Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Monday 17 July 2017
George A. Romero, father of

the zombie film, is dead at 77

By JAKE COYLE big for us to try to maintain. say exactly what I think,”
AP Film Writer That’s the part of it that I’ve Romero told the AP. “I’m
NEW YORK (AP) — George always enjoyed.” able to talk about, com-
Romero, whose classic “Night of the Living Dead,” ment about, take snapshots
“Night of the Living Dead” made for about $100,000, of what’s going on at the
and other horror films featured flesh-hungry time. I don’t feel trapped. I
turned zombie movies into ghouls trying to feast on hu- feel this is my way of being
social commentaries and mans holed up in a Penn- able to express myself.”

In this Monday, Jan. 21, 2008 file photo, director and writer who saw his flesh-devour- sylvania house. In 1999, the The third in the Romero’s
George Romero poses for a photograph while talking about his ing undead spawn count- Library of Congress induct- zombie series, 1985’s “Day
film “Diary of the Dead’ at the Sundance Film Festival in Park less imitators, remakes and ed the black-and-white of the Dead,” was a critical
City, Utah. homages, has died. He masterpiece into the Na- and commercial failure.
Associated Press was 77. Romero died Sun- tional Registry of Films. There wouldn’t be another
day following a battle with Many considered the film “Dead” film for two de-
lung cancer, said his fam- to be a critique on racism cades.
ily in a statement provided in America. The sole black “Land of the Dead” in 2005
by his manager Chris Roe. character survives the zom- was the most star-packed
Romero’s family said he bies, but he is fatally shot by of the bunch — the cast
died while listening to the rescuers. included Dennis Hooper,
score of “The Quiet Man,” Ten years after “Night of John Leguizamo, Asia Ar-
one of his favorite films, the Living Dead,” Rome- gento and Simon Baker.
with his wife, Suzanne Des- ro made “Dawn of the Two years later came “Di-
rocher, and daughter, Tina Dead,” where human sur- ary of the Dead,” another
Romero, by this side. vivors take refuge from the box-office failure.
Romero is credited with re- undead in a mall and then There were other movies in-
inventing the movie zom- turn on each other as the terspersed with the “Dead”
bie with his directorial de- zombies stumble around films, including “The Cra-
but, the 1968 cult classic, the shopping complex. zies” (1973), “Martin” (1977),
“Night of the Living Dead.” Film critic Roger Ebert “Creepshow” (1982), “Mon-
The movie set the rules called it “one of the best key Shines” (1988) and “The
imitators lived by: Zombies horror films ever made — Dark Half” (1993). There
move slowly, lust for human and, as an inescapable also was 1981’s “Knightrid-
flesh and can only be killed result, one of the most hor- ers,” Romero’s take on the
when shot in the head. If a rifying. It is gruesome, sick- Arthurian legend featur-
zombie bites a human, the ening, disgusting, violent, ing motorcycling jousters.
person dies and returns as brutal and appalling. It is Some were moderately
a zombie. also ... brilliantly crafted, successful, others box-of-
Romero’s zombies, howev- funny, droll, and savagely fice flops. George Andrew
er, were always more than merciless in its satiric view Romero was born on Feb.
mere cannibals; they were of the American consumer 4, 1940, in New York City.
metaphors for conformity, society.” Romero had a He grew up in the Bronx,
racism, mall culture, milita- sometimes combative re- and he was a fan of horror
rism, class differences and lationship with the genre comics and movies in the
other social ills. he helped create. He pre-VCR era.
“The zombies, they could called “The Walking Dead” “I grew up at the Loews
be anything,” Romero told a “soap opera” and said American in the Bronx,” he
The Associated Press in big-budget films like “World wrote in an issue of the Brit-
2008. “They could be an War Z” made modest zom- ish Film Institute’s Sight and
avalanche, they could be bie films impossible. Rome- Sound magazine in 2002.
a hurricane. It’s a disaster ro maintained that he His favorite film was Michael
out there. The stories are wouldn’t make horror films Powell and Emeric Press-
about how people fail to he couldn’t fill them with burger’s “The Tales of Hoff-
respond in the proper way. political statements. man,” based on Jacques
They fail to address it. They “People say, ‘You’re Offenbach’s opera. It was,
keep trying to stick where trapped in this genre. he once wrote, “the one
they are, instead of rec- You’re a horror guy.’ I say, movie that made me want
ognizing maybe this is too ‘Wait a minute, I’m able to to make movies.”q

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