Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead. . , Adding to Night of the Living Dead's "direct cinema" approach, the filmmakers cast their motion picture using family, friends and colleagues within the local community. Longtime Evans City residents Phillip and Ella Mae Smith, Randy Burr, and Dick Heckard were each cast in featured roles, giving the film its regional flavor. This tremendous community effort, which saw professional radio and television announcers portraying newscasters, Pittsburgh police officers comprising a ghoul-hunting posse and ordinary next-door neighbors stumbling through the darkness as the movie's iconic flesh eaters, imparts Night of the Living Dead with a heightened sense of realism., As the forerunner of the modern zombie genre, the film has consequently inspired countless imitators such as The Evil Dead, 28 Days Later, World War Z and The Walking Dead., [Caption:] , Actors shamble through the local landscape in this classic scene. The portrayal of the ghouls would establish the iconic look we know today.