Night of the Living Dead

“We knew that we could not raise enough money to shoot a film on a par with the classic horror films with which we had all grown up. The best that we could do was to place our cast in a remote spot and then bring the horror to be visited on them in that spot.”

In the late 1960’s, George Romero and his cohorts were making industrial films, such as “How Light Bulbs are Manufactured”, “Things That Feel Soft”, and “Mr. Rogers Gets a Tonsillectomy”. A little bored of this, they decided to make a horror movie, having never even made a feature film before. Three scripts later, “Night of the Living Dead”* was written, and Romero had formulated both the modern zombie and the modern splatter film.

With a tiny budget of $114,000, the effects weren’t fancy: chocolate syrup for blood, flesh out of roasted ham and entrails (one of the actors owned a chain of butcher shops), and second-hand clothing. The production team shot on location, and the location was a house already scheduled for demolition. The stark gore caused outrage, but the film is now considered as significant as it is scary.

And so, we are delighted to present to you “Night of the Living Dead” at the Green Bean, accompanied by the nastiest and most frightening live soundtrack we can possibly devise.

Show at 8pm, $3-5 cover

• Actually, “Night of the Flesh Eaters”