George A. Romero
One upon a time, America was in a period of tremendous strife. The country was locked in a difficult, controversial war, the civil rights and anti-war movements were turning the streets into a battleground, major political leaders were struck down in sudden bursts of violence, and American families turned on the TV every night and saw footage of American soldiers being loaded in bodybags. It was, to put it mildly, a turbulent time.
Set against this cultural backdrop, a young filmmaker out of Pennsylvania decided to make a horror movie about a group of desperate people under siege by flesh eating ghouls animated by an unknown force. Shot in a ''cinema vérité'' style with a strong African American protagonist and an unrelentingly bleak ending, ''Night of the Living Dead' shocked the American psyche and changed horror forever. Critics have seen this film as a reflection of the unrest of the age, as a commentary on the dissolution of the nuclear family, as a racial critique, as an anti-feminist diatribe, and as a tale of bleak, unrelenting nihilism.
Whatever politics the viewer chooses to take from ''NotLD'', one ghastly image remains forever burned into the public's psyche: the rotted, shambling zombie, moaning softly, hungry for human flesh.
"The dead will walk the earth..."
George Romero invented the modern zombie.
Before Romero got his hands on them, zombies were mostly pitiable slaves under the command of a sinister voodoo lord. Romero jettisoned most of the original mythology around the creatures and, borrowing heavily from both EC Comics' ''Tales from the Crypt'' stories and Richard Matheson's vampiregenerated media. His movies are known for layers of social commentary as much as their outlandish special effects, many provided by master effects artist Tom Savini.
His movies aren't for the faint of heart. The effects of a zombie attack are recorded in gory detail and several of his biggest films were given the X-rating for extreme content. But his movies are also smart, well constructed, and endlessly engaging. George A. Romero is considered one of the most successful independent filmmakers of all time and his films have changed the face of horror forever.
"They're coming to get you, Barbara..."
When starting a George Romero collection, the best place to begin is with ''Night of the Living Dead''. Even though it is over 40 years old, it still retains its ability to shock and horrify. Romero wrote the remake of his own film, which was directed by Tom Savini and starred horror icon Tony Todd. Following that, check out ''Dawn of the Dead''. Arguably Romero's best work, the film focuses on a group of survivors who take refuge in an abandoned shopping mall, only to come under siege by the mall's original occupants. The final movie in Romero's original zombie trilogy, ''Day of the Dead'', is my personal favorite. Set in an underground research facility, Day tells the story of the last survivors of a military group who desperately try to find a cure for the undead plague.
Aside from Romero's zombie films, he's done several other cultzombie work includes the plague of madness film, ''The Crazies'', the disturbing vampire flick, ''Martin'', and the joust on motorcycles epic, ''Knightriders''.
Romero's work has spawned a cottage industry of devotees who build on his works, including the hyperkinetic British horror film, ''28 Days Later'', the ''Resident Evil'' video game series, and the remarkable ''World War Z'' novel by Max Brooks. The success of the zombie genre revival prompted Romero to return to the zombie genre with ''Land of the Dead'', ''Diary of the Dead'', and ''Survival of the Dead''. To be perfectly honest, they don't hold up to his earlier work, but they're good viewing for a Romero completionist.
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