John Carpenter has described George A. Romero’s 1968 horror film *Night of the Living Dead* as a frightening and influential work, recalling that it scared him when he first saw it. He particularly praised its unstoppable zombie threat and its idea that loved ones could become monsters, arguing that the film helped define modern zombie horror.

Romero’s low-budget independent film centres on people trapped in a Pennsylvania farmhouse as the dead rise around them. Carpenter called it “groundbreaking” and noted its lasting influence on later zombie stories, including *The Walking Dead*; the article presents it as a key inspiration for his own horror filmmaking.