Reel Dread - Romero's Dead Cycle: Cannibalizing Social Values, or Night of the Living Reds?

[RSS]

1968 was a tumultuous year in America. It was a year when students were being killed at civil rights protests. A year when American soldiers massacred dozens of Vietnamese civilians in a war that was already against the public opinion. And a year when both Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. The state of the union was one of unrest to say the least. This is the culture that helped one young director change cinema on a shoestring budget. George A. Romero, having only directed short pieces for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, used guerrilla-style filmmaking techniques to redefine horror films for the modern age.

The above is from: http://www.earth-2.net/columns/reddick/reel-dread-16

[Missy]

This is easily your best piece yet. Your arguments were solid, and opened my eyes to a new way of thinking. Great job, Des!

[Dread]

Thanks Yoda!

This one kicked my ass. It felt like I was back in university again with limited sources!

Love the banner. I totally expected the iconic panorama of the zombies but this one is just as iconic and much more suitable for the piece. Cheers.

I've got a few ideas for a set of running themes (mostly 3-parters) but I'm not sure if I should do a lighter hearted piece first...

[slothian]

I enjoyed this one quite a bit as well. Never thought about NOTLD in that way before - who'd have thought a horror film could have depth? Certainly no producer nowadays...

[Dread]

I enjoyed this one quite a bit as well. Never thought about NOTLD in that way before - who'd have thought a horror film could have depth? Certainly no producer nowadays...

Thanks slothian!

There are a lot of horror films that do have depth. You just have to look for them, and only watch films made before the late 80s

Stick around. In a couple of weeks I'll be covering Dawn of the Dead in much the same way and of course the other installments in the series to follow...

[slothian]

I enjoyed this one quite a bit as well. Never thought about NOTLD in that way before - who'd have thought a horror film could have depth? Certainly no producer nowadays...

Thanks slothian!

There are a lot of horror films that do have depth. You just have to look for them, and only watch films made before the late 80s

Stick around. In a couple of weeks I'll be covering Dawn of the Dead in much the same way and of course the other installments in the series to follow...

I've made it plain through the show that I don't go looking for horror films as I'm an ultra-wimp - I'm not even sure what I was doing watching the original film! But yeah, the focus on gore for gore's sake particularly turns me off about modern horror films. For example, I can watch Tarrantino gore but not the Saw films.

But by all means recommend better films to me from a bygone era in subsequent columns!

[Dread]

I also meant to suggest for those looking for more NoTLD goodness to check out the Tom Savini remake from 1990. They modernized Barbra's role and Tony Todd is brilliant in the Ben role. It's a slightly muddled movie but Romero oversaw it all and stands as one of my favourite remakes.

A Joe R. Lansdale story called 'The Night They Missed the Picture Show' is an awesome and skincrawlingly realistic portrayal of the south's treatment of blacks during the film's theatrical run. A couple of white friends on their way to Night of the Living Dead at the drive-in come across a group of good ole boys beating up a black guy. They save him mostly because the good ole boys are from a rival school but things go south (figuratively) when they meet some bad ole boys. Yikes. No zombies but terrifying nonetheless. It's found in an anthology called Horrorscapes vol. 1. If anybody has vol.2 for that matter I'd be so happy to buy it off them.

That is all.