Did You Mise-En-Scene?

If mise-en-scene frames the narrative of the film in a vacuum, then George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Deadencapsulates the tone and theme of it in the introductory scene of Barbra and Johnny visiting their father’s grave. Immediately, the audience arrives at a graveyard introducing the central motif of death. The two are alone yet not quite—assuming that the bodies around them count. Throughout the film, Romero teases the audience of solitude and desolation, only to be surprised that the characters are not so alone after all. The graveyard captures this recurrence—what is below and above ground is alive or dead.

As they walk around in the graveyard, a shot at the four-minute mark displays them alone, only to be accompanied by the gravestones. A wide shot gives the audience a full perspective of the vastness of the graveyard with silence consuming the scene only to be disturbed by the rustling leaves. Romero’s choice of camera position to display the two introductory characters extends the tone of loneliness throughout the film. In addition, most of the time, the film is set on a typical American suburban house with dustless furniture. The setting juxtaposes with the ugliness and the horrors of the dead. Furthermore, the pleasing and comforting house serves as a point of reference to how much destruction the dead induces throughout the film.

During Ben’s struggle with a dead in the 18-minute mark, the camera angle favors whoever is in a dominant position with some shots specifying the wrench. Romero uses camera angles to create tension that conveys the battle between the alive versus the dead. At 18:13, Ben grabs the wrench with an angle above their heads as the two struggle. Romero’s choice constantly grabs the audience’s attention and aims at discomfort—and comfort for the non aggressive scenes. As for his use of SFX, Romero lucks out that creating and costuming the dead are not that difficult. In fact, rip a few clothes and makeup is all he needed.