The Dumb Cool Weird Podcast
It is a podcast that covers old movies from the 20th century that are funny and ridiculous. We cover what is dumb, cool, and weird about each movie. We are raw and don't show mercy!!
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The Dumb Cool Weird Podcast
Night of the Living Dead (1968): The Birth of Zombie Cinema - Episode 54
Can a single film redefine an entire genre? Discover how George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" revolutionized zombie cinema and left a legacy that still haunts filmmakers today. Join Wes and Nick for a spine-chilling exploration of this iconic horror masterpiece, where we humorously critique the bizarre twists of Barbara's cemetery misadventure and Ben's heroic struggle to fortify a house against the undead. We unravel the quirks that give this low-budget classic its lasting charm and why a certain paper mache hand became an unforgettable element in horror history.
Push past the creaky floorboards and into the cellar as we dissect the film's most intense scenes, from the showdown between Ben and the ever-cantankerous Mr. Cooper to the unsettling fate of Mrs. Cooper at her daughter's hands. Our conversation highlights how Romero's work laid the groundwork for zombie narratives, influencing everything from apocalypse settings to the enduring trope of news broadcasts amidst chaos. And as we celebrate the powerful performances of Duane Jones and Karl Hardman, get a sneak peek into our next gory tale: "Dawn of the Dead," where the dead walk when hell is full, and the shopping mall becomes a battleground. Tune into the Dumb, Cool, Weird Podcast for a frightfully entertaining journey through the undead legacy of Romero.
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Dumb Cool Weird Podcast. What's up guys? Welcome to the Dumb Cool, weird Podcast. We're kicking off Halloween with the Romero movies, plus a bonus movie at the end of the month. That's not a Romero movie, but it was billed as a sequel to all three of his movies Back in the 60s, 70s, 80s.
Speaker 1:Return of the Living Dead yeah. So we're starting it off with Night of the Living Dead. Rest in peace, romero. We're doing this one for you. Yeah, this was a good film.
Speaker 1:Venocine too yeah, so you could tell that they were still trying to figure out kind of what zombies do. They were trying to experiment a little bit. You know, they were kind of going back and forth with a lot of stuff. You know, basically we'll do a rundown of the summary of this movie. Barbara and her brother, johnny, go up to put some flowers on the grave and basically Johnny's making fun of Barbara, and then they run into a zombie and they don't know it's a zombie, but he looks pretty rough. So they could have probably figured. You know we shouldn't go near this homeless guy. Yeah, you know, at either rate you shouldn't have been like going near that homeless guy. But basically what ends up happening is Johnny gets in a scuffle, hits his head, basically dies. She gets in the car, wrecks the car, because that's always a fun trope, even though, you know, back then it was probably as much of a trope, you know. What's crazy, though, is that she really she. She hit that tree, and she didn't have to. There was no, there was a lot of avoiding that tree. She ran into that tree, she rammed right into it, but basically what ended up happening, though, is she ran and ran through the woods no shoes on, by the way, ends up at an old, abandoned house and, for some fucking reason, she fucks off for about eight hours, and then, all of a sudden, we get a little transition to it being nighttime, which was fucking insane. Me and April were like what the fuck? It was eight o'clock. So here's the crazy part it was eight o'clock, so there's still light outside. I don't know why she's British now, but you know.
Speaker 1:Then Ben shows up, and she looks more scared of Ben, because he's a black guy, than the zombie she was attacked by. Yeah, by the way, this is. This movie was way ahead of its time because it had a black lead um, which was really cool for the time. I remember reading about that like back in the day. But Ben, basically, is just thinking fast on his feet.
Speaker 1:This actor definitely carried a lot of this movie. He was a really good actor and basically what he ended up doing is he boarded up the house by himself, by himself, and then somewhere along the way it turns out that there's been people in the fucking cellar the entire, the whole time, the whole time, meaning even once you showed up there in the day, yeah, screaming them, yelling them, arguing them, getting in a fight and hitting each other. Ben just clocked her out and he fixed up that house, right. Well, yeah, and then, for some fucking reason, there was just a random corpse upstairs that had half of its face eaten off, and I'm guessing the zombies did that. But See, in the Tom Savini remake they at least allude to why there was a corpse up. There was because there was two zombies in the upstairs part, and the reason people were in the cellar was because they were escaping the zombies from upstairs. So basically, they find a TV and they're trying to find a place to go to and there's a bunch of people in the cellar. You got fucking Tom, you got his girlfriend Judy, you got the Coopers with their little kid, and that's Karen, and basically, we end up finding out.
Speaker 1:Oh, so, these are the main characters of the movie, pretty much, while we have a bunch of extras outside who are probably not getting paid very much and are actually being forced to eat raw chicken it looks like, yeah and the raw liver and what looked like a prosthetic arm. Yeah, yeah, mr Ribeiro, do I have to keep eating this? Yeah, mr Romero, do I have to keep eating this? Keep eating it, bitch, I want to see you chomp at lunch. Yeah, probably got it like wholesale from the fucking, you know, piggly, wiggly down the street, but, basically, what ends up happening, though, is Ben gets the bright idea to get the truck and go to one of these supposed like safe havens, because they get a TV to work and the TV, supposedly, you know. And the actors that are on the TV TV to work and the TV, supposedly, you know. And the actors that are on the TV, they're the fun is funniest part, cause you can tell that the budget was really rushed, so they're just trying to get through their lines as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1:I cannot believe what I am hearing. There is mass hysteria in the streets, yep, especially that scene where they're at the Capitol and that guy's like trying to get to his car really quickly and they're trying so hard. And they're trying so hard not to show the general's front part of his uniform because it's probably not even accurate at all. They did a pretty good job, it's just. It's funny because it's like I wish they went with that transatlantic accent of like General.
Speaker 1:What is going on here? Why are the corpses coming back and eating the living? It's pretty ridiculous. I don't know, but I will tell you. I hope you stocked up on Winston cigarettes and bush beer. Yeah, I hope you stocked up on Winston cigarettes and Bush beer. Yeah, I'm pretty, our boys in Nam can use some help. After Viet Cong became Viet Monch Viet Monch, jesus, I had nothing for it. But all I can think of is the four guys in Vietnam who are like killing the VC in the North Vietnamese and they're like, yeah, they're coming back. What do you mean? They're coming back? I mean they're coming back to life after we kill them and now we can't kill them again.
Speaker 1:You know basically what ends up happening. Right is the TV stuff is basically just exposition on how to kill zombies. That's the whole plot point of TV and the radio as well, is basically to push the plot along. It turns out the zombies don't like fire either. Radio as well is is basically to push the plot along. It turns out the zombies don't like fire either. So what ends up happening is they get the bright idea to go out to the back shed that has basically a gas pump which, by the way, that was apparently a thing back in the days they had gas, yeah. So they try to fill up the gas tank and then they end up like catching the truck on fire. And then the two kids, judy and tom, are in the car and they drive the truck up and then they're trying to get out and Nick swears that the girl said I got my dick caught in something or something. Yeah, it was weird. It was never clear what she said she was caught on. And then the truck explodes. They drive away for a little while without thinking, hey, you know, we should probably get out of this truck. Yeah, the truck just blows up, and then there's barbecue for the zombies to eat, and then we actually get to see the zombies finally eating something for the first time, and we cut back to Ben, trying to get him back in the house. Mr Cooper won't let him in. Cooper lets him back in eventually and then he beats the shit out of Mr Cooper. Dude, he had that coming right, he really did have it coming. And he had that coming though, he really did have it coming and the rest of the movie really just kind of goes downhill from there.
Speaker 1:Literally all that happens next is the zombies start breaking in. They decide to get the bright idea to break in because the fires have died down and basically the fucking Mr Cooper guy tries to steal the gun from Ben and Ben shoots him, kills him, he goes downstairs and the daughter's sick. So we already know she's going to turn into a zombie. Because they said she got bitten. Yeah, they did, they mentioned yeah, she got bitten. And then Ben's oh, who knows what kind of diseases those things are carrying in them. Yeah, already foreshadowing that bites are now one of the main causes of infection, we cut back to upstairs.
Speaker 1:The zombies are starting to come in and finally Barbara who's been completely useless pretty much the whole movie finally gets a piece of wood and tries to help. You know, mrs Cooper, she fucking breaks off, goes downstairs and she finds her daughter chewing on her fucking husband's fucking hand. Mrs Cooper's arm is like completely detached, yeah, and she's eating it because she's a zombie now. And the most disturbing part of the movie happens where she stabs the shit out of her mom, and with a. It was a spade. Yeah, it was a spade. Yeah, kills her with a spade. It's really fucking crazy.
Speaker 1:But the thing is, miss cooper could have gotten out of that she. She didn't even try. Falls over. She's doing. Sure, I'm watching my death in slow motion. Yeah, didn't even try. Barbara's getting just taken by the zombies and her her brother, johnny, shows back up. He grabs her, pulls her outside, she's toast and fucking and they don't even show like she's getting eaten or bitten or anything. Nah, she's just gone. Yep, yep.
Speaker 1:Ben gets back in the house. He goes into the cellar, boards up the cellar, shoots Mr Cooper in the head, shoots Mrs Cooper in the head, is Cooper in the head? The zombies try to break the door down, cut. The next morning, the fucking the boys show up with all their guns and stuff. Yeah, and the news. But this was the thing, though. Right, when Ben gets shot in the head by one of the good old boys, when they're doing like sweeping the property and everything. But at no point did Ben think like saying, hey, I'm alive in here. No, he's just, yep, just like in the shadow, like kind of looking like a, just something standing there, and they're like, oh, shoot that one in the head. And they shoot him. You know, though, he shot him in the head with a shotgun. You know, obviously they don't have the capability of doing that just yet, but they could have shown his head explode like a watermelon. Yeah, that would have been kind of shotgun, you know. Yeah, and that really was the end of the movie. And then we get a bunch of still shots of them coming in and basically picking up the dead bodies, and that's Night of the Living Dead. That's really the whole movie.
Speaker 1:It's a really good movie, definitely working with a, you know, with a budget, and you know some of the visual effects are kind of wonky. You know, let's kind of get into the dumb, cool and weird. One of the dumbest things for me was that paper mache hand. When Tom was chopping at one of his own, it was a paper mache hand. It's so bad. Oh, you see, this is actually the some of the stuff that I enjoyed, too right. So that whole thing about them being afraid of fire is mostly from the early zombie films, where the zombies were more like voodoo, like just people were possessed by voodoo, and so they would be like, oh, fire is their only weakness. So they would do that in a lot of the early zombie films. So I thought that was a pretty cool throwback.
Speaker 1:Okay, and another thing that I thought was cool with going into the remake of Dawn of the Dead was trying to capture the atmosphere of the original. It was Night of the Living Dead's news broadcast and then you know, dawn of the Dead's news broadcast because they really put it in as a special feature in the newest in the remake back in 2000. Which one? Would that one come out though? 1990. 1990? That's when the Tom Savini one came out. So that was a Tom Savini one. But they also did the same thing with the Dawn of the Dead remake. That doesn't have the same level. Yeah, it doesn't have the same relation as the Tom Savini film, but I thought that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Did you find anything else dumb about this movie, man? You know, I thought it was a pretty solid film. I guess the thing that was definitely dumb, just practically, you know like all of these zombies are going. Oh, this is it. Sorry, this was it. He kills ben, kills multiple zombies by smashing in their head with a crowbar, but then has to wait until the t and tv tells him you have to shoot him in the head, even though he saw that worked when he shot one of them in the head and then smashed their skulls in. So at no point did he actually need to rely on the television to tell him you need to hit him in the head so they die. It's like I think that was pretty self-explanatory when they stopped moving after you did that. Yeah, what I thought was what I thought was really cool about this movie.
Speaker 1:Moving on to the cool part is I really enjoyed how the a lot of, like a lot of the actors you could tell a lot of them are classically trained, like the black guy that played, you know, ben. He was a really good actor. He played a really good role. I also felt mr cooper was pretty believable as an asshole. Yeah, pretty good job there, even mr cooper. Mrs cooper was pretty believable as, like the wife who's just tired of mr cooper shit. So so they definitely were having to rely heavily on the interactions between these different characters and the situation they were in.
Speaker 1:Let's get to the weird part, the weird thing about this movie some of the stuff that Romero was obviously having them do, like them eating raw meat. It looked like they were eating raw meat. I hope that was prop meat, but it looked very real to me. I think that liver was kind of real, looking honestly. And I think what was weird is some of the some of the things he had the zombies doing. You know, it wasn't really playing with the intestines, think about it. Right, like he really didn't have this kind of flesh out 100 quite yet. This is like the first movie that had it, so like literally had this. He had the zombies doing things that like normal humans would do. Like he had the fucking that. You know, the zombie in the beginning running after her, taking something and trying to smash a window. I mean, that's not what zombies do later on, I mean in certain movies maybe. Yeah, but it takes so much more time. I think he was just trying to figure it out and you know, obviously some of the zombie makeup was a little wonky, but you know they probably didn't have a budget to do like crazy zombie makeup. I also like to think, you know it's black and white, so they did work with what they could on that side of things. But the thing about it, too, is these are the most recently deceased people from the morgues and everything, for the most part, yeah. So it's not like in the later coming romero films where they're decomposing or they're just people who were infected and died in the street somewhere.
Speaker 1:I will say, though, one other weird thing about this movie is I did find it kind of weird that Ben made such a big stink about being trapped in the basement, and then it turns out being in the basement is actually was actually the best place to be, and that also goes. This is another weird thing, ben to be, and that also goes. This is another weird thing. Ben was constantly talking about how, oh, we boarded up the house, we're gonna be safe in here, and then, when the television's, oh, you could try and get to one of these like safe zones, and he's immediately we're abandoning the house, we're gonna go to the safe zone. That was, you know, night living dead it's. I do have.
Speaker 1:One more weird, though, was the most useless character throughout the whole film. At no, no point was she worth anything? She didn't help anybody. She just kind of existed like this woman who falls deep in some acid quaaludes or mushrooms, maybe all three. She didn't do anything and everybody was looking at her in the film like I guess she's going to act at some point. I mean she was comatose for most of the movie she checked out. If I remember correctly, you know the early 60s is when the Civil Rights Act happened. Yeah, and Ben gave her some civil lefts after she smacked him. Classic movie.
Speaker 1:It's one of the reasons why we have so many great zombie things nowadays. It's the one that really started it all. Obviously, you know we were talking about earlier that there were other zombie movies before, but this is the one that really built that whole beginning of tropes for zombie flicks. Stay tuned we are going to be doing Dawn of the Dead next week. Be warned the dead are rising and eating the living. When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth. Ooh yeah, spooky times and a shopping mall. Thanks for watching the Dumb, cool, weird podcast, where we cover some of your favorite movies in 20 minutes or less for your convenience. We go over what is dumb, cool and weird about movies and check out our Wayback Wednesdays. We do sometimes for other stuff, and please share us with your friends.
