Recently, I introduced George A. Romero’s 1968 revolutionary horror film Night of the Living Dead to a friend. She had never seen it and I, probably quite understandably, thought this to be a travesty. In fact, I was rather shocked that such a culturally important film, one that is so engrained in our mainstream society, had slipped her by, even if it is approaching its 50th anniversary.
Like any good horror fan, I rectified this situation. I put on the DVD, made some popcorn on the stove (microwave popcorn is the worst), and we watched the film, me seeing it for the countless time and her for the first, which made it all the more exciting to see how she would react during certain situations.
For some reason, as the film progressed I began to notice something that I hadn’t seen before. Perhaps it was because it’s been several years since I watched any of Romero’s Dead films, much less thought critically about them. But revisiting the original brought forth some scenes that made an eyebrow rise and questions start bouncing around in my head. Simply put, what happened with the zombies?
Okay, hear me out here. We all know that as the storyline progressed through Romero’s films, the zombies began to reenact the patterns and behaviors they were used to. Bub from Day of the Dead is a great example of a zombie that is trained to perform certain actions as a way of showing that they can remember, that there might be a way to live alongside them. Several zombies in Land of the Dead began to display these traits on their own. The “Big Daddy” zombie pretended to pump gas at the station, he managed to fire a gun, and he even acted as a leader to his zombie army, who clearly looked to him for guidance and assistance. But that pattern didn’t start in the later films. It began in Night of the Living Dead within the first 10 minutes!
After Johnny gets knocked out in the cemetery, the first zombie doesn’t begin eating him. Rather, it looks at Barbra and decides to chase after her. When she locks herself in the car, the zombie doesn’t just pound on the glass, it uses a rock to break the windshield after it tries, several times, to open the car door using the handle. I know that in Dawn of the Dead there are moments where zombies use tools in such ways. For example, there’s the zombie that uses a tire iron to break the truck window when Peter and Roger are trying to barricade the mall entrances. But the intelligence and resourcefulness of the zombies in Night of the Living Dead isn’t seen again for several films and, within that universe, several decades.
Remember when the zombies used rocks to smash the headlights of Ben’s truck? Or how they took turns reaching into the smoldering wreckage after the gas pump incident, each zombie grabbing a charred piece of either Tom or Judy and then letting the others have their fair share? There is a mentality to these creatures that was dropped in the sequels, which I must say is a shame.
Another example from Night of the Living Dead is Karen, the daughter of Harry and Helen. When Helen collapses against a basement wall, Karen doesn’t just kneel down and begin biting and eating her. Rather, she grabs a spade and begins stabbing her mother over and over again. This isn’t a mindless zombie, this is a cold-blooded killer.
So what happened? Why did Romero’s zombies change so much when it came to their intelligence and instincts? I’m writing this because I honestly don’t know and I want to hear your theories. Could it be that the zombies lost intelligence as their brains continued to decompose? If that’s the case, then how did they become smarter as the series continued? Could it be that the fresher the zombie, the more capable it is? I’m leaning towards this idea as it makes the most sense. But that still complicates the idea that they get smarter over time. Or could it be something as simple as, “Whoops! We didn’t realize and now we want to make them as mindless as possible?”
Chime in with your thoughts below and let us know how you view this interesting phenomenon!
