George A. Romero Passed Away

[Doctor Cringelord]

George A. Romero, 'Night of the Living Dead' creator, dies at 77 - LA Times

 

[Atomic Fiend]

God help the coroners, those working in the morgue and the grave diggers responsible for his aftercare.

 

[The Cat]

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

It always amuses me how he decides to sit down and test his blood pressure in the midst of the mayhem

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[Doctor Cringelord]

Some general thoughts

I think Dawn of the Dead '78 is possibly one of the greatest horror films ever made. It's like...horror drama? It was my first introduction to Romero and zombie films and it left a lasting impression. I think the extended original cut is the best of the 3 edits, some people prefer the shorter theatrical or the Argento Zombi edit. Weird how Romero films always had a lot of drama and characterization, something you didn't see a ton of in other horror from that period...in that regard, Dawn is a lot more like Jaws than it is, say, Halloween. He was able to balance characterization with mood, atmosphere, and social commentary. Dawn is an epic film despite being made on such a low budget. I mean it feels epic. That's hard to pull off, and it's even more remarkable it has a feeling of scale, when much of it was filmed in that mall. There's a real sense of claustrophobia and hopelessness with the main characters. Everything feels very pointless after Roger is bitten. The ending is particularly fucked up, think about it. A pregnant woman in a helicopter with little gas or ammo. How far could they really make it? I once read some fan fiction set after the end, the helicopter runs out of gas, and Peter survives and takes the newborn infant as his son in the apocalypse, eventually meeting up with the survivors from Day of the Dead.

There's some other lesser known Romero films that get overlooked like Martin and The Crazies. Crazies feels like a rough draft or a dry run for Dawn in many respects.

He was a good editor too. And way ahead of his time in often featuring women and black people as key, well-developed characters and not just stock victims or stereotypes. That's something even current films still struggle to pull off. Romero did it without pandering, he just portrayed them as flawed human beings like any other characters.

 

[Population: 1]

RIP George. Thanks for the nightmares! Dawn of the Dead (78) was the first zombie movie I saw too when I was twelve I think. Good old VHS in the 80's. The concept scared the hell out of me. It definitely held quite a bit of underlying social commentary. The zombies being symbolic of cultural revolutions and the new devouring the old. I always thought it also could symbolize the dangers of conformity of being either enveloped (bitten) by the mainstream or completely destroyed (eaten) by it.

Without Romero we'd probably have no Walking Dead, Evil Dead, perhaps even white walkers from Game of Thrones. He transformed zombies from the traditional Voodoo definition to the shambling hordes of undead I fear and love at the same time. Again RIP George.

 

[Lark]

Another great talent left this mortal coil and its poorer for it, I really dont see any replacements coming through the pipeline, maybe times have changed.

 

[The Cat]

 

[The Cat]

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I remember seeing the Misfits play, they had a projector screen behind them playing scenes from Dawn of the Dead.

 

[The Cat]

The Misfits...