The age gap

Lovers: Taken from IMDB
“Night of the Living Dead is a true classic and without a doubt Romero's best and most influential film.

Of course, being simply influential alone would not simply allow this movie to get a full-fledged star rating if it didn't pull through with it some quality at all, which it does in spades. In Night of the Living Dead, there is good pacing, surprisingly good acting from a list of no-name actors, and the most important part that sticks with the film to this day, the sense of dread in the film. In this movie to this day you get that feeling of hopelessness, people get attacked for no reason and nothing can save them. Whether it's family-togetherness, love between a couple, or even the law-enforcers at the end, this was all tapping into the uncertainty level people were having at the time and still today it has meaning. Topping this off with Romero's (at the time) large use of gore adds to the overall uneasiness of the film. Finally at the film's current times, there is a great subtle final nail in the coffin attack with the sad fate of the character Ben. Being the only sole voice of reason is shot, which, at the time of filming brought harsh realities of such other African-American leaders who were brought down unfairly such as Malcolm X or Martin Luther King, even if this wasn't the original idea Romero had.

Overall, no matter how cheesy some of this movie make look to modern eyes, Night of the Living Dead is a classic for offering horror without a shred of hope, forever influencing every horror movie in it's wake.”

There is no arguing how influential Romero’s movies are but this is probably my least favourite one. I’ll explain a little further down.

Hater: Taken from IMD
“I have no idea how this film is so highly rated. My only guess is that at the time it was released some 40 years ago it must have made such an impact. Young people then (now old people) must relate to it in such a way that reminds them of their youth and thus they give the movie such a great review. The truth however is this movie is absolutely HORRIBLE and further proof that you can't trust the ratings. Total waste of time. Not scary. Bad acting. Just ridiculous. If you are under the age of 40, skip this piece of garbage. Bad. Bad. Bad. Very bad.”

Now this guy is being a bit harsh though I do see where he is coming form.

What I thought:
Now the difference in age of an average film viewer can be very drastic and now zombie movies keep coming out and keep getting bums on seats you are bound to get a younger audience re visiting the old ones. Most pivotally Night of the Living Dead, now most people know why it was important so I’ll skip the details but to these younger eyes Night of the Living Dead does look horribly dated, not to mention de-sensitized youths high on the likes of saw and hostel not having their blood lust fulfilled.

You should never judge an old film from a modern perspective you have to take it for what it was at the time. Night is an effective psychological thriller not really a horror. What can you do against such never ending relentless flesh eating killers? Romero’s films have always been about the fight for survival in what is ultimately a hopeless situation and this one laid the format. If you do love modern horror this is not for you, if your a zombie movie fan it’s an absolute essential and finally if you’re an appreciator of film its worth a re visit everyone once in a while.

For me the age barrier comes in, now I hate 99% of modern horror it’s just not scary and is that not the point? That said there are a few old classic horror movies that despite being influential also are not scary in the slightest. Dawn of the Dead is thoroughly effective but night is a little bit too low in production value for me to take seriously, that’s why its my least favourite possibly, I say that as I have yet to see diary and survival…