Rhobin Rambles/Halloween Blog Post

Thank you Rhobin for inviting me to participate in another Round Rhobin Rambles Blog (Halloween) Fest!

Topic: My scariest Halloween moment.

Upon looking back, the reason I was so frightened was because I soo did not expect to be frightened at all. 

Three of my friends wanted to catch an old black-and-white movie on Halloween night.  Black-and-white  movie?  Sure, I would go along.  I am a fan of the old Universal Studio Monster Classic movies.  "The Mummy" with the wonderful special effects and amazing storyline (remember 'talkies' were high tech in the mid-1930s), and of course "Dracula" (who can forget Bela Lugosi's wonderful Slavic accent and mesmerizing stage presence?)

However, this was a Zombie movie.  Ummm. . . zombies?  I wasn't a huge fan of ghouls.  Was a zombie anything like a ghoul?  Suddenly, I realized I wasn't very well versed on Monster Culture.  Still, the synopsis seemed a little campy and very low-budget.  While Amy and Joyce were edging out of the ticket line, Connie (yes, there were two of us) verbalized my thoughts "How frightening could it be? This isn't the Exorcist!  And the storyline is. . .uninspired!"

Synopsis:
Barbra and her brother Johnny travel by car from Pittsburgh to the countryside to visit the gravestone of their father in the cemetery. Out of the blue, they are attacked by a strange man and Johnny is murdered. Barbra runs and releases the brake of Johnny's car since the keys are in his pocket, and flees to an isolated farmhouse, where she locks herself inside. Barbra is in shock and soon she finds a man, Ben, who is also escaping from the inhuman creatures, and he reinforces the doors, windows and openings in the house. He also finds a shotgun and a radio, and they learn that the radiation from a satellite that was returning from Venus has somehow reactivated the brain of the dead. Then they find five humans hidden in the basement: Harry Cooper, his wife Helen and their daughter Karen that is sick; and Tom and his girlfriend Judy. Harry has an argument with Ben, since he believes that the basement is the safest place for them, and Harry goes not to agree. . . .

Yes, we were going to be bored into a coma!

I do not wish to disclose spoilers for the 1968 version of: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.  I will divulge:  I have never been so ready-to-bolt from my seat, and have never experienced that I-may-never-fall-asleep-again feeling which the same intensity as I did in that San Diego theater with my friends on Halloween night.

To quote Sheriff McClelland, "Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up."

So take that, "Walking Dead" fans!  This movie started the Zombie craze.



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