George A. Romero launched the first truly modern horror film with Night of the Living Dead in 1968, and for some filmmakers that might have been enough. He changed horror cinema, after all, and created a template (and monster) that horror filmmakers are still using today. Luckily for us, he continued to make films right up until his death, six years ago today. While not all of them were as successful as Night (or Dawn or Day), they were always interesting films that had something to say. They had depth, they had heart, they had that touch of genius. From modern vampires, to chemical lunacy, to modern knights and killer monkeys. If you’re watching a George Romero film, you’re watching something special.
Today we’re celebrating the master’s work, and looking back on The 10 Best George A. Romero Films.
10. Land of the Dead (2005)
One of the absolute most anticipated films for fans of the genre, fans speculated for years what it would be. Twilight of the Dead or Year of the Dead were popular theories, but in the end it was Land. The title instantly gives weight to the film. The dead own the world now. We lost. As a film, it is not as good as the original trilogy. However, it is still a competently made zombie film and is still enjoyable if taken on its own merits. Just go in with the knowledge that it’s not the trilogy and you’ll like it more.
–Sailor Monsoon
9. The Crazies (2010)
Romero loved using horror as a way to address social issues. Night of the living Dead–Vietnam, Dawn of the Dead–consumerism and mall culture, and even Season of the Witch dealt with what it was like being a woman in the ’60s. He’s always been interested with telling stories that had an underlining message and The Crazies is no different. The Crazies is about fear of the government. Fear of the faceless men in those contamination suits. Fear of the unnamed men in the black suits that always show up at every catastrophe. Fear of the biological weapons they’re creating. Most films deal with the horror of the unknown, the outsider, but The Crazies deals with a fear most Americans have: The Government. Also check out the 2010 remake. It’s been completely forgotten about for some reason.
–Sailor Monsoon
8. The Dark Half (1993)
The ending of The Dark Half, reminiscent of the end of H. P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Legacy with its attack of psychopomp sparrows, sours what is probably one of the better Stephen King adaptations. While it’s never going to be on the same level as Misery, Stand by Me or The Shawshank Redemption, it’s faithful, fun and well made, with a great performance(s) by Timothy Hutton and excellent direction by the master, George Romero.
Mild-mannered literary author Thad Beaumont (Hutton) has had great success with a series of thriller novels written under the pen-name George Stark (a nod to Donald Westlake’s Richard Stark pseudonym). When a blackmailer threatens to reveal Thad’s secret the author decides to publicly reveal the truth and ceremoniously “buries” the pen name. (This was obviously King working through some issues with the reveal of his pen name of Richard Bachman.)
Except Stark (Also Timothy Hutton) isn’t ready to be buried. Somehow George has become manifest, crawling out of the grave and starting a killing spree intended to pressure Thad into somehow writing the fictional character into the real world.
George Romero does a great job with this, his third studio film, ramping up the horror and pace (and humor) as the film progresses. The supporting cast, including Amy Madigan, Michael Rooker and Julie Harris, are all very good. The real reason to watch, though, is Timothy Hutton. His over-the-top portrayal of George Stark is just great, a sleazy and compelling killer with a dark sense of humor, but Thad is equally as interesting, with moments of darkness slipping through his ultra-civilized veneer.
If it wasn’t for that damn ending I think this would be considered one of the upper-middle level of King adaptations, certainly as good as the original Pet Sematary or Christine. Alas, the sparrows and the few lines about the how and why of George sprinkled through the film are never really enough for me. There’s an interesting premise to the opening (when we see where George REALLY comes from), that’s just never followed up on. It’s true to the book, but I feel like a more ambiguous treatment of the dichotomy of writer/pseudonym could have made this even better.
–Bob Cram
7. Martin (1978)
After The Crazies, Romero turned once again to deconstucting classis monsters. He had tackled the ghoul with Night of the Living Dead, and witches in Jack’s Wife (AKA Season of the Witch) – an uneven story of an unhappy housewife trapped in urban tedium. With Martin he turned to vampires, and created his first post-Night of the Living Dead masterpiece. A moody character piece in which we’re never really sure if the main character is a vampire or not (are those flashbacks memories? Delusions? Fantasies?) It’s also a film about loneliness and how that’s a hole that often can’t be filled by modern life, family, drugs or religion. Sometimes you can find salvation in other people, but that’s often a temporary fix.
John Amplas does an incredible job as the title character. Someone we should hate and shun – he is, at the very least, a rapist and a murderer – we instead find ourselves seduce by his loneliness and sadness and (this time around for me) disappointment with a world that has no magic in it. If Martin is indeed a vampire – he gets urges for human blood – then he is a sadly modern vampire. He must overpower his victims with a syringe full of drugs, rather than hypnotizing them with a gaze. He cuts them open with a razor to get the blood, rather than biting them with fangs, and he obsessively cleans the crime scene, rather than turning into a bat and flying away. With his calls to a late night radio show he comes as close as he can to finding the acceptance he seems to crave, but it’s a false acceptance – once that he can’t have face-to-face with anyone.
His Uncle believes he is damned, even bringing in priests (including Romero in a fun “hip priest” role) to try and exorcise Martin’s demons. His cousin believes both the uncle AND Martin are kinda crazy. The one person he connects to – a local housewife – commits suicide shortly after she and Martin begin a physical relationship. Everyone else is prey, or background actors in the world Martin has created for himself. “In real life, you can’t get people to do what you want them to do.” In the end, Martin is killed for the one crime he didn’t commit, becoming what he says he is – if only in the eyes of the man who kills him.
Martin is a fantastic film. Cheaply made, sure, but it’s got some magic to it, even if it’s a kind of magic Martin would have laughed at.
–Bob Cram
6. Monkey Shines (1988)
It’s just a Capuchin monkey, not even a chimpanzee with a straight razor (thanks Pheneomena!), but somehow Ella is both adorable and a bit terrifying. (And she does get that straight razor, eventually.) The rest of the movie is just okay – with Allan (Jason Beghe) becoming a quadripalegic and learning to navigate his life and relationships after that devestating injury. Nothing’s wrong with that story, and George Romero does a decent job with that aspect, it’s just that the human story pales in comparison to the, well, the monkeyshines. Things really pick up after Allan gets a super-smart monkey hopped up on experimental drugs (and human brains) as a helper animal, kindly provided by his friend Geoffrey (John Pankow) as a way to field test his research on the monkey. There are a number of heart-warming scenes with Ella and Allan getting to know and grow close to one another. Here’s where the majority of your “hey, Capuchin’s are damn cute!” scenes happen.
It’s a horror movie, however, and as Allan struggles with his emotions and rage, Ella too gets a darker side. One that leans heavily into “cutting a bitch” territory. It starts with annoying birds and goes right into murderous arson once Allan finds out that his previous doctor missed something that might help Allan walk again.
Allan’s pretty sure that it’s his darker nature that is affecting Ella, making her just as much a victim as those she kills – and I think that’s Romero’s emphasis – but it’s never that clear to me. I think there’s some jealousy and anger going on with Ella as well. Still, it’s definitely human nature that’s the bad guy here, and it’s often on display with the human characters – particularly Dean Burbage (Stephen Root). As murderous as Ella gets, it’s still an emotional punch when Allan is forced to deal with her before she kills her former handler – and Allan’s new girlfriend – Melanie (Kate McNeil). The happy ending seems a little tacked on, and was a producer mandated change that Romero didn’t like. I do prefer the alternate ending (found on the Blu-ray release), which is worth a watch if you get a chance.
–Bob Cram
5. Knightriders (1981)
Why the hell is this film forgotten? You have Ed Harris as the crazy leader of a medieval reenactment group that uses motorcycles instead of horses to joust and Tom Savini as a rival fighting him for control. It’s incredible. Picture John Boorman’s Excalibur but replace the boring with motorcycles and the fantasy setting with a contemporary setting that’s trying to be a fantasy setting (and motorcycles) and you have Knightriders. Watch this film.
–Sailor Monsoon
4. Day of the Dead (1985)
Night of the Living Dead created the zombie as we know it, but I would argue that Day of the Dead created the zombie film. If you take a look at any episode of The Walking Dead, they are all just doing Day of the Dead. Stick people in a room, have them yell at each other, and then zombies. Night and Dawn did the same thing, but Day of the Dead was the first film that proved that maybe it was the Living that would be the ultimate threat. Plus, it has Bub the Zombie and he’s the best.
–Sailor Monsoon
3. Creepshow (1982)
It’s not the best Stephen King film, it’s not the best George Romero film, but it’s one of my favorites from either creator. The EC comics inspired look and feel, with the comic borders, illustrated transitions and dramatic hues are genius. I’ve always loved that strain of horror that’s full of almost ghoulish glee, the Halloween and pumpkins and ghosts and goblins joy I remember from childhood trick-or-treating and classic monster movies. Creepshow exemplifies that joy, that sense of wicked fun. Throw in fun performances by a great cast – including Leslie Nielsen, Adrienne Barbeau and Stephen King himself – and it’s a movie that I always have a good time watching.
Like Sailor, I love a good anthology – especially a horror anthology, as hit-or-miss as those can be – and they just don’t get any better than Creepshow. Every story is a winner (though I’ll always love “The Crate” the most) and I even love the framing sequence. This is both Romero and King firing on all cylinders, and the best of their collaborations, and just maybe the greatest horror anthology of all time.
–Bob Cram
2. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
In 1978 Romero finally returned to the zombie movie. A continuation of Night of the Living Dead, but also an expansion. Moving us beyond the farmhouse into society at large. No half-baked, sci-fi, backstory delivered in soundbites on the TV here. The people in the film are beyond explanations – they’re in the shit, having to deal with the ramifications. It’s triage. We’ll worry about the cause if we survive. I think most people who are horror fans have seen Dawn of the Dead, so here’s just a quick overview. Four people escape Pittsburgh in a helicopter as the zombie plague starts unraveling society at the seams. Looking for safety, they find a huge indoor mall and set about trying to make it safe from the living and the dead alike.
Sounds almost boring when you put it like that, doesn’t it?
But the movie is anything but boring. It’s violent and funny and moving and exciting. It’s just damn good filmmaking, leaving you satisfied on many levels. As much as I liked the 2004 remake, this movie has a heart and a, I dunno, a quality to it that elevates it beyond a simple gore show. There’s commentary on modern society, but that doesn’t get in the way of the character interaction. The things that they do are natural, human reactions to their circumstances. And that’s what gets some of them killed.
There’s usually one moment in movies like this that I tend to hang my interest on. One scene or image that stands out in my mind and represents the film as a whole to me. In Dawn it’s the moment when Roger comes back. He’s dead – having been wounded through his own arrogance and stupidity – and he told Peter that he was going to try and not come back. Peter sits in a chair with the pistol, waiting. There’s movement under the covers, the body rises and the blanket slips off revealing Roger’s face. It’s one of the best makeups in the film, the skin seeming to have dried and wrinkled as if Roger has been dead for a long time. And the expression! You can see both hunger and misery on that face. The gunshot is an afterthought – the real horror has already occurred. There is no control, no choice. In the end you’re just a puppet of circumstance, and even death can’t erase your mistakes.
This could easily have been the number one film. It’s a roll of the dice or a flip of the coin as to which film you prefer in the number one spot on any given day. Today Dawn comes up short – but there’s always tomorrow.
–Bob Cram
1. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The Star Wars of Horror. There may not be a more influential horror film in existence. It created zombies. Yes, we’ve always had the undead and the term zombie existed in Haitian culture for decades prior, but Romero created the mass of undead beings that crave human flesh that we know today. Zombies. He created them. That’s mind boggling. And it all started with this film.
Fun fact: My friend and I would constantly quote this film, “You’re a dick, Cooper!” And disagree about the scene with the little girl in the basement. He swore up and down that she *spoilers for a 50+ year old movie* kills her mother with a garden trowel and I swore up and down that she just bit her. It took 15 years for us to realize that he watched the original and I had only seen the remake. For some reason, that fight lasted 15 years and neither of us realized we watched two completely different films for years.
–Sailor Monsoon
Thank you for giving us that fifteen years of discussions Romero. You are missed.
What is your favorite Romero film? Drop it in the comments below!
