Night of the Living Dead

A handful of strangers, thrown together by panic, nail boards over the windows of an old Pennsylvania farmhouse while flesh-eating ghouls overrun the Northeast. The setup is as lean as horror gets: one house, one night, one dwindling supply of nerve. What the premise promises is pressure, the slow arithmetic of who holds together and who cracks, with the siege outside mattering rather less than the arguments inside.

Siege-horror devotees and anyone who prefers dread built from confinement over gore-first spectacle are the natural audience. At an efficient eighty-seven minutes, expect tight, escalating tension and a growing sense that a few planks of wood are the only thing keeping order in place. Newcomers to the genre will find an accessible entry point; hardened fans will enjoy watching the formula run at full strength. Turn the lights off and let the farmhouse do its work.