ZOMBIE FILM RULES - Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Every genre has cliches, but how well does Romero's original Living Dead film follow the Zombie film rules?

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Night of the Living Dead (1968) is considered the first modern zombie film - and possibly the first modern horror film - and established the rules for all those that followed....  (Previously tested as a Slasher film).

The following analysis may contain spoilers for

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)

SLASHER FILM RULES - Analysis

Although I'm calling these Slasher Film Rules, the can apply to a range of horror sub-genres.

Ten films were tested:

• Psycho (1960)
• Night of the Living Dead (1968)
• Halloween (1978)
• Alien (1979)
• Friday the 13th (1980)
• Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
• Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
• Scream (1998)
• Wolf Creek (2005)

Of course, these films say nothing about the genre as a whole.  Certainly things can be said about the films, though.  They are usually bigger name films, smaller low-budget or less successful films may rely on the rules more.  They are mostly early films, and may have helped develop the rules rather than following them.  One is a post modern film in which the characters know the rules.  About half may not be purely "slasher" films and may not need to follow the rules.  Most are first films in a series and thus may follow the rules less.

Victims not killed in the narrative (previous victims in Psycho or Wolf Creek for example) are not being counted.  An extreme example of this is Paul Holt in Friday the 13th Part 2 who "disappeared" during a fight with Jason and who will be counted as alive since his death or body was never shown on-screen.  I'm not calling that a definitive answer for what happened to him, but rather, I need to make a call one way of the other.

SLASHER FILM RULES - Night of the Living Dead

The film that inspired The Walking Dead.

1968's seminal Zombie film Night of the Living Dead has a small group in an isolated house trying to survive the night while something it trying to kill them.  Is that enough for it to follow the Slasher Rules?