I thought it was pretty interesting to see Night of the Living Dead, as it is kind of the progenitor of the modern concept of zombies -- flesh eating, reanimated, decaying corpses, as opposed to bodies enslaved by witch doctors. One thing that struck me was that zombies haven't changed much since Night of the Living Dead. They are, for the most part, exactly the same (slow moving, eat people, infectious bite). I guess 28 Days Later zombies are different (though I haven't seen the movie) as they are fast, although those aren't truly zombies: they're infected but still alive.
One thing annoyed me about Night of the Living Dead, and it probably bugged everybody else too, and that was the character of Barbara. She. Is. Friggin. Useless. I'll admit that I cheered for Ben when he knocked her unconscious, and I wasn't exactly remorseful when she was killed by the zombies. I mean, Jesus. She cries, complains, and acts like a 3 year old for basically the entire movie. I'm not sure how she managed to escape from that zombie at the very beginning. Why couldn't she have been developed as an actual character? What's the point of having her be a babbling idiot? At first I thought they just made it that was because she was a woman, but then they introduced other women characters who were actually capable (except for when the one decided she just HAD to be with her husband and get turned into roasted zombie snacks). I don't really understand the decision to make Barbara such a useless character.
I also wanted to talk a little bit about the ending. Near the end, but before Ben was killed by the police, I thought to myself, "funny, in modern horror movies the black guy always dies first and the blonde white girl lives. Here, blondey dies and the black guy is the only one to live." And then Ben gets shot and that thought goes out the window. I do like the occasional bitter ending though, where the protagonist dies or is defeated. It just seems more realistic to me -- things don't usually end up all rainbows and butterflies. That's not to say I want everything I read/watch to end like that, though. That would just be depressing. However, I did like how they finished Night of the Living Dead.
I totally agree with you about Barbara. She was so useless and there was really no point for her. I also think your thoughts about Ben were interesting. It is usually the black character that dies first and it interesting that he was the last to die.
ReplyDeleteBarbara bugged everyone I think. I honestly had to restrain myself from just yelling at the screen telling her to "get the fudge up and do something!!" I think they really just did that to show how during a zombie apocalypse gender roles become more extreme than usual. For example, in The Walking Dead the same thing happened with how the women were reduced to doing laundry and cleaning. It just kinda shows that women were seen as nothing more than useless. In Barbara's defense, I probably would have been terrified too. Maybe not terrified enough to go into shock and stare at blank walls, but terrified.
ReplyDelete- Samantha Garduno