Night of the Living Dead - American independent horror film,

Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent horror film, directed by George A. Romero, starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. It premiered on October 1, 1968, and was completed on a $114,000 budget. The film became a financial success, grossing $12 million domestically and $18 million internationally. It has been a cult classic ever since. Night of the Living Dead was heavily criticized at its release for its explicit gore. It eventually garnered critical acclaim and has been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry, as a film deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The story follows characters Ben (Jones), Barbra (O'Dea), and five others trapped in a rural farmhouse in Western Pennsylvania, which is attacked by a large and growing group of unnamed "living dead" monsters drawing on earlier depictions in popular culture of Ghoul, which has led this type of creature to be referred to most popularly as a zombie. This is the most easily recognized version of the living dead, to the point where people gather in mass quantities for conventions dressed as zombies, complete with makeup and prosthetic limbs. Night of the Living Dead led to five subsequent films between 1978 and 2010, also directed by Romero, and has inspired several remakes.

Barbra (Judith O'Dea) and Johnny Blair (Russell Streiner) drive to rural Pennsylvania for an annual visit to their father's grave. This was their mother's request. Johnny teases, "They're coming to get you, Barbra," noticing Barbra's discomfort. She is then attacked by a strange man (Bill Hinzman). Johnny tries to rescue his sister, but the man throws him against a gravestone; Johnny strikes his head on the stone and dies. Barbra flees by car but crashes into a tree. She escapes on foot, with the stranger in pursuit, and later arrives at a farmhouse, where she discovers a woman's mangled corpse. She is confronted by strange menacing figures, running out of the house, like the man in the graveyard. Ben (Duane Jones) takes her into the house. Ben drives the monsters from the house and seals the doors and windows as Barbra slowly descends into shock and insanity.

Ben and Barbra are unaware that the farmhouse has a cellar, housing an angry married couple Harry (Karl Hardman) and Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman), along with their daughter Karen (Kyra Schon). They sought refuge after a group of zombies overturned their car. Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley), who are a teenage couple, arrived after hearing an emergency broadcast about a series of brutal murders. Karen has fallen seriously ill after being bitten by one of the zombies. They ventured upstairs when Ben turns on a radio, while Barbra awakens from a stupor. Harry demands that everyone hide in the cellar, but Ben deems it a "deathtrap" and continues upstairs, to barricade the house with Tom's help.

Radio reports explain that a wave of mass murder is sweeping across the eastern United States. The emergency broadcaster (Charles Craig) reports that the recently deceased have become reanimated and are consuming the flesh of the living, from the television Ben finds. Experts, scientists, and the United States military fail to discover the cause, though one scientist suspects radioactive contamination from a space probe. It returned from Venus, and deliberately exploded in the Earth's atmosphere when the radiation was detected.

Ben plans to obtain medical care for Karen when the reports listed local rescue centers offering refuge and safety. Ben and Tom refuel Ben's truck while Harry hurls molotov cocktails from an upper window at the "undead". Judy follows him, fearing Tom's safety, Tom accidentally spills gasoline on the truck, at the pump, setting it ablaze. Tom and Judy try to drive the truck away from the pump, but Judy is unable to free herself from its door, and the truck explodes, instantly killing Tom and Judy.

Ben returns to the house, but is locked out by Harry. He forces entry. Ben beats him, angered by his cowardice, while the undead feed on the remains of Tom and Judy. A news report reveals that, only a gunshot or heavy blow to the head can stop them, aside from setting the "reactivated bodies" on fire. It also reported that posses of armed men are patrolling the countryside to restore order.

The lights go out moments later, and the living dead break through the barricades. Harry grabs Ben's rifle and threatens to shoot him, but Ben wrestles the gun away and fires. Harry stumbles into the cellar and collapses next to Karen, mortally wounded. She has also died from her illness. The undead try to pull Helen and Barbra through the windows, but Helen frees herself. She returns to the refuge of the cellar and Karen is reanimated and eating Harry's corpse. Helen is frozen in shock, and Karen stabs her to death with a masonry trowel. Barbra is carried away by the horde and devoured, seeing Johnny among the living dead. The undead overrun the house. Ben seals himself inside the cellar, where Harry and Helen are reanimating, and he is forced to shoot them.

Ben is awakened by the posse's gunfire outside the next morning. He ventures upstairs. A member of the posse mistakes him for a zombie and shoots him through the forehead. The film ends with a photo montage of Ben as he is burned with the fallen zombies.