 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Night of the Living Dead
- Review Date: May 24, 2007
- NR
- Genre: Horror
- 1968
Common Sense Media says
Oft-copied zombie classic is still intense and gory.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this was once considered the ultimate in gruesome horror, with its ghastly premise of armies of undead "ghouls" devouring and infecting the living. One of the zombies is a little girl who ends up killing her parents. The movie is claustrophobic and intense, with one of the most famously pessimistic endings in movie history. Though later cannibal-zombie movies pushed gore-makeup effects to extremes, this one is relatively restrained -- except for the Anchor Bay "Anniversary" edition that adds more severe carnage that was filmed later and edited in (along with the character of a nasty priest).
What's the story?
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD begins when a young woman and her brother are attacked in a cemetery by a zombie, then moves to a group of strangers seeking shelter from the ghouls in a remote house. Barricaded inside, they see TV bulletins linking the zombie plague to "radiation" from a Venus space probe contaminating the environment, and they hear the only way to stop a ghoul is to destroy the brain, with a well-aimed bullet or cranial blows. The panicked survivors split into two factions, a family called the Coopers, who want to stay barricaded indoors and wait for help, and a more pro-active bunch, led by Ben (Duane Jones), an assertive black man, who plan a dash to safety, despite the ghouls massing relentlessly in the dark outside. A famously shocking finale indicates that neither of their plans works out.
Is it any good?
George A. Romero's cult classic brought a virtually unprecedented level of realistic gore and disturbing grotesquerie to creature-feature fans (many of them children). When it premiered in 1968, critics and commentators were outraged kids had been exposed to such a nightmare. Though it's unrated by the MPAA, some posters and ads carried an "X" rating (for gruesome violence, not sex), and that should tell you something. It's still intense today, and pushes a lot of buttons, with its well-rendered camera angles, effective jolts, claustrophobia, and the fate-worse-than-death zombie vibe.
Beware: The film is in the public domain, which means there are lots of fuzzy-looking, technically inferior copies on the market, computer-"colorized" versions, and spoof editions with completely dubbed-in gag dialogue (even with a bad-joke soundtrack, the imagery is still disturbing).
What families can talk about
Families can talk about the mistake the survivors make in their defense strategy against the ghouls; their self-interest and egotism divides them (the zombies, on the other hand, have no such problems). You can also discuss with movie-buff kids why this was such a success on the horror market. Do you think it was because a premise this frightful had never been brought to the screen before? Or was it skillful filmmaking? What examples do you see in today's horror movies of filmmakers pushing the envelope? Do you believe (like some critics) that the movie is trying to make a social point? Or do you agree with the filmmakers, that it's just a scary movie?
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AGE
Zombies can teach kids valuable life lessons.
Kids need to learn how to fight zombies.
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AGE
A classic
It was a lot less violent than other movies that are rated pg-13 these days, and it was not scary, only a bit B&W bloody
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AGE
Old or not, this is still the type of film that will give kids nightmares. Not recommended for anyone under 16.
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AGE
B&W horror film is not rated; probably R back then, most likely PG-13 nowadays.
My rating: PG-13 for images of zombie horror violence and some gore.
[NOTE: In 2011, there is probably one factor that might make it R rated, which is the scene in which the undead are eating the intestines of the humans they have killed. It's not graphic, of course, and it's in black and white, of course, but it's gross.]
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AGE
classic, and revoulutionary
Now, i'm going to defend myself on this decision, i say 10+ because it is pretty creepy, and they would have to be mature enough to appreciate this masterpiece.
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Kid, 12 years old
October 29, 2011
AGE
I saw it when I was 10 and had nightmares for weeks
It's a perfectly good movie but it is very, very, very scary and quite gory. You won't regret giving it a miss
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AGE
If this is the classic George A. Romero "Night of the Living Dead" this review's talking about, then I don't know why CSM rates it "iffy for ages 16-17". I just saw this film about a month or so ago--it was pretty violent, but 1. it's in black-and-white and 2. there are two scenes I can remember that are disgusting (not QUITE scary though), which are a. the scene where the dead girl takes a gardening tool and starts stabbing her living mother over and over with it, and b. the scene where the zombies are eating human intestines (again, in black-and-white, and impossible to believe to be realistic, if any form of real at all). The horror starts out (and pretty much ends) as lame horror--just the usual sudden music played to resemble that the "living dead" are coming--but nothing at all is graphic. So I say "iffy for ages 12-13"!
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AGE
A classic, but somewhat violent
This classic zombie flick has surprisingly good anti-racist messages and is very entertaining. However, there are one or two very violent scenes and there is brief nudity. Still, pretty good.
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AGE
Genius Film
This film, about the breakout of a virus from space, is genius. The main characters are boarded up in a house, and they slowly turn against each other. It's done well, and the flesh eating monsters only help out the movie.
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AGE
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
George Romeros best zombie film of all time. You cant beat the classics.
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| Studio: | Continental Distributing |
| Director: | George A. Romero |
| Cast: | Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman |
| Genre: | Horror |
| Run time: | 90 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | October 1, 1968 |
| DVD release date: | May 19, 2008 |
| MPAA rating: | NR |
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