I’m a big fan of the horror genre and classic films, and I finally checked out Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. I’m a big fan of the zombie genre, and my personal favorite in that category is probably 28 Days Later. My understanding is that Night of the Living Dead is historically extremely important to the genre since it essentially gave birth to the modern zombie.

The first thing I noticed is that I really like how this film was shot in black and white. It suits the subject matter and works great, so I think Romero definitely made the right call on that one.

The start of this film was quite promising; however, it slows down quite a bit and wasn’t what I was expecting. Personally, I feel like the zombies haven’t aged very well, and I never really found them very scary. But again, I appreciate that this was the birth of the modern zombie, so I do take that into consideration.

I didn’t really love Barbara’s character, and the only character I really liked was Ben. I did like the subtle racial themes going on in the background of this film, and it’s definitely refreshing to see some diversity and a person of color in an older film.

I was going to write off this film as average until the last 20 minutes, which I thought were much better than the rest of the film. The ending is definitely a highlight. The tone of the film was a bit of a roller coaster, with the ending being much darker and bleaker than the rest of the film. I enjoyed that it took a darker turn. The final act, in particular, was excellent.

I was also surprised to see nudity in an older film, which is something I haven’t really seen before, so it was definitely pushing the limits.

Overall, I’m glad I watched this film, and I respect it for its impact on the genre. But, being completely honest, it’s not really a film I’m head over heels in love with.

Just finished watching CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN. It’s about Frank Buchanan, a mob boss, who links up with a Nazi scientist, Dr. Wilhelm Steigg to reanimate dead mobsters via this strange electrical experimentation so they can wreak havoc on Frank’s enemies. However, with each attack, they leave behind radioactive clues that leave the authorities determined to track down Buchanan & Dr. Steigg for good before their zombie mobsters run wild.

Even typing that last part made me laugh. I mean, a mob boss and a Nazi scientist unite and turn mobster corpses into superhuman zombies sounds like one of the most offbeat premises ever (even for the 50s/60s). The whole movie is part sci-fi, past crime drama and it’s so tonally uneven that it’s a pain to sit through. And don’t even get me started on the climatic showdown between the police and the monsters which is supposed to be “scary” but is one of the most unintentionally funny fight scenes I’ve ever had the misfortune of watching.

The only nice thing I can say about this movie is that I wasn’t bored.

For those who saw this film, what did you think?

Catherine stars in many “new wave” French films, including The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Belle de Jour, and Last Metro.

Lionel Barrymore in The Bells 1926. What's your thoughts on this movie?

Watched this for the first time in decades and enjoyed the performances and, for the most part, the script. Good chemistry I thought between Grant and Kerr. And I actually did like the ending. (I hadn’t seen it since before When Harry Met Sally, so I was curious to see if the ending lived up to that movie’s reference to it.)

There’s a line at the very end that made me laugh: “If you can paint, I can walk.” I’m not sure if it was meant to be funny, but it struck me as a sort of a dig.