George Romero continued the tale of the decimation of society by a zombie outbreak with this follow up to “Night of the Living Dead”.
Romero angled for social commentary more heavily this time showing a horde of zombies inhabiting a shopping mall and lumbering about all the trinkets and merchandise available in a multi store shopping mall.
There are comments from the still human cast about how the undead have returned to a place of comfort where they wiled away hours, buying and looking at products and shit, when they were still counted among the living. Consumerism is criticized but the mall setting in the film allows all occupants the ability to find life sustaining supplies and ample shelter.
We can muse over the pros and cons of the self-contained mall environment on this, Black Friday.
Or not.
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.
My favorite episode from the cinematic horror comic, “Creepshow”. This movie captured the flavor of horror comics infamously represented by the line put out by EC Comics in the 1940’s and 1950’s. There are flourishes of garish, saturated colors which permeate several chapters of this episodic anthology and some transitions from live action to cartoon graphics. Genre heavyweights George Romero of “Night of the Living Dead” fame and writer Stephen King lent their talents to the weird goings on here. This clip details a murderous act of revenge enacted by a jealous husband upon his unfaithful wife and her lover. The tide turns on the husband as the recently deceased refuse to stay settled in their watery grave and reappear in a rather grotesque, bloated state to return the favor. Nice acting turns by Leslie Nielsen and Ted Danson. Nielsen losing his mind when confronted with the undead is rather affecting.
A varied collection of unusual movie and music video clips.
