This Hallow’een we decided to pay our respects to the scariest public domain work south of the border: Night of the Living Dead. Though the word “Zombie” is never used, Romero’s film introduced the theme of zombies as reanimated, flesh-eating cannibals.

Night of the Living Dead ushered in the slasher and splatter film sub-genres. Horror prior to Romero’s film had mostly involved rubber masks and costumes, cardboard sets, or mysterious figures lurking in the shadows. They were set in locations far removed from rural and suburban America. Romero revealed the power behind exploitation and setting horror in ordinary, unexceptional locations and offered a template for making an “effective and lucrative” film on a “miniscule budget.” Slasher films of the 1980s such as John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th (1980), and Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), owe much to the original Night of the Living Dead. Learn more horror history at Wikipedia.

PS: We suggest you watch this with the lights on! Don’t say we didn’t warn you…