Happy Birthday, Uncle George!

What must it be like to invent an entirely new sub-genre of film? In my life time, I only know of one man to do so - George A. Romero. Romero turns 72 today and while his most recent entries in the "Living Dead" series pale in comparison to the first three, no one can deny that his contribution to modern Horror films is without comparison. 

Romero's movies aren't just about scaring audiences (though most of them do so quite effectively), but making them think along the way. Night of the Living Dead comments on racism; Dawn of the Dead on rampant consumerism and Day of the Dead addresses military oppression. Even the lesser and latter films in the series have something to say. Land of the Dead is about class and money, while Diary of the Dead is about obsessive artists and Survival of the Dead speaks to familial relationships. 

Uncle George

Of course, Zombies aren't Romero's only topics. One of my favorite Romero films is 1981's Knightriders, about a traveling group of entertainers who reenact medieval joust tournaments on motorcycles. It features the leading man debut of Ed Harris, and is the one of the first films I can remember seeing as a young man that features a positive representation of a gay character. His first of two collaborations with author Stephen King is the highly effective anthology Creepshow, which features a hilarious performance from Adrienne Barbeau as an obnoxiously pushy wife of a wimpy professor; King himself as man overtaken by an alien life force; Leslie Nielson and Ted Danson in a tale of infidelity, murder & revenge and a very creepy sequence involving cockroaches (my college friend Rich W. nearly lost his mind during that one).

1988's Monkey Shines tells the tale of a quadriplegic (Jason Beghe) whose genetically altered helper-monkey Ella, develops inappropriate feelings (and eventually murderous rage) for her 'master.'

In 1993, Romero adapted King's novel The Dark Half, about an author whose fictional pseudonym (possibly the soul of his twin who died in vitro), comes to life to take revenge after the author "kills' and buries him publicly. The Dark Half was written in response to King's outing as 'Richard Bachman,' author of 'The Running Man,' among other novels. Timothy Hutton, Amy Madigan, Julie Harris, Michael Rooker and my beloved Beth Grant star.

I haven't even covered Romero's early, 'smaller' indie films like Martin; The Crazies or Season of the Witch (AKA Hungry Wives); all of which are worth seeing, if only to track Romero's progression as both a writer and director.

Still, Romero's legacy will always be his "of the Dead" films, beginning with the 1968 classic that started it all, Night of the Living Dead.

I and hundreds of other film and Horror bloggers have written about this film ad nauseum, and none of us have anything truly new to say that hasn't already been said. Just know that had it never been made, AMC's amazing series "The Walking Dead" would never have existed. Nor would any number of other zombie movies (including the hilarious Shaun of the Dead and my own screenplay Army of the Dead), novels (Max Brooks' "World War Z") toys, calendars, blogs and even trading cards.

Happy Birthday, Uncle George. Your rabid fans will always love you for creating the sub-genre that continues to infiltrate and influence popular culture.

More, anon.
Prospero

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Dead: Part 3

In the fall of 1984, my sister and I attended our one and only fan convention, the Fangoria Horror Convention in NYC. It's there that we met horror icons Tom Savini and the very sweet Michael Berryman. And it is also where we saw a sneak preview of George A. Romero's third entry in his "...of the Dead" series, Day of the Dead. We were freaking out over what we saw and what promised to be the best "dead" movie, yet.

The movie was released the following summer and we went, anticipating nothing less than an amazing horror experience. We got... well, we got a decent zombie movie that, truth be told, could have been better.

In an underground military facility, a group of soldiers and scientists try to find a cure for the zombie apocalypse which has taken out most of the world's population. There's Sarah (Lori Cordille); John (Terry Alexander); Bill (Jariath Conroy) and Miguel (Anthony Dileo, Jr); Captain Rhodes (Joe Pilato) and Dr. Logan (Richard Liberty). Rhodes and his team have been rounding up zombies for Logan's experiments, which are kept in pens far from the group's living quarters. Logan, known as "Dr. Frankenstein" by Rhodes and his team, is ostensibly working on a cure, but is actually working on domestication of the zombies. His 'star pupil,' a former soldier Logan has named 'Bub' (Howard Sherman) can speak; remembers how to use a phone and even salutes a C.O. 

You have to love the inclusion of Stephen King's "Salem's Lot" in that scene. I'm sure he did.

While gathering more 'specimens' for Logan's experiment, one of the zombies breaks free and bites both Private Miller and Miguel, causing Rhodes to call an official halt to Logan's experiments. Sarah amputates Miguel's bitten arm and cauterizes the wound in an effort to prevent him from becoming a zombie. While searching for painkillers for Miguel, Sarah and Bill discover Logan's private recordings along with the head of the recently bitten Pvt. Miller. Sure that both Logan and Rhodes have gone insane, they begin to plot their escape. Rhodes discovers their plan and sends them to the zombie pen. Eventually, all hell breaks lose and the facility is attacked by zombies from both above and below. Bub gets a hold of a pistol and shoots Rhodes in the back and as the zombies tear Rhodes in half and make off with his legs, he croaks "Choke on em!" as Bub salutes (language and gore may be NSFW):

After fighting their way through hundreds of zombies, Sarah, Bill and John make their escape in the helicopter. We next find them on a beach of a secluded island where John and Bill fish in the surf as Sarah crosses off another day on a calendar.

From those clips, one might think Day of the Dead is an exciting and relentless thriller but in reality, it's a talky treatise on morality, interspersed with scenes of zombie mayhem. Romero had begun to take himself, and his genre, too seriously for his own good. While better than the three "Dead" films he would make later, Day... is a rather disappointing entry in the series. Muddled by philosophical questions which one might think would add gravitas to the concept, Romero's dialog heavy script actually gets bogged down over-serious concepts and Act II simply drags by as the characters debate, argue and complain about their situation. It doesn't help that most of the movie is confined to a single location. A mere six years after his brilliant Dawn of the Dead, Romero gets too caught up with social commentary, forgetting what made the first two movies so compelling - the smart balance between horror and commentary.

While certainly a worthy entry in the series, Day of the Dead lacks both the terror and the intelligence that makes his first two entries so horrifying. And even though both Night and Dawn are both primarily set in a single location, the claustrophobic underground facility in Day comes off as rather stagnant. And while that may well be what Romero was going for, it just doesn't work as well as it does in the first two films. And I'm not sure why. If you have any insight, I'd be glad to hear it. Still, Day of the Dead is certainly worth seeing, especially for the sub-genre's fans. 

More, anon.
Prospero

You have read this article Conventions / Day of the Dead / George Clooney / Halloween / Horror / Movies / Shocktober / Zombies with the title Day of the Dead. You can bookmark this page URL https://tammycross.blogspot.com/2011/10/dead-part-3.html. Thanks!