Any "Of The Dead" Fans Out There?

[Bruzilla]

Being a Pittsburgh boy, I was born and raised on George Romero films. I was almost in Dawn of the Dead, and the gal I was dating was in the film, and I've seen all of the "Dead" trilogy numerous times. Now I see Romero is coming out with Land of the Dead, primarily because he was miffed at being locked out of the Dawn of the Dead remake.

So, who else is looking forward to Romero's next film?

 

[RoseRed]

No, they skeer Rose.

 

[bresamil]

Paging BuddyLee

 

[czygvtwkr]

Big Fan

When I was a kid I remember being in the Monroeville mall about 1980ish time frame. I remember that weird art decco clock thing in the plaza area.

George Romero is da man!

 

[BuddyLee]

Paging BuddyLee

I Own the B&W version, 1990-color version, 70's Dawn of the dead on DVD, and the new Dawn of the dead. I cannot wait until this one peers its head from around the corner. They are all good in some aspect but I think the first B&W version breaks so many barriers. Having a black main character, the zombies, the situation, the disgusting images, and the new film techniques were all barrier breakers for the time.

 

[Buddha131]

Many don't give Day of the Dead credit where it is deserved. And alhough the story is somewhat lacking compared to the others, the zombies are just so animated. Heh. A couple notches up from the "blue faces" from Dawn.

 

[czygvtwkr]

Yea I didn't care as much for Day of the Dead as the others.

The Zombies in Dawn were probably my favorite. I can never forget that one with the rifle just pointed at his own head.

 

[Firefly]

Not that it's really part of the series, but I loved "Shauwn of the Dead". It was funny. I think it might be my favorite zombie movie.

 

[BuddyLee]

Many don't give Day of the Dead credit where it is deserved. And alhough the story is somewhat lacking compared to the others, the zombies are just so animated. Heh. A couple notches up from the "blue faces" from Dawn.

Yes, I liked the story line in Dawn of the dead (both versions) much better than Day of the dead. However, the Day of dead had much better make-up than the blue faced zombies in the first Dawn of the dead. I always laugh when I see that.

 

[Toxick]

Being a Pittsburgh boy, I was born and raised on George Romero films. I was almost in Dawn of the Dead, and the gal I was dating was in the film, and I've seen all of the "Dead" trilogy numerous times.

It's a trilogy?

I saw the one that came out not too long ago with Ving Rames, and it had that guy in the store across the street picking off zombies that looked like Celebrities, and it had the little zombie-baby.

I didn't know that they made more of those though.



It was decent mindless entertainment for about an hour and half... I can't see how the story was so great they made an actual trilogy out of it.

 

[czygvtwkr]

Night of the Living Dead 1968
Dawn of the Dead 1979
Day of the Dead 1984?

All George Romero movies, for years it was rumered that he was going to make Twilight of the Dead but I guess Land of the Dead is this rumored movie.


There have been numerous remakes of each including Night of the Living Dead 2 ,3 ,4 and 5 which are not too bad but not up to the caliber of a Romero zombie movie.

 

[BuddyLee]

Bump. Any quick reviews on this flick yet?

 

[Bruzilla]

We went to see it on the 4th, but the next showing was two hours away when we got to the theater and we went to see that War of the Worlds stinker instead.

I watched a special that IFC did on the making of the movie, and I think that Romero is one of the few horror film makers who still get it. He was bashing a lot of the recent "horror" flicks like Van Helsing for looking rediculous with all the obvious digital effects. There's just nothing that's really believeable anymore. Land of the Dead only has a few digital effects (he said one is when a zombie gets shot through the head with an arrow... and only because he couldn't get a live actor to volunteer for the shot.)

Fellow 'Bugher Tom Savini is doing the make-up work again, so you know that'll be great. They were talking on the special about one time Savini came into the production office with one back-quarter of his head covered in blood, and Romero asked him what scene he had just shot. Savini said he hadn't done any scenes, and Romero asked him why he had all the blood on the side of his head. It turned out that Savini had smashed his head into a piece of equipment and ripped a big piece of his scalp out, and didn't notice that he was bleeding profusely from the head wound.

I'll be seeing the movie this weekend and I'll let you know how it is.

 

[bresamil]

Bump. Any quick reviews on this flick yet?

I will PAY you to take my 13 year old to this flick. He is dying to see it and I just can't handle zombie flicks anymore.

 

[BuddyLee]

We went to see it on the 4th, but the next showing was two hours away when we got to the theater and we went to see that War of the Worlds stinker instead.

I watched a special that IFC did on the making of the movie, and I think that Romero is one of the few horror film makers who still get it. He was bashing a lot of the recent "horror" flicks like Van Helsing for looking rediculous with all the obvious digital effects. There's just nothing that's really believeable anymore. Land of the Dead only has a few digital effects (he said one is when a zombie gets shot through the head with an arrow... and only because he couldn't get a live actor to volunteer for the shot.)

Fellow 'Bugher Tom Savini is doing the make-up work again, so you know that'll be great. They were talking on the special about one time Savini came into the production office with one back-quarter of his head covered in blood, and Romero asked him what scene he had just shot. Savini said he hadn't done any scenes, and Romero asked him why he had all the blood on the side of his head. It turned out that Savini had smashed his head into a piece of equipment and ripped a big piece of his scalp out, and didn't notice that he was bleeding profusely from the head wound.

I'll be seeing the movie this weekend and I'll let you know how it is.

I believe I caught about an hour or so of that documentary. Savini is wearing the same garb he did in the original Dawn of the Dead, a black leather jacket.

The lady and I are going to see it tomorrow.

 

[BuddyLee]

I will PAY you to take my 13 year old to this flick. He is dying to see it and I just can't handle zombie flicks anymore.

How much?

 

[BuddyLee]

The new Dawn of the Dead blew me away and it is because of this that I was expecting greatness from this film, Land of the Dead. Land of the Dead was more playful than anything; I can't even believe Romero would submit such a plotline. Let's put it this way, if the Dennis Hopper character (who plays the best villain always) and the John Leguizamo character weren't present and Savini's makeup vanished the movie would be a little better than Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space. Perhaps I'm being a little hard on the film, I was however expecting greatness. I never liked the idea of the dead 'learning', just seemed playful and it came out retarded-like in the film. I didn't even like the main hero, he was such a p*ssy and too much of a do-gooder. Usually Romero gives me a few jumps but I wasn't even stirred enough to straighten up my sloping head whose cheek rested on my palm half the movie.

I give this flick a 6.5 out of 10

I gave the newer Dawn of the Dead a 9 out of 10

 

[FromTexas]

I liked the new one. Like his originals, it is a lot more about the human element than cheap horror thrills modern horror has become. The plotline? Romero was original in that the dead are not the true antagonists. He wants you to feel sympathy for the dead here, not be horrified. That is what Romero does - he provokes your sentiments in his movies.

Night of the Living Dead: There was the horror/violence, but who brought about the horror, how did we unwittingly deal with it, and how did the people respond to each other and what was going on? When it all starts to fall apart, who do they finally turn on? It wasn't just a horror fest. You had some serious motivations going on.

Dawn of the Dead: You again have the horror/violence factor, but you have the people trying to survive it and how they help/hinder each other. The guy with the pregnant dead wife, what would you have done? The guy they can see on the other building and try to keep up with each other - remain human and maintain hope (a paradise to get away to). There are also the people whose true colors show, and during it all while the world is completely gone to them, they keep on trying to live as if everything is normal.

Then there is Day of the Dead which is best show for its human concept from Romero's own quote:

It's about one of not necessarily the last, but one of probably several nests of humanity that are left. As a military group they were there for research and of course now the need for what they are doing is all but gone:- with society gone who are they going to report to if they find anything out? All of a sudden when that structure is gone they don't quite know how to behave or they cling to old behaviours and no one talks to each other and no one communicates. So there's this sort of tragedy about how a lack of human communication causes chaos and collapse even in this small little pie slice of society

I think this last film once again shows his genius in looking at things from not just horror film perspective but a very human perspective. Sure, the acting can bite at times, but you don't get academy award winning scripting or acting in horror films really. The plot, though, is original and once again demonstrates his view how humanity, no matter what happens, continues to find a way (with all the bad and good involved in it).

Just MHO.

 

[Bruzilla]

Dawn of the Dead: You again have the horror/violence factor, but you have the people trying to survive it and how they help/hinder each other. The guy with the pregnant dead wife, what would you have done? The guy they can see on the other building and try to keep up with each other - remain human and maintain hope (a paradise to get away to). There are also the people whose true colors show, and during it all while the world is completely gone to them, they keep on trying to live as if everything is normal.

You can't sequence the new Dawn of the Dead with Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead. Romero had nothing to do with the remake, and the remake is nothing like the original. By the way... did you know that the main store in the remake's mall is named Gaylen Ross, which is the name of the actress who played Fran in the original, and that the news helicopter that's flying over the accident scene at the start of the remake is footage of the helicopter from the original movie inserted digitally into the new one?