The definitive zombie picture. Concentrating mostly on a frantically boarded-up farmhouse, co-writer and director George A. Romero overcame untested actors and shoddy production values to focus in on the movie’s central horror: that no matter how many of these creatures you finished off, more shuffling, moaning monsters were ready to take their place. The casting of black actor Duane Jones in the lead – the other victims are all white – gives Night a slight racial subtext that spoke volumes in 1968. Jones’ Ben is the strongest, smartest one of the bunch – once the zombies start knocking, only a fool would cling to segregation. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll survive. After all, the driving theme of Romero’s zombie pictures is fatalism. We can blockade as many doors as we want, but the dead always break through in the end.
