night OF THE LIVING DEAD SYNOPSIS

               
          It was just another Sunday drive to the Willard Cemetery for Barbara and her brother Johnny. Another annual summer visit to their father’s grave. Not only was the trip a long way out of Pittsburgh, Johnny had gotten up late, dusk was already near. Making matters worse was the fact that the radio had been out the whole way up forcing Johnny to resort to relieve the boredom of it all by taunting his sister. The graves were still reminders of their childhood growing up near the cemetery. Thinking that they were the only ones in the cemetery gives Johnny even more reason to tease his sister about how scared she used to get in these places. Barbara places the wreath on the grave prays and places the wreath on the grave, her brother looks elsewhere – off to the distance, noticing a crooked man in black is walking their way. "They’re coming to get you Barbara" Johnny teases, trying to get her to get the mourning over with. Just as he runs off Barbara is attacked by the aged man in black. Her brother jumps to save her, wrestling with the figure until he is knocked down and hits his skull on a tombstone. Suddenly, lightning flashes, and the man turns his attention to Barbara.

Fleeing towards the car, she realizes Johnny has the keys. She sets the car in motion and it hits a tree. The stumbling attacker follows her as she gets out of the car and runs for her life through a nearby field. Finally she makes her way to a farmhouse where she fortunately is able to get inside due to unlocked doors. She first grabs a knife and tries to call for help on the phone but it is dead.

A few moments later she peers out the window and sees night has come – as well as a few more men towards the house. At the top of the stairs, she finds a lady’s corpse – with a face so mutilated it is revealing the skull. Running in horror outside, she is blinded by headlights of a truck. A black man steps out and grabs her forcing her inside the house of horrors once more. But he is not one of the silent attackers. "Is this your house?" he asks, apparently fleeing for his life too. Barbara can barely communicate forcing the black man to lay her down on a couch as the attackers try to walk into the house. Bodily injury does no good - Ben  uses his handy tire iron to crush their skulls. After locking the doors, he finds some boards and some nails and hammers in the closet. As he removes the legs from a dining room table to use as a barricade on the windows, he recounts his escape from the nearby Beekman’s Diner. Barbara remains exhausted, confused and catatonic. As Ben finishes the house, we hear the radio commentator confirming that victims of the ghastly marauders are partially eaten. Then the cellar door opens.

Judy tells Tom she can’t, that her jacket is caught. In a matter of moments, the truck is engulfed in flames. Later, their charred remains somehow still yield uncooked livers, intestines, and other organs – food for the living dead – who even fight over the viscera animalistically, Ben fights his way through a mob of the creatures with a torch.

When Helen seeks refuge in the cellar, she watches Karen feeding on her father’s remains. Still thinking there’s a trace of humanity in her daughter, she begins to plead with her daughter now approaching her with a garden trowel to stop. But she corners her mom, and begins to stab her repeatedly, blood splashing all over the walls and her face. Barbara is dragged out into the crowd by her own brother, now zombified after the brain injury and possibly partially eaten. As the house is filled with the ghouls, Ben backs into the cellar not after Karen almost makes a snack of his leg and arm. When he goes down, he watches Harry and Helen both revive within minutes of each other and they are promptly shot. The sole survivor then crouches down in a corner and tries to rest, rifle still handy, just in case....

Ben wakes in the morning to the sound of distant gunfire. The posse has moved through the area and the zombies apparently have left the house at some point. Ben thinking it is safe to come out unlocks the cellar door and goes to take a look out the window. The posse hears one last noise coming from inside the farmhouse. Through the window they can see the figure – and the chief’s order is given – "right between the eyes." And our hero Ben drops dead, and as the Chief declares "that’s another one for the fire" - the posse moves in and drags his lifeless body out to an ominous bonfire where he is burned alongside of the very creatures he defended the house against.