I saw this movie when I was kid and laughed at the final scene for being stupid, now I understand the true implications of the ending and holy fuck it scares me
A micro-budget film of the 60s, Night of the Living is a short one-off movie that doesn't have compelling characters or a bold direction but I think I really like how analog this film feels. Everything is bare and human and ugly as it feels, the zombies feel like an unflinching wave of death and horror in a way as if they're a natural calamity which cannot be reasoned with. The music doesn't have songs but the entire design of it along with the amount of screaming in this movie do make for an effective atmosphere.
It's essentially set in one location and has bunch of characters come together to hide in this one house against the growing threat of zombies outside, most of the dialogue doesn't even come from the characters but rather from the extended television reports which serve as the film's expository venue and where we learn most of what is happening.
There's a lot of gore and eating flesh in this and I felt kinda disgusted eating meat in front of it as if I was similar to them and that crept me out a bit. The characters aren't complex nor are they trying to be, everyone is trying to survive and these few people are just best reacting to the situation but we can see how prototypical these characters are because we have seen many like them in zombie movies and shows that have come after. I really like the naked displays of resentment, anger and desperation that come on the screen.
Nor is it difficult to feel the dread and intensity of being in a situation you cannot get out of, the entire movie shot in black&white effectively narrows our experience to those two colors as well, light feels safer and everything in the darkness feels uncertain because we can't see what might be out there in the dark.
Overall, Night of the Living Dead is an effective horror classic that has half of it's runtime spent showing news reports and footage which does bog down it's pace by not having a lot of action but in turn make the threat and the twist at the end hit that much harder. An average person who watches a lot of horror and zombie movies will probably still find the end shocking but the rest of the film and the situations in it will feel very familiar.
This is one of the few movies where I find the remake far superior. Barbara is a limp fish rag in the original. It hits harder for a social point at the end with Ben, but I kind of like the retribution of the remake