The 1968 original release of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead was not met with much fanfare, but its popularity grew over time, with zombie horror enthusiasts blossoming enough to warrant multiple, subsequent Living Dead installments, a 1990 film remake, and numerous popular DVD edition releases. Night of the Living Dead is an interesting case because it provides an opportunity to examine the growth in zombie horror popularity over a historical time period, via the expansion of the film franchise with the aforementioned movie sequels and remake. This paper examines the cultural and historical conditions under which the audiences of horror movies developed affection for this low-budget classic, ultimately popularizing the subgenre of zombie horror films. The method of tracing this phenomenon is primarily through audience-authored response during a bookended timeframe. Specifically, I locate movie reviews and documented discussions of the film in periodicals, and on the Internet, prior to the era of streaming media. Using a methodology of audience reception studies, I examine populations that helped buoy zombie films into the mainstream of popular culture. These audiences are analyzed separated, according to type. First, I look at newspaper film critics because information about critical response is accessible readily. Critical response is relevant if for no other reason than to see how it compares to the lay audiences’ reception. The second sect of audiences is comprised of non-professional or self-proclaimed “professional” critics of film, online. Finally, the third audience to be examined includes zombie horror film fans predominantly within the subculture of punk, communicating through Internet message boards and in a horror film club. Using this matrix of audience-authored responses and collected material, I trace the historical foundation for the rise in popularity of modern zombie horror films, attributing it to the cult classic, Night of the Living Dead.
About the presenterJessica L Ghilani
Jessica Ghilani is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg. Her recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Communication Inquiry, Historiography in Mass Communication, and American Journalism: A Journal of Media History. Her forthcoming book, Selling Soldiering: Advertising for US Army Volunteers Since 1914, will be published with the University of Iowa Press. Dr. Ghilani has received grants/fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution, the NEH, Pitt, Duke, and the AAUW.