Tom Fallows – The Pocket Essential George Romero

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Co-author – Curtis Owen. Pocket Essentials 2008 Biography and critical filmography of the highly influential horror movie director, George A Romero. Though best known for his seminal zombie movies, Night, Dawn, Day, Land & Diary Of The (Living) Dead, Romero’s productivity is much wider. His zombie films redefined the creatures – before then zombies were raised as slaves and allies to necromancers, usually with dire consequences. Romero almost single handedly made the zombies a plague-creature who spread by biting the living to feed or make more zombies. The Night Of The Living Dead was the first and best of the five movie story arc, daring to make statements on US race relations too, casting a black hero who is shot in the final seconds of the film by rednecks unable to distinguish him from the zombies. Dawn of The Dead tackled mindless consumerism, with both affluent middle classes and zombies invading shopping malls with different ideas on all you can want. Romero struggled to break free of the horror genre. There’s Always Vanilla was a dark tale about abortion, Knightriders was a modern reworking of Arthurian legends, Such work fared badly at the box office as have many later Romero horror projects. The critiques are honest assessments of the movies, with cast/production credits, a plot summary, behind the making insights, a look at how much gore the horror movies carried, and a 1-5 star rating. Closing chapters look at films influenced directly by Romero, including Sean Of The Dead and the under-rated spoof, Return Of The Living Dead, as well as a look at projects Romero planned but never got to handle in the end, including a TV version of Dracula. A handy pocket-book in a great series of such. Arthur Chappell