13 Nights of Shocktober: White Zombie (1932)

 by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, for the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 1: Classic Horror Night

“Zombies, the living dead.”

White Zombie (1932)

White Zombie has the distinction of being the first Hollywood zombie movie. However, the zombies depicted are not undead flesh eaters, which would not come into existence as we know them until George Romero's landmark film Night of the Living Dead in 1968. These are the original Haitian zombies, which are people who have been drugged, buried, dug up, and hypnotized into mindlessly serving the will of a master. In this movie the zombie master is Bela Lugosi as Murder Legendre. Yes, his character name is actually “Murder.” White Zombie usually gets overlooked as a classic horror movie because it is surprisingly not a Universal horror movie but an independent production. So it doesn't get included with the likes of Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), and The Mummy (1932). Nevertheless, this is an eerie, early horror movie worthy of classic status. It has managed to have a lasting influence, inspiring the name of Rob Zombie’s band and being included in later movies like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween (2007). 

The protagonists are Neil Parker (John Harron) and his fiancé Madeleine Short (Madge Bellamy) who travel to the West Indies to visit their wealthy friend Charles Beaumont (Robert W. Frazer). Neither knows that Beaumont is so in love with Madeline that he has recruited the sinister Murder Legendre to make her into a zombie that will belong to him. Just after Neil and Madeleine’s wedding, she falls mysteriously ill and dies and is quickly buried. When Neil visits her tomb, he finds it empty. With the help of a local missionary, Dr. Bruner (Joseph Cawthorn), who delivers a lot of exposition about Voodoo and zombies, they figure out the evil plan of Charles and Murder Legendre and the pair set out to rescue Madeleine. 

Of course, the approach to the racial and historical background of Haitian zombies is dated and at times condescending. Dr. Bruner refers to Haiti as a place “full of nonsense and superstition…sometimes I don’t know what to think.” However, it is not entirely ignored either. A black carriage driver (Clarence Muse, in an uncredited performance) is the first to recognize the zombies and drives Neil and Madeline to safety. He provides the movie's first description of zombies: “Corpses taken from their graves, who are made to work at the sugar mill fields at night.” Turning Madeline into the titular white zombie to be a beautiful, silent, mindless bride is a deviation of the usual purpose of creating a zombie. The fear of zombies and of becoming a zombie is rooted in slavery and the fear that even after death a slave would still not be free and still be forced to serve a master. Legendre proudly shows off his zombie slaves, each was a rival or someone who wronged him. Now, they are under his hypnotic spell and do his bidding. “They are not worried about long hours,” Legendre says and offers to provide Beaumont with zombie workers. “You could make good use of men like mine on your plantation?” The fate of the native zombies is of no concern to the main characters. 

Like many early sound era horror films, White Zombie is heavy on atmosphere. The most memorable and chilling image has to be Lugosi’s sinister, hypnotic eyes superimposed over shots of Madeline, looming over his unsuspecting victim. The island setting and references to Voodoo serve the same purpose as castles and legends in the Universal monster movies, building an eerie atmosphere and making it clear that the main characters are in an unfamiliar land. Lugosi is excellent as the zombie master. After the success of Dracula, Universal offered him the role of the creature in Frankenstein but he turned it down because the character just grunted and never spoke. This is typically viewed as a miscalculation on Lugosi’s part and, allegedly, he took the role in White Zombie to not miss out on another success. However, Lugosi likely made the right choice. His talent for delivering dialogue in a way that is both alluring and menacing is his forte and it is what makes Dracula and White Zombie so creepy and so memorable. 

White Zombie is in the public domain so you can easily find it on nearly any streaming service. It is available in both colorized and original black and white versions, but the black and white version streaming on Tubi and Amazon Prime Video has the best picture quality. It will also air on TCM on Monday, October 30th at 9AM CT in quality black and white.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Pontypool

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 3: Pandemic Horror Night
“Kill is blue. Kill is wonderful. Kill is loving… Kill is everything you ever wanted… Kill is kiss.”
Pontypool 

If A Quiet Place is the horror movie based around not speaking, and Bird Box is the horror movie based around not seeing, then Pontypool is the horror movie based around not hearing. Its conceit is fresh and interesting and, while not without flaws, remains haunting and unsettling. Pontypool has never fully left my mind since I first saw it two years ago. It has been on my mind a lot since March 2020. There are films with more violent and disturbing imagery that I’m recommending this Shocktober, but this is the only one that I hesitated in recommending at all. It didn’t occur to me in 2018 but it is clear now that Pontypool, like 28 Days Later, is not a zombie movie. It is a pandemic horror movie.

Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) is a cowboy hat wearing, washed up radio shock jock reduced to doing morning news for a rural town in Ontario: Pontypool. Sydney Briar (Lisa Houle) is the morning show producer, who tries to keep Grant on track, reminding him that people just want their news and weather and don’t want to be antagonized. Sydney’s assistant Laurel-Ann (Georgina Reilly), is a young veteran that served in Afghanistan. These are the main characters, and, aside from a few callers and visitors to the station, the only characters. Once Grant arrives at the radio station, he and Sydney and Laurel-Ann slowly realize that the strange violent events overwhelming the town have trapped them in the station.

The film unfolds over a matter of hours on a frigid and snowy Valentine’s Day in one location, more or less. Before the sun is even up, the radio station begins receiving reports of strange and violent behavior in Pontypool. There is a hostage situation and a riot at a doctor’s office and military vehicles in the streets. We see none of this and no other news source is reporting the events. Sydney thinks that they are being pranked but the influx of reports and a call from the “sunshine chopper” reporter (who actually just reports from a hill overlooking the town) make it clear that something sinister is wreaking havoc and spreading. Those people acting strange and attacking others are also chanting and babbling incoherently, repeating the same word or phrase again and again. Mazzy and Sydney translate a message in French warning people to avoid contact with loved ones and the English language.

The sinister force at work is a strange virus that turns people into mindless zombies repeating phrases like: “A simple kind of sample” or “I’m not missing Mr. Mazzy.” The explanation for the virus comes in one of the film’s biggest contrivances, Dr. Mendez (Hrant Alianak), who breaks into the radio station and explains his theory on the virus. The idea he presents, that the virus spreads through understanding certain infected words, is what sets Pontypool apart from other virus/zombie movies. It's an intriguing concept. As Mazzy puts it, “How do you not understand a word. How do you make it strange?”

Pontypool would work equally well as a stage or radio play. There are scenes of blood and zombie attacks (for lack of a better term) but almost no pop-up scares. This film relies on the sheer talent of its leads reacting to the news they hear and the little they see while stuck inside to create suspense and tension. Stephen McHattie and Lisa Houle don’t just carry the movie, they make it as good as it is; the premise does not work without their top-notch performances.

I wouldn’t say that Pontypool falls apart in the third act exactly, but its intentions become muddled. Even as the characters are executing their plan it is unclear just exactly what they are trying to accomplish. Still, the tension is high and I was too caught up in their climactic performances to be concerned with the details. I am even more puzzled by the epilogue but equally intrigued for the same reason. Even with its flaws, Pontypool is a surprising and at times mesmerizing small scale horror movie that is unsettling and frightening not because of any intense visuals or effects but because of the overwhelming situation and ideas thrust upon the characters.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Rabid

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some scary movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 9: Cronenberg Night

“So, don’t let anybody bite you.”

Rabid (1977)

David Cronenberg’s second feature film, Rabid, along with his controversial debut feature, Shivers (aka They Came From Within), established him as a distinct and creative voice in horror cinema and helped make his name synonymous with the body horror subgenre. Rabid shares a lot of common ground with Shivers. Both involve a manmade infection or plague that spreads through bodily contact and causes the veneer of civilization to crumble. Both involve a “mad,” or at least overconfident, scientist experimenting on a woman’s body, causing it to become monstrous. In Rabid, however, the woman that has been experimented on is the main character, and she comes across as more of a victim than a monster.

After a bad motorcycle accident, Rose is rushed to the nearest medical facility where an experimental skin graft is performed, even though the doctor is aware of the potentially dangerous side effects. One side effect the doctor did not foresee is Rose growing a bloodsucking needlelike appendage that shoots out of a slit in her armpit so she can feed an uncontrollable bloodlust. Rose becomes a sort of vampire, but the people she feeds on become like ravenous zombies attacking anyone they encounter.

Rose is played by Marilyn Chambers, the adult film star most famous for the cult classic porn film Behind the Green Door. Chambers was looking to transition to mainstream movies, and the producers decided to cash in on her notorious fame. As a legitimate actress, Chambers gives a sympathetic and believable performance as the tragic Rose. Rose oscillates between embracing being a bloodthirsty predator and fighting her monstrous desires, and Chambers does a good job portraying both sides of the character. There is a complexity to her role that is not typically given to female characters in horror movies. If there is a stiff, underwritten character, it is Rose’s boyfriend, Hart (Frank Moore), who spends most of the movie being confused or receiving exposition. In any other horror movie, Hart would be the hero and Rose would just be the monster.

Rabid does not oversexualize Marilyn Chambers. There are nude scenes of Chambers, but there are more scenes where Rabid uses the Marilyn Chambers persona to subvert lurid audience expectations. When Rose is on the prowl, she exudes a seductive aura. Her encounters with her prey (mostly lascivious, predatory men) appear as though they will lead to sex, but they end abruptly and very un-erotically.

Rabid makes such good use of its resources that it does not feel like a low budget movie. There are impressive car crashes, chaotic crowd scenes, shoot outs, and even soldiers and tanks in the streets of Montreal. The special makeup effects have a dated look (the blood is that certain shade of bright orange-red that was popular in 1970’s horror films), but they are still effective. Rabid is not as gory or effects heavy as Cronenberg’s later movies, but a more squeamish viewer would still probably have to avert their eyes more than a few times.

There is more to Rabid than some would be willing to give it credit for. Cronenberg packs in themes of science run amok, how society responds to a crisis, and women losing body autonomy. In the world of Cronenberg, supernatural occurrences stem from radical scientific discoveries and are accepted by the characters. The challenge characters in a Cronenberg movie face isn’t convincing skeptics, but in how they will deal with an extraordinary problem. Whether you dive into the subtext and themes or just want to enjoy a hybrid vampire-zombie movie, Rabid will make for a thrilling and interesting Shocktober viewing.

13 Nights of Shocktober: I Walked With a Zombie

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night  8: Val Lewton Night

“She makes a beautiful zombie, doesn’t she?”

I Walked With a Zombie

Throughout the 1940’s, the movie studio RKO released a series of low budget horror hits that despite their exploitative titles (Cat People, Isle of the Dead, Curse of the Cat People) were films of first-rate quality and substance. These films were developed and overseen by producer Val Lewton, who has the rare distinction of being a producer seen as an auteur (or author) by modern film critics and historians. The best of Val Lewton’s RKO horror films were his collaborations with director Jacques Tourneur, including I Walked With a Zombie.

You won’t find any flesh eating ghouls in this zombie movie. Before George Romero’s landmark film Night of the Living Dead in 1968, a zombie was a dark myth of the Voodoo religion. Specifically, a zombie was a person that had been put in a deathlike trance, buried, dug up, and then continued in a trance as a slave to the Voodoo priest that performed the “resurrection.” This is the type of zombie the characters in I Walked With a Zombie are confronted with.

Betsy (Frances Dee) travels to the island of St. Sebastian in the West Indies to take a job as a private nurse. She moves in to the Holland family sugar plantation and becomes friendly with Tom Holland (Tom Conway) and his half-brother Wesley Rand (James Ellison), though the brothers are at odds. Her patient is Tom’s wife, Jessica, who is in a perpetual catatonic trance and wanders the plantation at night. As Betsy tries to understand Jessica’s illness, she uncovers dark secrets about the Holland family.

The Val Lewton RKO horror movies emphasized atmosphere over visual scares, though there are naturally a few of those in I Walked With a Zombie. The titular scene of Betsy walking with Jessica through the cane fields coming across eerie markers like a hanging dead animal and a skull in the dirt is accompanied only by the sound of wind. The possibility of the supernatural looms over the characters, but this film delves more into the psychological effects of superstition. Betsy is a in a new and exotic land with customs and beliefs strange to her; her lack of familiarity puts her on edge. Perhaps the creepiest scene is also the unlikeliest. When trying to wake Wesley at a bar patio, a street musician sings a melancholy calypso ballad of the Holland family while walking slowly towards Betsy. Then he includes her in the ballad. It’s easily the creepiest use a calypso song in a movie and also a clever way to deliver exposition. The beautiful Film Noir-like use of light and shadow further adds to the eerie atmosphere of every scene.

Slavery is at the heart of the Voodoo zombie myth. I Walked With a Zombie is aware of this and deals indirectly with the lingering effects of slavery, albeit only for the white descendants of the slaveowners. A black carriage driver tells Betsy how the Holland family brought “the long ago fathers and long ago mothers of us all” to the island, “chained to the bottom of the boat.” The figurehead of that slave ship rests in the center of the courtyard of the Holland estate, an ever present and morbid reminder of the family’s past. It’s interesting that when Tom Holland says that the slave ship brought “our people” to the island, he is referring to his family as well as the slaves.

The central theme of I Walked With a Zombie is a simple one: things are not what they seem. When Betsy is admiring the beauty of the sea, Tom tells her with a resigned melancholy: “Those flying fish, they’re not leaping for joy, they’re jumping in terror. Bigger fish want to eat them. That luminous water, it takes its gleam from millions of tiny dead bodies. The glitter of putrescence.” Voodoo is not dangerous; it is just a religion that can be used for good or evil. The zombie is a victim, not a monster. The harm to Holland family was done not by the natives; it was done by the Hollands themselves. From its title, I Walked With a Zombie seems like a silly exploitation film, but it is a genuine horror classic made with exquisite talent on and off screen. This Lewton/Tourneur film is not as well-known as their signature film Cat People, but is easily of the same quality. Its moody and eerie atmosphere hold up solidly, as do the performances, and will make for a great Shocktober night.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Night of the Creeps

by A.J. 

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 12: Spooky Fun Night, “The good news is your date is here. The bad news is…he’s dead.”

Night of the Creeps

The first time I saw the cult classic Night of the Creeps was on TCM as part of TCM Underground. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, on TCM of all channels, but I was very entertained and glad TCM included it in their programming schedule, uncut and commercial free. It is a cheesy 1980’s B-film of a horror movie but it is also a thoroughly entertaining love letter to cheesy 1950’s sci-fi/horror movies. Even a sharp observer will have to hit the rewind button a few times to catch all of the direct and indirect references to other horror movies and horror filmmakers.  

Right away Night of the Creeps lets you know what kind of movie you’re in for. It begins with two aliens with ray-guns on a spaceship chasing after a third alien carrying a cylinder. When the aliens speak, their dialogue is subtitled in both English and, what I assume to be, their alien language. The aliens are so obviously short men in suits and masks that I think that is what director Fred Dekker must have intended since the special effects later in the movie are pretty good. Dekker would go on to direct another cult classic with great effects, The Monster Squad, which is either a terrible or great film depending on what age you were when you first saw it. I think it’s great.

The mysterious alien cylinder is shot into space and lands on Earth in 1959. The first scene on Earth is in black and white and looks like a clichéd scene from 1950’s teen horror movie. The setting is sorority row and not that far away a boy and girl are in a parked car. From the alien cylinder a wormy slug springs into the mouth of the boy who left his date alone in the car. While an alien parasite worm is jumping into his mouth, an axe wielding escaped mental patient is attacks the girl. After this scene you should definitely know that Night of the Creeps is campy, over the top, self-aware fun. The movie then jumps to 1986 during "Pledge Week." We meet Chris and J.C., two college freshmen. Chris talks J.C. into pledging a fraternity with him because he is desperate to impressive the very pretty Cynthia, who he thinks (for no reason at all) is only interested in frat guys. Cynthia’s boyfriend, Brad, is the head of the fraternity and gives them the pledge task of stealing a dead body from the university medical lab. Chris and J.C. accidentally unfreeze the body of the college boy infected with the alien parasite back in the 50’s. They freak out and run away. The infected zombie body walks out of the university, but not before attacking a young scientist played by a young David Paymer. 

The zombie body walks to the sorority house where its head splits open and releases more parasite slugs. The slugs enter into a body then eat at the brain turning a person into essentially a zombie until their head explodes to spread more slugs. The special effects are great old-school practical effects. Some effects, like the slugs and zombie make-up hold up better than others, like the animatronic zombie dog and cat, which still look pretty cool and scary. The effects do get pretty gross, but they are meant to scare and entertain you, not just shock you and make you feel queasy. Night of the Creeps has fun with its effects too. When a bus driver sees the decaying zombie dog in the road, his eyes bulge out of his head, like a cartoon.

Night of the Creeps is a movie you watch for the fun, gross effects, but there are some good characters to go along with the effects too. Chris and J.C. are supposed to be geeks, but there’s nothing much geeky about them other than that they’re not jocks. Chris Romero, our main character, is unfortunately blandly average. His only motivation is to impress the pretty girl because she is pretty. The characters around him, however, are pretty interesting and entertaining. His goofy friend J.C. (James Carpenter) Hooper, is more socially adept and aware and is, overall, a more well-rounded character. The character that steals the movie is the hardened, self-destructive Detective Cameron played by Tom Atkins. He walks into a crime scene and says “thrill me” and constantly refers to Chris and J.C. as Spanky and Alfalfa. When he shoots one zombie in the head he says, “It’s Miller time.” It doesn’t make any sense but it’s great. My favorite scene with him is when he tells Chris a haunting story of revenge from his past. It’s a serious and intense speech in the middle a campy movie and an awkward moment for Chris. Somehow, this character isn’t laughable but is still fun and fits right in with the rest of the movie.

My favorite character is Cynthia Cronenberg, the object of everyone’s affections, played by Jill Whitlow. To say that the female roles in 80’s comedies, especially 80’s teen comedies, are lacking in substance would be a gross understatement. Cynthia, however, is not a trophy or a doll. She’s not impressed with Chris at first since he sent J.C. to talk to her for him. She puts together that the attacks happening around the college are related to the missing body from the medical lab and has to convince Chris and J.C., who are skeptical. At the climax, when a busload of slug infested zombie frat guys descend upon the sorority house, she fights them off along with Chris and Detective Cameron to protect the rest of the sorority. Shooting the zombies stops them, but then the slugs inside just explode out and scatter. The only thing that kills the slugs is fire, so Detective Cameron gets a flamethrower from the police armory (because of course they have a flamethrower). It’s Cynthia who uses that flame thrower while wearing her formal gown to kill off the alien slugs, and she is as badass as she sounds.

This movie is as much a tribute to the whole horror genre as it is a send up of 50’s sci-fi/horror movies. If the characters last names sound familiar it is because many characters are named after horror and science fiction directors like: David Cronenberg (Shivers), James Cameron (Piranha II, Terminator), Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the 13^th), Steve Miner (Friday the 13^th Part II and III), Sam Raimi (Evil Dead), John Carpenter (Halloween), Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), and George Romero (Night of the Living Dead). The characters all attend Corman University, named after legendary producer Roger Corman, who made many, many campy films. When the sorority house mother is attacked she is watching Plan 9 from Outer Space on TV, perhaps the campiest film ever made by the man once voted worst director of all time, Ed Wood. 

Night of the Creeps was a flop when it was released in theaters but has since gone on to build a cult following. I can understand why. This movie has everything: horror, comedy, aliens, sorority girls, awesome horror effects, zombie jocks, a zombie cat, a zombie David Paymer, scenes in black and white, a scene with Dick Miller (who appears in several 80's horror movies), a suicidal cop on edge, a montage of college kids getting ready for a dance, and, best of all, a badass sorority girl with a flamethrower. Night of the Creeps is lots of fun and even a little scary. It’s a perfect movie for horror movie fans, people that like campy movies, and people that just want to have a spooky good time. 

13 Nights of Shocktober: The Last Man on Earth

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 2: Vincent Price Night, “You’re freaks! I’m a man! The last man..."

The Last Man on Earth

The Last Man on Earth is the first and best adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend. Matheson himself was not happy with how the ending of the film turned out and had his name taken off the screenplay, which he wrote, but this version is still far, far better than the later adaptations. The other two adaptations are the dreadful The Omega Man from 1971 starring Charlton Heston and the so-so zombie-monster version from 2007 starring Will Smith, titled after the novel. The 1964 version stars horror movie icon Vincent Price as the titular last man on Earth. This film succeeds unlike the other two versions because it has an emotional level that the others did not, and it has the right kind of actor to elicit audience emotions in Price. He conveys excellently the devastating loneliness of being the last man on Earth. He is overjoyed when he finds a dog, the first living thing he’s seen in three years. “We’re going to have lots of happy times together,” he says to dog. It’s a heartbreaking scene because Price makes you feel how desperately in he is need of companionship. Their happy days are short lived. My heart broke again when Price finally sees another person, a woman, and she runs from him and he chases after her shouting "Wait!."

This film begins with beautiful but eerie black and white scenes of a dead world: buildings are abandoned, streets are lined with corpses, and a community church sign reads “The End Has Come.” The setting is a small city, not a metropolis as in most later post-apocalyptic movies, and though this is because of the film’s small budget, it is an advantage. The abandoned, empty average town is a frightening and foreboding place. Though the town is not entirely empty and Price is not entirely alone since those that did not die in the plague turned into vampires. These vampires are slow, lumbering, and not-too-bright but are relentless, numerous, and can use weapons like clubs. They can also speak in low moans. If these vampires act like latter day zombies it is because George Romero credits this film with inspiring Night of the Living Dead. 

Dr. Robert Morgan (Price) spends his days searching through the city methodically and killing as many vampires as he can find. He spends his nights locked up in his house with the record player turned up loud to drown out the sound of the horde outside calling his name. He plays home movies on a projector and is happy for a moment, then grows incredibly sad. There’s a lengthy flashback to happier times, when the end was only beginning. We see Morgan with his wife and daughter. We also see him working with his friend and fellow scientist, Ben, who is now an undead creature outside his home. The debate they have about the slow spreading threat to the world sounds uncomfortably familiar to the modern climate change “debate.” Ben, from the younger generation, is worried about the growing plague in Europe. Morgan, from the older generation, is skeptical and thinks the reports are exaggerated to sell newspapers. The line “Is everyone gonna die before we find an answer?” gave me chills. Morgan and Ben begin working on an antidote, but the end comes too soon.  

What I love about this film are the details that fill out Morgan’s dead and lonely world. We hear his thoughts as voice over narration. He reminds himself to get more gas for his car and to get more garlic from the grocery store. I asked myself why he only takes some garlic from the store instead of taking it all with him. I quickly answered myself: he just needs somewhere to go, something, anything, to do to pass the time. At the beginning of the film we see that it is 1968 and Morgan has been drawing calendars on a wall in his house. We see him make stakes to kill the vampires and we see him load the bodies into the trunk of his car and drive them to a pit. Despite all of that, however, this is not a slow movie. It builds atmosphere. Vincent Price has made several campy films but this one is sincere and spooky. Price has more than enough talent and screen presence to carry every scene in the movie and make it interesting, even if he’s only going through a bin of garlic. The Last Man on Earth maintains its eerie mood and steady pace only to build to a thrilling final act. 

13 Nights of Shocktober: Night of the Living Dead

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 1: "They're coming to get you, Barbara." Night of the Living Dead

 

It’s very interesting that zombies have joined vampires, ghosts, demons, and werewolves in the pantheon of supernatural scares since the zombie as we know it—the cannibalistic living corpse that can only be killed by damage to the head and brain and whose bite will turn you into one—has only been in existence since 1968. George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead makes no mention of zombies, the creatures in the movie are referred to as “ghouls.” A review called them zombies and the new definition stuck. Before Romero’s film, any movie zombie was more of a Haitian zombie, someone tricked into believing that they are dead and forced to serve a master. It’s also interesting to note, for entirely different reasons, that according the History Channel documentary Zombies: A Living History, more than half of all zombie movies have been produced after September 11, 2001. But that’s a topic for another day. 

 

Night of the Living Dead, like another important horror movie from 1968, Rosemary’s Baby, takes place in a familiar setting (rural Pennsylvania) and in the present day. Most earlier horror movies were period pieces set in castles. George Romero did not intend for Night of the Living Dead to be a political film; however, with an African American actor as the lead, playing a dignified man of action, social commentary and political subtext were unavoidable. What the zombies are a metaphor for and what the social commentary has to say are the source of discussion that can be as interesting as it is endless.

 

This low budget horror movie made 45 years ago is still a creepy and chilling experience. Its simple story of a group of people, holed up in a house, just trying to survive makes the horror universal and the political subtext manages to change with the times, keeping the movie relevant.