Night of the Living Dead (1968)
kilby on December 10th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Artist: Spencer Moore, William Loose, Ib Glindermann, George Hormel, Phil Green & Karl Hardman
Album: The Night of the Living Dead
Genre: Soundtrack, Horror, Ambient
Similarities: Bernard Herrmann, Akira Ifukube, Attilio Mineo, Frank Skinner, Ennio Morricone
We all know the plot: Chaos descends upon the world as the brains of the recently deceased become inexplicably reanimated, causing the dead to rise and feed on human flesh. Speculation rests on a radiation-covered NASA satellite returning from Venus, but it only remains a speculation. Anyone who dies during the crisis of causes unrelated to brain trauma will return as a flesh-eating zombie, including anyone who has been bitten by a zombie. The only way to destroy the zombies is to destroy the brain. As the catastrophe unfolds, a young woman visiting her father’s grave takes refuge in a nearby farmhouse, where she is met by a man who protects her and barricades them inside. They both later discover people hiding in the basement, and they each attempt to cope with the situation. Their only hope rests on getting some gasoline from a nearby pump into a truck that is running on empty, but this requires braving the hordes of ravenous walking corpses outside. When they finally put their plans into action, panic and personal tensions only add to the terror as they try to survive.
Driveway to the Cemetary
Helen’s Death
The music score of Night of the Living Dead was not composed for the film; Karl Hardman told an interviewer that the music came from the extensive film music library of WRS Studio. Much of what was used in the film was purchased from the library of Capitol Records, and an album of the soundtrack was released at one point. Stock music selections included works by WRS sound tech, Richard Lococo, Philip Green, Geordie Hormel, William Loose, Jack Meakin and Spencer Moore.
Some of the music in the film had previously been used on the soundtrack for the science-fiction B-movie Teenagers from Outer Space. The eerie musical piece during the tense scene in the film where Ben finds the rifle in the closet inside the farmhouse as the radio reports of mayhem play in the background can be heard in longer and more complete form during the opening credits and the beginning of The Devil’s Messenger starring Lon Chaney Jr. Another piece, accompanying Barbra’s flight from the cemetery zombie, was taken from the score for The Hideous Sun Demon and had also been used in the final episode of television’s The Fugitive, which had aired one year earlier.
According to WRS, “We chose a selection of music for each of the various scenes and then George made the final selections. We then took those selections and augmented them electronically”. Sound tech R.Lococo’s choices worked well, as Film historian Sumiko Higashi believes that the music “signifies the nature of events that await”.
Sound effects were created by WRS Studio in Pittsburgh. “Sound engineer Richard Lococo recorded all of the live sound effects used in the film”. Lococo recalled, “Of all the sound effects that we created, the one that still gives me goose bumps when I hear it, is Marilyn’s screaming as [Helen Cooper] is killed by her daughter. Judy O’Dea’s screaming is a close second. Both were looped in and out of echo over and over again”. A soundtrack album featuring music and dialogue cues from the film was compiled and released by Varese Sarabande in 1982; however, it has never been reissued on CD.
Download Night of the Living Dead Here. (56MB – 15 Tracks & Artwork)
At the Gravesite (Flight Refuge)
Ghoulash
Boarding Up
First Radio Report
Cleaning House
First Advance
Attempted Escape
Beat ‘Em or Burn ‘Em
Okay Vince… Good Shot! (Funeral Pyre)
Other Night of the Living Dead Notes/Facts:
- The zombie hand that Tom (Keith Wayne) hacks up with a kitchen knife was made of clay and filled with chocolate syrup.
- When the zombies are eating the bodies in the burnt-out truck they were actually eating roast ham covered in chocolate sauce. The filmmakers joked that it was so nausea inducing that it was almost a waste of time putting the makeup on the zombies, as they ended up looking pale and sick anyway.
- During the filming of the cemetery sequence, shot on two separate days, an unexpected accident caused a fast change of script. The car driven by Barbara and Johnny into the cemetery was actually owned by the mother of Russell Streiner. Unfortunately, sometime between the two filming sequences, someone ran into the car and put a dent in it that would easily be visible on camera. George A. Romero rewrote the scene so the car would come to a stop by crashing into a tree.
- In the scene where Ben is nailing wooden boards to the door, small numbers can be seen on them. These were written on the backs of the boards so they could be removed and replaced in between shots, preserving continuity. Some numbers are visible because some of the boards were nailed on backwards.
- The word “zombie” is never used. The most common euphemism used to describe the living dead is “those things,” mostly by Cooper.
- One of the Walter Reade Organization’s publicity stunts was a $50,000 insurance policy against anyone dying from a heart attack while watching the film.
- Some of the groans made by S. William Hinzman when he’s wrestling with Russell Streiner in the cemetery are authentic. During the struggle, Streiner accidentally kneed Hinzman in the groin.
- The Evans City Cemetery was the cemetery used in the original version of the film, but it could not be used for the 30th anniversary edition. Before filming the new footage, a tornado had torn through the Evans City Cemetery, and ironically, it unearthed several graves.
** Audio use is for preview listening purposes only, all tracks can be found (for extremely cheap) via itunes, legalsounds.com as well as CD purchases through a number of online music stores. Any persons involved in the writing and.or production can contact me (kilby@knifefightingjesus.com) and links will be removed if desired.
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