Skidoo may be forty and terrifying, but I'm talking about George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. The New York Post features an article on the 40th anniversary DVD. One of the commentaries puts to rest the notion that black actor Duane Jones was cast to make a statement about race. "We cast Duane because he was the best actor from among our friends," Romero says. "We didn't realize the power that would have. Duane was saying things to me all through the shoot, like, 'Wait a minute. I'm the guy that has to walk out of the theater after I slug this white dame.'" I'll take sentences we hope Barack Obama never utters for $2000, Alex.

Reading about the release made me think of a story my aunt told me about how powerful Night of the Living Dead was at the time. Both she and my mother -- two diehard horror flick fans to this day -- went to see a midnight showing of the movie. When they got back to the house, there was a perfectly-timed power outage. Nobody panicked at first, but then the old house started making old house noise -- creaks and so forth. After one particularly creepy noise, my mom ran and locked herself in the bathroom. This spooked my aunt, who said she banged on the door "like Fred at the end of The Flintstones" but my Mom wouldn't let her in. Suffice it to say, the zombies ate the people next door; otherwise I wouldn't be here to tell you this story. It's a funny thing, the power of movies. Stuff like this is what makes them relevant forty years later.