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6.2/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.2/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Living Dead remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have a soft spot for dusty, black-and-white German weirdness from the early thirties, The Living Dead is absolutely worth your time tonight. But if you get annoyed by scratchy audio and actors who gesture like they are trying to flag down a busy taxi, you will probably hate it. 🚕
It is basically a mashup of Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Louis Stevenson stories, all shoved together by director Richard Oswald.
The plot kicks off with a mad scientist who kills his wife and walls her up in his basement.
This whole brick-laying scene is so strangely slow and quiet. Honestly, it makes the messy cover-up in Come Clean look like amateur hour. 🧱
After the murder, the doctor runs away, and this incredibly enthusiastic reporter decides to play detective to track him down.
I love how the reporter wears his hat at a goofy angle the entire time. It is like his hat has its own little personality.
The legendary Paul Wegener is in this, and the man is just huge. He has this blocky, terrifying presence that instantly sucks all the air out of the room.
Every time he stares directly at the camera, you feel like you did something wrong. 😳
The movie gets really bizarre once the search leads to a creepy lunatic asylum.
There is a sequence where the inmates are basically running the place, and it feels like a genuine fever dream.
The sound quality is pretty rough, though. Sometimes the characters sound like they are shouting through a tin can filled with wet sand.
But the shadow play is incredible.
There is a specific shot of a winding staircase where the shadows look like giant spider legs creeping up the plaster.
Some of the comedy bits do not land at all today.
Like, there is a gag involving a dog that just goes on for way too long. I literally checked my phone and wound my watch during that part. 📱
Still, the spooky atmosphere is so thick you can almost smell the damp cellar dirt.
It is not a perfect film, but it has this raw, creepy energy that modern horror movies usually polish away with computers.
Definitely watch it with the lights off.