To convey suspense and tension in the Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero arouses expectations and subverts those expectations with uncertainty utilizing editing and sound. Continuity editing is used in most shots of the film but there are some analytical edited scenes spaced throughout the film as well, such as the graphic matching in Night of the Living Dead. It occurs around 11:36 when Barbra entered the farmhouse and walked around the room. When her eyes move toward the walls, the shots shift from the heads of different animals individually. This employs a graphic matching editing that relies on the similarity of the compositional shapes from one shot to the next to bridge the cut smoothly (P227). This use of graphic matching shots helps create a sense of tension and horror for the whole story.
There are also some other edited scenes throughout the film as well. This is shown multiple times throughout the film, described as when characters are schemed on by the ghouls. The reasoning for this type of editing is to create as many questionable and anticipated scenes or suspenseful scenes. Once the actual terror is visible to the views by the look on the characters face leads the audience to wonder what’s going to happen next. With the assumption of the ghouls attacking the protagonists. Sparse analytical editing was also visible when the ghouls attacked. Cameras would zoom up close of the character being mauled to bring more dramatics to the scenes. The film director chose these editing methods while shooting this film to complete the suspenseful feeling of the film. The scenery of a farm plays an important role because it emphasizes just how close the enemy may be to actual life at that time.
Around the 22-minute mark, Barbra surveys the house after a reassuring conversation with Ben. Ben’s consolation is not only received by Barbra within the parameters of the film, but it breaks the fourth wall in consoling the audience—just enough words by Ben to put the audience at ease. As Barbra walks through a doorway, ominous music ramps up and takes away the comfort that Ben initially instills. Barbra fixates her vision towards something, using the music box as the variable for the transition. While the music box plays an innocent melody, a shot of Barbra with the music box out of focus parallels the dispatch to the audience of the focus towards Barbra. As we see the movie, we noticed that the soundtrack was given not continually. For example, when there involve dialogues between characters, there is not sound or music at the background but the real voice of the characters. The sound and music occur when there is some kind of signal for danger or threats. In 17:00, when Ben is fighting the ghouls around him and Barbra is facing several ghouls inside of the house, the sounds and music are incredibly creepy and thrilling that makes the audience feel so nervous. The way of using sound and music helps pave the way for the whole story and create a sense of tension for the audience.
https://www.soundboard.com/sb/night_of_the_living_dead
https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/565