DEDFest Victoria Part 1: Night of the Living Dead

I was intensely excited to go to my first solely horror film festival and while it didn't seem the rest of the city was quite as enthusiastic as me based on attendance I was still jazzed to be there and had a great time. It was planned to coincide perfectly with the zombie walk starting about an hour after the walk finished and located close to the end point. You would think that more zombies would have shuffled on over, but apparently some of them had to help set-up for a marathon. Anyways in honour of the festival, which I hope will begin to thrive in coming years, I am doing a mini-review of each of the films (mini because I was enjoying myself far to much to take a lot of notes). First on the hit list the George A. Romero classic that started it all, Night of the Living Dead. Continue on for my observations.

And not this nearly unrelated failure that I saw in 2D.

Now at the beginning of the film I was rather impressed with Barbara, right off the bat she makes the sensible move of taking off her heels at the first sign of crazy. Hmmm, she could be a decent final girl... too bad I've already seen the film and know what happens. Also they say that fast zombies weren't really a thing until 28 Days Later, but that first one at the beginning definitely wasn't slow. Shortly there after we find out why Barbara is not a great final girl, the first dead body she sees makes her go all lame and helpless. Just think had our male protagonist found the body first we may have seen her transform into a badass heroine rather than a liability.

"Oh help me, I'm a pathetic overly sensitive woman!"

Luckily for Barbara, who has now herself ended up in a zombie-like state, Ben (our dashing protagonist) is actually quite patient with her considering what he has just gone through. And this zombie threat I would say is actually more serious than that of say "The Walking Dead" because these zombies at least have the base intelligence to throw rocks which means they could be capable of using tools. Now for a showing of the times: When Barbara gets hysterical Ben slaps her to calm her down, but she doesn't take it so well.

"And that kids is how you handle a woman."

Now one of the things I found funny about the film was just how long it took the world to realize that these "Ghouls" were the living dead. First they call it "An epidemic of murder" that is exactly how this whole situation got out of hand. Had they not thought they were human beings who needed to be treated or placed on trial for their actions the problem would never have escalated they way it did. Another sign that the one of the heroes of the film actually has common sense is that Ben refuses to go into the basement, because in a horror movie you should never go downstairs, you should go upstairs where you are too high off the ground for low-functioning monsters to get you and you have the escape route of windows (If you jump you may break a bone or two depending on the height, but hey you're still alive. [don't ever jump from a highrise, we are talking single family dwellings here]).

Finally I just want to say that I really enjoyed the foley in this film, whoever was the foley artist on this, good job.

I don't remember that little girl ever being outside in the entire film.

Coming up in Part 2 of DEDfest: Creepshow.