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A note on Night of the Living Dead (1968/1990)
At first I was skeptical about including the original Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968) on the Urbanoia list because it is such a clear example of a "zombie" film. Upon review of the film, however, I think a strong case can be made for its inclusion if the zombies are understood to be metaphorical rurals. The case is made even stronger considering that the majority of victims are outsiders (with the exception of Tom and Judy) and the majority of zombies are locals that rose from local cemetaries. Carrying this perspective a step further, the film tells a story about alienation from rural, small-town America.
The remake of the film (Savini, 1990) thrives to an even greater extent upon the urbanoia theme as it leaves Barbara to look on in horror as the rural townspeople torture the zombies at the end of the film. Her perspective is one that equates the living rural townsfolk with the zombies themselves through their behavior.
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