How 'Night of the Living Dead' Helped Shape My Love for Horror Movies

As someone who has written hundreds of articles on horror movies, I am sometimes asked about what movie inspired my love for horror movies. These people wonder what horror movie it was that stood out in my mind, and made me realize that I wanted to study horror movie history and horror movie symbolism. That answer was right there in black and white. It was "Night of the Living Dead."

Shot in Black and White

Even though most of the movies being introduced at the time were in color, "Night of the Living Dead" was shot in black and white. I heard that this was done because George Romero believed that black and white horror movies added a sense of despair and fear that colorized movies did not. This made me start to wonder about other tricks that directors used to create more of a sense of fear.

Reading It in Black and White

I believe that the first time that I saw "Night of the Living Dead" I was in seventh or eighth grade. Someone gave me a copy of the script for the movie. I remember sitting there reading along with the script while watching the movie and noticing the lines that were different in the movie from what they were in the script. I began to wonder why these differences were there, and what differences they made in the final movie.

Black and White in the Sky

There was something that stood out to me when I watched "Night of the Living Dead" for the second or third time. I noticed that there was more tension in the movie when it became dark outside. I remember noting the fact that most horror movies were shot in the dead of night. I remember thinking about the reasons why the night was scarier than the day.

Black and White Relations

One of the major talking points when discussing "Night of the Living Dead" is the fact that there are no references in the movie to racism. George Romero stated after the movie came out that he was not looking to make a statement about racism in America, but it just happened that way. I began to wonder what other types of social statements could be made through horror movies.

I do not think that I would have taken up writing about horror movies if I had not originally been inspired by "Night of the Living Dead." I have seen "Night of the Living Dead" more times in my life than any other movie. I believe that since it was the first movie that opened my eyes to the ins and outs of horror movie making, it is a movie that I have found that I cannot live without.