9. Night Of The Living Dead
How To Survive: Don't be black. George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead is a classic zombie film, and popularised the tendency for Romero's "...of the Dead" films to have a social commentary along with all the gory mayhem. What's so fantastic about the film is how it broaches the social climate of the time in which it was made (1968), ably confronting the racial clash and Civil Rights Movement of that period by wrapping the commentary around a thrilling zombie invasion narrative. The protagonist, Ben, is a black man who ends up as the final survivor of the group he is with. However, he ends up being startled by some intruders who, upon seeing him, automatically assume that he is a zombie and kill him, before burning his corpse on a pyre. Ben died because of racism, and if you want to stay alive in this film, you'd better be sure that you're white (though that doesn't seem to be
that helpful either, to be honest).