Happy George Romero's birthday!
Feb. 4th, 2010 08:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seanan_mcguireI sometimes wonder if horror directors go to bed at night dreaming that someday, one of their movies will become a classic; someday, one of their movies will spawn an iconic monster that people will be screaming over for generations to come. Sadly, most of them won't make it. Even the ones who create a truly iconic villain won't necessarily get an iconic monster, because an iconic monster must be somehow generic enough to be used and abused by others, even as the person who first brought it to the screen is generally credited for its creation. The werewolf, the mummy, the vampire, even the mad scientist...they all had to start somewhere. Sure, most iconic horror movie monsters existed before the movies that gave them a terrifying life, but it's the cinematic realities that we remember. At least until the lights go out.
George Romero set out to make a creepy little movie with a social commentary and a shoestring budget. He succeeded in making history.
The concept of the ghoul or walking corpse has existed for centuries—maybe for as long as mankind has been aware that death exists—but it wasn't until Romero that it shambled into the modern age. Night of the Living Dead opened the doors to a new sub-genre of horror, a shambling, biting, hungry sub-genre that wouldn't rest until it had consumed the world. Zombies don't need sleep. They're already dead.
Without Romero, we wouldn't have Night of the Comet, Slither, Night of the Creeps, the Evil Dead trilogy, a large portion of Rob Zombie's musical catalog, or the Zombie Prom episode of Wizards of Waverly Place. We wouldn't have my own Feed, and that would make me a very sad girl indeed. George Romero changed the world. Maybe he did it on purpose, maybe he did it by accident. In the end, it doesn't really matter. He did it.
Here's to you, George Romero. And when you die, we're feeding your corpse into a wood chipper. Just to be sure.
George Romero set out to make a creepy little movie with a social commentary and a shoestring budget. He succeeded in making history.
The concept of the ghoul or walking corpse has existed for centuries—maybe for as long as mankind has been aware that death exists—but it wasn't until Romero that it shambled into the modern age. Night of the Living Dead opened the doors to a new sub-genre of horror, a shambling, biting, hungry sub-genre that wouldn't rest until it had consumed the world. Zombies don't need sleep. They're already dead.
Without Romero, we wouldn't have Night of the Comet, Slither, Night of the Creeps, the Evil Dead trilogy, a large portion of Rob Zombie's musical catalog, or the Zombie Prom episode of Wizards of Waverly Place. We wouldn't have my own Feed, and that would make me a very sad girl indeed. George Romero changed the world. Maybe he did it on purpose, maybe he did it by accident. In the end, it doesn't really matter. He did it.
Here's to you, George Romero. And when you die, we're feeding your corpse into a wood chipper. Just to be sure.
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Date: 2010-02-04 04:46 pm (UTC)Just to be on the safe side? :-)
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Date: 2010-02-04 06:02 pm (UTC)Thank you for my morning dose of giggles. And possibly for a disturbing new footnote to add to my will.
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Date: 2010-02-04 06:29 pm (UTC)It will interesting to see which part of my gray matter explodes first.
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Date: 2010-02-05 04:27 pm (UTC)I win at universe.
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Date: 2010-02-04 08:22 pm (UTC)<3 <3 <3
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Date: 2010-02-05 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-04 08:28 pm (UTC)I'm especially thankful for Romero and NOTLD influencing some fantastic Italian zombie films and of course the wonderfully corny Return of The Living Dead franchise.
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Date: 2010-02-05 04:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-04 09:00 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H69HODLlDMo
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nI2bVtQ6Kk
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Date: 2010-02-05 12:13 am (UTC)That didn't stop Marvel from digging up the corpse of the Zombie Archetype and resurrecting it as the "Zuvembie", though...
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Date: 2010-02-05 04:30 pm (UTC)