Join us to watch the movie that started it all, Night of the Living Dead! This 1968 classic inspired movies like Get Out, Rosemary’s Baby, Silence of the Lambs which use devices of fear and horror to make biting social critiques.
The story follows a woman named Barbara (played by Judith O’Dea), who travels with her brother to visit her father’s grave, only to be attacked by a man in the cemetery who kills her brother. She flees the scene and arrives at a farmhouse, where she ends up hiding with several people, including a man named Ben (Duane Jones).
The group discovers via news reports that the bodies of the freshly dead are being reanimated, perhaps because of radioactive contamination from a space probe that recently returned from Venus. But the real drama isn’t in fighting the zombies; it’s in what happens inside the house as the still-alive people disagree vehemently about what they should do in the face of the “living dead” outside. That’s why some critics and scholars have interpreted the film as a critique of Cold War politics, American society in the 1960s, and, especially, racism. A revolutionary movie for its time, Night of the Living Dead reminds us of the racial tensions that exist in America, even in the midst of crisis…
So grab your best Zombie costume (there’s a costume contest!) and head to the New Parkway Theater on Saturday, October 27 at 3 pm for Night of the Living Dead… if you dare! For more information visit kpfa.org or thenewparkway.com! See you in the popcorn line!
