40 YEARS OF DAY OF THE DEAD (1985): THE ROMERO ZOMBIE CLASSIC!

DAY OF THE DEAD (1985) d. George A. Romero (USA)

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Following up one of the biggest worldwide horror sensations was no easy feat for writer/director George A. Romero. When the sequel to Night of the Living Dead, 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, turned out to be even more successful and arguably just as influential, other doors opened for the horror icon. But when it came to concluding his zombie opus, budget limitations forced him to scale back his original vision for what would ultimately come to be known as Day of the Dead.

CREEPSHOW (1982) UHD Blu-ray Review

Creepshow (1982) d. George A. Romero (USA) (120 min)

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“It’s the most fun you’ll have being scared!” So trumpeted the ads for George A. Romero’s CREEPSHOW, a live-action anthology film that echoed the pleasures found within the pages of such E.C. Comics titles as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear, which pre-dated HBO’s series Tales from the Crypt and Romero’s own Tales from the Darkside, which premiered the following year.

THE CRAZIES (1973) Blu-ray Review

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Creator and performer of YouTube star Chad the Bird, Josh Zagoren, steps into the Doc's office to celebrate George A. Romero's landmark infection film, THE CRAZIES, on its 50th anniversary. While not a hit with audiences or critics in upon its initial release, the cult favorite has slowly garnered favor through the ensuing years and now stands proudly among the horror icon's finest hours. We also discuss the merits of the 2010 remake starring Radha Mitchell (Pitch Black, Rogue) and Timothy Olyphant (Justified, Deadwood), as well as the ways in which it differs from its predecessor.

THE AMUSEMENT PARK (1973) Movie Review

The Amusement Park (1973) d. George A. Romero (USA) (54 min)

This recently uncovered and restored “lost” film from the Zombie King is a decided curiosity, with as much going on behind the scenes as in front of the camera. I’m sure most of the folks reading this are familiar with the backstory by now, so I’ll keep it to a thumbnail version: Apparently, Romero was approached by a religious organization, The Lutheran Society of Western Pennsylvania, about creating a PSA about the ill treatment of the elderly and highlighting the need for empathy and support. What Romero subsequently delivered is an Expressionistic nightmare of an older gent (Lincoln Maazel, who would later star as Martin’s vengeful vampire-killing uncle) trapped inside an amusement park filled with attractions that highlight the ageist plight. (“You must be this old, and a limited fixed income and no preexisting conditions, to ride this ride…”)

TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE (1990) Blu-ray Review

SCARE-A-THON Totals to Date:

Total Movies Watched: 24
Total First Time Views: 13
Amount raised for BOXVILLE: $1,836.18

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990) d. John Harrison (USA) (93 min) (3rd viewing)

Betty (Blondie's Deborah Harry), an attractive, chipper, middle-aged suburbanite, is making preparations for a dinner party. On the menu: the paperboy Timmy (Matthew Lawrence), who is none too wild about being selected as the main dish. In an effort to keep his host distracted and stave off his time in the roaster pan, the lad reads selections from a collection of stories, entrancing her with tales of mummies and grad students and not-so-dead scrolls, crippled millionaires and hit men and vengeful felines, gargoyles and artists and promises made in the dark….

SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD (2009) movie review

Survival of the Dead (2009) d. George A. Romero (USA/Canada) (90 min)

Reportedly inspired by the Gregory Peck/Burl Ives western The Big Country (1958) and shot in Canada and Nova Scotia, this is a decided change-up from Diary of the Dead, its immediate predecessor, with POV camcorder shots replaced with gorgeous widescreen vistas. But the clunky social commentary, the ridiculous (and unexplained) Irish accents, the lack of likeable or empathetic or non-cartoon characters (living or undead), etc. reduce it to an entirely forgettable effort, just another low-budget zombie movie in a decaying sea of same.

THE DARK HALF (1993) Blu-ray Review

The Dark Half (1993) d. George A. Romero (USA)

Aspiring writer Thad Beaumont (Timothy Hutton) has reached a certain level of fame and success cranking out hard-nosed genre novels under the pen name of George Stark. But now Beaumont thirsts for “respectability,” something that eludes his popular but critically dismissed alter ego, and believes his latest effort will provide just that. At the same time, an erstwhile fan (Robert Joy) discovers the link between Beaumont and Stark and threatens to expose the secret unless some monetary compensation is forthcoming. With the support of his loving wife (Amy Madigan) and publishers (Rutanya Alda, Tom Mardirosian), Thad decides to publicly put Stark to rest, even staging a fake burial for the papers. However, the decision sparks a series of increasingly violent murders of the author’s intimates and associates, all implicating Thad. The evidence proves particularly damning since the killer claims to be none other than George Stark, who shares an uncanny resemblance – right down to his fingerprints – to you-know-who.

MONKEY SHINES (1988) Blu-ray Review

Monkey Shines (1988) d. George A. Romero (USA)

Following the lackluster reception of 1985’s Day of the Dead, Romero had a difficult time getting his feet and his next project. He found both – or rather they found him – in the form of producer Charles Evans (older brother of Paramount honcho Robert Evans) earmarking him to script and helm the screen version of Michael Stewart’s novel about a paralyzed accident victim Allan (Jason Beghe). In a classic science-gone-awry scenario, the “Helping Hands” support group provides him with a full-time live-in assistant, a small capuchin monkey named Ella who just happens to be Allan’s scientist pal Geoffrey’s (John Pankow) pet project, if you’ll pardon the expression. See, Ella’s been injected with a serum derived from human brain tissue in order to make her brainier; before you can say “Monkey Say, Monkey Kill,” Ella starts inexplicably sharing Allan’s headspace and all who arouse her new boyfriend’s ire meet with untimely ends.

DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) movie review

Dawn of the Dead (1978) d. George A. Romero (USA)

A decade after his groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead, Romero returned to the undead genre with a gory and thoughtful sequel that equals and occasionally surpasses its predecessor. While the ending of Night gives the impression that the undead uprising was coming under control, the opening scenes here indicate that this societal sigh of relief was breathed far too soon.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) movie review

Night of the Living Dead (1968) d. George A. Romero (USA)

Filmed on a shoestring and using a cast of no-name local actors from his native Pittsburgh, writer/director Romero delivered his brutal in-your-face tale of corpses rising from their graves to feast on human flesh and changed the face of horror films forever. While zombies had appeared onscreen before, never had they been so plentiful...or so hungry.

KNIGHTRIDERS (1981) Blu-ray Review

Knightriders (1981) d. George A. Romero (USA)

As the recognized godfather of the modern horror era, it’s a bit depressing to realize just how little joy George A. Romero derived from the majority of his genre output. Pigeonholed early on into the fright flick biz by an inflexible Hollywood, the great independent from Pittsburgh kept trying to wiggle his way out but found few doors open to him. However, following the worldwide success of Dawn of the Dead, he struck a three-picture deal with executive producer and distributor Salah A. Hassanein, securing creative autonomy under the sole contingency that one of the three would be a sequel to Dawn (the resulting film being 1985’s Day of the Dead). The other two were his 1982 EC Comics tribute with Stephen King, Creepshow, and a long, rambling, idealistic, at times naïve but extremely personal and heartfelt tale of motorcycle-riding knights attempting to live by an old-world code in a modern get-rich-quick world. One became a huge financial smash and beloved kitschy treat, while the other was virtually unseen by the movie-going public. The neglected foundling in this case, the one which Romero claims as his second personal favorite (behind 1976’s Martin), is 1981’s Knightriders.

DAY OF THE DEAD (1985) Blu-ray Review

 

Day of the Dead (1985) d. Romero, George A. (USA)

Following one of the biggest worldwide horror sensations was no easy feat for writer/director George A. Romero. When his sequel to Night of the Living Dead turned out to be as successful and arguably just as influential, one would think that finding backing for a third installment would be easy as falling off the proverbial log. But, lest we forget, Dawn of the Dead nearly didn’t find its way to the screening room, at least not without the threat of studio interference, until Italian horror icon Dario Argento and sibling Claudio stepped up with the bankroll. Long looked upon as the poor relation of the original trilogy, time and context (i.e. the even more divisive sequels that followed) have been kind to Day of the Dead, which has now earned its rightful place of respect and honor among its undead brethren.

MARTIN (1977) movie review

Martin (1977) d. Romero, George A. (USA)

Romero, having already placed his indelible stamp on the zombie genre in 1968, took on the bloodsuckers nearly a decade later with equally impressive (if not as widely copied) results. Subverting the entire vampire mythology, the erstwhile Pittsburgh writer/director creates a sympathetic portrayal of a troubled teenager named Martin (brilliantly played by John Amplas) who believes himself to be an 88-year-old vampire.

THE DEFINITIVE DOCUMENT OF THE DEAD (2012) movie review

On the audio commentary for this latest iteration of his groundbreaking behind-the-scenes Document of the Dead, filmmaker Roy Frumkes compares his film to Michael Apted’s Up series (7 Up, 14 Up, 21 Up, etc.) in that he feels that his life has somehow become intertwined with that of his doc’s subject, George A. Romero. While a pronounced exaggeration alongside with Apted’s landmark half-century-and-counting achievement, Frumkes’ point is that with each new version, he has to choose what archival footage to excise in order to make room for the new. Sadly, the truth is that this 2012 release (dubbed “The Definitive Document of the Dead”) shows only too clearly that – arguably like Romero’s work itself – the past is where the good stuff lies.

While teaching at the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1978, Frumkes was looking for a documentary subject and decided that, while there had been several behind-the-scenes films made for Hollywood studio efforts, there had not been many (if any) that covered the making-of an independent feature. Denied the ability to shoot in NY or California due to union rules, the instructor learned of Romero’s impending Dawn of the Dead shoot at the Monroeville Mall outside of Pittsburgh. Thanks to an already existing relationship with Dawn producer Richard Rubenstein, Frumkes was granted access to the set where he and a small crew (comprised mainly of SVA students) shot for several nights alongside Romero, Tom Savini, Ken Foree, et al., capturing delicious celluloid tidbits of a masterpiece in the making.