World of Horror: Old-school living dead

About a year after seeing “Dawn,” I rented the sequel “Day of the Dead.” It didn’t reach the level of “Dawn,” but it retained a similar horrifying yet cerebral feel. The image that always sticks out in my head is that one dude who gets torn in half and devoured. The whole idea of Bub, the tame zombie, was really cool too. Romero has shown such a keen ability to shift gears in each of the “Dead” films and Bub was a perfect example of that. Oddly, to that point I had still never seen “Night of the Living Dead” so that became my next purchase—a $3 public domain copy. Bad idea. The picture was nearly unwatchable and having just been exposed to the shock and awe of “Dawn” and “Day,” “Night” came off to me as dull, old-fashioned and extremely cheap. Maybe I went through splatter film burn out or maybe it was the effect of seeing a perfect DVD version from Elite Entertainment, but “Night” has since become my favorite of the three. It was only 11 years between “Night” and “Dawn,” but it may as well have been 100. “Night of the Living Dead” comes from an entirely different era—before sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, civil rights, the counter-culture, Vietnam and assassinations ended the so-called innocence of America. “Night of the Living Dead” has the look of a picture that could have been made in the ’40s or ’50s, but its substance and style were much more a part of the cinematic movement of the ’70s when films became edgier, grittier and more visceral. And now comes “Land of the Dead,” in which the dead have taken over the Earth and the living have barricaded themselves inside a walled city. The problem is that unrest is growing within the city limits—while outside the ever-smarter zombies have formed an army. Romero is a senior citizen now so it will be interesting to see if he has softened with age. If he has, I think it will be in a positive way—a little less gore, more suspense and humor. Will the film be a hit? Probably not on the level of the “Dawn” remake, but it should do decent business until “War of the Worlds” opens a few days later. Let’s hope so: Romero has always been a true maverick in this business and for that he deserves some fan support. He has never compromised his endeavors to conform to industry trends—if he did, half of the cast of “The O.C.” would probably be in this film.