reflect societal problems of the period. Two films that espouse such ideals are Night of the Living Dead (1968) by George Romero and The People Under the Stairs (1991) by Wes Craven. Both of these films challenged and altered the perception of the horror genre in different ways, but each nonetheless kept certain aspects of the genre intact such as reflecting the society of the time and in being created to scare the viewer.

This fear was mainly brought about because the film seemed so realistic and ordinary, as if it could actually happen, which was one of many breaks from the traditional horror film conventions of the day. Everything in the film is ordinary in every way. The settings are all real places, the house in which the characters take refuge was practically unchanged from its natural condition, the characters respond in normal ways to drastic situations; in fact, only two of the actors in the film are professional actors, the rest are mostly local residents of the area in which the film was shot. This condition of being totally ordinary helps the film give a feeling of realism. Even the zombies themselves, seeming the most outlandish part of the movie, act mainly as a natural disaster, something ordinary and not really special, they are “just dead flesh” (Dillard 20-21). This was the most major of the breaks from the traditional horror film, in which the situation was totally fantastic and difficult to relate to normal life, it was an escape from reality rather than a reflection of reality as in Night of the Living Dead.

The originator of this so-called “splatter cinema” was an independent feature made in 1968 called Night of the Living Dead that eventually became one of the most popular horror films ever made. The basic storyline is radiation from a satellite has turned the recently dead into mindless zombies on a quest for human flesh to eat. Seven people come together in a rural farmhouse and must survive the zombie onslaught until help arrives, whenever that may be. Each person reacts to the s

Some topics in this essay:
Wes Craven, George Romero, Living Dead, , Dr Caligari, horror film, horror films, classical horror, night living dead, Night Living, living dead, night living, horror genre, People Stairs, breaks traditional horror, genre horror, kawin 237, kawin 241, violent nature, traditional horror film,