The Graveyard Ghoul

"They're coming to get you Barbara..."

The Graveyard Ghoul as portrayed by S. William Hinzman in George A. Romero's 1968 classic "Night Of The Living Dead."

George Romero's first film is one of the most influential horror films of all time, spawning and army of imitators. But none has achieved the simple effectiveness of the original. Sadly Romero and company held a copyright on the film's working title "Night of the Flesh Eaters" and when the film was released and the title changed, the Walter Reade Organization neglected to place a copyright notice on the prints and the film fell into the public domain.

Night of the Living Dead premiered on October 1, 1968, at the Fulton Theater in Pittsburgh. Nationally, it was shown as a Saturday afternoon matinée—as was typical for horror films of the 1950s and 1960s—and attracted an audience consisting of pre-teens and adolescents. The MPAA film rating system was not in place until November 1968, so theater managers did not prohibit even young children from purchasing tickets. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times chided theater owners and parents who allowed children access to the film. "I don't think the younger kids really knew what hit them," complained Ebert. "They were used to going to movies, sure, and they'd seen some horror movies before, sure, but this was something else." According to Ebert, the film affected the audience immediately:
The kids in the audience were stunned. There was almost complete silence. The movie had stopped being delightfully scary about halfway through, and had become unexpectedly terrifying. There was a little girl across the aisle from me, maybe nine years old, who was sitting very still in her seat and crying.

Romero produced the film on the low budget of $114,000, but after a decade of theatrical re-releases it had grossed an estimated $30 million internationally.

Night of the Living Dead constitutes the first of five Living Dead films directed by George Romero. Following the 1968 film, Romero released Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985) and Land of the Dead (2005). Diary of the Dead is expected to be released in 2007. Each film traces the evolution of the zombie epidemic in the United States and humanity's desperate attempts to cope with it. As in Night of the Living Dead, Romero peppered the other films in the series with critiques specific to the periods they were released.

Since the film is in the public domain there are 100s of poor quality DVDs available, but if you haven't had the opportunity to see the Millennium edition of NOTLD on DVD, do your self the favor of tracking it down, it is the only release overseen by Romero, and is the cleanest print I have ever seen.

For more Romero goodness check out these links:
Watch "Night Of The Living Dead" at the Internet Archive.
Visit The Quadrilogy Of The Dead website.
Visit The Homepage Of The Dead.
Read the eFilmCritic Interview with George A. Romero.

You can buy this and any of my Monster Art prints for a mere $25.00 buy visiting the store or by simply clicking the button below. Be sure to take advantage of the Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale going on right now! But hurry, there are only 6 days left to take advantage of the sale!