Night of the Living Dead from the projection booth, which includes lots of projector.

One of my teachers threw Night of the Living Dead on in middle school, and the chatter around the class was that the teacher was too lazy to get into anything. Which was probably true, but we were happy not to tackle more of Odysseus’ dangerous journey across the Mediterranean. Call me Outis.

Night of the Living Dead was my first true horror film.

The movie is groundbreaking, obviously, but not scary to modern eyes (even modern eyes in the early 90s when I saw it). The only truly frightening part happens in daylight at the end — the movie’s protagonist survives right up to the credits, then is shot unceremoniously by living men — authorities, ostensibly there to remedy the situation. The protagonist is then thrown into a bonfire with the undead he fought.

Which feels apt for this terrible world we’ve constructed for ourselves.