Be very afraid: The best of George A. Romero
His themes reached much deeper than mere zombies could
Even though his horror films belong in the same conversation as classics like Dracula and Fran
kenstein, George A. Romero would never have admitted it.
“It’s so hard for me to think of myself in the same league because I’m still a fan of the old famous monsters and all that stuff,” Romero told USA TODAY in 2010. That said, “I think that maybe I did a little something right.”
That’s for sure: Romero, who died Sunday at age 77, was influential to generations of horror fiends and filmmakers alike, and not just for the zombie stuff. (Although there would be no The
Walking Dead without him.) Here are five of the filmmaker’s best you should watch for the breadth of his talent: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) The indie film done for a mere $114,000 is the alltime classic of the genre and introduced the zombie movie to an unsuspecting culture. It was also hugely progressive for the time in casting African-American actor Duane Jones in a lead role and was a terrifying metaphor for racism in the civil rights era. THE CRAZIES (1973) The cult classic imagined the disaster around the accidental release of a military bioweapon on an unsuspecting small town. The zombie apocalypse is a little fantastical, but Romero’s story and the infected “crazies” running about were all too real. DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) Romero made Pennsylvania’s Monroeville Mall one of the scariest places in horror history by unleashing his zombies on an all-American shopping center. But just like Night,
Dawn wasn’t just about flesheating creatures: Romero’s film was just as much about the American obsession with consumerism. CREEPSHOW (1982) The darkly comedic anthology flick was Romero’s homage to the EC horror comics he loved growing up. It also teamed up two icons, with Stephen King writing the screenplay of five scary tales and playing a redneck who discovers a green meteorite he should have left alone. DAY OF THE DEAD (1985) Romero kept making zombie films, but this was the last of the truly great ones: Day of the Dead focused on the government and military holing up after zombies take over the world while exploring mankind’s predilection for solving every problem with a gun.