MovieChat Forums > Night of the Living Dead (1968) Discussion > The House

The House

posted 9 years ago by venusboys3
13 replies | jump to latest

I've been working on drawing up a floorplan of the house from NotLD for a roleplaying game I plan to run for Halloween this year.
So I watched the movie, stopping and starting to try to figure out the layout.
There were a couple of interesting discoveries...
First, that the flow of the action doesn't cheat. I was able to consistently follow the characters from room to room and they stayed with the floor plan... no one enters from the wrong direction for the sake of shot composition.
Two, the house is cramped and ugly... smaller than I assumed. I've read that it was going to be demolished so the owner didn't care about the film crew tearing it up, pounding nails into the walls.
Three, best as I can tell there don't seem to be any bathrooms on the ground floor. All the doors except one (the kitchen pantry I think) are opened and accounted for. The upstairs is pretty much a mystery but I suspect there may not be any toilets n the house at all. There are sinks in the kitchen and basement and what look like some pipes running down the walls in the living/dining room... but all the plumbing seems crudely implemented.

Once I'd figured out how the rooms were arranged I was even more confident that the plan for survival I've had since I was a kid was still a good one. The stairway is in a narrow hallway with only three doors, no windows. Much easier to solidly barricade the three doors with furniture and retreat upstairs... pile more heavy furniture onto the stairway and you'd be golden. No way the ghouls are getting up there, but you've still got exits/view ports from the windows.

[–] Sitcom_Sally 9 years ago

Have you read the novelization of the film? You might get ideas from it about the layout. This one was written after the film whereas Return of the Living Dead was written first and the film based on it.

"There is nothing in the dark that isn't there when the lights are on." - Rod Serling

[–] steelysunshine 9 years ago

You might find this interesting.
http://panglott.blogspot.com/2009/10/night-of-living-dead-farmhouse-map.html

Like you suspect there is no bathroom on the first floor. It looks like a very very old house possibly an 1800's farm house that had not been updated with indoor bathrooms. No one mentions an outhouse, but then again they are fighting off zombies, it's not likely they would be asking for directions to the outhouse.

Yes, the upstairs is a mystery. From the photo it looks like it was built as a true two story house and not a house that they added stairs and remodeled the attic for extra room, like my house. I would assume there is a hallway and two bedrooms on each side of the hallway and not much else up there. Well maybe an attic crawl space.

[–] bromstaker 9 years ago

The second floor had 4 bedrooms and there was a bathroom opposite the top of the stairs that was never seen. Also, there was another narrow stairway off of the small hall between the kitchen and the livingroom/dining room. The entrance to this stairway is kept off camera, but you see the underside of it in the scenes where a character is at the top of the basement stairs.

[–] steelysunshine 9 years ago

Oh good to know. Still it's a curiosity that houses have bathrooms upstairs and not downstairs. This is how a lot of houses are in Minneapolis, but not the rest of the Twin Cities, I don't quite get that.

[–] venusboys3 8 years ago

Just curious, where'd you get this information regarding the upstairs bathroom?
I doubt there was a second set of stairs. There is that small step/door between the kitchen and front room, but its tiny... more likely some sort of storage space that continues on over the basement stairs.
Either way it's a house with some odd features.

[–] bromstaker 8 years ago

I got the information a few years back from the producer of the Autopsy Of The Dead documentary. He was familiar with the layout of the original farmhouse. He also provided a link to a diagram of the farmhouse. There was a narrow stairway, a service stairway. Incidentally, the entrance to the basement stairs was in the kitchen in a wall that is off camera. Because much of the film's action took place in the living room/dining room combo Romero & company decided to cut a door in the wall in that room.

[–] venusboys3 8 years ago

Yes, I looked at that map while I was making mine. It's pretty close.
I do not think there was a second staircase (the house is just too small to need one). There is an odd door with a step, between the kitchen and the front room, but it's small.
As for the bathroom upstairs... that's possible. I'm not from that part of the country so it seems odd to me. There are pipes visible in the front room, running up through the ceiling. Perhaps plumbing that was added later in the house's history. If it's up there

[–] lunkerstool 8 years ago

Did you ever notice that not one character in the house had to go to the john the entire night? I guess they were all just scared *beep*

[–] lunkerstool 8 years ago

The "beep" word from my first post was s---less.

[–] ajp2223 8 years ago

Actually when you're terrified you either have to go a lot or not at all!
One can only assume that when the survival instinct kicks in,
some functions of nature are less important than others!?

[–] lunkerstool 8 years ago

Yep, you nailed it. When you're that scared, you can hold it for days maybe even weeks!

[–] TheColossalAvenger 8 years ago

Indeed, while I wasn't "terrified", my record of not going is ten (yes, ten) hours. So I could believe it could be possible they wouldn't feel the need to go during the night.

[–] katholiday1962 7 years ago

Boy! You are so thoughtful! :)

I honor the dead with Easter-eggs! Please view & comment on my new living dead tribute, ”The Walker”! www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EIsv6QmEHk
We tried to include Easter-egg's like, the space-probe and cement spade from the first NotLD film… Michonne's Katana can be seen hanging on the kitchen wall... As well as COREL'S pudding on the kitchen counter! We even threw in a couple of vintage Mustangs!