Night of the Living Dead is probably the classic zombie movie. The Library of Congress deemed it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. That’s kind of a big deal for a zombie flick.

Of course it’s more than just a zombie flick. Wikipedia has a decent explanation of how critics interpreted it, so I’ll just drop a link.

Poor Ben. Survives the night, but I guess there’s no salvation from redneck zombie hunters for a black man during a zombie apocalypse.