What 1968 George A. Romero film is considered the first modern zombie movie?
Answer
Night of the Living Dead
The 1968 George A. Romero film widely regarded as the first modern zombie movie is Night of the Living Dead.
Romero directed, photographed, and edited the independently produced film, which traps a group of survivors in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse while flesh-eating reanimated corpses gather outside. Its monsters were called “ghouls” in the film, but the movie popularized the modern cinematic zombie: a revived, cannibalistic corpse with no master controlling it.
The screenplay drew inspiration from Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel I Am Legend. Romero’s zombies differed sharply from earlier Haitian- and voodoo-influenced portrayals, helping redefine the creature for popular culture.
The film was made on an approximately $114,000–$125,000 budget and premiered in Pittsburgh on October 1, 1968. It later influenced Romero’s Dead films, including Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, and entered the U.S. public domain because of a copyright-notice error.