Classic horror film with Valley ties turns 50

Staff report

“The Walking Dead” – which begins its ninth season tonight – is one of television’s most popular dramas.

But the landmark drama has firmly based its rules of zombiedom on those laid down by “Night of the Living Dead.”

Released in 1968, the low-budget horror film practically created the genre. It certainly defined the movement, the habits and the ways of killing a zombie.

The film was the brainchild of the late George Romero and John Russo. It was shot in fictional documentary style in the Pittsburgh region, and is interspersed with “news bulletins” as the zombie outbreak spreads – including dispatches from Youngstown, Ohio, and Sharon, Pa.

“Night of the Living Dead” turned 50 last week, and the mayor of Pittsburgh honored it in a ceremony at the theater where it premiered.

In a 2015 interview with The Vindicator, Russo said that when he and Romero sat down to write “Night of the Living Dead,” their goal was to make a truly scary horror movie.

“We decided it should be a horror film and that it would start in a cemetery,” said Russo. “George came in with half a story that would become ‘Night of the Living Dead.’ But it was about space aliens. The girl got away and gets to the house, but more of them come after her. I said, ‘This has all the right twists and turns, but who is attacking?’ I said it could be dead people. But what were they after? I thought, just about flesh-eating. George got called away, and I put it in the script.”

Russo and Romero would further fine-tune the script. Romero added the final siege, with the zombies unsuccessfully trying to get into the house.

The script writers’ vision for zombie behavior in the film are still followed today in movies, novels, comic books and in “The Walking Dead” and its spinoff “Fear the Walking Dead.”

A big part of the initial success of “Night of the Living Dead” was that it jolted the status quo.

“Hollywood was making carbon-copy horror films at the time,” said Russo. “Attack of the Giant Grasshoppers, Attack of the Giant Lizards. They were all the same. The National Guard would be called out. They weren’t really scary.”

The realism of “Night of the Living Dead” ramped up its terror and became part of the blueprint for all that would follow. A major element was showing how people react under pressure, and almost every ensuing zombie apocalypse film does likewise.

Shot in grainy black and white, the miniscule budget of “Night” dictated its production process.

Scenes – including the opening segment in a cemetery – were filmed near Evans City, Pa., in Butler County. The outdoor, indoor and basement scenes were filmed at a location northeast of Evans City, near a park.

Props and special effects were kept simple and inexpensive. The blood, for example, was chocolate syrup and the consumed flesh consisted of roasted ham and entrails donated by one of the actors, who also owned a chain of butcher shops.

Costumes consisted of second-hand clothing from cast members and Goodwill.

Zombie makeup varied during the film. Initially, makeup was limited to white skin with blackened eyes but as filming progressed, mortician’s wax was used to simulate wounds and decaying flesh.

Filming took place between June and December 1967 under the working title “Night of Anubis” and later “Night of the Flesh Eaters.”