Night of the Living Dead

The Night of the Living Dead (1968)
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So I rectified the major gap in my horror pantheon last year that was Dawn of the Dead--this year I tackled it's older, clunkier sibling. Clunky, sure, but still lots of fun and somehow surprising even after so much imitation. One thing I liked about this one, and it's been picked up by most zombie flick descendents, I think, is that the folks in zombie movies tend to act smarter than folks in say, standard slasher flicks.
I mean, dude holes up in a house surrounded by zombies, and bam, he starts taking inside doors off their hinges and nailing them across the main door and windows. That's smart as hell. Definitely file that one away when you're stuck in a house wishing you had lumber for a makeshift fortress--the kitchen door can easily be popped off its hinges. And how cool is it that this is 1968 and the clear thinking hero in the pale cardigan is a black guy? This was the year after "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," for chrissakes. One year later, and Romero is on to "Guess Who's Saving Our Asses in the Zombie Apocalypse?"
Anyway, you've all seen, and now I have too.