The Living Dead Anthropology

“Night of the Living Dead” Film Analysis Essay (52 sentences)

Mya Medeiros

The film “Night of the Living Dead” filmed in 1968 follows the stories of seven characters who are trapped in a nightmare. The nightmare in question is the dead coming back to life as flesh-eating Ghouls. This reaction was caused by radioactive contamination from a space probe explosion in Earth's atmosphere. Once scientists have figured out exactly what these Ghouls were then rescue teams were sent out together to save any survivors. Rescue teams searched for survivors while executing any Ghouls found in their path. Ironically the rescuers did not exactly save anyone because they did not check for survivors they killed anyone moving, including some survivors.

The theory of routine activities related to the cast members because they are involved in a larger group of victims who are all being victimized by the same Ghouls. In the film, the main group of people being victimized according to this theory are the living. The living are the ones fighting off and protecting themselves from the Ghouls. According to this theory, this makes the living more susceptible to be murdered by the Ghouls. Punishment also ties together in this film because the main characters are punished, or in this case murdered by their culprits. The culprits hunt down and murder each victim in order to find their pleasure in life. The victims are punished in the film by being murdered by the Ghouls, however, the reasoning for their punishment is not determined in the

This proves that their happiness or pleasure is more important than anything else in their lives.

According to a work by James Fessier, “Hedonism involves pleasure-seeking, and hedonistic utilitarians argue that morality is determined according to how much pleasure or pain is produced from a course of action.” This is an example of pleasure outweighing pain in most circumstances. For the Ghouls, the pleasure of eating the humans was greater than the danger and pain of seeking it. This also means that the risk and or consequence of a crime must theoretically be lower than the amount of pleasure as an end result. This proves that the Ghoul’s hedonism of eating human flesh outweighed the risk of being killed and or burned in the process.

I have learned that routine activities theory notes that victimization increases when motivated culprits and victims consider together. Also, that punishment or the act of being at fault is a result of wrongdoing, lastly I learned that hedonism is the very basic meaning to find pleasure in life at any and all costs. After reading many opinions and viewpoints on these topics my view has been created in many parts. I cannot think of any solutions for such