George Romero, the father of modern zombie flicks, just celebrated his 71st birthday on Friday, February 4th. Romero made several commercial short films (including one for "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood") before forming Image Ten Productions with several friends. Their low-budget cult classic
Night of the Living Dead set a precedent for zombie movies of the future. While his "Dead" series is his best known work, Romero has also made several other cult favorites including
Martin and
Creepshow (his anthology collaboration with horror writer Stephen King).
Romero's films are known for their social commentary and he has influenced other horror directors, as well as cultivating the entire zombie genre. His name is synonymous with "zombie" and his films have been referenced in everything from
Shaun of the Dead to Stephen King's novel
The Cell.
Happy birthday, George! Night of the Living Dead really impressed me the first time I saw it and still does, even though I got fed up with the endlessly ongoing Dead series and haven't seen any of the last two million or so entries. Martin is my favourite of his films: very clever, and creepy. I've had a copy of Creepshow for years but have never watched it. Do you recommend it?
ReplyDeleteDay of the Dead is the farthest I've got in the Dead series (I do have Land of the Dead on my Netflix queue, though) and I haven't seen Martin, so I'll definitely have to check that one out.
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