Night of the Living Dead Foreshadowed Our COVID-19 Lockdown

"A ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a bloodthirsty, flesh-eating breed of monsters who are ravaging the East Coast of the United States."

Yes, it's campy. But this low budget 1968 zombie film by George Romero has a surprisingly large and passionate fanbase. With a budget just over 100K, the film grossed 12 million dollars domestic and 18 million in international theaters.

It's the kind of late night horror fare that Ghoulardi would have loved to deliver on his Friday Night Shock Theater in Cleveland. Even if you can't take the zombies seriously, the film does have some seriously interesting features.

The storyline is basic. Johnny and Barbra do their annual visit to their father's grave to place flowers there when they are suddenly set upon by cannibalistic zombies. Johnny, who was making fun of his sister for being scared, ends up himself being killed. Barbra runs for her life.

Chase scenes are always dramatic but in this case the pursuit is relentless. She manages to find a farmhouse and manages to get inside. No one is home it seems. Then Ben shows up, looking to fill up his vehicle with gas. Aware that the house is being surrounded by zombies, he keeps them at bay with fire, and proceeds to board up the doors and windows.

Before social media, this was the best way to find out what was happening
in the outside world. Duane Jones as Ben.

Don't look now, but there goes the neighborhood.

The big reveal is that there are five people hiding in a "safe room" in the basement, a family of three and another couple They emerge and a series of conflicts begin as regards the best course of action against this deadly coronavirus, I mean, zombie infestation.

And there it is. A lockdown. A quarantine. And a lot of tension due to their various opinions on how to respond to the life and death situation.

Here are some excerpts from imdb.com

The Shining, The Exorcist and The Omen are all films that owe some of their stylistic approach to this film. This is the film that re-wrote the rules of the horror genre as it went along, whilst acting as both social critique and fond homage to 'The Birds' as well.

And...

This is "the" film that changed the way zombie films were created - more horrifying than ever before. Almost all zombie films that came after this one were patterned after this movie. "Night of the Living Dead" is the most iconic zombie film ever made.

Much of the world is in lockdown and quarantine and while it's true that DUIs are down, domestic violence is up. Way up. Just as Night of the Living Dead seems to have foretold.

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Here's another 60's throwback... or at least a parody of one. Revised for our contemporary Safe Zone focused modern times... Have a party.

You can catch it when you're at the grocery store
You can catch it off the handle on a door
You can catch it from a friend that's droppin' by
You can catch it like a baseball from the sky
I know that you feel so alone
But everybody Must Stay Home.

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The Message Here:
Still in lockdown? Make music. Don't have fights. 
We really don't want to see anyone getting killed.

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Related Link

Night of the Living Dead in the Time of Confinement and the Coronavirus

(Note the nod to Love in the Time of Cholera)

Miscellaneous Thursday Scratchings About The Lockdown Etc.

"There must be some way out of here," said the Joker to the Thief.
"There's too much confusion. I can't get no relief."
--All Along the Watchtower


Seems like there's a relevant Dylan lyric for every situation, doesn't it?

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It's interesting how when some governors enact draconian regulations they want all governors to follow suit.

Here are examples of what I call draconian:
In Encenitas, California people were fined $1000 for parking at the ocean to watch the sunset. No mixing with other people. Just sitting inside their cars.

Michigan Governor Whitmer's executive order purportedly bans people from visiting relatives, and even bans people who own two homes from going back and forth between homes.

It's weird that stores that CAN be open CAN"T sell certain products, so Wal-Mart has tape on the shelves in front of the forbidden items like flooring, paint and garden supplies. (EdNote: I did not go to Wal-Mart to confirm this because I am social distancing.)

You can read John Stossel's rant about these things here.

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OK, so one of the arguments some people make in favor of legalizing Doctor-Assisted Suicide is that "It's my body, therefore I should decide how I want to die and when."

I'm guessing that the same people who favor expanding assisted suicide laws are the ones most opposed to people being allowed to put themselves at risk for COVID-19 or not. "No, you cannot go to your other house to make sure the doors and windows are all locked. It's too risky."

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HERE'S A THOUGHT that I had recently regarding the issue of who's got the power, or who ought to. Before the advent of Nation States the world operated in smaller units which would occasionally collide with one another. Tribes or clans or extended families looked after their own, occasionally quarreling with adjacent clans or tribes regarding hunting grounds or drinking water.

How we got from there to 190+ countries that make up our United Nations is a part of history that may be worth exploring in greater depth. (If you can point to a brief history of France from pre-historic cave painters to the present, feel free to leave a comment.)

Even so, the COVID-19 epidemic is showing us a variety of conflict zones where power struggles are being fought. In the U.S., governors have the power to implement executive orders for their states, but some want the federal government to make a more punitive across-the-board decision for all states. So we see chafing among states that border one another but do not share the same lockdown policies.

THEN within states themselves we have cities that are out of step with their governors and want different rules from the rest of the state.

Against this backdrop, we have individuals protesting for the right to decide for themselves how far to go along with or against restrictive policies. It's a Constitutional right to protest, they say.

On the Global scale, how much should the United Nations or WHO decide what each individual nation should be doing in this or any other matter.

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I've written a few poems during Lockdown. This one from Tuesday is called The Lamp of Liberty. I'm interested in what you think.

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Lockdowns would be a lot easier if we had time travel, wouldn't it? Here's a short list of favorite time travel films.
Midnight In Paris
Back to the Future (1, 2 & 3)
Peggy Sue Got Married
12 Monkeys
The Terminator Series

I once wrote a time travel story. In it I travelled 100 years into the future. I'd rather not tell you what I found.

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Jonathan Thunder

As I noted Tuesday, people who make time to appreciate the arts live longer, according one 14 year study. Here's one way to see a lot of art during our lockdown period. Do you have some favorite artists? Google their name, then click on Images. You will see all kinds of things they have done. Many have websites so you can explore in more depth. If you don't follow the arts much and would like some names to dig into (and art to dig) here's a short list of Twin Ports folk I have written about.
Tonja Sell
Joellyn Rock
Karen Nease
Timothy Cleary
Bill Shipley
Aaron Kloss
Sarah Brokke
Ann Klefstad
Adam Swanson
Andrew Perfetti
Esther Piszczek
Scott Murphy
Sue Rauschenfels
Kathy McTavish
Karin Kraemer
John Heino
Karen McTavish
Carla Hamilton
Moira Villiard
Eris Vafias
Vern Northrup
Margie Helstrom
Kris Nelson

This list could go on and on, so I better just say got to Twin Ports Art and see what else you've been missing this past year. Frankly, I'm missing you, too.

And for the heckuvit I will also add this Pinterest board from the Tweed Museum of Art featuring Twin Ports Artists. (You may even see something of mine.)

In the meantime, it's Spring. Time to Ken Bloom wherever you've been planted.