BEN & HARRY: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MAJOR MEN OF NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

In 1961, a director out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was making his debut with an independent horror film by the title of Night of the Living Dead. Made on a budget of only one hundred and fourteen thousand dollars, George A. Romero’s first installment in his monumental and iconic “Living Dead” series, completely changed the face of the modern horror film and introduced audiences into the basis for the most popular subgenre of horror cinema. Romero’s slow moving, reanimated, undead humans surviving off of eating the flesh of the living became a staple for the modern zombie film and changed the face of undead monsters forever. Night of the Living Dead follows a group of people seeking refuge in an abandoned farmhouse amidst what would appear to be an epidemic where the recently deceased were reanimating, then attacking and eating the flesh of the living. An exposition on the true horrors of humanity as well as introducing a monster that had never been seen before, Night of the Living Dead is one of the most influential horror movies of all time.

Although George A. Romero consistently claims that his casting of Duane Johnson as the African-American protagonist “Ben” was solely based on the actor’s merit and wonderful audition, it would be giving the director a great disservice by not focusing on the importance of a leading African-American character as the main source of salvation, especially in 1968. At this time in America, society was slowly losing grasp on the hopeful ideals of a utopian society in the wake of the Vietnam War. The civil rights movement was growing in full force, but Americans were still hesitant to view African-American citizens on the same plane as their Caucasian counterparts. Ben single-handedly revolutionized the position of African Americans in the horror genre, and potentially, cinema as a whole. As a calm, collected, strong, and cool-headed hero overcoming an attack of not only monsters but also the hysterical antics of the white people surrounding him, Ben was one of the most prominent figures of African Americans in films portraying something outside of a parody or stereotype. Ben does the unthinkable for an African-American man at this time. Ben knocks a frantic white woman out cold, shoots a white man, acts as the voice of reason in the state of chaos, and stands as what would have been the sole survivor (if he hadn’t been mistaken for a ghoul and shot by a white militia). While it may be uncomfortable to address these issues in 2012 with an increasingly more welcoming attitude towards minority groups, the importance of Ben’s position cannot be ignored.

Throughout the course of the film, Harry Cooper is the antitheses of Ben’s character. Harry is distrusting, frantic, stubborn, selfish, and white. Harry was a strong symbol for the “old school” view of most of America at this time. A racist white man hiding out in the basement, Harry was a coward that used bullying and threatening actions as a means to achieve his wants. The older generations in 1968 were living amongst a growing youth of flower children fighting back the government and welcoming change at every turn. The old school disposition was hesitant to follow suit with their younger counterparts, and Harry Cooper is a shining beacon of that mentality.

One scene in particular, is the altercation between Ben and the Caucasian antagonist of the film, fellow refugee Harry Cooper. After a botched attempt for the two young adults trying to escape the ghouls by vehicle, Ben finds himself trapped outside the house after failing to save them. Harry Cooper and his family are the only ones inside the locked house, and Ben remains on the front porch trying to get in while fighting off the horde of the undead. Harry could easily open the door, but he stands hesitant in the opening of the cellar door with the option of either aiding in Ben’s safety, or letting him die. Ben frantically pummels himself into the doorway until finally kicking the door open. At a moment of change in character, Harry Cooper runs to the door to help Ben barricade it shut. Once the door is nailed shut, Ben immediately turns on Harry and begins to punch him numerous times before throwing him into an armchair and threatening to throw him to the ghouls.

 This scene may have appeared to be nothing more than a cowardly man locking out another, but when analyzed further, it represents society’s attitudes towards change as a whole. Most of the initial shots of Harry show him in shadowed lighting while Ben is almost always in full light. It was as if Ben was the white light and Harry was left in the darkness. Harry and his family represent the traditional standards for the American family as set up by the ruling white class. The Cooper family remains within the home, a place of comfort, safety, and white familiarity. Outside of the confines of the home contained a world of potential danger, the unknown, and an African American man. When Ben kicks the door in, he’s a personification of the new changes that were happening to society whether or not the ruling white class was prepared for it. Ben is reality. He was a force to be reckoned with and his advancements weren’t going to be stopped.

Following Ben’s initial emergence, Harry is seen hiding in the doorway to the cellar. Harry had the choice between helping to keep out the monsters outside, or running even further downstairs into the cellar. The cellar would have solidified Harry’s desire for familiarity, but he reluctantly helps Ben nail the door shut. It can be interpreted that Harry had a change of heart when deciding to nail the door shut, but it could also be analyzed that his only motivation for barricading the door was to further protect himself and keep out the unknown. However, when Ben and Harry both nail the door closed, it symbolized that regardless of differences, the two were going to have to work together in order for things to move smoothly and to keep themselves protected. Once order was restored and Ben began to hit Harry, he was literally giving the old school mentality a reality slap. The terrors of the societal changes happening in 1968 were difficult for many of the older generations to handle and it wasn’t until the changes were forced upon them that they began to try and accept them. These cultural advancements needed to come with a heavy hand otherwise these changes wouldn’t have come at all.

SEVENTY YEARS AND SEVEN GENRE CHANGING MOVIES

Have you missed me?! I apologize for the lack of posts recently, working 40 hours at a job that's extremely taxing on the soul has been wreaking havoc on me.  To bring back the blogging, I put out a request on twitter of possible topics.  There were a handful of awesome topics and a few I'll even pursue at a later date (5,000 words on Suspiria, anyone?) but it was actually a random anonymous message on my personal tumblr that is responsible for today.  I was posed the challenge to choose ONE film from each decade from 1950-now and explain why it rules.  I can only pick one per decade, so this is going to be rather difficult and don't take it personally if I don't discuss your favorite.  Wish me luck.

1950's : DIABOLIQUE

Now before all of you threaten to drown me in the Blue Lagoon, I wanted to focus on a horror film that was a little less than an obvious choice. Diabolique is important not only because it was one of the first foreign horror films to make a name for itself in the states, but it was a psychological masterpiece that helped introduce the "twist ending" that has sense become predictable and lackluster.  Greg Kihn was right, they just really don't write 'em like that anymore.  Hitchcock has cited Diabolique as being one of the films that helped inspire him to create Psycho.  Directed, produced, and an adapted screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot, Diabolique is an absolute classic that brought new staples to the genre that we still adhere to today.

1960's: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

I must have spent nearly thirty minutes debating between Psycho, Rosemary's Baby, The Haunting, but ultimately had to choose Night of the Living Dead.  Before this moment in cinematic history, zombie films were nothing more than Hollywood's way to continue to be blatantly racist without getting in trouble.  George Romero took the classic "zombie" practices and created the penultimate horror movie monster.  Universal may have brought us the classic movie monsters and Hitchcock perfected the art of filmmaking, but George Romero is the king of the zombies and grandfathered in the most popular subgenre in horror history.  There were plenty of monumental and groundbreaking horror films from the 1960s, but Night of the Living Dead is what changed the face of horror forever and ushered in a whole new breed of movie monster.

1970's:  JAWS

Without a doubt, this decade was the most difficult to choose from. I can only imagine that choosing one horror film out of the seventies is on the same level that parents feel when determining which child gets to open the first gift on Christmas morning.  The 70's brought us The Exorcist, Halloween, Suspiria, Alien, Dawn of the Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and an unfathomable amount of other incredibly strong films.  If you claim you can swim alone in the ocean without instinctively hearing the low notes of John Williams' masterpiece, you're a huge liar. It was Bruce the shark who swam his way into our lives and permanently ruined oceans, small boats, and skinny dipping for everyone.  There hasn't been a film since JAWS that has generated as strong of a reaction from audiences and it acted as the prototypical summer blockbuster film, completely changing the way films are marketed and released.

1980's: AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON

Much like the 1970's, the 1980's was an incredibly strong year for horror.  In an attempt to veer away from the slashers and without pouring a glass of Red Rum, I've chosen my pick of the 1980's to be the helicopter killer's horror comedy flick, An American Werewolf in London.  The late 70's and 80's started the horror obsession in cross genre horror films.  Of course AAWIL wasn't the first horror comedy, but it was one of the most successful and showed Hollywood that horror fans craved this type of horror film.  Shorty after AAWIL was released, there was a surge of horror comedies, but none have matched the all around greatness of John Landis' moonstruck talking picture.

1990's: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

The 1990's was a less than favorable decade for horror films.  While I'm not saying there weren't sensational films out of the 90s, there just wasn't nearly as many in comparison to decades before.  Maybe it was the obsession with SNL films and bad romantic comedies, but horror seemed to take quite a backseat.  However, a "based on a true story" found footage film perfected one of the now more popular subgenres of horror. The Blair Witch Project has been parodied so much since its release that we often forget how much "Holy Shit" it delivered upon its release.  Audiences have since grown borderline OBSESSED with found-footage style horror films and it still acts as one of the most profitable subgenres of horror.  Even god-awful found footage films crank in millions of undeserved dollars simply because we want these films to be real so badly.  Due to the lack of films of this nature for the time and the BRILLIANT viral marketing campaign (the first of its kind) audiences were forced to decide for themselves whether or not they were in fact watching some sort of snuff film, or just a slice of fantastic guerilla filmmaking.  

2000's: THE RING

For as much as we all complain about the horror genre's current obsession with remakes and Americanizing foreign horror films, we're the ones who asked for it.  In 2002, we became completely enamored with the pale faced, long haired, ghost girls of Japan with our American version of their famously horrifying Ringu.  We shelled out tons of money into movie theaters and it would appear that Hollywood Horror is still coasting off of our actions from the turn of the millennium.  The Ring was insanely successful and truly sparked the remake/Americanization craze of horror films, Asian horror in particular.  They say beggars can't be choosers...

2010's: HATCHET II

In 2006, Adam Green released a horror film that seemed to feed the inner fanboy inside each and every genre fan.  Presented with predominately practical effects and without a wide release, Hatchet thrived solely from word of mouth and festival runs.  It was then that the film developed an increasingly vocal fanbase and thrust Adam Green into the horror geek's hall of fame.  Fast forward to 2010, Adam Green presents the fan-craved sequel to his directorial debut without a rating, and without giving a single fuck.  Here's the thing.  I chose Hatchet II as the film for the 2010's (so far) not because I believe Adam Green is the second coming of John Carpenter or anything, but because his films represent an entirely new breed of horror.  I'm talking about fan funded, demanded, and generated films.  We now live in an age where sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo can fund films we could only dream of being made, where one tweet from the right source could get your film demanded all over the world, and where a rating from the MPAA means absolutely nothing.  If we want to see a film, we're going to see the damn film.  Regardless of ratings or reviews, Adam Green has been the front man for this fanboy army concept of getting films created and most importantly, seen.

Grzegorz Domaradzki's Night of the Living Dead

For the past six months, Grzegorz Domaradzki has been slaving away at creating one of the most breathtaking images paying homage to George A. Romero's masterpiece.  

Limited to only 250 prints, this original screen print can be yours if your heart so desires it. 

Maybe you're not big on color, he also has a silver/glow-in-the-dark variant that is limited to only 100 prints.

If you're interested, you can purchase this beautifully crafted poster by visiting:

Color Version: http://www.shopkrypton.com/product/night-of-the-living-dead

Silver/Glow Version: http://www.shopkrypton.com/product/notld-b-w-glow-variant

As a special bonus, if you type in

"DAYOFWOMAN" 

upon check-out, 

you will receive 15% off!

DAY OF THE WOMAN PRESENTS: THE SEXIEST ZOMBIE WOMEN

It was nearly two and a half years ago when Day of the Woman unveiled the most visited list on this blog.  Now that years have gone by, there has been an outbreak (no pun intended) of zombie films, books, genre obsessions, and adaptations.  When we think of a zombie, the easiest image is that of a rotting male corpse with a jaw missing and skin melting off of the bones.  Female zombies, are of a breed entirely their own.  For some reason or another, regardless of the decrepit stage, female zombies have always managed to withhold even the slightest bit of sex appeal.  Leave it to a woman to find a way to manage to make a brain hungry savage somewhat attractive.  While the first list was simply the "top zombie women", this list is of a bit of a different caliber.  While little Karen Cooper may have been the top female zombie, calling a child "sexy" is just a little too gross.  These women are the zombies that manage to keep your blood flowing even while they're stumbling after you.  These are the women that can instill both a nightmare, and a gloriously realistic fantasy.  Ladies and Germs, I now submit for your approval, the sexiest zombie women in horror.

BLONDE ZOMBIE from DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)

The infamous blonde ghoul terrorizing the mall in George A. Romero's masterpiece Dawn of the Dead was played by Jeannie Jefferies.  Not only is she credited as being the girl who attacked Roger, but she was also one of Savini's make-up girls on set.  Not too shabby as far as zombie credentials go, eh?

#9 from LAND OF THE DEAD

Albeit the jaw falling completely off of her face, Jennifer Baxter as #9 in Land of the Dead is pretty cute.  Maybe it's her tattered "beach wave" hair, or her always curious expression, or the tomboy feel you get when she's running around with the baseball bat...but she's so cute.  I mean, I guess you'd have to be in order to hang out with the likes of Big Daddy.  I will say this, google her without the zombie makeup.  Goodness Gracious, she's a total babe.

THE WOMEN from THE ZOMBIE WOMEN OF SATAN

The U.K. really caused quite the stir in the loins of horror geeks everywhere with this little indie film.  Let's just say that gore wasn't the only thing gratuitous about this film.  There are so many boobs in this film you'd think you were watching HBO after hours.  The film itself is trying ridiculously too hard to impress, but this list isn't about quality films...it's about sexy zombie women.  I commend this film not only for having half naked women covered in blood, but for also having CURVY women.  Most film producers wouldn't dare have someone naked that isn't a size two, so I commend the filmmakers for showing that zombie or not, curvy women have got it going on.

NAKED ZOMBIE from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

Although we never see much of her other than from behind, this woman managed to take a walk on role and turn it into one of the most iconic images from the granddaddy of all things zombie.  This famous booty has plastered itself on VHS and DVD covers, collage posters, and even tattoos of the most diehard fans.  Eat your heart out, Kim Kardashian.

MONA HARRISON from ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU

Before Romero completely changed the zombie film as we know it, the film industry was cranking out zombie films left and right.  Wearing quite possibly the greatest push-up bra in the history of film, the fifty foot woman herself, Allison Hayes, was one of the most classically beautiful zombies to ever grace the screen.  So she isn't falling apart at the seams and isn't trying to eat anyone, so what? She's still a zombie.  A sexy, sexy zombie. 

 

TAMMY from FIDO

Thanks to the quick acting Zom-Com, Tammy is quite possibly the most composed of all of the zombies in the film Fido.  One of the few that sports an outfit that doesn't resemble that of a garbage man, Tammy is kept less as a servant, and more as a companion.   What she is accompanying is up for debate.  Tammy is played by the angelic Sonja Bennett.

THE LIVING DEAD GIRLZ

If the Pussycat Dolls and George A. Romero had a baby, it would probably resemble something like Amber Steele and The Living Dead Girlz.  These girls aren't just sexy, they're also talented.  With choreographed dance routines set with horrifying backgrounds, The Living Dead Girlz are a horror geek's ultimate fantasy.  If you're ever around San Fransico, CA...try to track them down and catch a performance.

JENNA JAMESON from ZOMBIE STRIPPERS

Seriously? This needs a description?  While Jenna Jameson's best acting contributions to the world were done lying on her back, she managed to get cozy with Robert Englund in genre guilty pleasure Zombie Strippers.  This film was nothing more than a role she was born to play, and horror fanatics around the globe are eternally grateful for it.  

 

TRASH from RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD

And on the third day, God said "Let There Be Linnea Quigley".  Am I going to get crap for not saving her for last? Yes. Do I care? no.  Linnea Quigley's performance as Trash in ROTLD is quite possibly the zombie female performance to end all zombie female performances.  She was mouthy, scary, sexy, and horror fans couldn't get enough of her.  She could very well be responsible for setting an entire generation of horror geeks through puberty, and I don't think there's a single person out there who would complain about it.  She was the first, she's one of the best, and she's easily the inspiration for most of (if not the entire) sexy zombie movement. 

JULIE WALKER from RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD III

 Trash may have been the original sexy zombie, but Melinda Clarke's portrayal of Julie Walker in ROTLD3 is easily the Holy Grail.  A combination of sex, undead, metal, and prowess, Julie Walker is easily the end all be all of all things sexy zombie.  She's easily the only redeeming quality about the film, and her sex appeal has made quite the splash in the libidos of horror fans the world over. 

Can't get enough undead women?  Apparently the zombies in the new video game Dead Island are pretty sexy and they've composed a list of the seven sexiest zombies from the game over HERE.