“Night of the Living Dead” is the first of director George Romero’s zombie trilogy. It follows a group of strangers, trapped in a rural farmhouse as the zombie apocalypse begins to spread. It is a monumental horror movie for many reasons. Not only did it popularize the cannibalistic, brain dead depictions of zombies known today but it was also one of the first horror movies to feature a Black lead.
The film was made with just over $100,000 for a budget. For comparison, “Rosemary’s Baby,” which was released the same year, cost $3.2 million. It’s remarkable that “Night of the Living Dead,” a movie that has had such a significant impact on pop culture, was so independent, relying on unknown commercial and stage actors and a relatively novice production team.
Before “Night of the Living Dead,” Black characters in horror movies were mainly used as background characters. If a movie featured a Black character, they were often the first to die, elevating the stakes for the white cast. This reinforced racist ideas that their lives were not as meaningful by treating them as disposable.
Other films took a different approach with Black characters. Movies like “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” used monsters to represent Black people, furthering racist prejudices by associating them with danger. As noted by horror scholar, Robin Means Coleman, the creature was a “caricature and stereotype of a monstrous, Black boogeyman.”
Before “Night of the Living Dead,” Black people in horror were trapped between two depictions; either they were unimportant or they were monstrous. So it was groundbreaking for Romero to center a Black character without stooping to either stereotype.
This was especially controversial as the film was released during the Civil Rights era when racial tensions in America were running high. Just months before, Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated and Congress had only just made it illegal to discriminate on the sale of housing due to race.
Ben, the film’s protagonist played by Duane Jones is strong, level headed and compassionate. As the apocalypse breaks out, he’s the only character who maintains his composure. He looks out for the rest of the survivors and he’s a skilled fighter.
This contrasts with the behavior of the rest of the characters, all of whom are white. They either fall into hysteria or become violent and brash. Only Ben has the competence and bravery to handle the situation.
Although Romero cast Jones without regard to race, the movie cannot be read without considering the implications of Ben being Black. The white man rejects Ben’s logical plans, acting emotionally and violently. He cares more about maintaining power in the situation than protecting himself and his family, which ultimately fails.
The story doesn’t focus on the complete aftermath of the apocalypse, merely how a group of strangers would respond. It uses the heightened event of a zombie apocalypse to comment on the nation’s brewing racial tensions at the time.
The film ends with Ben being the sole survivor of the zombie’s violence, living through the night only to be shot by an angry mob the next morning. The film’s real danger isn’t the zombies but rather, Ben’s treatment by white America.
Although the film was released in the 60s, it still feels progressive. All these years later and horror is still a primarily white genre. Out of the major releases in the last few years, only a handful like “Sinners,” “Get Out,” and “Us” feature Black leads. Despite receiving slightly more representation, Black people are still largely excluded from horror.
Romero created a story that reached millions of Americans, centering a Black character in a way they had rarely, if ever, received before from Hollywood.
