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Night of the Living Dead Essay

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Zombies, as we know them today, have mortified movie viewers for the last forty six years. Modern zombies first appeared in George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead in 1968. These zombies were the slow moving, staggering ghouls that one has seen in countless films, but in 1985, Return of the Living Dead featured a new kind of zombie, the first fast moving and talking ghoul. Both Night of the Living dead 1968 and Return of the Living Dead 1985 feature the zombie as its villain, but Return of the living dead’s fast moving, talking zombies are a more modern take on the movie monster.
Fast V.S Slow Zombies In 1968, the first modern zombies took to the screen; these were the slow moving and lumbering ghouls that have been seen in countless …show more content…

Night of the Living Dead follows this story line. George A Romero saw zombies as what they were, the living dead, meaning that they were dead, and dead things cannot talk. Instead, he developed the zombie communication of grunts and groans. These were effective in such a way that it made the film so much more realistic. In contrast, Return of the Living Dead took artistic license on the zombie model and created the first talking zombie. Director Dan O’Bannon felt that the zombie needed to be updated for the modern times. As a result, even though it has some horrific scenes, the talking zombies added some comic relief to the film. One such comedic scene is the “tar man”. The tar man was the zombie inside the canister of Troxin that was released at the beginning of the film. In the climax of the film when the zombies are coming out of the graves, a group of friends take shelter in the taxidermy factory. When they reach the basement, they run into the tar man who shouts “brains” and then after feeding on one of the characters, it sees the rest of them and yells, “more brains” with a smile on its face. This shows the humor of the film.
Causes of Reanimation The cause of reanimation of a zombie can vary from film to film. In some movies, the dead are brought back by magic, in others they are brought by chemicals. In Night of the Living Dead the cause of reanimation is uncertain. There are theories that suggest that the dead are brought back to life by

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