July 18, 2017
When I heard the news tonight of George Romero’s passing, I
was stunned. It honestly felt like a kick in the gut. George Romero invented
the zombie movie when he directed the original Night of the Living Dead. I do
not use the term “invented” lightly, either. With that one movie, he set forth
a list of rules that virtually every zombie movie has stuck with to this day.
And by doing so, he made me a fan for life.
I first saw Night of the Living Dead when I was 12 years
old. It had become a public domain movie, due to a MAJOR screw up with the
distribution company, and therefore, it was on television, it seemed like,
every other day. Hell, I saw it on PBS a few times. Yes, Night of the Living Dead
was on the same channel as Sesame Street and Antiques Roadshow…
I have been pondering starting a blog about movies, with the
idea being I would write about a movie every day for a year. I had played
around with a few ideas on it… would it be about one genre in particular, would
it focus on one group of stars or directors, etc. But nothing was really
ringing true. Until tonight, that is…
I sat in my office chair, thinking about George Romero,
thinking about the film genre he created, and how much a part of my life that
genre has become over the years. And a thought hit me. Everything and everyone
can be linked back to George Romero. Major stars are doing horror movies these
days. Everyone has done a horror movie, or done a movie with someone who has
done a horror movie. And most of those people have done a film with SOMEONE who
has worked with George Romero. It’s like that game, "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." Everything can be traced back to a connection with George!
So, much like my book, Return to Sender (I know, shameless
plug… deal with it…), I took one idea that I have been thinking on, and meshed
it with a new idea, and boom.
So, gentle readers, I introduce to you 365 Degrees of George
Romero. Starting tonight, I am going to write about a George Romero movie.
Tomorrow, I am going to write about another movie connected to George, or
someone in that first movie. The day after that, I am going to write
about a
movie that is somehow connected, by actor or director, to the prior movie, and
so on, and so on until we reach July 18, 2018, when I will somehow link back to
George Romero.
We shall cross nations, eras, genres, and subgenres with
this, folks. Horror, documentaries, rom-coms, film noir, there’s no limit to
where mu mind might take me. BUT, there will always be a link to the film from
the day before. And, let’s face it, readers… the way my mind works sometimes, who
knows where I will leap from day to day.
Enough of the intro, let’s get to the first day. We start,
as you may have guessed, with the original, the classic, the one that started
it all…
Night of the Living Dead.
There has been so much written about this movie, in books
about midnight movies, cult movies, and the like. But, from a fan’s point of
view, it is simply an amazing story. Not just the movie itself, but how the
movie got made. George Romero was making commercials in a small film business
in Pittsburgh. And, like those old Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland films of old, he
and his fellow filmmakers just decided to make a full-blown motion picture
instead of commercials for Iron City Beer. A horror movie was their first choice
because, traditionally, they were easier to make than movies with extravagant
plots. Most of the cast were also crew members. Others were local actors who
just needed the work. And, lo and behold, they accidentally made one of the
most famous horror movies in the world.
It starts off with a brother and sister going to the
cemetery to put flowers on a family member’s grave. Johnny, the brother, starts
messing around, trying to scare his sister, Barbara, by goofing around with
spooky voices saying, “They’re coming to get you, Barbara…”
As this is happening, we, the audience, see the figure of a
man walking through the cemetery behind Johnny. Sure, he is walking a little
funny, but hey, funny walks are not threatening, right? WRONG! Next thing we
know, the man attacks Johnny, kills him, and goes after Barbara. Barbara tries
to drive away, but Johnny has the keys in his pocket. She throws the car into
gear and rolls down a hill, until the car hits a tree. Then it’s a foot race to
safety. She spies a house and runs for cover.
Her attacker has followed her, and more like him have
followed him. Barbara runs through the house in a panic, trying to find a safe
place, but when she opens the door to try and escape, she is blinded by
headlights. A young black man named Ben has arrived in a truck, and he helps
her fight off the first wave of attackers.
We soon find out that there are more people hiding in the
basement of the house. Harry and Helen, and their daughter, Karen, who has been
injured by one of the attackers, and a young couple named Judy and Tom. And
thus, we have our microcosm of survivors, trying to figure out what is going on
and how they will live through it all.
Through newscasts, they find out that these attackers are
the dead and recently deceased, and they are, in fact, eating the flesh of
those they attack.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the zombie movie was
born.
It’s fascinating to watch this movie, picking out the little
details that have become the lore of so many movies and TV shows. But it is
also an interesting piece of history in and of itself. Romero swore the fact
that Ben was played by African-American actor Duane Jones was only a
coincidence, that Jones was the best actor they found to play Ben. In doing so,
though, NOTLD makes a statement about the politics of 1968 and racial equality,
coincidentally or not. Ben immediately takes charge of the group, and, for the
most part, they all follow him. Harry, the older man who has been hiding in the
basement, is his only challenge, and the fact that he is a stereotypical white
middle-class guy only reinforces the racial undertone.
Politics aside, though, NOTLD gives us our first look at a
zombie. They are slow, plodding creatures, dead of facial expression and
clothed in whatever they were wearing (or not wearing, in one famous case… yes,
naked lady zombies are a thing…). The newscasts tell us that they are, in fact,
killing people and eating them, and the only way to make sure they are dead
again is to shoot them in the head, separating the brain from the spinal cord.
And, as becomes apparent later in the film, they are not opposed to having
their meals cooked. Heh…
The theory is put forth that all of this started because Earth
passed through the tail of a comet, and the radiation from said comet started
the zombie rebirth, but this is almost glossed over as a throwaway moment. An exact
answer to why is never fully given. The only detail about zombies that has
faded from modern-day lore is an aversion to fire. In NOTLD, fire wards them
off. I, for one, am not sad that this little trinket has fallen away from the “rule
book,” as we have had some spectacular zombie-on-fire moments in later movies…
Speaking of moments, let’s talk about some of the best ones
in this movie… possible spoilers, so consider yourself warned…
Little Karen, succumbing to her zombie bite, going after her mother with a trowel.
The look on young actress Kyra Schon’s face as she moves in on her mother…
absolutely chilling…
Johnny’s “reappearance” later in the movie, when the zombies
finally do fight their way into the house. When Barbara realizes it’s her brother
dragging her into the crowd of zombies to become breakfast… ooof…
The gas pump scene… I will go no further with this, except
to say that stupid people should listen to smart people more often…
And, lastly, the zombie banquet… it was the first time on
screen that we saw zombies tearing flesh from bone, gorging on intestines,
fighting over chunks of flesh. These days, scenes like this are old hat, but at
the time, people ran from the theatre and threw up in the lobbies and
bathrooms. This scene is what made NOTLD so horrifying, and brought it into the
public fight over what was acceptable to be shown onscreen.
It got America talking, and, as we know, when Americans are
told they shouldn’t go see a movie, they go to it in droves. NOTLD hit the
midnight circuit because most theatres wouldn’t show it during regular hours.
And it was on this midnight circuit that it became recognized as a pretty damn
powerful piece of filmmaking. Sure, it was ‘gross,’ it was “horrifying,” it was
“exploitive”… but it made one hell of a fan out of me, and I have never gotten
over the first time I saw it, and hopefully, I never will.
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