"In a world where the dead are returning to life, the word "trouble" loses much of its meaning."

There have only been a handful of films in my life that I anticipated more than George A. Romero’s Land Of The Dead when it premiered back in June of 05. With a shared fevered excitement, my friend David and I went to it opening night and we were both fairly blown away by it. In that first viewing with a packed house, Romero’s film seemed to work as both a great zombie film and a concise social commentary on post 9/11 America.
After that initial viewing I went back and saw it later that same weekend. This time the crowds had almost already disappeared and the film felt nowhere near as good as it had that opening night. Somehow in the span of just a couple of days it seemed like the film had run out of steam and the subversive excitement it had supplied had all but vanished.
Of course Land Of The Dead really did run out of steam almost immediately and the lack of support it got from horror fans back in theaters in the summer of 05 still baffles me. I saw it one more time at the theater just a couple of weeks after it opened at an afternoon showing and the theater was completely empty. I remember asking my friend David, “Where is everybody” and he couldn’t offer up an answer.
So now that a couple of years have gone by and Land Of The Dead has had some time to digest, I must say that I am still quite fond of the film although I think it is an extremely flawed production that could have been much better. To be as vague as possible, certain aspects of the film really work to me, while others really don’t. It’s the least of Romero’s Dead films but, that said, I think the fact that it is as good as it is in spots makes it worth celebrating.
The film works best, at least for me, as a pretty sharp satire on how the lower classes and outsiders are treated in this country. Dennis Hopper’s character can certainly be viewed as a stand in for George Bush, at one point he even says “We don’t negotiate with terrorists”, but I think even more precisely he should be looked upon as a stand in for every greedy rich bastard who has ever run over anyone who happens to need understanding and help. His chilling fortress like oasis away from the zombies, Fiddler’s Green, is America at its sickest and Land Of The Dead distinguishes itself from the other films in that the zombies here do finally become the heroes of the piece. For all of its failings as a visceral horror film, Land Of The Dead is at least a striking film of ideas that can and should be discussed that goes way beyond the question of liberal or conservative.
Romero’s film needed to work as a kick ass horror film as well as a social statement and it does at least part of the time. Hampered by some obvious CGI but still fairly gory, the film does at least try to recall the glorious excesses of Dawn and Day Of The Dead. At its best it does have more of an impact than most modern horror films but it lacks that gritty almost documentary like realism that Romero’s early works possessed. The first three Dead films felt like the work of a mad maverick whereas Land Of The Dead feels like a slick, albeit good, Hollywood production.
When the film works, it does so exceedingly well. After a disappointing opening credits montage that feels more like the Dawn Of The Dead remake rather than classic Romero, we are treated to an ingenious opening scene featuring a literal band of zombies. As Romero’s camera pans around the gruesome decaying group a fan can’t help but feel a major lump in their throat. The final half hour or so of the film also has a lot of impact even though many of the scares are let down by a way too telegraphed score by Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek. The film’s Pittsburgh setting is also very welcome as is the set design by Arv Grewal, who really did a lot with a limited budget here.

The cast is a mixed bag and for the most part make me at least miss the more unknown faces that populated the first three Dead films. I have always thought Asia Argento should have been the lone lead of the film without a male next to her. Now this isn’t just because of my love for Argento but I think it would have been a nice bookend to the important casting of an African American in Night Of The Living Dead. Obviously we are kind of overrun with female action horror leads, but I have always suspected that Romero and Argento could have come up with something that could have seemed wildly subversive had they chosen to. Instead Argento is forced to play second fiddle to the much less effective and less exciting Simon Baker. Much better is John Leguizamo, who gives the film’s best and most sincere performance.

The much talked about Kaufman character is played well by Dennis Hopper but there isn’t ever really a moment where Hopper totally disappears in the role. I wish the film would have been shot on half the budget with no name actors and no CGI but distribution and any type of funding would have probably been impossible with that set up.
The biggest disappointment of the film is Eugene Clark’s Big Daddy zombie. Clark is a talented actor but the role never gets the iconic feel that Sherman Howard’s incredible Bub in Day Of The Dead did and it really needs it. Land Of The Dead needed to have that same kind of eye opening, mind-expanding feel but unfortunately it never quite achieves it.
The un-rated DVD of the film ironically improves and hurts it in spots. The inclusion of a great vintage Romero moment with Leguizamo is very welcome but on the small screen the film’s overly digitized look becomes even more noticeable and distracting. The disc isn’t helped either by its extras, which save for a fun featurette on Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, are all oddly muted and at times downright uninteresting. I suspect a future release that hopefully looks at some of the film’s failings will prove to be much more interesting.
I don’t mean to be too hard on the film as I do like it and am still thankful that Romero got the chance to make it. I will be most curious to see what time does with it, as it should be remembered that the now classic Day Of The Dead felt similarly disappointing to many people back in 1985. I think the best time to seriously discuss Land Of The Dead in George Romero’s filmography will be in about ten or fifteen years, as almost all of his films seem to improve with age. I hope that goes for Land Of The Dead as well but right now it is just too soon to tell.

Growing Up With Fangoria: Letters 1-3

A Collection of my Favorite Letters From the Back Pages of Fangoria:

From Issue 1:



From Issue 2:



From Issue 3:

Overlooked Classics: The Crazies (1973)

I’ve always though that George A. Romero’s 1973 film The Crazies would be an absolutely ideal one to show in a class on how to shoot a low budget and independent film. Economical, brilliantly cut and downright visionary in its execution, The Crazies remains one of the high water marks in American independent cinema. The fact that it has never completely gotten its due makes a celebration of it all the more in order and necessary.
Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead is so famous at this point that it seems hard to believe that he had trouble getting more productions off the ground in the five years after its release, but indeed the fiercely uncompromising and independent minded Romero certainly did. Two disappointing productions, There’s Always Vanilla and Season Of The Witch, followed Night Of The Living Dead but it was The Crazies that really proved that Romero wasn’t a one hit wonder. The Crazies would continue many of the themes Romero had explored in Night Of The Living Dead but it was more expansive and in some ways more ambitious.
Centering on a small mid-western town that is infected by the Us Governments mishandling of a germ warfare bacteria called “Trixie”, The Crazies is one of Romero’s most biting and subversive productions as well as one of his most satisfying. With his overwhelmingly sharp cutting style (Romero wore the hat of editor as well as director and screenwriter here) The Crazies moves along at a ferocious speed as it satirizes a number of problems that were plaguing America in the early seventies, namely issues with the government, our environment and an oozing open sore distrust that was infiltrating every home in the country…basically the same things that are still haunting us to this day.
Working with a terrific cast, including Lane Carroll fresh from There’s Always Vanilla, lovely Lynn Lowry and several familiar Romero faces, The Crazies is still as fresh, challenging and as invigorating as ever. Feeling like a major warm up to Dawn Of the Dead’s stylistically and thematically, The Crazies works as one of the most potent anti-establishment pieces of the Vietnam era. It is also one of the most understanding as ultimately the villains in the film aren’t the storm trooping like soldiers who declare martial law on the small unknowing town but the invisible big boss government officials who have declared it.

Romero is fiercely intelligent and that comes out in all of his films. The Crazies is no different and the film’s script is remarkably perceptive about what it is that marks people in siege like situations. The film is filled with wonderfully eye opening asides, such as the soldier stealing a fishing pole from a terrorized family or a housewife attempting to sweep up some bloody grass after losing her home, that makes the mental strains of a war like Vietnam (or any other ill advised war you care to name) seem all the more horrifying. Romero never comes across as senseless or overtly self righteous in his criticisms though like any other number of ‘important’ filmmakers. Instead, he dares to pose questions that don’t have simple answers and never will. As the tag line of The Crazies stated, “Why Are The Good People Dying?” Romero doesn’t offer an easy solution but he recognizes that the question needed asking.

Like the best of his films The Crazies also has no problem working humor into its thrills. Its not a cheap gag like humor though, instead Romero allows his characters to occasionally see the ridiculousness of what is an overwhelming bleak and hopeless situation. Like Dawn Of The Dead and Martin, Romero’s characters feel like people we might know caught up in a horrifying set of circumstances, and he gives them the good grace to occasionally laugh about it, if just to help get them through.
With the raging satirical moments in place The Crazies also manages to work as a very exciting thriller just in the same way Night Of The Living Dead had worked as an incredibly effective horror film. From the eerie shots of the soldiers rading people’s houses to some of the most chilling images Romero has ever filmed (including one hair raising sequence involving an elderly woman and her knitting pins) The Crazies is never less than gripping and at its is downright terrifying.

I find the look of the film to be incredibly evocative as well. While it is a very low budget production, first time cinematographer (and actor in the film) S. William Hinzman does a fine job with the films look with the sunny outdoor sequences providing an excellent counterpoint to the claustrophobic and crowded indoor shots. The Crazies is an extremely packed and busy film and it rarely lets up its rather fierce grip and the balanced and memorable look Hinzman provides is very noteworthy.
I am also really taken with the performances in the film and am so impressed with the work Romero can pull out of sometimes really inexperienced performers. Lane Carroll is a perfect example as The Crazies was just her third film (and her last according to IMDB) and she is really spellbinding and delivers a performance that is alternately strong, vulnerable and finally moving. Lloyd Hollar also does exceptional work here with his last shot (and the film's) being one of the most memorable in Romero's canon. The always unforgettable Lynn Lowry had a big year in 1973 as she is fine in Romero's film and also appeared in Theodore Gershuny's interesting Sugar Cookies and Radley Metzger's awesome Score. She would continue to endear herself throughout the mid seventies to early eighties with quality work in films for directors ranging from David Cronenberg to Paul Schrader.
The Crazies was, like most of Romero's best work, shot on location in and around Pittsburgh. Everything seems carefully designed in a compellingly free-wheeling way and to my eyes The Crazies never falters and is one of George Romero's greatest achievements. Budgeted at under 275,000 dollars The Crazies would find its way into a handful of theaters and drive ins in the spring of 1973. It played in some cities under the delightfully absurd but fitting title Code Name: Trixie and even on the lower half of certain drive in bills called The Mad People. It made its way throughout America and
finally Europe throughout the seventies before appearing on VHS in the early part of the eighties.
It has had several DVD releases with the newest on Blue Underground's label to be the best. Here the film can be viewed in a solid widescreen print along with a very memorable audio commentary featuring Romero. Also great are some of the promotional material Blue Underground dug up to go along with the film. It is a great disc and highly recommended.
The Crazies will never have the audience that Romero's Dead films have but it is a really striking and important work from one of our most visionary directors. On the eve of Diary Of The Dead, have a Romero film festival and include The Crazies as it is often left out.

Creepshow

Truth be told Creepshow has never been one of my favorite George Romero or Stephen King films. However, that said, it is impossible to imagine my youth without it as it was one of those films that I saw over and over again growing up. My memories of it combined with the fact that it is an undeniably fun and inventive film continue to make it quite enduring for me.
I first encounted Romero and King’s loving homage to comic books like Creepy and Eerie probably around my eleventh or twelfth birthday, although the film came to be so familiar too me that I can’t actually remember the first time I saw it. I am guessing that first time was probably an edited TV version or perhaps even a showing on HBO shortly after my family first got that back in the mid eighties. I can still remember the excitement that possessed me as I realized the possibility of watching uncut movies on the television. It seemed so novel and positively astonishing at the time.
After getting our first VCR around 85 or so, I taped Creepshow off one of the cable channels and must have nearly worn that tape out watching it so many times. Since it was an anthology film it became a prime candidate for checking out bits and pieces in the downtime between reruns of Good Times and Welcome Back Kotter. I would watch one or two segments and then leave the tape queued up for the next one and so it went. I still think Creepshow works best this way as sitting down and watching it beginning to end points out most of the key problems it has.

Those problems are pretty easy to spot and they plague most anthology pictures. It feels too long, some stories are stronger than others and the tone of the film is all over the place. Still despite these issues that seem to be inherent to the format, Creepshow works marvelously well mostly I think due to the obvious love King and Romero seem to have for the subject matter.
Book ended by a delightful rendering of the importance of fantasy in a child’s life and the way parents often try to suppress it, Creepshow features some of the most wonderfully stylish direction that Romero has ever committed to film. With a humorous tongue in cheek but always reverent style, Romero easily glides the picture through a series of homages reminding us to the power of the comic book and graphic novel. With eye popping colors, inventive connecting animated spots, far out advertisements and some wonderful uses of split screen and paneling, Creepshow remains one of the definitive comic book adaptations. It’s a film in love with its subject and it really shows.

Scored evocatively by the talented John Harrison, who would lend an equally memorable soundtrack a couple of years down the road for Romero’s Day Of The Dead, and featuring lovely photography by frequent Romero collaborater Michael Gornick, Creepshow is stylistically a winner through and through. The cast, including some of the most notable film and television actors of the period, Romero and King assembled is also one of the best to ever grace their films. I typically find that I like Romero best when he is working with more unknown faces but here, with such icons like Hal Holbrook, Leslie Nielson, and Ed Harris, everything seems to gel for him. Creepshow is a wonderfully acted film which is quite amazing considering the screenplay’s justifiably comic like dialogue and situations. Almost everyone without exception seems to fall effortlessly in the style of the film which is quite rare for these types of adaptations.

The main downfall I think for Creepshow is that the film seems unbalanced between some of the stories which are positively great (Something To Tide You Over) and those that fall flat (The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill). Of course this was a hallmark of Creepy magazine but on film it still throws the tone and mood of the piece off, which is why I still think it works better watching it in sections.
My favorite episode, and I have no idea how this corresponds with other peoples take on it, is indeed Something To Tide You Over. Featuring a sinister laid back performance by Nielson, one of the most inventive and cruel double murders on film and a predictable but still extremely cool ending, Something To Tide You Over is a short little film I never tire of revisiting. Others suffer from being too slight (Jordy Verrill) to way too long (The Crate)…still none of the episodes are unwatchable and I prefer them all to the Michael Gornick directed follow up film from 1987, although admittedly I am nowhere near as familiar with this film.

Creepshow is of course also marked by the wonderful special effects work by Cletus Anderson and Ed Fountain. I am especially fond of the creature in The Crate and the EG Marshall bug infested dummy at the end that might look primitive to modern eyes but seem more and refreshing year after year as CGI becomes more and more prominent in horror films. Many of the makeup effects supervised by legendary Tom Savini, who also has a nice cameo at the end of the film, are also very well done and totally unforgettable.
Creepshow had over ten minutes cut out of it originally including some heavier gore. The fact that there isn’t a special edition of the film out reincorporating this material is very disappointing. The film is still only available on an early bare bones Region 1 disc featuring a washed out and disappointing print. A Region 2 special edition is available and the extras on it look out of sight.

Creepshow isn’t among the best films that the names George Romero and Stephen King have been attached to but it is still a hell of a lot of fun and it has aged surprisingly well. Give it another look if it has been a while and lets all cross our fingers for an eventual fully loaded Region 1 special edition of it.

Images From My All Time Favorite Films: George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978)