Night of the Living Dead
By: Adam K

One of the most consistently frightening black-and-white films ever made, George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" is the most essential zombie movie.  It helped invent the "trapped in a house" horror genre but added an extra racial dimension.  Several people are boarded in an isolated house as the resurrected dead try to shamble their way in.  It is the more creepy for being filmed realistically, in a documentary style that is echoed in "The Blair Witch Project" and other similar modern flicks.  There is one truly great performance, that of Duane Jones, the African-American man who become the de-facto leader of the survivors despite some racist overtones from the others.  A hugely influential film, not only to the genre, but to the independent film community as well. 5 stars out of 5