Night of the Living Dead

The film that invented the modern zombie. Seven people barricade themselves in a farmhouse while reanimated corpses surround them. The radiation from a space probe is blamed for the dead returning to life. Romero's film is a low-budget black and white production that accidentally entered the public domain because the distributor changed the title from "Night of the Flesh Eaters" and forgot to include a copyright notice on the new prints. Duane Jones plays the lead, a Black man trying to survive both the zombies and the group's internal conflicts. The ending is still shocking. The film spawned a genre and five sequels from Romero alone.