Ep 53: Night of the Living Dead - 50th Anniversary

To mark the 50th anniversary of Night of the Living Dead, The Electric Shadows podcast looks back at the brilliance and influence of George A. Romero's horror masterpiece. The film that invented the modern horror film, we look at what made it so radical back in 1968, a year riven with civil riots violence, assassinations and the Vietnam quagmire. We look at why it has endured, and the copyright foul-ups that inadvertently lit the fuse for zombie apocalypse tales that would explode some forty years later when The Walking Dead became a phenomenon. Romero's early career in advertising and directing inserts for Mr Roger's Neighborhood. The influence of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend on Romero's fiendishly fine tale of murder and mayhem. The fact that the first zombie in Night of the Living Dead is a running zombie! And also that Romero never thought of his undead flesh-eaters as zombies, naming them ghouls for his directorial debut. How the filmmakers made a virtue out of budgetary adversity by using old fashioned ingenuity. Travellers in pod Rob Daniel, Rob Wallis and special guest Ian Bird also make room for a mouthwatering discussion of cannibalism. So, lock the doors, sit back, try to relax and listen. We'll be right back, we've got to go get Johnny.