NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD Screens Thursday January 7th at Schlafly Bottleworks

“If you have a gun, shoot ’em in the head. That’s a sure way to kill ’em. If you don’t, get yourself a club or a torch. Beat ’em or burn ’em. They go up pretty easy.”

George Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD screens Thursday January 7th at 7:00pm at Schlafly Bottleworks

With 8-years olds watching The Walking Dead today with Mom and Dad today, it’s hard to convey just how grossed out and appalled people were when NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD started popping up on movie screens back in 1968. Variety wrote back then: “No brutalizing stone is left unturned: crowbars gash holes in the heads of the living dead, monsters are shown eating entrails, and – in a climax of unparalleled nausea – a little girl kills her mother by stabbing her a dozen times in the chest with a trowel.” Yep,  NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD had it all: cannibalism, slow-moving zombies who always seem to be catching up, and women-in-danger tripping and falling for no reason. But it was one of the first horror films that refused to turn away from its own gruesomenesss and has become the barometer by which all Zombies Attack films are measured..

The minimalist plot of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD makes it all the more horrifying. Simply put, a group of strangers end up trapped in a farmhouse as slow-moving zombies, who were created by radiation from a Venus space probe (don’t ask), try to break in and eat them. Among the house’s occupants is a woman (Judith O’Dea) who saw her brother attacked by one of the “living dead” while they visited their father’s graveside, a black man (Duane Jones) who attempts to take charge of the situation, a middle class husband and wife (Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman) who are nursing a young daughter who was bitten by one of the ghouls, and the requisite terrified teenage couple (Keith Wayne and Judith Ridley).

The first time I saw NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was in 1974 at the Crown Theater in Florissant. The EXORCIST knock-off BEYOND THE DOOR was the main feature and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD played second. My friends and I were terrified and amazed (especially after that dull first feature) though most of director George Romero’s political and social commentary no doubt went way over our little 12-year old heads. This being years before DAWN OF THE DEAD or ZOMBIE, we had no idea how influential the film would be or the impact Romero’s little low budget black and white movie would have on the evolution of horror films. Thirty years later I interviewed eight cast members from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD on stage at the Kitbuilders Monstrous Weekend Convention here in St. Louis including Judith O’Dea and the late Bill Hinzman, who played the first graveyard zombie. Several of these were older folk who had never acted before or since, yet were being flown to horror cons and treated to long lines of fans willing to pay for their signatures. Behold the power of the first ‘Living Dead’ movie!

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is a masterpiece, still holding strong today, and you’ll have the opportunity to see it again in all of its big-screen glory when it plays this Thursdau night at Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood (7260 Southwest Avenue Maplewood, MO 63143). The show begins at 7:00pm.

A Facebook invite for the event can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/164879570542540/

Brought to you by A Film Series, Schlafly Bottleworks, AUDP and Real Living Gateway Real Estate.

Doors open at 6:30pm.

$6 for the screening. A yummy variety of food from Schlafly’s kitchen is available as are plenty of pints of their famous home-brewed suds.

“Culture Shock” is the name of a film series here in St. Louis that is the cornerstone project of a social enterprise that is an ongoing source of support for Helping Kids Together(http://www.helpingkidstogether.com/) a St. Louis based social enterprise dedicated to building cultural diversity and social awareness among young people through the arts and active living.

The films featured for “Culture Shock” demonstrate an artistic representation of culture shock materialized through mixed genre and budgets spanning music, film and theater. Through ‘A Film Series’ working relationship with Schlafly Bottleworks, they seek to provide film lovers with an offbeat mix of dinner and a movie opportunities.