Birth Of The Living Dead

The creation of the classic horror film Night Of The Living Dead is examined in this well-made documentary. Using black, white & red comic book-style graphics, interviews with George Romero, schoolchildren, and various film historians, and clips from the seminal film, Birth Of The Living Dead is funny, entertaining, and informative. Did you know the zombies in the film were eating actual organs? I didn't either. I often wondered if they might be, but I assumed they used some sort of phony organ substitute. Did Tofurky exist back then? Probably not. I guess people will do just about anything to appear in a movie, even eating offal outside an abandoned farmhouse. Anyway, I was charmed by both Romero and the children from a Bronx Literacy Through Film program, as Romero recounted the sad-but-true story of how a typo caused his film to lapse into the public domain, and the refreshingly candid viewpoints of the kids viewing Night Of The Living Dead for the first time in a classroom setting. Night Of The Living Dead still has the ability to shock and horrify four decades after its run in grindhouse theaters and drive-ins during the late-1960s, not only through the suspense and gore featured onscreen, but the subtextual parallel with the era's social upheavals, race riots and war protests.