Night of the Living Dead Drinking Game

Megan is on a hiatus from the drinking game, so I, Mike Gravagno, will be taking over for now. I’m in no way insinuating we decided she has a problem and forced her to go to rehab if she wants to continue writing for the site. I repeat, that is not what I’m saying happened AT ALL.

Currently the OG of the modern zombie movie is on Netflix Instant Watch. That’s right, George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead- the one that started it all. Not to be confused with Night of the Living Dead: 30^th Anniversary Edition, Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated, the 1990 remake or Night of the Living Dead 3D. Holy balls, this story has been devoured and resurrected more times than your average zombie. Yeah, expect terrible jokes like that throughout.

I can’t think of a movie that changed the landscape of horror films more than NOTLD, and simultaneously created a sub-genre that is still increasing in its cultish popularity, enough that calling it a cult following seems laughable when there’s thousands of zombie books, movies, comics, bar crawls, conventions, video games and more. Just a few years ago it still seemed like zombies were something weirdos like me enjoyed- when the rare person entered my room and saw my Zombie Survival Guide, zombie calendar and stack of books prevalently featuring flesh-eating ghouls, they’d back away slowly like I was going to turn on them. When in fact, it’s someone like me you want to be around in the event of the zombacolypse! I have a day zero plan, week 1 plan, 2 month plan, 6 month plan AND a permanent plan. If you want to live hop on board this train. It’s leaving soon, and runs on steam, since electricity won’t work anymore. But I swear I will end you if you even seem like you may have been bit.

These days, the landscape has changed. Despite the fact that zombies can’t be romanticized they’re staggering towards taking over vampires, werewolves and witches as the paranormal choice of the masses. Maybe it’s because deep down we all want the excuse to throw off the reigns of law and civility, looting and killing everything around us. Or because good zombie fiction deals with the monsters inside of us, rather than the ghouls. See above statement about looting and killing, and realize I didn’t say just killing zombies. When it’s a fight to survive, you kill anyone not in your group, just like the good ol’ days.

There are a lot of things that make Night of the Living Dead as great as it is. It was the late sixties, and the protagonist is an educated black man. That doesn’t seem like a big deal today, but think about that timing. The role isn’t even blaxploitation, Ben is just a smart, tough dude who fucks shit up. Of course, all credit can’t be given to Romero since he wrote the character in the spirit of the time, i.e. extremely racist. But Duane Jones took advantage of the majority of the dialogue being adlibbed, and created a protagonist who could be respected. I’ll give Romero enough credit that he didn’t force Jones to dumb it down.

This being the first modern zombie movie, the rules weren’t written yet. They never even say zombie in the movie. So the arguments that rampage now about fast zombies vs. slow zombies, dumb zombies vs. zombies who can learn, zombies who say brains (which never counts as a real zombie) vs. zombies who only moan vs. zombies who don’t make a fucking sound, that shit just didn’t matter. Some of the zombies in the movies are smarter than others; one even uses a shovel to kill her victim. I can’t articulate how much that got under my skin; I like my zombies dumb, and only able to run right after they turn. That’s just a personal preference, but scientifically that’s how it would work. But it doesn’t matter if it bugs me, the rules didn’t exist, and it’s all about the dark fun of it.  It’s easy to forgive the poor acting from some of the cast, the less than stellar effects, and the bad fighting- this movie  is to blame for I am today, and I can only be thankful for that.

 

Drink:

1- Every time someone ignores warning signs of danger

 

2- Zombies show signs of intelligence

 

3-Punches/weapon strikes are obviously fake

 

4-Something catches on fire

 

5- Harry is an unbelievable douche

 

And if you want to be stumbling and moaning like a zombie yourself:

 

Drink every time a zombie is on screen

 With the rise in zombie popularity, it’s shocking how many people I run into who profess to be fans of the genre who have never seen Night of the Living Dead. I hate to get all high school punk rock on you, but you’re not a fucking fan if you’ve only read World War Z and saw 28 Days Later. Do some research and discover where the shit you love came from. And get shitfaced to it. Enjoy!-MG