Night of the Living Dead

Romero's feature debut from 1968 is a landmark of the horror genre - a cult film that transformed commercial cinema and whose influence is felt to this day.

The black-and-white film shot with unknown actors plays like a documentary: it follows the fate of seven people seeking shelter from the living dead on an abandoned farm. As night falls, the zombies multiply, the situation becomes desperate, and the survivors eventually begin to turn against each other. The film's raw impact stems from the way Romero defies genre conventions and breaks taboos - particularly in its depiction of graphic violence.

The theme of society succumbing to irrational forces reflects the social upheaval in America at the end of the 1960s. Night of the Living Dead thus transcends the boundaries of horror and functions simultaneously as a social metaphor.