Night of the Living Dead

A ragtag group barricade themselves in an old Pennsylvania farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls ravaging the Northeast.

Now regarded as a landmark of American horror, Romero's debut earned near-universal critical admiration for its crude, low-budget realism, its unflinching gore, and its quietly radical racial and political subtext. Contemporary critics were struck by how its grainy, documentary-like texture amplified rather than undermined the dread, and the film's reputation has only grown in the decades since its release.