In Phillips’ chapter on Night of The Living Dead, the author discusses a connection between Living Dead and Psycho. He notes that while in Psycho, Hitchcock revolutionized the horror theme by tearing apart the safety the audience expected from cinema; Romero’s zombies shredded the remaining hope that remained. I believe that Romero clearly tried to one up the thrill brought by Psycho. One scene that while I was watching Living Dead, made me think of Psycho was the scene where Karen kills her mom. It seemed somewhat oddly reminiscent of the famous shower scene in Psycho.
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Not only does the stabbing scenes look somewhat familiar: as a similar stabbing motion is performed, the female victims screams, and eerie music is playing in the background; but Romero’s scene has something more awful attached to it. Not only is the character killed gruesomely, but it is done by the victim daughter. I think Romero is saying to Hitchcock, I see your horror and I raise you.
Interesting enough but it seems that Romero’s took some idea out of Hitchcock’s book. Romero also makes this film in black and white, just like Psycho. Also, the blood in Living Dead was really chocolate syrup, just like the blood in the famous shower scene in Psycho was. Although, I do not believe Living Dead was as artistically pleasing as Psycho was, I feel that there is a clear attempt to push the boundaries of horror, further than Psycho had done.
I was thinking the same thing about that scene in Night of the Living Dead, and both scenes are the type that linger with me and still freak me out after years of seeing them. And i also think that Hitchcock’s is more artistically done, you even see less blood, and certain things are very artsy about the scene, like the way the drain hole matches her eye at the end of the scene.