Night of the Living Dead

Newscaster:
Kill the brain, and you kill the ghoul.

Newscaster:
All law enforcement agencies and the military have been organized to search out and destroy the marauding ghouls. The Survival Command Center at the Pentagon has disclosed that a ghoul can be killed by a shot in the head, or a heavy blow to the skull. Officials are quoted as explaining that since the brain of a ghoul has been activated by the radiation, the plan is kill the brain, and you kill the ghoul.

Field Reporter:
Are they slow-moving, chief?

Sheriff McClelland:
Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up.

Field Reporter:
Chief, if I were surrounded by eight or ten of these things, would I stand a chance with them?

Sheriff McClelland:
Well, there's no problem. If you have a gun, shoot 'em in the head. That's a sure way to kill 'em. If you don't, get yourself a club or a torch. Beat 'em or burn 'em. They go up pretty easy.

Johnny:
They're coming to get you, Barbara, there's one of them now!

Ben:
Now get the hell down in the cellar. You can be the boss down there, but I'm boss up here!

Ben:
How long have guys you been down there? I could have used some help up here!

Harry Cooper:
That's the cellar. It's the safest place.

Ben:
You mean you didn't hear the racket I was making up here?

Harry Cooper:
How were we supposed to know what was going on? Could have been those things for all we knew!

Ben:
That girl was screaming. Surely you know what a girl screaming sounds like. Those things don't make any noise. Anybody would know somebody needed help!

Tom:
Look, it's kind of hard to know what's going on from down there.

Harry Cooper:
We thought we could hear screams, but for all we knew, that have meant those things were in the house after her.

Ben:
And you wouldn't come up here and help?

Tom:
Well, if there were more of them...

Harry Cooper:
That racket sounded like the place was being ripped apart. How were we supposed to know what was going on?

Ben:
Now wait a minute. You just got finished saying you couldn't hear anything down there. Now you say it sounded like the place was being ripped apart. It would be nice if you get your story straight, man.

Harry Cooper:
All right, now you tell me! I'm not gonna take that kind of a chance when we've got a safe place! We lock into a safe place, and you're telling us we gotta risk our lives just because somebody might need help, huh?

Ben:
Yeah, something like that.

Newscaster:
It has been established that persons who have recently died have been returning to life and committing acts of murder. A widespread investigation of funeral homes, morgues, and hospitals has concluded that the unburied dead have been returning to life and seeking human victims. It's hard for us here to be reporting this to you, but it does seem to be a fact.

Ben:
Don't you know what's goin' on out there? This is no Sunday School picnic!

Ben:
They know we're in here now.

Washington scientist:
Everything is being done that can be done.

Sheriff McClelland:
Good shot! OK, he's dead, that's another one for the fire.

Karen Cooper:
I hurt.

Ben:
I ought to drag you out there and FEED you to those things!

Ben:
You know a place back down the road called Beekman's? Beekman's Diner? Anyhow, that's where I found that truck I have out there. There's a radio in the truck. I jumped in to listen, when a big gasoline truck came screaming right across the road! There must've been ten, fifteen of those things chasing after it, grabbing and holding on. Now, I didn't see them at first. I could just see that the truck was moving in a funny way. Those things were catching up to it. Truck went right across the road. I slammed on my breaks to keep from hitting it myself. It went right through the guard rail! I guess - guess the driver must've cut off the road into that gas station by Beekman's Diner. It went right through the billboard, ripped over a gas pump, and never stopped moving! By now it was like a moving bonfire! Didn't know if the truck was going to explode or what. I still hear the man... screaming. These things, just backing away from it! I looked back at the diner to see if - if there was anyone there who could help me. That's when I noticed that the entire place had been encircled. There wasn't a sign of life left, except... by now, there were no more screams. I realized that I was alone, with fifty or sixty of those things just... standing there, staring at me! I started to drive, I - I just plowed right through them! They didn't move! They didn't run, or... they just stood there, staring at me! I just wanted to crush them! And they scattered through the air, like bugs.

Johnny:
There's nothing wrong with the radio. Must've been the station.

Helen Cooper:
We may not enjoy living together, but dying together isn't going to solve anything.

Barbara:
Johnny has the keys...

Harry Cooper:
Good Lord!

Harry Cooper:
Helen! I have to get that gun!

Helen Cooper:
Haven't you had ENOUGH?

Harry Cooper:
Look, two people are already dead on account of that guy! Take a look out that window!

Darlene Davies:
So you don't think they'll find some kind of virus, or germ?

Reverend John Hicks:
No. Those creatures were demons, creatures of Satan inhabiting the bodies of our dead. And the demons are still loose in this world, and the dead must be spiked.

Darlene Davies:
Spiked? I don't know what you mean.

Reverend John Hicks:
Spiked, as the hands of Jesus were spiked to the cross! SPIKE the dead to prevent them from rising again before Judgment Day! All sinners must repent and the dead must be spiked! Heed the Word of the Lord, or the dead will rise again possessed by demons, and ye who are unclean shall be damned forever and ever in eternal fire!

Ben:
I'm telling you they can't get IN here!

Harry Cooper:
And I'm telling you they turned over our car! We were damn lucky to get away at all! Now you're telling me these things can't get through a lousy pile of wood?

Johnny:
Hey, come on, Barb. Church was this morning.

Johnny:
I mean, prayin's for church.

Barbara:
I haven't seen you in church lately.

Johnny:
Well, there's not much sense in my going to church.

Sheriff McClelland:
Boy, somebody had a cookout here.

Vince, Posse gunman:
Yeah, it sure looks like it, Tom.

Sheriff McClelland:
Put that thing all away on the fire! We don't want it getting up again!

Harry Cooper:
Did you hear me when I told you they turned over our car?

Ben:
Oh, hell! Any good five men could do that!

Harry Cooper:
That's my point! There's not going to be five, or even ten! There's going to be twenty, thirty, maybe a hundred of those things, and as soon as they find out we're here, this place'll be crawling with them!

Ben:
Well, if there's that much, they'll probably get us wherever we are.

Sheriff McClelland:
Where'd you get the coffee?

Field Reporter:
One of the volunteers. You're doing all the work, you take it.

Sheriff McClelland:
Thank you.

Harry Cooper:
You gonna let them get her too, huh?

Reverend John Hicks:
This is like the flood that happened during Noah's time, or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah! We ARE being punished for our sins! The dead are rising, and Judgment Day is upon us!

Barbara:
Don't you understand? My brother is alone!

Ben:
Your brother is dead.

Barbara:
NO! My brother is NOT dead!

Newscaster:
All persons who die during this crisis from whatever cause will come back to life to seek human victims, unless their bodies are first disposed of by cremation.

Newscaster:
Reports, incredible as they may seem, are not the results of mass hysteria.

Harry Cooper:
"Mass hysteria?" What do they think, we're imagining all this?

Ben:
Shut up!

Harry Cooper:
Look! You two can do whatever you like! I'm going back down to the cellar, and you'd better decide! 'Cause I'm gonna board up that door, and I'm not going to unlock it again no matter what happens!

Tom:
Now wait a minute, Mr. Cooper.

Harry Cooper:
NO, I'm not going to wait! I've made my decision, now you make yours!

Tom:
Now WAIT a minute! Let's think about this! We can make it to the cellar if we have to! And if we do decide to stay down there, we'll need some things from up here! So let's at LEAST consider this a while!

Sheriff McClelland:
All right, Vince, hit him in the head, right between the eyes.

Johnny:
Do you remember one time when we were small, we were out here? It was from right over there, I jumped out at you from behind the tree, and Grandpa got all excited, and he shook his fist at me and said, "Boy, you'll be damned to Hell!" (Laughs.) Remember that? Right over there. Boy, you used to really be scared here.

Barbara:
Johnny!

Johnny:
You're still afraid!

Barbara:
Stop it, now! I mean it!

Johnny:
Look at this thing. We still remember? I don't! You know, I don't even remember what the man looks like!

Barbara:
Johnny, it takes you five minutes.

Johnny:
Yeah, five minutes to put the wreath on the grave and six hours to drive back and forth. Mother wants to remember, so we trot two hundred miles into the country and she stays at home.

Barbara:
Well, we're here, John, all right?