together ultimately proves their downfall. Some have interpreted this aspect of the film's story as Romero's metaphor for the difficulties faced by America in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, or the West generally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar.
154	** One powerful FridgeBrilliance interpretation has the film as a metaphor for the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement. A black man taking the role of hero, variously opposed, aided, betrayed, or ignored in his struggle to survive against the ghoul hordes by the white people around him.
155	* ThoseTwoGuys: Tom and Judy are pretty separated from the other characters and the story at large. They hardly interact with anyone else but each other, and the only thing very memorable about them is [[spoiler:their fiery explosive death and the sloppy ghoul clean-up crew]].
156	* ThematicSeries: The sequels this movie spawned were all loosely connected.
157	* TitleOfTheDead: While not the first example of the type, this was certainly the TropeCodifier, and countless zombie movies since have used some variant, either as a ShoutOut (''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'') or to FollowTheLeader (''Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead'' series).
158	* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler:Barbra gets over her catatonic state and saves Mrs. Cooper from the ghouls that grab at her. Unfortunately, it comes at the cost of her own life.]]
159	* TragicMistake: Ben, our hero, believes that they must defend the house from the ghouls. Harry Cooper, our unsympathetic antagonist, insists that they should flee to the basement and barricade the basement door. Ben wins the argument, but Cooper was right. Ben's plan to defend the house [[spoiler:leads to disaster, and after everyone else is killed he does in fact flee to the basement, where he survives the ghouls]].
160	* UglyGuyHotWife: The Coopers.
161	* UnbuiltTrope: The zombies are never once referred to as such and are instead called "ghouls", "flesh-eaters", and so on. They are also somewhat more intelligent than modern zombies -- the one in the graveyard picks up a rock to break open the window and [[spoiler: Karen Cooper's zombie]] kills someone with a trowel. Also, if this film is taken as its own separate work rather than as part of a series, [[spoiler:the problem seems to be quite quickly contained (going by the newscasts) instead of being a true ZombieApocalypse]]. It's also pretty clear that the survivors wipe themselves out through their incompetence and refusal to work together rather than any extreme danger from the zombies.
162	* UncertainDoom: While the obvious intent and most logical implication is that Barbra was DevouredByTheHorde, she is not actually seen dead or even being bitten. As such, a few unofficial followups and spin-offs for the film have her surviving in various ways.
163	* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: The plan to go out of the house, unlock the pump, and refuel the truck is clearly explained to the audience. It fails.
164	* TheVirus: Ghoul bites spread a deadly infection that cause victims to rise again, but all of the recent dead have risen. In fact, it's arguable whether the bite is actually the cause. There's equal evidence to suggest that the bite merely kills because it's laden with lethal bacteria[[note]]TruthInTelevision; even the cleanest human mouth delivers bites that can rapidly go septic or cause diseases[[/note]] and it's the radiation that started the rise in the first place that causes the plague-killed body to then rise itself.
165	* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The house is a few miles away from the town of Willard, Pennsylvania, which is completely fictional. The only concrete details about the location is that it's around 150-200 miles from Pittsburgh (going by Johnny's mention of a "three-hour drive" back to the city in the opening scene) and you can still receive Pittsburgh TV stations pretty well over-the-air. The cemetery and farmhouse were both actually in Evans City, about a half-hour north of Pittsburgh in RealLife.
166	* WomenDrivers: Barbra makes it all of about 100 feet in the car before crashing it into a tree. (She ''was'' just coasting after taking the emergency brake off. After all, Johnny has the key.)[[note]]This scene was a ThrowItIn moment in the script, as the car had gotten a fender dented between shoots and an explanation had to be quickly contrived.[[/note]]
167	* TheXOfY: Well, the title doesn't start with "The", but otherwise it fits.
168	* ZombieApocalypse: The trope maker. The recent dead return to life and attack the living. Due to being such an early example, many common aspects of the trope are not found in this film.
169	* ZombieInfectee: [[spoiler:Karen Cooper was bitten by a ghoul before she was taken to the basement. After taking a long time dying, she rises up, eats her father's corpse and kills her mother.]]
170	* ZombieGait: The living dead tend to walk in a shambling manner.
171
172	----
173	!!Additional examples from the ''30th Anniversary Edition'':
174
175	* AdaptationalVillainy: The first zombie in the film is given a new backstory as a child killer.
176	* AssholeVictim: The first zombie seen in the film is revealed to have been a child killer, with the parents of the girl he killed actually volunteering to pay for his burial (instead of having the state cremate him) just so that they could [[SpitefulSpit spit on his corpse]] before it's buried.
177	* BloodierAndGorier: While the gore effects in the original film were quite limited, this version includes a bunch of newly-shot scenes with more explicit gore.
178	* CanonDiscontinuity: The re-edit seemingly tries to shut ''Dawn'' and ''Day'' out of the continuity by adding an extra segment to the ending that indicates the zombie plague has been restricted to small, periodic outbreaks, instead of the outright zombie pandemic that wipes out 99.999975% of the world's population by the time of ''Day''. Supposedly this was meant as a lead-in to the subsequent ''Children of the Living Dead'', though neither the events of the theatrical or 30th Anniversary cut are ever referenced in that one, beyond some vague similarities between the cemetery zombie's new backstory and that of Abbot Hayes, the BigBad of ''Children''.
179	* DigitalDestruction: Many felt that the restoration job on the 30th Anniversary Edition was actually a little ''too'' effective and made the film's low budget painfully obvious, and that the murky public domain prints actually do a lot to enhance the film's mood. That's probably the least of the Anniversary Edition's problems...
180	* DullSurprise: In a new scene added to the film's ending, a reporter interviews Reverend Hicks as a posse goes around shooting zombies in the cemetery, but she does so in a manner that you might expect someone to report on a country fair, not the possible EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
181	* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: Producer and co-writer John A. Russo oversaw this new version, adding a new score, new special effects, and scenes shot 30 years after the original was released. Harry Knowles threatened to ban anyone who complimented this version on his ''Ain't It Cool News'' site.
182	* InsaneTrollLogic: In his rant at the end of the film, Reverend Hicks says that the dead should be spiked through their hands and feet, as was done to Jesus on the cross, to prevent them from coming back to life. Even though it's clearly meant to be a crazy rant, you'd think Hicks would remember that one of the most famous things about Jesus is the Resurrection, in which he ''came back to life''.
183	* PossessingADeadBody: At the end, the unhinged [[SinisterMinister Reverend Hicks]] declares to a reporter that the zombies are human corpses possessed by demons from hell. This is clearly supposed to be a crazed rant however, and is never proven one way or the other.
184	* ShovelStrike: Rev. Hicks is rescued from the first zombie when it gets whacked on the back with a shovel.
185	* SinisterMinister: Reverend Hicks has become incredibly unhinged after his near-fatal encounter with the living dead, now convinced that the zombies are demons from hell and a sign of the apocalypse.
186	* TooDumbToLive: Reverend Hicks -- who, by the way, is near a dozen or so guys shooting at the zombies with actual weapons -- thinks that ''preaching'' at one of the zombies (the one that Barbra and Johnny encountered at the start of the film, in fact) will achieve something. Needless to say, it doesn't, and he gets bitten before the other guys take the zombie out. Subverted, as Hicks [[KarmaHoudini somehow proves immune to being bitten]].
187
188	----
189
190	!!Examples from the 2006 3D remake:
191
192	* ActionDressRip: Occurs as Barb attempts to flee from a horde of zombies. [[TooDumbToLive She doesn't ditch the high heels, though.]]
193	* AdaptationNameChange: Harry and Helen Cooper's first names are changed to Henry and Hellie.
194	* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Henry in this version is a far more nicer guy than in either the original or the 1990 remake, being perfectly willing to help Barb (even if he does think her story about the zombies is crazy) and provides support to the rest of the crew.
195	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Gerald Tovar, Jr. Considering he was the one who started the outbreak in the first place, betrays Barb and Ben and tries to turn them into zombies as well, it's hard to feel sorry for Gerald when Barb manages to sick his own zombies on him]].
196	* CanonForeigner: Owen and Gerald Tovar, Jr. are the only characters in the film not present in the original.
197	* CassandraTruth: Of course, nobody believes Barb when she fill-on admits that she was attacked by zombies until they start showing up.
198	%%* DumbBlonde: Judy.
199	* EverybodyDiesEnding: [[spoiler:Nobody in the film survives]].
200	* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler:Gerald reveals that he was the one who created the zombies in an attempt to bring his father back to life]].
201	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Gerald gets devoured by the very same zombies he created]].
202	* InNameOnly: Apart from the farm setting, character names, and opening sequence, this film has very little in common plotwise to the 1968 original. If anything, it has more in common with ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'', with the people who become zombies briefly retaining some lucidity after they change, a mortuary being an important plot location, and the zombie outbreak being the result of [[spoiler:a medical experiment that went horribly wrong]].
203	* OnlySaneMan: Or "woman" in this case, as Barb is the only character in the film with an ounce of common sense. Ben too, but to a slightly lesser extent.
204	* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: ''Re-Animation'', the prequel, is one for [[spoiler:Gerald]].
205	* RaceLift: Ben is African-American in the original, but is white in this version.
206	* SexSignalsDeath: Judy and Tom have sex in Henry's barn, in which their sensual moaning end up attracting the zombies. Tom gets DevouredByTheHorde trying to save Judy who locked herself in a truck, while Judy herself gets [[FacialHorror half of her face eaten off]] by a zombie that managed to grab her through the back window.
207	* ShowWithinAShow: Various characters are shown [[RecursiveReality watching the original 1968 film]] on television.
208	* TheStoner: Everyone on Henry's farm, on accounts of him being a weed farmer in this version. Owen is probably the most noteworthy example, who smokes a blunt for most of the first half of the film.
209	* TitleOfTheDead: Like the original film.
210

Context Film / NightOfTheLivingDead1968