George Romero

The Dark Side, #67, 1997

George Romero

". . . What is special about Romero's zombies, however, is their cannibalistic appetite. Romero is almost entirely responsible for the familiar incarnation of the zombie as ghoulish cannibal, as blood-thirsty anthropophage who adds to his numbers by feeding on living flesh."

-- - Mikita Brottman - Necronomicon 2, 1998.

Although I've linked to the Amazon DVD site for Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead - both are currently hard to find. They may be available second hand - but some of the prices offered seem a little high - I believe Anchor Bay is re-releasing both movies in 2003.

Date Title Source IMDB DVD Reviews

1968 Night of the Living Dead DVD IMDB

1972 Season of the Witch VHS IMDB Review

1973 The Crazies VHS IMDB

1977 Martin DVD IMDB Review

1978 Dawn of the Dead DVD IMDB

1980 Document of the Dead DVD IMDB Review

1981 Knightriders DVD IMDB

1982 Creepshow DVD IMDB Review

1985 Day of the Dead DVD IMDB

1988 Monkey Shines DVD IMDB Review

1990 Two Evil Eyes DVD IMDB

1993 Dark Half DVD IMDB Review

2000 Bruiser DVD IMDB

For a complete filmography go to the IMDB

Born: February, 1940, New York, New York, USA
American writer, director. Perhaps because he is best known for movies about flesh-eating zombies, Romero is one of the most underrated film-makers currently working in America. His debut feature, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, changed the course of cinema history, standing alongside The Wild Bunch and Easy Rider as a sign that the era of peace and love was giving way to a pessimism more in tune with a generation sceptical of authority and opposed to continued American involvement in Vietnam.
Made in black and white, with an inexperienced cast, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD swept away horror movie conventions.When the dead come back to life and try to eat the living. there are no comic interludes and no let-up from the very first scene. It is a masterly, all too credible portrait of human beings being torn apart (sometimes literally) under intolerable circumstances, and years ahead of its time in its examination of the questionable role played by the media in times of crisis.
In subsequent films, Romero continued to turn convention upside-down and invest what might otherwise be stock horror situations with acute insight into the darker side of human nature. THE CRAZIES is not just about the military's attempts to contain a deadly virus, but also the collapse of social order; MARTIN is not just an updating of the vampire myth but also a study of a dysfunctional young outsider in a recessed steel town.
Romero returned to zombies in DAWN OF THE DEAD, which continues to document the breakdown of society overrun by the ever-increasing undead hordes. More action-oriented than NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, it became a huge international hit, despite a high splatter content which led to release in the US without a rating (normally a kiss of commercial death).
Romero next collaborated with Stephen King on CREEPSHOW, an anthology homage to EC Comics, though all five segments are disappointingly lightweight. Romero concluded the living dead "trilogy" with DAY OF THE DEAD: originally envisaged with battalions of zombies trained for combat - it was reduced to a single zombie put through obedience training by a mad scientist. MONKEY SHINES is an effective version of the Jekyll and Hyde story in which a quadraplegic's monkey begins to act out his subconcious wishes.
---- - the complete article by Anne Billson can be found in the BFI Companion to Horror, 1996