Night Of The Living Dead DVD Retrospective

[JohnIan101]

PART IV: BOOKS - A4 P1

You had no idea, had you known - you would've stayed away or at the very least, gone wide around. But the spot was covered; the forrest reclaimed the pit.

This must've been dug by a one of those industrial hoes some time back. For the crisis or for a future septic tank for an unbuilt home? Either way moot.

The good news, you fell in without any serious injuries, no broke bones, though the bottom is littered with them. You can see skulls with bullet holes. Grave concerns if these were fresh looking, not the case. They look old, case made stronger with the lack of odor.

You make sure not the touch any of them in fear of infection - just in case. The immediate matter is getting out. The place is quiet, minus the sounds of nature. So for the moment, the danger is exclusively the pit itself.

One of the best things you did a few months back; take stalk of what you would need to live in this new world. Had a pencil, paper and began brainstorming. A result of this 'what if' was making sure you have fifty feet of rope. It's should be long enough to make a simple lasso to swing at a tree branch or such.

Ready to make a triumph exist when the woods got silent. Where? Damn good question. The pit is a parabolic dish, a faint noise is coming from all directions and getting somewhat louder. It doesn't sound like more than a two zeds. Maybe.

Best course of action is just go against the dirt wall and not move, not make a sound. Wait for the forrest to come back alive, then climb out. That may not be an option today. Those dragging feet noise is getting much louder. You pull out a knife, hoping not to use. You were never good at close quarters combat.

But the noise isn't the only sign; you can smell an approach. Fight the gag reflex, it could give you away. This was something you missed when you did your strategy planning. So damn simple, overlooked - the smell.

Be still, don't cough; like your life depends on it.

Man, this is something I wasn't sure I wanted to write. I screwed up, something so damn obvious; feel like an idiot for not noticing. Hell, I did image work on it (for that previous post).

It isn't canon, rather only - published fan fiction.



Last month I bought the Christopher Andrews novel of the 1968 feature. It says right there on the cover - "Based on the public domain film by John Russo and George Romero". Not an official book.

The novel was first talked about in the December 3rd, 2015 entry on the various NOTLD books. Some stats before we continue.

Released on October 31st, 2009 from Rising Star Visionary Press (ISBN# 978-0-9824882-1-8) for $13.95.

The softback is two hundred and seven pages long. The dimensions are 8 x 5 inches.

- - -

NOTES/REVIEW

Since this is a detailed comparision between the book and movie, it will be quite a long. The entry will be broken up into four parts. *nods*

The book is pretty solid with lots of backstory and fixes a plot hole as well as address something in much dispute since 1968. The cause of the infection. Not like that - an elimination.

So lets do this chronologically; differences from movie to non-official book:

Johnny and Barbar.



We get some back story on the bickering siblings. Their father had died with they were very little. Because of money issues; the family moved with their mother's dad. A deeply religious man; growing up he and Johnny would butt heads frequently.

Their mother is sickly, but found work as a seamstress to make ends meet. As with the movie, mom is still alive.

Because of their grandfather, Barbar is somewhat religious - a regular at Sunday church. But not a place of worship that speaks of hellfire and brimstone.

she preferred a quieter church to the one her grandfather had insisted they attend as children.

The rest follows the movie.

- - -

Ben.

This is where the meat occurs. *smiles*



"Beekman's Diner" - Ben is a high school teacher, traveling by bus; waiting for his connection for the final leg of his trip home. The bus stop is front of the infamous diner. Two hours to kill; he goes in for something to eat, a burger and fries with a slice of peach cobbler, which he never got to taste.

He had a booth seat to himself with window to the nightmare unfolding as the sun starts setting for the evening. Ben is given the pie as the oddity happened, a woman standing in the middle of the road in a dirty nurses uniform, a red stain on her neck to her chest.

His waitress, Claria recognizes the woman, Liza Connelly; Claria's neighbor who works at county hospital. Liza then moves from the road toward the diner.

At this point Ben did not get involved. He just wanted to go home, tired. Two elderly diner patrons go out to see if Liza was injured.

Why didn't they see something wrong with her right away?

Connelly's dirty hair was covering her face (and injury). Liza then tries to bite one of the men's hands. Both are stunned, but it's sort lived - Connelly attacks the same man who trips with her landing on top of him.

Liza Connelly bites down, chopping the man's cheek, tearing off a chunk off Joe's face. The second man screams and takes off running, away from the diner, up the road. It is now that Ben becomes proactive, enlisting the diner's janitor to help him outside. The janitor who up until the screaming had been asleep in one of the empty booths - it's a slow Sunday.

Ben grabs his jacket to use as a hood for the girl. Wrapping her head so she would stop eating the old man. It works and he tries a choke hold on her; Liza is not blacking out. Ben has put a lot of pressure on her throat and is concerned that more pressure could kill her. At this point the janitor unscrews a mop as a weapon.

Joe is dead from massive blood loss.

The janitor ends up trying to knock the woman out by kicking her in the head. It breaks her neck. There is a quiet moment between the men; was it murder or self defense?

Things get worse; from around a corner of "Beekman's" another hospital person appears, walking to them - a woman in a hospital gown. The mop is used as a bat on her, but didn't work, hit her face and it shattered, breaking her jaw. Another person with the same temperament joins in, this one is different, clean and in street clothes, a man.

Ben calls out for the janitor to come back into the diner. Nope - he decides to leave in his pickup truck. But didn't get too far - Joe wakes up, grabs the janitor's leg, then bites into his calf; blood pumping out of the gap in Joe's face.

Now other people descend on the janitor, eating him. Nothing to do, Ben creeps back to the diner and sees that the man had dropped his truck keys. With enough wits, Ben tells the dinner patrons and staff to get ready; turn the light off and lock all the doors.

He's going to get help - and goes after the keys, forgetting to take his suitcase still in his booth. Which ealier he regrets not using as a weapon on Connelly, the jacket was a poor choice.

Ben runs into the carnage grabbing the keys before they could react to him.

Inside the Chevy, door locked, now what? No direction. Ben opts to go in the direction of the man who had fled up the road when this started. Wanting to know what was going on, he turns the ignition just enough to power the truck's radio; silence with some static. We get the same radio broadcast Barbar and Johnny heard at the cemetery. The station is back on the air (a nice touch).

Then the woman with the broken jaw comes to Ben's driver's side window; like with the cemetary ghoul tries to pound the glass open. No more time to waste, he puts the car into drive and prepares to get out of the locale. That is when he sees the tanker on fire, weaving on the road towards him. Ben's is nearly broadsided by the gasoline truck.

Once it passed, he saw why the tanker was weaving, ten to fifteen people include one child were chasing it; a few of them dragged by the rig. No time and loss of control, the tanker smashed across the street, causing it to create a huge bonfire - the tanker did not explode. Ben had jumped out to try to help the man without thinking he was out in the open, vulnerable.

He hears the death screams from the driver; unsure if it was from the blaze or if one of those things had gotten inside the cab earlier. Nothing to do, the man was a goner.

That's when Ben saw that the things were afraid of fire, keeping distance. He rushes a bit back to the diner and discovers they too can't be saved.

From this new vantage point he could see a huge group of THEM in the field behind the restaurant, most of them in hospital gowns. Then the diner's window. They did not lock the back door, some had gotten inside. In the mess, they did not turn off the lights. All the Eats inside.

The fire had died enough for them to refocus their attention - to Ben, alone. Scared and transfixed by the staring mob. It is the sight of the dead janitor rising that snaps him back. He runs back to the truck and drives through them trying to get away. A new problem, the thing is in need of gas, nearly empty.

Can't get far, that's when Ben sees in what remains of the sunset, a farmhouse in the distance. And a gas pump near a barn; might be his salvation - we know better.