A disparate group of individuals takes refuge in an abandoned house when corpses begin to leave the graveyard in search of fresh human bodies to devour.

I’ve been dying (no pun intended) to review this franchise and now is the time, so lets get on with it!

Imagine a time before the name George A. Romero meant anything, a time before zombies were a part of pop culture, it’s a really strange thought isn’t it. I can’t actually fathom it myself, it’s just impossible, well welcome to the year 1968 where it was a reality.

I’ve always loved the story telling in this film. There’s a constant sense of impening doom and it never gives up, not even when the credits roll. I mean, that ending, it’s always been a real punch to the gut no matter many times I watch it and I love it for that.

I know the film may seem tame by todays standards but what George A. Romero and John Russo did back then was highly controversial and it truly pushed boundaries. Though the fact that kids watched it in cinemas due to no rating system still makes me chuckle.

With this small independent film the landscape of film, not just the Horror genre was forever changed. I always credit this film for showing me that you don’t need a big budget to make a great feature. Also, did you notice the word “zombie” is never used.

“Night Of The Living Dead” is an integral part of Horror history, I recommend it to anyone who’s interested in the genre or even anyone who’s interested in the art of story telling, you’ll learn a-lot from this film.

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Miscellaneous facts about the film:

One of the most profitable independent movies ever made. Made for $114,000 (equivalent to $941,800 in 2022), it grossed approximately $30 million (equivalent to $247.8 million in 2022) – over 263 times its budget.

When discussing the film for Bravo’s The 100 Scariest Movie Moments (2004), George A. Romero said that the moment they finished editing the film in Pittsburgh, they put the reels into the cans, threw it into the trunk of the car, and drove straight to New York City that night in hopes of having it screened at any willing theater.

George A. Romero saw very little profit from the film. Due his lack of knowledge regarding distribution deals, the distributors walked away with practically all of the profits.

When the writers decided to base the film on zombies, they brainstormed about what would be the most shocking thing for the zombies to do to people and decided on cannibalism.

When the zombies are eating the bodies in the burnt-out truck, they were actually eating roast ham covered in chocolate sauce. The filmmakers joked that it was so nausea-inducing that it was almost a waste of time putting the makeup on the zombies as they ended up looking pale and sick anyway.

The US movie rating system was instituted on November 1, 1968. This film, released October 1, 1968, is one of the last films released in the US without a rating.

The character of Ben was originally supposed to be a crude, but resourceful, truck driver with no specification to race. After Duane Jones, in real-life a self-serious, erudite academic, auditioned for the part, director and co-writer George A. Romero rewrote the part to fit his performance.

The body upstairs in the house was made by director George A. Romero, who used ping-pong balls for the eyes.

The house used for this film was loaned to the filmmakers by the owner who planned to demolish it anyway. When the production came across the farmhouse location, George A. Romero jokingly stated “Well, we can do that for you.” The production had to completely clean up the farmhouse to make it appear livable. John A. Russo notes the kitchen was the first room they cleaned, as they felt a clean place to have lunch was the most important factor to having a workable set.

George A. Romero chose Evans City Cemetery for the first scene due largely to its isolated location. The crew didn’t want to be interrupted by onlookers or police inquiring about their presence. The cemetery, on top of a hill in a heavily wooded area, allowed them privacy. Ironically, it has become a popular tourist attraction and fan destination in the decades since its release.

Russell Streiner’s mother owned Barbara and Johnny’s car. The cemetery scenes were shot over 2 days. Someone ran into the car during a break in filming, leaving a dent that was easily visible on camera. George A. Romero rewrote the scene so the car came to a stop after crashing into a tree.

The most common euphemism used to describe the living dead is “those things,” mostly by Cooper. Other characters refer to the creatures as “ghouls” and “flesh eaters”. However, the film codified many tropes about zombies that have been used in many movies since, including zombies eating human flesh and that zombies can only be killed by shooting them in the head.

Now regarded as a classic, the film attracted considerable criticism at the time of its release for its graphic use of gore.

Actor/co-producer Karl Hardman (Harry Cooper, the father in the basement), also served as makeup artist, electronic sound effects engineer, and took the still photos used for the closing credits.

The main house did not have a true basement but a dirt potter’s cellar, and, thus, had no long staircase leading down to it. As a result, the basement scenes were filmed in the editing studio’s cellar in downtown Pittsburgh.

After Duane Jones set the chair on fire, Gary Streiner, Russell Streiner’s brother, was supposed to extinguish the flames and set the chair on fire again to preserve continuity, ensuring that smoke would be emanating from it near the end of the film. At one point, Gary’s sleeve caught fire. As he ran in terror, S. William Hinzman (in full zombie makeup) tackled him to the ground and helped extinguish the flames, saving him from major injury.

The film’s world premiere was at the Fulton Theatre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 1 October 1968 (at 8:00 p.m., admission by invitation only). The film was met with a standing ovation.

During production, the film’s title was still being chosen. The working title was simply “Monster Flick”. Another working title was “Night of Anubis,” the god of mummification in the ancient Egyptian (Kemetan) religion. The title was changed once George A. Romero learned that very few understood the reference.

Bosco chocolate syrup was used to simulate the blood in the film.

In his final interview before his death, Duane Jones admitted he had never seen any of the other “Dead” movies, nor any other George A. Romero movie.

George A. Romero originally hired Tom Savini to do the makeup effects for this film. The two were first introduced when Savini auditioned for an acting role in an earlier film that never got off the ground. Romero, remembering that Savini was also a makeup artist (He’d brought his makeup portfolio to the audition.), called Savini to the set of his horror movie. Savini was unable to do the effects because he was in the US Army, serving as a combat photographer in Vietnam.

S. William Hinzman and Karl Hardman, two of the original $300 investors were cast due to a shortage of available talent. Another investor was a butcher, who provided some blood and guts.

Other conflicts of budget and the era in which the film was made included shooting on 35mm print but only having equipment to edit on 16mm. The crew had to transfer all the footage to 16mm before they could work on editing it. John A. Russo also notes they rarely had time or film for more than one take on any shot, and they had no way of checking it. He had to trust George A. Romero was getting every shot just right. The sound was also mixed without seeing the picture.

At the time of the film’s release, any work that did not include a copyright notice was assumed to be public domain. Since the film makers forgot to include this notice, the film slipped into the public domain. It was not until 1 March 1989 that a copyright notice was no longer required.

Columbia Pictures was the only major Hollywood studio interested in distributing this film, but eventually passed because it was in black-and-white at a time when movies had to compete with new color televisions. Columbia did distribute the 1990 color remake Night of the Living Dead (1990). American International Pictures (AIP) considered releasing the film, but wanted George A. Romero to shoot an upbeat ending and add more of a love story subplot.

One of the last big hits of the drive-in era.

When applying makeup for the actors playing zombies, Marilyn Eastman focused less on a rotting appearance for most of them, instead concentrating on a prominent facial feature that each actor or actress had and making it appear more prominent for an unsettling image; Eastman also played the zombie who eats a bug off a tree. George A. Romero points out that no one can tell it’s her underneath all the makeup on her face. Eastman did her own makeup for that shot.

The film’s first scene, the initial cemetery attack on Barbara and Johnny, was actually the last scene to be filmed, in November 1967. The actors had to hold their breath to avoid visible condensation in the frosty autumn air.

George A. Romero readily admitted that Herk Harvey’s Carnival of Souls (1962) was a big influence in his making of this film.

There are two known deleted scenes that were removed at the insistence of distributor Walter Reade Organization. They include an 8-minute expository scene in the basement between Helen and Harry at the bottom of the stairs (which explains the abrupt jump cut shown) as well as a wide shot of numerous zombies covering the landscape, which was replaced with footage of zombies eating near the end of the film. This footage was presumed lost when a flood damaged the storage facility years later at Image Ten Inc.

Bill Cardille, who played the television reporter, was, indeed, a local Pittsburgh TV celebrity. He hosted a horror movie program on Channel 11 and occasionally reported the news.

Though the cast and crew had nothing but positive things to say about Duane Jones, Marilyn Eastman would later refer to him as a tortured individual, due to American racial tensions during the late sixties. Karl Hardman became good friends with Jones, and Jones’ death in 1988 affected him greatly. He would often become emotional when talking about Jones and believed he received a raw deal in life due to the nation’s racial tensions.

One of the first films to graphically depict violent murders on screen. It is also one of the first films to have a black person as a main character.

S. William Hinzman based his characteristic saunter (and, subsequently, that of each other zombie) on a film with Boris Karloff, the title of which he could not remember but was most likely The Walking Dead (1936). In that film, Karloff played a man risen from the dead, and walks with a characteristic ungainly saunter.

One of the Walter Reade Organization’s publicity stunts was a $50,000 insurance policy against anyone dying from a heart attack while watching the film.

Barbra says ‘they ought to make the day the time changes the first day of summer’. The spring forward day for Daylight Savings Time in 1968 was April 28th, making this the day the movie’s beginning takes place.

George A. Romero always got asked if the tombstone Barbara is kneeling in front of was fake or not. “Are you kidding?” says John A. Russo, “We couldn’t afford fake tombstones in those days.”

One of the original script ideas called for Barbara to be a very strong, charismatic character. Instead, George A. Romero and the producers loved Judith O’Dea’s portrayal as a terrified young girl much better, and edited the script to accommodate the part. The idea of Barbara being a strong, central character was revisited in Night of the Living Dead (1990).

The gas pump Judith O’Dea runs into at the beginning of the film was not bolted to the ground. She hit it with so much force she almost tipped it over onto the cameraman.

The character of Ben was originally written as an angry person. When Duane Jones was given the role, he expressed concern that the character be rewritten to remove some of the anger – such as the scene where Ben hits Barbara – afraid of how it would be widely perceived in the United States at the time to see a black man acting in this way. The nation was still plagued with high racial tensions during the late sixties; the film was released to theaters shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Nonetheless, George A. Romero and most of the rest of the predominantly white crew decided against it, thinking they were being “hip” by not changing it. Years later, George A. Romero lamented that he had not taken Jones’ concerns more into consideration, and thought that he was probably correct. He expressed that he wished he could speak with the late Jones again, asking him how he felt about the film’s legendary status, and he believed Jones would just say “Who knew?” and laugh.

200 extras were cast in the parts of townspeople and zombies.

The film was released shortly before the MPAA’s rating system was implemented. As a result, children were able to see this very graphic horror film in theaters. A review by critic Roger Ebert included his concerned observations of the children watching with him and being traumatized by an adult horror story they were completely unprepared for.

The Pittsburgh police provided personnel and equipment.

Duane Jones was an unknown stage actor when he was cast in the lead role.

Though the radiation of a detonated satellite returning from Venus is theorized to be the cause of the dead rising and attacking the living, according to the filmmakers, the actual cause is never determined.

The role of Ben was originally meant for Rudy Ricci. After Duane Jones had read the part, however, it was given to him, and Ricci played one of the zombies.

In 2013, a stage adaptation of the film, executive produced by George A. Romero, Russell Streiner, and John A. Russo, debuted in Toronto. The play featured the story of the original film, followed by a series of alternate scenarios.

While writing the script, George A. Romero and John A. Russo were trying to think of a manner in which to destroy the zombies. Marilyn Eastman joked that they could throw pies in their faces. This is obviously an inspiration for the pie fight scene in this film’s sequel, Dawn of the Dead (1978).

The music used in the film was in the public domain from a Capitol/EMI Records Hi-Q stock music library. It originally was used in The Gargon Terror (1959) and cost the filmmakers $1,500.

George A. Romero was the one operating the camera when S. William Hinzman (the cemetery zombie) attacks Barbara in her car by smashing the window with a rock. When Hinzman shattered the window, the rock barely missed Romero.

George A. Romero originally wanted to cast Betty Aberlin of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968) as Barbara. Fred Rogers would not allow her to do the film.

It is never explained why the dead body found upstairs in the house never comes back to life.

As George A. Romero explains in “The Directors: The Films of George A. Romero”, the day the final editing and voice-over dubbing was complete (4/4/1968), he and John A. Russo literally “threw” the film into the trunk of their car and drove to New York to see if anyone wanted to show it. While driving through New York on the night of April 4th, 1968, Romero and Russo heard the news on the radio that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated.

After being shot by Ben, Cooper stumbles down into the basement in order to die next to Karen, his daughter. As he had shown no redeeming qualities throughout the film, his final moment was Romero’s way of showing that Cooper had at least some form of humanity and decency in him, seeking to spend his dying moment with his daughter.

Much of the dialogue was improvised.

Though Silly Putty and other basic, special effects techniques were used, most of the body parts the “zombies” are eating were real internal organs and bones from animals, and a lot of the actors playing the flesh-eater roles were friends in advertising and clients who John A. Russo and George A. Romero were in contact with. “They were all commercial clients of ours that we considered staid people ordinarily, and it just stunned us that they chomped into these organs,” says Russo.

The stock music that accompanies Barbara’s initial flight from the cemetery zombie was taken from the score for Blood on His Lips (1958) and had been used a year earlier, in the final episode of television’s The Fugitive (1963).

John A. Russo points out how Night of the Living Dead (1968) was the first movie to feature flesh-eating zombies, and they had to invent how “ghouls,” as he calls them, walked and moved. He points out S. William Hinzman, who plays the first zombie Barbara comes across, had difficulty figuring out how to move. The script called them slow-moving, but he had to be strong enough to break windows and bust down doors. George A. Romero’s direction to him was just to “do it anyway,” and he did.

The town names used in the broadcasts seen in the film were actual town names throughout Pennsylvania, and George A. Romero cites this for the reason they had to make announcements when it first ran on TV stating the events being depicted were not real. “We figured if we had to carry the picture from drive-in to drive-in to get it on screens, maybe people would recognize all these different towns,” says John A. Russo. He also notes the networks were worried it would essentially be a repeat of Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” broadcast and the controversy surrounding that.

When Ben is nailing wooden boards to the door, small numbers can be seen on them. These were written on the backs of the boards so they could be removed and replaced in between shots, preserving continuity. Some numbers are visible because some of the boards were nailed on backwards.

While filming the final zombie attack scene, George Romero did not inform Duane Jones (Ben) that Kyra Schon (Karen) would sneak up and grab him from behind, which resulted in an authentically shocked reaction from the actor who was not expecting the child zombie. Similarly, Romero also did this to Ken Foree (Peter) during the filming of Dawn of the Dead when the child zombies attack Peter at the airport office.

Duane Jones mentioned in his final interview that someone smashed a moth on set, and he thought it was a very unpleasant moment in an otherwise pleasant shoot.

There were two trucks used in the film. The first one used in the beginning of the film would not start for the trek-to-the-gas-pump scenes and had to be replaced. Unfortunately, they forgot to break the headlights.

John A. Russo remembers a chess challenge between Russell Streiner and the sound engineer at the lab. If Streiner won the chess game, they would get the sound mix done for free, but if he lost, they’d have to pay double. Some of the cast and crew watched the game, which Russ did end up winning.

In the graveyard scene, the real gravestone that Barbara cowers beside is that of Nicholas Kramer (1842-1917), whose remains are interred in the Evans City Cemetery in Jackson Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania.

Judith Ridley still has her outfit from the film. The pants became her painting pants and her shirt became a dishrag.

The film received its television premier on Creature Features (1971), hosted by Bob Wilkins.

Judith O’Dea performed her own stunts, which she jokingly claimed amounted to “lots of running”.

At one point, the distributor convinced George A. Romero to cut time from the film, and the director notes his favorite shot of the zombies in the fields outside was lost with this cut, which totaled six minutes. It was a wide shot featuring dozens of zombies, some created out of mannequins. Romero regrets not including it somewhere else in the film, but, being before the days of computer backups and Avids, it was lost with the overall cut for time.

George A. Romero’s feature debut.

Judith Ridley worked as a receptionist for Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman, which led to her getting the part in the movie.

Judith O’Dea was just as surprised by the renown the film brought her: “People treat you differently. [I’m] ho-hum Judy O’Dea until they realize [I’m] Barbra from Night of the Living Dead (1968). All of a sudden [I’m] not so ho-hum anymore.”

In one variation of the script, Helen would have found a zombified Harry eating Karen in the basement rather than the other way around. Although the film was intended to be horrific and deliver maximum shock value, Romero had decided that such a scene would be far too disturbing even for this film.

During the struggle, Streiner accidentally kneed Hinzman in the groin.

Johnny, Sheriff McClelland, and Karen probably have less than ten minutes of screen time combined, but they’re responsible for the film’s two most-quoted lines (“They’re coming to get you, Barbra!” and “Yeah, they’re dead. They’re…all messed up.”) and the most unforgettable moment (Karen stabbing her mother with the trowel). Zombie-wise, the graveyard ghoul at the beginning played by S. William Hinzman is very fondly remembered, mostly for being the first onscreen flesh-eating zombie, as well as being incredibly terrifying in the process.

There’s some debate whether or not Night of the Living Dead (1968) was the first movie ever to incorporate squibs to depict gunshots, and John A. Russo mentions he felt at the time that Regis Survinski and Tony Pantanella, the special effects team who were originally fireworks specialists, were inventing the technique. George A. Romero also questions whether or not their film was the first to use them. However, a Polish film from 1955, Pokolenie, was the first movie to incorporate squibs.

Judith Ridley read for Barbara originally, but she felt out of her depth in the role.

None of the cast are credited at the start of the film, perhaps because the film has no major stars.

George A. Romero points out that despite the film’s budget and how tight they were having to work when it came to equipment, he feels the cameras they used allowed for ample amounts of depth in each shot. He also notes late in production after they had picked up additional investors there was discussion about reshooting in color what they had already shot in black and white. They had already shot roughly a week’s worth of filming, and they would have to go to 16mm if they switched to color. All of this factored in their decision to stick with black and white.

When the zombies assault the house at the end of the film, Barbra snaps out of her derangement. Survival instinct kicks in, and she reacts to the zombies with anger and rage, fighting with everything she’s got to keep them away. This is a leftover concept from one of Romero’s early draft scripts which would have featured Barbra as a far more empowered and strong character. This trait was later used in the 1990 remake by Tom Savini.

The radio that Duane Jones and Judith O’Dea hear the news reports on is a 1939 Zenith 7s363. The television is a 1952 Motorola 17T5E.

When this film was shown on WABC 7 in NYC during the 1970s, “Dramatization” or “A Dramatization” was superimposed during the scenes that show the television coverage.

While George A. Romero wasn’t able to cast Betty Aberlin in the role as she was a cast member on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and Fred Rogers wanted to protect the image of the show, Rogers was a fan of both this film and the 1978 “Dawn of the Dead” with Rogers calling the latter “a lot of fun”. Fred Rogers gave Romero one of his first jobs on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” by directing a segment about Rogers undergoing a tonsillectomy.

Karl Hardman is the real-life father of Kyra Schon. Hardman and Marilyn Eastman were business and romantic partners for over 40 years.

At some point after the film’s production, a tornado hit the cemetery location used in the opening scene uprooting trees and pulling more than 200 bodies to the surface. George A. Romero asks if the bodies walked, to which John A. Russo, who is telling the story, says they tried to.

Allegedly George A. Romero never did his own laundry during filming. He just bought new clothes instead.

Entertainment Weekly ranked this as the 13th scariest movie of all time.

George A. Romero points out an instance where two characters are both facing left while conversing, an issue with the 180-degree rule in film-making. He notes they had no way of keeping track of these things in those days, and mistakes like that were bound to happen.

Shot over a period of 30 days.

Assessing the film, Judith O’Dea commented “I honestly had no idea it would have such a lasting impact on our culture”.

The Chevy truck seen in the new footage is not the same one seen in the original footage. The filmmakers for the new footage were fortunate enough to find a truck owned by a local resident that bore a near-perfect resemblance to the original truck. The owner, Harold Metz of Zelienople, PA, was kind enough to let them borrow his truck for the film.

Judith O’Dea admitted that horror movies terrified her, particularly Vincent Price’s House of Wax (1953).

The farmhouse didn’t have running water, and John A. Russo, George A. Romero, and production designer Vincent D. Survinski had to stay at the house each night and settle for “cat baths” every morning. Russo remembers having to boil water on the stove and sleeping on cots. He remembers finding Survinski on the front porch one morning pouring water into sheep intestines to make them more cinematic.

Included among the “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die”, edited by Steven Schneider.

The basement set was not part of the farmhouse, which didn’t even have a basement. Survinski built and framed the door seen in the film that supposedly leads to the basement, but it’s just fixed into the wall. The basement set was the basement of the crew’s offices in Pittsburgh.

Filmed at Tim Hornish’s grandmother’s house in Zelionople.

The lightning effects were pulled off shooting closeups with the lights they had on set turned all the way up, almost whiting out objects or actors they are close to. They then cut away from medium or long shots to these closeups then back again along with a thunder sound effect to complete it. Closeups were used because the lights they had weren’t strong enough to fill any shots that were wider. Likewise, the only reason they decided to add the lightning effects was because it began to drizzle on the day they filmed at the cemetery. John A. Russo notes they added the lightning effects in case the camera picked up the rain.

This film is ranked at #9 on Bravo’s The 100 Scariest Movie Moments (2004) special.

When the movie was in its scripting stage, John A. Russo had developed an idea that was basically described as “teenagers from outer space”. This version was not filmed, but the version that was filmed uses stock music from the movie The Gargon Terror (1959).

Co-creator John A. Russo gave a “making of” interview, talking about the history of the film and how it came to be, for the podcast “Classic American Movies.”

Night of the Living Dead (1968) was inducted into the “Horror Host Hall of Fame” in 2011 in the behind the Screams category for “Most Hosted Film in History”.

The rifle Ben finds and uses is a Winchester 1894. When Ben first discovers the rifle and ammunition in the closet, there’s a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment: a “Kleanbore” label, indicating Remington brand ammo, can be seen on the box as well as “32” on the box’s side, suggesting the 94 isn’t chambered in .30-30.

Fans of the film are split over Cooper’s plan vs Ben’s. Debates have been waged for decades over it.

The music that is playing when Ben gets back into the house after the failed attempt to fuel the truck was previously used in a 1956 episode of The Lone Ranger (1949), The Cross of Santo Domingo (1956). In both the film and the TV show, the music plays during a fist fight.

Included among the American Film Institute’s 1998 list of the 400 movies nominated for the Top 100 Greatest American Movies.

In 2014, George A. Romero wrote a Marvel comic, “Empire of the Dead”, that shows another fate for Barbara. In it, Johnny drags Barbra out the window and away to an abandoned barn. A hunting posse spots the two and starts firing, risking her life. Johnny jumps in the way of the bullets to shield his sister, sacrificing himself. Barbra ends up surviving the whole ordeal.

While writing the screenplay for Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero took on a separate job, and John A. Russo was tasked with writing the back half. When he finished, Romero read it and felt it was missing something. He felt the last act of the film needed one more attack sequence before the final attack, and Russo agreed that it filled a hole in the earlier draft. When in doubt, throw in one more zombie wave attack. It’s basic rule of zombie law.

Made into a stage musical in 2019, “Night of the Living Dead! The Musical!”. The show ran Off-Broadway in 2019 and has since been produced nationally. The show’s Concept Album was Top 50 on the Soundtrack Chart.

Although the monsters are never referred to as ‘zombies,” the subtitling in the Netflix version refers to them as “zombies.”

The Misfits’ 1982 album “Walk Among Us” includes a song titled “Night of the Living Dead.”

Marilyn Eastman’s debut.

Judith Ridley’s debut.

This film is mentioned in the song “Macy’s Day Parade” by Green Day.

Included among the American Film Institute’s 2001 list of the top 100 (at # 93) Most Heart-Pounding American Movies.

Barbara and Johnny arrive to the cemetery in a 1967 Pontiac LeMans Two-Door Hardtop. The pick-up truck that burns is a 1951 Chevrolet 3800 Advance-Design Pickup Truck. The vigilante-police use a 1966 Jeep CJ-5 and a 1965 International Harvester Travelall Station Wagon.

When Duane Jones came on board, he requested a few changes to Ben’s character, including revisions to the dialogue to tone down the crude, volatile way in which Ben was supposed to originally speak. These changes were implemented along the way, and when an alternate, happier ending for the character was once considered, Jones actively fought for the grim, heartbreaking ending that the film concludes with. “I convinced George that the Black community would rather see me dead than saved, after all that had gone on, in a corny and symbolically confusing way. The heroes never die in American movies. The jolt of that, and the double jolt of the hero being Black seemed like a double-barreled whammy.”

The zombie hand that Tom hacks up with a kitchen knife was made of clay and filled with chocolate syrup.

Originally, one idea for the script called for Harry Cooper to die from the gunshot wound received from Ben before his daughter became a zombie, which would have resulted in Helen coming down the stairs to find him eating their daughter, rather than the daughter eating him. It was decided that this would probably be far too disturbing and graphic and was changed back to the idea of the daughter becoming a zombie first.
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The social commentary on racism some have seen in this film (e.g., an African-American man holing up in a house with a white woman, a posse of whites shooting a black man in the head without first checking to see if he was a zombie) was never intended. According to the filmmakers, Duane Jones was simply the best actor for the part of Ben.

Barbara (Judith O’Dea) was originally meant to be the sole survivor of the zombies’ onslaught. This idea is incorporated into the remake of Night of the Living Dead (1990).

The matricide scene was accomplished by having Kyra Schon stab repeatedly into a off-screen pillow with a trowel while a member of the effects crew threw chocolate syrup (used as fake blood for a black-and-white film) onto the wall. These scenes were looped with scenes of Marilyn Eastman screaming. The trowel used in the scene was purchased online years later and is now in a private collection.

John A. Russo appears as the zombie who gets killed by Ben with a tire iron. He also allowed himself to be set on fire for real when nobody else wanted to do the stunt. George A. Romero approved of his co-writer’s “zombie walk.” “I was probably hung over,” Russo stated.