Night Of The Living Dead: Film Analysis

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After participating in Slavic 2230, the mere thought of a monster only being a monster is preposterous. The horror genre allows storytellers to fully express opinions and fears without specific direction towards a person, group, illness, or anxiety. A monster is never only a monster, but also an interpretation, metaphor, or an anthropomorphized object. This figure is usually a symbolization of societal issues, fears, or anxieties during that era. These anthropomorphized creatures may be literal depictions of fears, such as exact physical attributes of Dracula taken from Cesare Lombroso’s “Born Criminal” physical attributes (Dracula: Modernity and the Monster, Angerman). However, these monsters may also be a personification of fears, such …show more content…
Similar to Horror of Dracula, these new social demands set high pressures for those opposed to change. Strong opposition and support for both events caused high tensions within American. The fact this horror film plays in Pennsylvania and not somewhere in Europe, where most of Hollywood’s horror films up to that point had taken place, acknowledges the 1960s reality of having major societal changes in a time of partly violent student protests against American involvement in Vietnam and massive race riots in many cities (Azevedo, 2015). The mere location of this film denied the opportunity to ignore the social changes that were …show more content…
Experiences of Vietnam constitute a common subtext of fear and anxiety. Near the beginning of Night of the Living Dead, in a shot of Johnny and Barbra’s car entering the graveyard, we see a fluttering American flag in the foreground. The symbolism of the flag becomes clear as the film progresses: America is a dying country as a result of the zombie menace, and the flag represents the meaninglessness and deadliness of patriotism (Harper, 2005). Even, the language used in the film is similar to that associated with Vietnam. For example, a television broadcast within Night of the Living Dead refers to their mission as “Search and destroy”, which was a notorious Vietnam War military strategy (Sequent). Along with this, Ben, can be viewed as fighting against the Vietnam War being symbolized by zombies. He fights the conformist zombies and tries not to be “infected”, a symbol for being drafted, which would mean his joining the other zombies, also a symbol for joining the armed forces. Lastly, Ben’s being shot in the head and burned resembles two of the most well-known war photographs; the Viet-Cong who is shot in the head by a South-Vietnamese police chief and the Buddhist monk who set himself on fire to protest the Southern regime. (Azevedo,
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