In 7 words or less: Slow zom heaven!
Best bits? God, SOO many! The creepy one legged priest at the beginning; the terrifying Hare Krishna zom; the amazing, slow 70's pacing (the opening scene is a great way to kick off a Zom film!); the 4 main characters are perfect (not too many like the 2004 remake, where you don't care about any of them!) When some of these guys don't make it, it's a real kick in the nuts! Also, I don't mean to sound old, but while it's totally horrific, as you see everything falling apart, there are no stupid scenes made up by annoying metaller-nerds, like a dead mum giving birth to a zombie baby (like in the remake again!), which is too nasty for me to want to watch. I really like how the zombies look too - just green face paint really, but it's effect is SUPER creepy. Also, really shouldn't review this film without tipping a hat to the "social commentary" of the people being zombies in the mall - "they don't know why they want to come here, they just want to come"... That's like people!! Brilliant... Special mention goes to the freaky music from Goblin (or The Goblins)!
Did it make you think thoughts? Take that Hare Krishna zom! This is EXACTLY how the zombie apocalypse would be! Guys laying in fields laughing, while taking pot shots at slow zoms. There are some really strange bits that I found pretty funny and endearingly crap, like the zoms being scared of fire - funny how that vanished in all later films. Also I like the guy toward the end of the film rushing to have his blood pressure checked on the machine in the mall, while there are loads of zoms around - makes no sense but it made me laugh! Sign me up for this kind of apocalypse, not that bloody fast zom stuff. Too stressful!
Would you watch it again? Loads. It's so good, seriously! While Night of the Living Dead was the original, Romero really was just warming up for this film. It's so much a better film.
Rating (out of 100%): 90% I LOVE zoms, and this is about as good as zom films get! Not really been bettered in my book. Nasty, without being totally rancid, awesome characters and a really vivid sense that things are falling apart. It MIGHT be a tiny bit long at 130 minutes? But its belting!!
