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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2017 23:06:28 GMT
Wow.
"Until the Supreme Court establishes clear-cut guidelines for the pornography of violence, Night of the Living Dead will serve nicely as an outer-limit definition by example. In a mere 90 minutes this horror film (pun intended) casts serious aspersions on the integrity and social responsibility of its Pittsburgh-based makers, the film industry as a whole and [exhibitors] who book [the picture], as well as raising doubts about the future of the regional cinema movement and about the moral health of filmgoers who cheerfully opt for this unrelieved orgy of sadism." - Variety
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Post by taylorfirst1 on Dec 31, 2017 4:33:11 GMT
Critics were just as ignorant back then as they are now.
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lakelander
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Post by lakelander on Jan 5, 2018 16:48:55 GMT
This is the common type of review of practically every low-budget seminal horror genre film of any time period. Funny how these same critics who decry "sadism" in horror films, regardless of spot-on social commentary, have no issue with such sadism in non-horror genre films like The Chase, where Marlon Brando as a Sheriff takes the worst beating I've ever seen in a 1960s period film, same time as the original NOTLD. Variety review of The Chase was nothing but generally positive.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Jan 10, 2018 14:28:46 GMT
You can't really paint 'critics' with that broad a brush though. There were certainly critics that were favorable to some o f the seminal, small, violent horror movies. People always bring up Siskel and Ebert's reactions to slasher movies, but Ebert gave favorable reviews to many of these films. I think the outrage generally comes when they see something as being without merit and having the level of brutality. Then, they might claim, it's just exploiting violence for it's own sake and has no artistic value. I may not agree (though sometimes I might), but I can understand the view point.
Still... Reading this review now is rather hilarious, especially since Night of the Living Dead is relatively tame and not especially brutal. If the critic found it to be especially graphic and violent it must have been because it was well made enough to imply it's violence without explicitly showing the audience too much.
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lakelander
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Post by lakelander on Jan 10, 2018 16:18:10 GMT
Yes, there were a few, such as Ebert's review of original TCM, but those are few and far between. The common reaction was not such, and mainly because they were not studio product.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2018 13:35:33 GMT
i found the walking naked zombie rather shocking for it's time.
brilliant film - one of my favorites - 9/10
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Apr 18, 2018 19:50:58 GMT
And now it's a legendary, groundbreaking classic of horror cinema, go figure.
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Apr 18, 2018 21:25:30 GMT
"as well as raising doubts about the future of the *regional cinema movement*
**In other words anything that challenged the big studio monopoly.
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