Legacy of the Living Dead: Tribute to George A. Romero

George A. Romero's zombies walked so that The Walking Dead could- well... walk. And run, with the Dawn of the Dead (2004) remake and all. He thought that was stupid though. They're dead, they aren't supposed to be shining examples of peak physicality. Anyway...

The loss of George Romero in July, 2017 to a short but aggressive battle with lung cancer hit hard across the horror community. It seemed that even though he worked the fringes of the Hollywood studio machine, and would have large gaps between projects, we always anticipated his next creation with bated breath and childlike excitement. Especially all those unrealized projects - but we'll get to those a bit later. First, let's talk about the man for those who are newly undead.

George Andrew Romero was a celebrated director, writer, editor, and actor whose contributions to the horror genre were memorable and ground-breaking, also launching the careers of the most prolific special effects makeup artists of our time: Tom Savini and Greg Nicotero. His most notable film, Night of the Living Dead (1963) introduced the world to zombies as we know them, rather than the obscure and unexplainable creatures of Voodoo that they had been. With Night of the Living Dead, George had inadvertently touched on the a nerve that humanity is most uncomfortable with, and as if that weren't effective enough, the monster brought with it poignant social commentary that would resonate with audiences for many decades to come.

The release of Night of the Living Dead in 1963 brought more criticism than celebration with notable critic Roger Ebert citing extreme themes of violence and tragedy as extremely damaging for the core audience of horror films of the time: children and adolescents. And it is indeed one of the most tragic and heavy films of the old black-and-white horror days. It certainly made an impression on my mother, and in turn on me. Zombies are our worst fear.

George had come out of the gate swinging for sure. This young, resourceful, Bronx-raised graduate of Carnegie Mellon University had just created a subgenre of the monster to end all monsters: Humans.

"I also have always liked the monster within idea. I like the zombies being us. Zombies are the blue-collar monsters." - George A. Romero

While he certainly loves the horror genre, his biggest successes pigeonholed him to it for the majority of his career. His humble beginnings were with the wholesome Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and television commercials (a medium his father was also not a stranger to), and Romero did have some non-horror ventures in his body of work. Films such as The Amusement Park (1975), Knightriders (1981), There's Always Vanilla (1971), and Season of the Witch (1972), were not as well-known or acclaimed as his genre works. While he did express frustration with being type-cast in this sense, he also held a deep love for the horror genre. You can make a horror film for cheap and it's the one genre that is guaranteed to have a comeback even in it's lowest of downslopes.

Sometimes I have to remind people that his horror portfolio is more than just zombie fare. He is the also the director behind The Crazies (1973), Monkey Shines (1988), The Dark Half (1993), and the beloved Stephen King anthology, Creepshow (1982). Romero had a great camaraderie with horror's most famous writer. He was at some point attached to write and direct The Stand, 'Salem's Lot, Pet Sematary, IT, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, and From a Buick 8 - all of which fell through for one reason or another - everything from scheduling conflicts to creative differences with producers. His fans still enjoy discussing what could have been with those projects with respect to how well most of them turned out, Romero had a unique and very grounded way of interpreting frightening situations and the unknown.

If you get a chance to check out his films outside of the zombie subgenre, it is well worth it. Every time.

The Living Dead Films

The franchise that changed horror forever, and led to its revival about once every generation across half a century. Each one a comment on the times that produced it. Each one a testament or altogether damnation of the human experience. Zombies are the great "reset" button, the catalyst that leads to the near-extermination of the human race, and the end of modern life as they know it. Even people who aren't big fans of the horror genre can find a reason to watch a show like The Walking Dead (2010) because it is the most effective examination of what it is to be faced with real live or die, what really matters to you choices. And The Walking Dead wouldn't exist without George Romero and his Living Dead films.

Night of the Living Dead - 1963

Racial and societal tensions in 1960s America were at a fever pitch, and Romero saw the ghouls as a metaphor for public rage and revolution. Romero has said that casting Duane Jones (a black man) in the lead role was not an intentional move, but ended up being perfect as the group of survivors fight amongst themselves, unable to find solutions simply due to ego rather than necessity and logic. The treatment of our hero at the end of the film, being dispatched and thrown on a pile of dead as if he was just another ghoul is one of the most powerful images of the film, speaking volumes of the tragedy that black Americans were facing regularly in 1960s America.

Dawn of the Dead - 1978

This film was a biting satire of American consumerism and the way people seemed to walk aimlessly, complacent in their mundane existence. The ghouls are inexplicably drawn to the comforts of their former lives - culminating in an impressive horde in and around the local shopping mall. Our group of three four very different survivors thinks they've hit pay dirt by fortifying and holing up inside the one structure that seems to have everything they could ever want or need to ride this thing out. But as in life, the creature comforts do little to give them a life worth living, and the line between living and dead grows increasingly thin.

Day of the Dead - 1985

Romero's personal favorite of his Living Dead films, he explored what the total breakdown of society under prolonged crisis would look like. A result of government overreach and humans playing God with science - as they do - our group of survivors in this story are trapped within an underground military facility where the dead are experimented on and being human has been reduced to nothing more than a never-ending psy-op.

Land of the Dead - 2005

Land of the Dead is a slight return to societal rule, conjuring the good old feelings of unfairness as the rich and powerful live in a safe and luxurious high rise while the poor and downtrodden are on their own to fight for their lives amongst the dead. In this film, the ghouls become a weapon of revolution, as Romero always intended. This is the only Dead film that Romero made under Universal Pictures - a large Hollywood studio that ironically represented the very class of people he sent his zombies to destroy in the film.

Delicious, delicious irony.

Diary of the Dead - 2007

Diary of the Dead is an illustration of the break-down in trust of authority in all its forms - government, media - and the rise of independent voices on social media and other platforms. A group of film students that question the authenticity of any information being given about the obvious catastrophe that they see unfolding before them seek truth, but end up questioning if voyeurism in the media and the documentation of what could very well be the end of civilization as they know it is helping more than it is hurting. This one was ahead of its time as social media was just beginning to take hold and now here we are - seeing more true horror on our phones than any horror movie marathon ever could have exposed us to.

Survival of the Dead - 2009

Before you had Hershel and his barn of "friends and family" or Celia's dungeon of loved ones at the Abigail Vineyard, there was Survival of the Dead - Romero's comment on people's differing methods of dealing with death and the never-ending conflict it creates between factions of survivors in an ongoing crisis. Romero hit the ever-important "suicidal empathy" nerve long before Shane opened that barn up - and just before the western world began to allow it to overtake their collective consciousness in real life.

Empire of the Dead - 2014

George Romero's Empire of the Dead is a limited comic book series released by Marvel that begin publication in 2014. The scope of the apocalypse has widened to include vampires, and on the quarantined, but no less safe island of Manhattan, its zombies versus vampires with humans caught in between. Not to be confused with The Death of Death limited series of comics that Romero wrote for the DC Comics universe in 2004. While more outlandish than any of the Dead films, Empire of the Dead is a thrilling addition to the Living Dead zeitgeist, and a welcome new addition for anyone starving for more George Romero content.

Twilight of the Dead - In Development Hell

It was announced one year ago that Milla Jovovich (no stranger to the zombie apocalypse - see the Resident Evil films) and Betty Gabriel (Get Out, 2017) are attached to star in George Romero's final Living Dead film, Twilight of the Dead. He wrote a treatment for the film before he passed away in 2017. Now his widow Suzanne Desrocher-Romero has teamed up with production company, Roundtable to bring the conclusion of Romero's vision to (no pun intended) life. It was set to begin filming this year, but I haven't seen any further information on this project lately. I do hope this gets made with the utmost respect to Romero's intended conclusion for his undeniably most important contribution to the horror genre and independent film.

How does one give proper tribute to such an important figure in our genre other than to keep sharing his work with new generations and thinking of him every time I see another zombie film or television series? The man who put to film the most difficult and confrontational emotions that humans could be confronted with. The man who held your eyes open and made you look. The man who made you think of the unthinkable.

Thanks, George.

Stay scared.