George A. Romero’s American independent horror film, Night of the Living Dead (1968) highlights how both the media and technology, when things go wrong, can have a hand in the demise of humanity.
In the film, the catastrophe in the form of the zombie outbreak is directly caused by technology, being the space probe that had returned from Venus. Its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere caused radioactive contamination of unexplainable proportions, despite if not especially because of its purposeful explosion by the military once it was detected. While the central characters hideout on the remote farmhouse, media through the radio and the television become their only connection to the outside world. Without it, they seemingly would not be able to make any sense of the situation they are in. However, listening to the radio and the television does not save them. Their time listening to these devices causes them to be passive listeners and viewers. The media, rather than being a source of authority and knowledge is only really making guesses about what is happening and how people can survive the ordeal. Instead of calling people to action, the media encourages people to hide and wait until help arrives. Although, especially in the case of our characters, this is not a viable option. Zombies are surrounding the isolated farmhouse in droves, making it impossible to get away and to board up the house for much longer. In the end, the only way that offered any real hope and chance of survival was to get physical and fight. Ben, the hero of the narrative, approaches the enemy with resourcefulness and strength but even his victory is short lived, as police with guns shoot him down. This action again emphasises the triumph of technology and the media over even the strongest of human beings.
While the monster in a horror film is an essential figure, due to the narrative needing a catalyst of fear, almost every one of them connects to and reflects a degree of real world anxiety. For example, the robot, Maria in Fritz Lang’s German expressionist epic science-fiction drama, Metropolis (1927) projects the fear of robots made in the image of man due to their ability to control or destroy us through infiltration. The dream predator, Freddy Kruger in Wes Craven’s American slasher, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) plays with our childhood fears of the dark and creatures of the night who can come for us when we are sleeping and are at our most vulnerable. Haunted object films such as John R. Leonetti’s American supernatural horror, Annabelle (2014) highlight that darkness can be lurking anywhere and in anything. Like these films, Night of the Living Dead can also be related to many real world issues and fears. According to Fojas, “Zombies are racialised figures that signify a past of violence, genocide, and slavery, and that will not stay dead, repressed, or forgotten. Zombie stories evoke anxiety about disruption to the U.S. racial order based on white supremacy in a post–civil rights era… Zombies are useful tropes in antiracist storylines that show how to survive the recurrence of violent histories of racism and genocide within vengeful plots that transform race relations in the present…but remains fundamentally patriarchal, heterosexual, and white.” (Fojas, C. (2017), p. 62) The idea of the zombie as a racial metaphor comes more into play when considering that the most capable and strong person within the group of characters hiding in the farmhouse is African-American, the hero, Ben. Unlike the white people forced into his company by the bizarre zombie outbreak, he is the most willing and capable to fight. Viewing the figure of zombie in this film as representative of America’s dark past of slavery can certainly be a way of understanding the actions of the characters. Ben, being a black man is aware of the existence of the issue and that something must be done while the others want to hide from it or, in Barbra’s case is silenced at the mere sight of it and its ramifications, the bloodshed and mindless logic behind the events.
As well as the film being undeniably racially charged, it is important to note what caused the zombie outbreak to begin. Monsters in horror films rarely just appear out of nowhere. They almost always are created because of a very human mistake made by a human catalyst. Again, using the above examples, Maria in Metropolis was conjured by a human man who dabbles with both mad science and black magic for the sake of bringing the woman he loved back to life. Kruger in The Nightmare on Elm Street was a child abuser in life and born of a nun who was raped hundreds of times by mad men however he was only able to become an immortal threat after he was burned, vigilante style for the sake of bloodlusting revenge, by the parents of the now teenaged victims. In Annabelle: Creation (2017), the first film’s prequel, the doll was just a doll however became a vessel for a demon when the parents of the dead little girl, Annabelle Mullins mistook the entity for their daughter’s spirit. Just as a vampire is believed to be unable to step inside a human home without first being welcomed in, as shown in Let the Right One In (2008) and its remake Let Me In (2010), the doll, while being lifeless and empty could not become a place for the demon without first being allowed access and consent by the human owners. Mayo describes Night of the Living Dead as “Several people-with nary a stereotype in the bunch-are trapped in a farmhouse by these stumbling zombies. Over the course of a day and a night, they try to survive, making one wrong decision after another as the horror and suspense steadily increase...Though the film has been copied, imitated, remade, and parodied countless times, it remains an intense experience.” (Mayo, M. (2013), p. 251-252) As the film lived on as references and parodies and is becoming older and older, it may seem a bit cliched however it is important to remember that it started so many of the since proliferated ‘cliche’ trends. In the case of the zombies in Night of the Living Dead, the cause is also human, through radiation from a man made space rover. Even though this radiation could have come from another planet, it arrived on Earth as a direct result of human curiosity that may have gone too far. While people did the best they could to defuse the problem by exploding the probe, it may have either already been too late or even exacerbated by the use of firepower technology.
In the case of this film, it is important to note that everything that goes wrong for the characters is due to technology and spurred on by the media. While the radiation caused the outbreak, it was the media which held them captive in the farmhouse. When the group joins up and watches the television and listens to the radio, they do so at first with desperation, hoping that these technologies could provide a window to the outside world and that the media coverage could help guide them through the messy situation. While the radio and television reports work to explain some of why the outbreak happened, the advice to stay inside and wait for help is incredibly unhelpful. As well as fuelling their fear with details of the creatures and encouraging them to cower until the men with guns arrive to save the day, the reports are not personalised. They do not take into consideration the fact that the group is far away from other people and surrounded by a large number of zombies which only continue to gather. Jackson “...suggests that we are in a state of social, cultural, political, economic, and philosophic limbo, characterised by the following: a sense of still being tied to certain symbolic structures and mythic narratives that we no longer believe in, that we mistrust, or that have lost the ability to effectively ground meaningful relations and practices; a corresponding inability to locate the sources of or effectively manifest figures to represent power and dominance, though oppression is clearly alive and well; and a sense of having left our “humanity” behind, ending ourselves in unmarked territory, in bodies and environments we are no longer sure how to inhabit.” (Jackson, K. (2013), p. 2) Especially when strange things occur, people struggle to connect with a sense of normalcy. The media through their available devices provided this however also leads them to overestimate how much help those things really could offer.
According to Williams, “Night of the Living Dead broke many taboos. It lacked a ‘happy ending’ and left none of its central characters alive at the climax. No hero or heroine walked into the sunset after the cessation of the monstrous threat. Also, well before the emergence of the so-called ‘blaxploitation’ genre, Night of the Living Dead’s leading character was black, a fact Romero still ascribes today to mere coincidence...Unlike most of his heroic predecessors in horror films, Night of the Living Dead’s leading character, Ben, does not survive but dies a death which is absurd in nature.” (Williams, T. (2015), p. 26-27) The way in which every central character dies highlights the futility of the media and technologies which seemingly connects us to the rest of the world and to other people. The fact that Ben died in the end does raise some race questions. Was this a way to bring back order through taking the power out of the black man’s hands and back into the white man’s? However, while he was killed by a white man, the thing that killed him was a gun, making technology not only start, prolonger but also end of the tale of the unfortunate group of characters, forced together under dire circumstances.
While the zombies are the monsters of the film, it is important to note that they are just as much victims as Ben, Barbra and the others. Hakola observed that “...the zombies outside are responsible for hardly any of the main characters’ deaths’. Most of the deaths occur because the survivors cannot agree among themselves. In what follows, the view is expected to become frustrated and confused with the offered positions, None of the main characters is innocent; each appears to have more weaknesses than positive characteristics… The survivors are unable to work together and become their own worst enemies. Although the killing of the zombies is easy in theory, it fails in practice, because the very existence of zombies has already shown that the core problem of American society lies in increasing diversities and mistrust.” (Hakola, O. (2015), p. 95) However, the problem does not stop at diversity alone. While they are all in the same situation, and have their differences in approach, it is technological devices which tear them apart. Ben and Harry, both being men with alpha attitudes are caused to fight even more because of the rifle, another technology which symbolises power beyond human physical capability. Barbra, the silent damsel when in front of the television set and radio seems normal, as it is usual for people to sit quietly and passively consume whatever the media spits out. The similarity between Barbra’s incapacitation due to the incident with her brother and how people act around broadcasting technology emphasises what it is turning us into and shows ‘what’ rather than ‘who’ is really in control.
In conclusion, both the media and technology play an incredibly instrumental role in the film, Night of the Living Dead. While the zombies are the monsters, they are not the reason for all of the characters in the farmhouse dying. Rather, the zombies themselves are also victims, as they are caused to mindlessly commit inhumane acts without any say because of the radiation from the man made technology, the space probe. The central problem being the outbreak is caused by technology, being the space probe and possibly the destruction of the space probe with explosives, weaponised technology, after reentering the Earth’s atmosphere. The media plays a role in prolonging fear and raising hopes by continuing to report on the story, even though they have no real contribution in terms of helping people to protect themselves and survive. What they say is very basic and easily discovered after facing the zombies head on. Lastly, technology in the hands of a mistaken human ends the life of our enduring hero throughout the ordeal. This act reestablishes the power balance rationally as it is transferred from a black man to a white man but ultimately passes the power from Ben, a human to a machine, a work of modern technology.
References
Fojas, C. (2017), Zombies, Migrants, and Queers: Race and Crisis Capitalism in Pop Culture, University of Illinois Press, Urbana
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Jackson, K. (2013), Technology, Monstrosity, and Reproduction in Twenty-First Century Horror, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK
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Shaye, R. (Producer), & Craven, W. (Director). (1984). The Nightmare on Elm Street [Motion Picture]. United States: New Line Cinema.
Streiner, R. & Hardman, K. (Producers), & Romero, G. (Director). (1968). Night of the Living Dead [Motion Picture]. United States: The Walter Reade Organization, Continental Distributing.
Williams, T. (2015), The Cinema of George A. Romero: Knight of the Living Dead, Wallflower Press, London, England, New York
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