The story begins as siblings Barbra (Judith O'Dea) and Johnny (Russell Streiner) drive to a rural Pennsylvania cemetery to visit their father's grave. Barbra is afraid of cemeteries; Johnny teasingly frightens her repeating the words, "They're coming to get you, Barbra!" A pale skinned man (Bill Hinzman) is walking with a limp around the cemetery, and Johnny remarks that he is "one of them." Annoyed by Johnny's childish behavior, Barbra goes to the man to apologize, but he grabs her. Coming to rescue his sister, Johnny wrestles with the man but is killed when he falls headfirst on a tombstone. Barbra flees, with the man in pursuit.
Crashing her and Johnny's car into a tree, she flees to an empty farmhouse where she discovers the half-eaten corpse of the apparent homeowner. Frantically running out of the house, she notices several more ghoulish figures approaching the vicinity. Suddenly, a man named Ben (Duane Jones) arrives in a pickup truck, drags Barbra back inside the house, and barricades the doors and windows. Barbra frantically insists that they must go and rescue Johnny, before collapsing in apparent shock.
The ghouls swarm around the house, searching for living human flesh.
Meanwhile, hiding in the cellar are an angry married couple, Harry (Karl Hardman) and Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman), their daughter Karen (Kyra Schon), and teenage couple Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley). Ben activates a radio while Barbra awakens, believing Tom and Harry to be more of the ghouls when they emerge from the basement. Arguing with each other, Harry wants everyone to hide in the cellar but Ben deems it a "deathtrap" and remains upstairs. Tom agrees with Ben and asks for Judy to come upstairs.
Harry returns to the cellar to Helen and Karen, who has fallen ill after being bitten on the arm by a ghoul. Radio reports explain that an epidemic of mass murder is sweeping across the eastern seaboard. When Ben finds a television, the emergency broadcaster reports that the recently deceased have become reanimated and are consuming the flesh of living people. Experts, scientists, and the United States military do not know the cause, though one scientist believes the cause to be radioactive contamination from a space probe that exploded in the Earth's atmosphere.
The Cooper family have been hiding in the cellar beneath the house.
After news reports provide information about local fortifications where people can take refuge, Ben devises a plan to get to the nearest sanctuary, which would provide medical care for Karen, who is barely conscious. Ben suggests they depart in the truck in which he arrived, which is low on fuel. Ben and Tom then drive the short distance to a gas pump while Harry hurls Molotov cocktails from an upper window to keep the ghouls at bay. Fearing for Tom's safety, Judy follows him. They arrive at the pump but Tom accidentally spills fuel, setting the truck ablaze. Tom and Judy attempt to get the truck away from the pump to avoid further damage but it explodes, killing them both.
Ben despondently returns to the house to find Harry retreating to the cellar door, leaving Ben outside to contend with the ghouls. Angered by Harry's heartlessness, Ben kicks the door down and attacks him. Meanwhile, the ghouls approach the truck to feed on Tom and Judy's carcasses. Back in the house, a final report on the television reveals that a gunshot or heavy blow to the head will stop any ghoul and that posses of armed men are patrolling the countryside to restore order.
After the ghouls attempt to break into the house, Harry, in another heartless act, grabs Ben's rifle and threatens to shoot him. Ben wrestles the gun from Harry and shoots him. The ghouls begin to tug Helen and Barbra through the windows. Dying of his wounds, Harry stumbles into the cellar to find that his daughter Karen has died from the infected bite on her arm. Helen manages to free herself from the clutches of the ghouls and goes to the cellar to find a reanimated Karen consuming Harry's flesh. Karen repeatedly and fatally stabs Helen with a cement trowel.
Meanwhile, Barbra spots a reanimated Johnny among the mob of ghouls; distracted by her brother's presence, she is carried away, never to be seen again. Karen tries to attack Ben, but he pushes her away and seals himself in the cellar—ironically, the very course of action he originally opposed. Ben shoots the reanimated Harry and Helen as they open their eyes.
The next morning, Ben, the lone survivor, awakens as a posse arrives. He hears the posse and proceeds to the window, when a member of the posse, mistaking him for a ghoul, fatally shoots him in the head. Ben's body is then placed onto a burning pyre along with other dead bodies.
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Night of the Living Dead (1990) - Trailerby Coldheart900983,553 views
I love all things zombie
27zombie75 5 months ago