By Keri O’Shea
It’s hard to think back to a time when the phenomenon of the ‘independent movie’ was all but unknown, and even harder to think back to a time when the flesh-eating zombie as we know it didn’t exist – but one man, together with his team, was responsible for the advent of both in one fell swoop. That man was of course George Romero, and the movie in question was 1968’s Night of the Living Dead. However, this is all gospel now. Romero’s well known for his part in horror history; especially since his return to the genre with Land of the Dead in 2005, people have begun taking a serious interest in the progression of the zombie. There has been a run of excellent books on the topic; magazines like Bizarre have run extensive features on Romero and his work in the past. And, as series like The Walking Dead continue to thrive, many fans by now have a pretty solid idea of where it all came from. So do we need another examination of the zombie’s roots?
The answer to that is – maybe not, but Rob Kuhns’ labour-of-love documentary on Night of the Living Dead is definitely an enjoyable, agreeable piece of filmmaking nonetheless, one which still sheds some new light on the development of what’s really been a cultural phenomenon. It also manages to do this without seemingly having a particular axe to grind, or needing the participation of any rotten pseuds along the way: in the world of the horror movie documentary, this is worthy of note and praise on its own.
Birth of the Living Dead begins with the advent of Romero’s filmmaking career, looking at the work he did on advertisements for his early company, Latent Image, prior to the truly guerilla project that was Night of the Living Dead, alongside all of the practicalities of entering the uncharted territory of a self-financed horror film. There’s a good balance of anecdotal (with most of these anecdotes coming from the disarming figure of Romero himself) and factual here, building up an interesting account of the process, and of just how challenging it all was.
Along with this, and probably Birth of the Living Dead’s greatest strength, is the contextual material it offers. We may all have heard or read about the political content of Night.., by now; however, seeing newsreel footage of the Vietnam War, the 60s race riots and violent protest juxtaposed with several key scenes from the film really does illuminate these scenes, whilst hearing Romero describe his ambitions for his project definitely reaffirms the socio-political context for what holds up as a great, disturbing piece of film, and probably the first with such an overt political agenda. It really doesn’t seem the case that this political rationale is something that’s been dredged up with hindsight, either; everyone interviewed here seems clear and in earnest about what the film was commenting upon. There’s also some material on the advent of the zombie, or the ghoul, as-was, although oddly not too much is said on this score – still, it does provide a golden opportunity for Kuhns to interview some of those who saw the film as children, when it was mistakenly lumped in with the monster matinees which were all the rage at the time…
With regards Night… itself, throughout there are of course lots of fascinating little titbits here about the actors and the shoot. In fact, in several places it’s a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ deal actually, with text briefly appearing on screen to tell you something intriguing about a scene or a cast member before – gone. There were also break-downs of some key scenes, helpfully explained by those in the know (crew members or other talking heads, with special mention to the brilliant Larry Fessenden for his pithy, smart contributions throughout). Evident care has gone into this film too, with some nice shots of NOTLD-inspired artwork interspersed with the other footage, adding to that feeling of high pace which keeps the film going. There is one part of the film which I don’t think particularly fits, though, and that’s the footage of the teacher using Night… as a teaching aid for his ‘promoting literacy through film’ project at his school in the Bronx, New York. Sure, it was kind of fun to see the kids recoiling at the film and then describing what they’d seen, but it felt a little bit extraneous. Still, for the most part, the film strikes a good balance between then and now, content and context.
Night of the Living Dead is not only part of the horror canon, it helped to create it; it’s even now a much-discussed piece of film, too, especially seeing as the zombie horde shows no sign of letting up in cinema or in TV. For all of that, this is a worthwhile documentary displaying aptitude and enthusiasm. It probably won’t revolutionise your appreciation of Night…, but it will no doubt add some entertaining material to it. Worth a look for sure.
Birth of the Living Dead will be released in the UK by Maven Publicity on 12th May 2014.