heading for the mall about now.
Sad news that the “Godfather of the Zombie flick”, George A. Romero has died.
The news should really have been announced by Richard France on TV with eye patch playing Dr. Millard Rausch.
Yes there was zombie films before Romero’s breakthrough “Night of the Living Dead” in 1968 and while the word zombie was never said in the film it became to blueprint for zombie flicks that followed.
Previous films were always Caribbean based tales of sweaty voodoo. After NotLD zombies could appear anywhere, with their slow lumbering lust for human flesh, and the only way to kill ’em being to go for the brain.
“Night of the Living Dead” and it’s follow up a decade later “Dawn of the Dead” (1978) are both classics, not just cult classics either. The last of the trilogy “Day of the Dead” (1985) is a good ‘un but I never felt it was as far up there as the previous two. But all three are films that if they’re on I’ll watch ’em.
Add in Romero’s “The Crazies” from 1973, and you’ve got a good bit of horror gore paranoia watching.