Another Horror great has left us. Director George A. Romero has died at age 77. Romero and screenwriter John Russo made zombies fashionable again and truly terrifying with the release of their independent feature “Night of the Living Dead” (1968). This movie was gutsy, gripping and gruesome and it has frightened viewers for nearly 50 years. The living dead in this picture have shambled through the nightmares of millions of viewers and, to this very day, “Night of the Living Dead” will more than likely cap off the horror movies played on Halloween night. The vivid memories of watching this shocker in my youth include the hideous ghouls feasting on the medium rare flesh of the victims of a truck explosion. A nightmarish montage of living dead creeps satiating themselves on human body parts in extreme close up made me cover my eyes. Pretty much has the same effect 40 years later.
Romero would go on to devise three more episodes in this “Living Dead” saga. There would be the hideously sarcastic “Dawn of the Dead”, the apocalyptic (Alright. They were all about the breakdown in society when the zombies started munching on people) “Day of the Dead”, and “Land of the Dead”. All these movies benefited from Romero and crew’s inventive and intensely gory special effects and witty observations on the way we live(d).
An original director whose style will be greatly missed. Check out some of his other efforts, too: “The Crazies”, “Martin”, and “Knightriders”. Good stuff.
