The classic 1968 movie that blew Terry Crews away: “I’ve never seen anything like that”
Terry Crews is one of those people who seemingly has access to a time machine, because there’s no other way to explain how he’s done all he has in his life.
He began his time in the public eye as an American Football player, playing defensive end and linebacker for a number of teams in the NFL. When this career reached its natural end, Crews pivoted into acting, making his name in a number of sitcoms and action movies. Plus, there are his business ventures, advocacy work, and the nine hours a day he must spend in the gym.
In 2022, he added another string to his considerable bow by joining the cast of Tales of the Walking Dead, one of the 800 spin-offs from Robert Kirkman’s original post-apocalyptic series. Each one of the six anthology-style episodes focused on a different group of people adjusting to life in a zombie-infested hellscape, and it saw Crews play Joe, a man living in a bunker who embarks on his first journey outside since the world collapsed.
As part of his promotional duties, Crews appeared at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con to talk about Tales of the Walking Dead, explaining that this wasn’t his first time dealing with the undead.
“I’m gonna take everybody here back to 1968,” he told the crowd (via SlashFilm). “Duane Jones, the star of Night of the Living Dead. First time I ever saw a Black hero who was literally running the show… I’ve never seen anything like that, but then, when I got to the end, and I saw the opportunity for social commentary in that way, I saw the power of what well-crafted horror could do.”
From the twisted mind of George A Romero, Night of the Living Dead is widely accepted as the film that launched the zombie craze in horror, although they are only ever referred to as ‘ghouls’ in the script, which had Duane Jones play Ben, a man caught up in an undead uprising, who teams up with a young woman, Barbra, played by Judith O’Dea, as they barricade themselves in a secluded farmhouse in hopes of surviving the night.
In 1968, African-American men simply were not cast in leading heroic roles, thus Jones’ performance was a watershed moment for race relations in American cinema, and it also informed the film’s now-legendary ending.
Having fended off the ghouls and survived until morning, Ben emerges from the farmhouse to find help when a group of armed men arrive, and mistaking him for a ghoul, shoot him dead. The film ends on the incredibly dour note of Ben’s corpse being burned alongside a bunch of nameless monsters; an unfitting conclusion for such a heroic figure.
From its groundbreaking exploration of race to its take on gender roles in society, Night of the Living Dead is one of the most important horror movies ever made, so it’s no wonder Crews became so obsessed with it, even though he would have only been a few months old when it came out.
