Birth of the Living Dead: New George Romero Doc Puts Zombies in Historical Context
If not for a minor copyright technicality, the zombie as we know it today – flesh-eating, rotting, transformatively biting, only killable by headshots – would still be entirely owned by George A. Romero, and the lives of people like Robert Kirkman and Zack Snyder might look very, very different. Romero is often praised for his social commentary, but a lot of modern viewers don’t necessarily know what he’s commenting on – this new documentary produced by indie horror maven Larry Fessenden’s Glass Eye Pix firmly situates it in the climate of 1968, with the peace and love era culminating in the Vietnam war and race riots.
I’m more of a Dawn guy, myself, but of course that would never have happened without the Night. Though it won’t be long before kids are watching the former and going “What the hell’s a ‘shopping mall’?”
Check out the Romero doc trailer after the jump.