It's one of the most successful and least expensive movies ever made.
Director George A. Romero’s 1968 horror classic “Night of the Living Dead” will be running a marathon on Facebook Live for 12 hours on Feb. 4 in honor of Romero’s birthday. Syfy, which is orchestrating the event, announced plans today, inviting fans of Romero and the zombie flick to visit the channel’s official Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/Syfy, on Saturday starting at 11:30 a.m./10:30 a.m. CT.
Romero is considered a master of the horror genre, with directorial credits on “Dawn of the Dead,” “Creepshow,” “Day of the Dead” and many other classics. He turns 77 on Saturday.
“Night of the Living Dead,” which launched Romero’s career, will play continuously for 12 hours on that day. Fans can also catch a late-night telecast on Syfy at 11:42 p.m./10:42 CT.
“In ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ radiation from a fallen satellite causes the recently deceased to rise from the grave and seek the living to use as food,” Syfy notes in its announcement. “Several people barricade themselves inside a rural house in an attempt to survive the night and discover that these hordes of relentless, shambling zombies can only be killed by a blow to the head. Originally released as an independent horror film, ‘Night of the Living Dead’ has become a cult classic, redefining the term zombie and spawning numerous sequels and imitators.” In the past few years Remero re-edited the film with previously unreleased footage extending the movie from 95 minutes to about 102 minutes. We do not know which version will be aired. For the record, there is no real gore in the film. And all the zombies were local actors in Romero's home town of Pittsburgh, where the movie was shot.