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Pre-order Night of the Animated Dead on Blu-ray (Digital Code included) on Amazon.

Night Of The Living Dead: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The George Romero Horror Movie

Philip Sledge — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 18:04:00 +0000

There are few movies that have had as much of an impact on audiences and the horror genre in general than George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Since its release in the fall of 1968, the black-and-white zombie classic has gone down as one of the most consequential horror movies for a myriad of reasons. But, as fascinating as those reasons may be, one of the most remarkable aspects of Romero’s first feature film is how it all came together and how a community of filmmakers, actors, and artists worked tirelessly to make a landmark moment in cinema with a shoestring budget and a lot of ingenuity.

We’ve covered the making of Dawn of the Dead and Day of The Dead’s production in the past, but now it’s time to go back to where it all started with these Night of the Living Dead behind-the-scenes facts…

George A. Romero Started Shooting Night Of The Living Dead Before He Secured The Full $114,000 Budget

Throughout his career, George A. Romero proved time and time again that he didn’t need a massive budget to pull off his vision, but he took it to the extreme with Night of the Living Dead. By the time production wrapped on Romero's directorial debut, the film’s budget ended up being approximately $114,000, per Variety, but when the “Godfather of the Zombie Movie” initially started filming, he had around $6,000.

In a Vice interview a few years before his passing in 2017, Romero explained that he started filming with the initial capital from Image Ten (the film’s production company) and would then show the completed scenes to investors who would donate a few thousand dollars here and there. By the time Image Ten had pulled in enough investors, they had $114,000, which would be $872,000 today.

George A. Romero Wanted Betty Aberlin From Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, But The Children’s Show Host Said No

Prior to becoming one of the leading voices in the horror world, George A. Romero got his start working in television, specifically, on perhaps the most iconic show to come out of his native Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Before he was making moviegoers jump out of their seats in fear, Romero began by working on video shoots in the Steel City, which led to him making a short for Fred Rogers on an episode of his famous WQED children’s program in the 1960s.

During a 2014 interview with The Montreal Gazette (via CinemaBlend), George. A. Romero revealed that while Fred Rogers would later become a fan of Night of the Living Dead, he did not allow Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood star Betty Aberlin to take on the role of Barbara in Romero’s horror classic, putting his foot down when the aspiring filmmaker asked.

George A. Romero Originally Didn’t Intend On Making Night Of The Living Dead About Race

With Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero kicked off a long line of zombie movies with social commentary that had just as much of a bite as the zombies on screen. This, however, wasn’t always the case for Romero, especially when it came to the topic of race in his directorial debut.

In a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Romero was asked about the final scene in the movie in which Ben (Duane Jones), a black man, is killed by police after surviving the hordes of ghouls, and if the film and its ending were still relevant in today’s society. Romero responded by pointing out that the character was never written to be a Black man and that the idea of a Black hero just came out on its own, saying:

We didn’t cast Duane [Jones] because he was black. We cast him because he was the best actor. He actually changed some of the dialogue because when John [Russo] and I wrote the script, we wrote the [role] as an uneducated truck driver and Duane didn’t want anything to do with that. He wanted the character to be ‘respectable.’ … Those were the only things he changed. There’s nothing in the film that points to race. You have to interpret that into it.

Later on in the interview, George A. Romero revealed that he it wasn’t until he heard the news of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination while driving to show off the film to a distributor in New York that he realized Night of the Living Dead had become a movie about race.

George A. Romero Considered Shooting In Color But Felt Black-And-White Made Night Of The Living Dead More Gruesome

Night of the Living Dead has gone on to become one of the all-time great black-and-white horror films, but there was a point about a week into production where George A. Romero and the other producers contemplated switching over to color film and reshooting everything up to that point.

Eventually, however, Romero decided that sticking with the original black-and-white 33 millimeter stock for the movie would be the best way to go, as it made everything looked more brutal and gruesome. During a panel at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, Romero pointed to On The Waterfront and news broadcasts (which were still in black-and-white in the 1960s) for the way the lack of color made things look more real.

Chocolate Syrup And Roasted Ham Was Used For Night Of The Living Dead’s Gore

Because Night of the Living Dead was shot in black-and-white, George A. Romero was able to find some inventive ways to pull off the films', at times, terrifying gore. Instead of using fake blood like he would in Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, Romero used Bosco Chocolate Syrup, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. And all those hunks of meat that the zombies are seen chowing down on in the final assault on the farmhouse? Well, those were pieces of roasted ham donated to the production by a local butcher.

George A. Romero And Other Members Of The Crew Lived In The Night Of The Living Dead Farmhouse During Production

Most of the action in Night of the Living Dead takes place in the abandoned farmhouse that quickly becomes the go-to destination for survivors and the undead alike. This wasn’t a prop built on some Hollywood backlot, but instead an actual farmhouse located in the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that was used as the base of operations (and resting) for George A. Romero and other members of the crew. During an interview with the American Film Institute, Romero revealed that six or seven members of the crew actually slept in the house throughout the film’s production.

Several Members Of The Night Of The Living Dead Cast Had Behind-The-Scenes Jobs As Well

Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman played Harry and Ellen Cooper in Night of the Living Dead, but behind the scenes, the pair (like many others) took on an assortment of other roles. When speaking with Homepage of the Dead in 1997, Hardman revealed that in addition to playing the film’s racist, power-hungry antagonist, he also chose and augmented all the music used in the movie, shot all of the production stills and developed them with other members of the cast, and helped capture sound effects alongside Eastman.

On top of capturing some of the film’s more terrifying sound effects, Eastman was also in charge of all the makeup effects and wardrobe throughout the shoot.

After Completing Night Of The Living Dead, George A. Romero Personally Drove The Film To Distributors In New York City

One thing to remember about Night of the Living Dead is that it was an independent production, meaning George A. Romero and Image Ten didn’t have a distributor lined up the entire time they were making the movie. According to AV Club, after Romero had a finished cut of the film, he placed a copy of it in the trunk of his car and set off to meet with various film distributors in New York City in hopes of selling his picture.

Essentially everyone he approached turned down the movie (still called Night of the Flesh Eaters at the time) except for Continental Distributing, though this would lead to a major issue with the film that would have ramifications for decades to come.

An Issue With The Night Of The Living Dead Title Card Caused The Movie To Immediately Enter The Public Domain

If you have ever gone to a movie store, book store, or even random dollar store in any given town and wondered why there are so many different versions of Night of the Living Dead out in the wild — there’s a good reason for it. Back when George A. Romero made the movie, the original title was Night of the Flesh Eaters, a name that would stick until just before it was set to be released. According to the Library of Congress, a new title card was created and added at the beginning of the movie reading Night of the Living Dead, but Continental Distributing forgot to include one small, yet important detail: the copyright notice.

When Night of the Living Dead was released it entered the public domain because of this mistake, meaning the film's producers couldn’t get a large cut of the estimated $30 million the movie has brought in, per Forbes.

Duane Jones Convinced George A. Romero To Stick With Night Of The Living Dead’s Controversial Ending

Night of the Living Dead has one of the most unsettling and controversial endings of any horror movie, but it’s not because someone is getting ripped apart or anything else involving zombies. Instead, it shows Ben rising from the basement of the farmhouse after all the zombies have been killed only to be shot himself by a white sheriff’s deputy.

Initially, the producers and even George A. Romero himself suggested going with a lighter ending in which Ben survives until the end credits, but as actor Duane Jones said in “Night of the Living Dead: Behind the Scenes of the Most Terrifying Zombie Movie Ever” (via The Wrap) in 1987, it needed to happen:

I convinced George that the black community would rather see me dead than saved, after all that had gone on, in a corny and symbolically confusing way. Besides, the heroes never die in American movies. The jolt of that and the double jolt of the hero figure being black seemed like a double-barreled whammy.

The ending of Tom Savini’s 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead deviated from the original with Ben (played by Candyman’s Tony Todd) turning into a zombie after being shot and killed by Harry Cooper (Tom Towles).

After all these years, Night of the Living Dead remains not only a classic in the eyes of horror hounds around the world but also movie lovers in general, thanks in part to the craftiness and ingenuity of George A. Romero and the cast and crew who dedicated so much time and energy to its creation. And, who knows, maybe one of the upcoming horror movies will have the same impact on audiences in the years to come. Until then, check out what 2021 movies are coming to a theater or streaming service near you.

Up next: Night of the Living Dead And All Of George Romero's Other Zombie Movies, Ranked

Day Of The Dead: 10 Ghoulish Behind-The-Scenes Facts From George A. Romero’s Zombie Classic

Philip Sledge — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 13:04:00 +0000

In 1968, George Romero changed the trajectory of horror movies with Night of the Living Dead, which he followed up with the equally as important Dawn of the Dead. So, when the “godfather of the zombie movie” prepared to release the third part in his iconic franchise — Day of the Dead — in the 1985, it’s safe to say expectations were high. And, despite a last-minute slashing of the film’s budget, issues with props and special effects, and all-around bleak narrative and presentation, Day remains one of the best scary movies and a bright spot in Romero’s filmography.

That being said, there are plenty of great behind-the-scenes facts from the making of the movie that not only give you a greater appreciation for the film itself, but also the men, women, and zombies who made it a reality more than 35 years ago.

George A. Romero Was Given A Choice: Make Day Of The Dead An R-Rated Movie Or Cut The Budget In Half

When Day of the Dead opened in theaters in October 1985, it was released unrated, meaning no one under the age of 17 would be allowed to watch the movie, even with parental supervision. Like George A. Romero’s previous zombie movies, Day of the Dead was full of grotesque zombies, visceral gore, and language that would make just about anyone blush, even the undead. In order for Romero to keep as much of his original vision for the film (more on that later), he was forced to compromise with executive producer Salah M. Hassanein in that he could keep the film unrated, but only if he agreed to cut the budget in half, from $7 million to $3.5 million.

In The Many Days of Day of the Dead, George A. Romero explained that he decided to take the executive producer up on the offer and trim down the script and create the claustrophobic and more dialogue-heavy theatrical version.

Tom Savini Described The Original Vision For Day Of The Dead As ‘Raiders Of The Lost Ark With Zombies’

By cutting the Day of the Dead budget in half, George A. Romero was forced to go back to the drawing board and take out many of the above-ground action sequences he had originally written, and essentially do away with a large chunk of the script. In The World’s End: The Making of Day of the Dead, the original version of the movie not only featured the large underground base of operations that had been setup by the military but also a jungle compound on the surface where scientists would conduct experiments on the undead and even included a literal army of zombies. To best describe the size and scope of the original script, special effects legend Tom Savini called Day of the Dead “Raiders of the Lost Ark with zombies.”

The ideas weren’t all lost, as some of the aspects originally intended for Day of the Dead ended up being included in 2005’s Land of the Dead.

Up next: The Most Iconic Kill From Each Of The Friday The 13th Movies

Day Of The Dead Was Largely Filmed In An Old Mine That Was Turned Into An Underground Storage Facility

Like Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead before it, Day of the Dead was largely filmed in George A. Romero’s native Pennsylvania with the majority of the production being conducted in an old mine that had been turned into the Wamp Underground storage facility, according to Penn Live. The filming location was even worked into the story told in the movie, which sees what’s left of the survivors hunkering down in the sprawling underground facility.

Sections of the old mine were even turned into the corrals the soldiers use to gather zombies for experimentation, and William McDermott (Jarlath Conroy) and John (Terry Alexander) even live in a construction trailer situation among boats, RV’s, and the other vehicles being stored there. Other portions of Day of the Dead were filmed in Fort Meyers, Florida, including the opening sequence.

Tom Savini Used His Basement As The Base Of Operations To Build All The Zombie Effects Prior To Shooting

One of the major differences between Day of the Dead and its predecessors is the sophistication of the special effects and makeup created by Tom Savini and his team. Savini, who had created some of the most iconic zombie kills of all time through his work on Dawn of the Dead, started preparing with his team months before the start of production on Day of the Dead, and had his small yet talented team join him in his basement to get everything in order. In The World’s End: The Making of Day of the Dead, Savini recalled spending all day, every day for months making foam that would then be put into molds to create dozens upon dozens of small, medium, and, large zombie applications.

Bub The Zombie Listening To A Walkman Wasn’t Originally Written Into The Script

At the heart and center of Day of the Dead is the story of Bub (Sherman Howard), the smart zombie showed that the undead could be taught to complete menial tasks or even remember parts of their previous lives. One of the scenes that best illustrates this (well, besides Bub shooting Captain Rhodes) is seen when the zombie picks up a Walkman and starts listening to music. This pivotal moment, however, was not in the original script. In The Many Days of Day Of the Dead, Howard revealed that one day he was thinking about Bub and what he would do if he saw a tape-player and headphones. When he got back to the set, Howard told George A. Romero about the idea and the director lit up and said they should shoot it.

Up next: Bub And 5 Other Best Movie Zombies Ahead Of Army Of The Dead

Special Effects Artist Greg Nicotero Got His First Acting Gig In Day Of The Dead Because Of A Mechanical Head He Helped Build

Greg Nicotero has gone on to become one of film and television's great special effects masterminds and creative forces with shows like The Walking Dead, and that all got started with his work on Day of the Dead. In a 2018 interview with EW, Nicotero talked about his experience working as Tom Savini’s assistant on the zombie film and how a mechanical head that he helped create earned him a spot in the cast.

Remember those budget cuts mentioned earlier? Well, some of the special effects had already been created before they went into the movie, so George A. Romero and Tom Savini were left with a fully-operational mechanical head and nothing to do with it after a section of the movie was cut out. To keep the gag in the movie, they wrote a character for Greg Nicotero as one of the soldiers that is killed and turned into one of the experiments.

The Prop Wall Used In Sarah Bowman’s Zombie Dream Sequence Had To Be Rebuilt After It Fell On The Actress

Day of the Dead opens with a dream sequence that shows Dr. Sarah Bowman (Lori Cardille) walk and look at a calendar hung up on the middle of a cinderblock wall only to have dozens of zombie hands rip through and grab her. In The World’s End: The Making of Day of the Dead, Cardille revealed that when they went to film that scene for the first time, the weight and momentum of the actors playing the zombies pushing through the wall forced it crashing on top of her. Though she thought it was funny, Cardille admitted that she felt bad for the crew who had to rebuild the contraption and spend so much time getting it all setup.

Extras Were Given One Dollar, A Fake Newspaper And A Hat Reading ‘I Was A Zombie In Day Of The Dead”

You can’t have a movie where the undead outnumber the living by a great number like in Day of the Dead without lots of undead, meaning there was a great need for extras to play all those zombies. In the documentary Behind The Scenes with Day of the Dead, two of the members of the crew in charge of the extras revealed that all of the hundreds of “zombies” received three things for being in the movie: a $1 bill, a copy of the newspaper with the headline “The Dead Walk” as seen in the opening title sequence, and a hat reading “I Was a Zombie in Day of the Dead.”

Joseph Pilato Was Given The Role Of Captain Rhodes As Soon As He Auditioned

Of all of George A. Romero’s zombie movies, Day of the Dead features the best villain in Captain Henry Rhodes (Joseph Pilato), the tyrannical and unhinged soldier who has taken command of the remaining survivors. Prior to landing the career-defining role, Pilato had worked with Romero on Dawn of the Dead (much of his appearance was cut) and Knightriders, which probably helped him get the job. In a 2000 interview with Homepage of the Dead, Pilato revealed that Romero essentially gave him the gig as soon as he came in for an audition.

The Pig Guts And Chicken Parts For Captain Rhodes’ Death Scene Spoiled When The Fridge Containing Them Was Unplugged

Captain Henry Rhodes’ death scene at the end of Day of the Dead remains one of the most visceral and disgusting in the history of zombie movies, but it pales in comparison to what the cast and crew had to endure when filming the scene, especially Joseph Pilato. In The World’s End: The Making of Day of the Dead, Tom Savini explained that all of the pig guts and chicken parts that were used to replicate Rhodes’ intestines being ripped out were left in a fridge until they were needed.

When the crew left to shoot exteriors in Florida partway through production, someone unplugged the fridge with everything inside it being left to rot for several weeks. By the time anyone found out, it was too late and they had to complete the four-hour process of staging and shooting with the rancid meat.

While everyone on the crew were able to wear masks and the zombies put wax up their nostrils to hide the smell, Joseph Pilato (whose body was hidden by a false floor) had to stand there and endure the smell of rotten meat for hours.

Day of the Dead is still a marvel of storytelling and special effects considering all the changes George A. Romero and company had to make along the way, and there’s a good chance you’ll see some of the old tricks be used in some of the upcoming horror movies. And, if zombies aren’t your bag, there are still plenty of non-horror 2021 movies on the way.

Up next: SyFy’s Day Of The Dead: 8 Quick Things We Know About The New Zombie Series

Night Of The Animated Dead: Release Date, Cast And 6 Other Things We Know About The George A. Romero Remake

Philip Sledge — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 09:04:00 +0000

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In October 1968, George A. Romero released a low-budget black-and-white horror film that forever changed the way we look at zombies (and our neighbors to a certain extent). The groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead, which spawned an entire franchise of its own, has gone on to be remade countless times to varying degrees of success and has even been adapted as novels, graphic novels, and as is the case with the upcoming Night of the Animated Dead, feature-length cartoons.

In the fall of 2021, more than 50 years after George A. Romero terrified audiences with his unique blend of horror and social commentary, Night of the Animated Dead will hope to capture that same feeling and present it to a new audience, one who wants more full-color blood splatters and less black-and-white zombies with chocolate syrup in place of blood…

Night Of The Animated Dead Will Be Released Digitally September 21, 2021; Physically October 5, 2021

You will be able to watch Night of the Animated Dead and take in all of the action of the retelling of one of George A. Romero’s best horror movies starting September 21, 2021, when the animated feature becomes available from digital retailers. If you you prefer to own a physical copy of the movie put it next to Night of the Living Dead (and Night of the Living Dead in Color and Night of the Living Dead in 3D and all the other releases that have been put out over the years) then you will have to wait until the Blu-ray/DVD set (which comes with a digital code) is released October 5, 2021.

The Night Of The Animated Dead Voice Cast Includes Josh Duhamel, Dulé Hill And Katee Sackhoff

Like the film on which it was based, Night of the Animated Dead will center on an ensemble cast of characters who probably stand a better chance of surviving the hordes of zombies outside their window than they do the monsters inside the abandoned farmhouse. The Night of the Animated Dead cast features Josh Duhamel as Harry Cooper, Dulé Hill as Ben, Katharine Isabelle as Barbara, Katee Sackhoff as Judy, Will Sasso as Sheriff McClelland, Jimmi Simpson as Johnny, Nancy Travis as Helen Cooper, and James Roday Rodriguez as Tom.

The Movie Adapts George A. Romero’s Classic Horror Film But There Will Be Some Extra Scenes

Much like the original Night of the Living Dead, this animated remake will follow a group of survivors trapped in a rural farmhouse where they hope to survive the seemingly endless horde of zombies attempting to break down the doors and devour their flesh. This also means the movie will be loaded with the social commentary that made the original such a pivotal film upon the time of its release.

For the most part, Night of the Animated Dead appears to be about as faithful of an adaptation as any before but Warner Bros. Entertainment has announced that there will be a few extra scenes not shown in George A. Romero’s horror classic.

Night Of The Animated Dead Was Directed By Jason Axinn And Based On John Russo’s Original Night Of The Living Dead Script

Jason Axinn, who released the animated horror film To Your Last Breath in 2019, directed Night of the Animated Dead, a project he said on Twitter he was “super thrilled” to be a part of when the movie was first revealed in June 2021. The film’s script was based on the original screenplay John Russo wrote alongside George A. Romero for Night of the Living Dead back in 1968.

The Physical Release Of Night Of The Animated Dead Is Set To Include A Making Of Documentary About The Process

Along with Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copies of Night of the Animated Dead, the physical release will also come loaded with special features including Making of the Animated Dead, an in-depth documentary breaking down individual scenes, video from the voice recording sessions, and the step-by-step process of how director Jason Axinn animated Night of the Living Dead.

The Night Of The Animated Dead Trailer Horrifically Recreates Some Of Night Of The Living Dead’s Iconic Moments

Although Night of the Living Dead was far from the goriest of George A. Romero’s zombie films (that would have to go to Day of the Dead), the black-and-white horror flick had its share of gross-out scenes, and it looks like Night of the Animated Dead is going that route with the gore featured in the official trailer. Diehard Romero fans (or horror fans in general) will recognize the events of the trailer, only this time in illustrated form. Watch the Night of the Animated Dead trailer here.

Night Of The Animated Dead Is Rated R

As much as fans of George A. Romero would love to see an unrated animated remake of Night of the Living Dead, that’s probably never going to happen with Warner Bros. footing the bill. That being said, Night of the Animated Dead is rated R for bloody and gruesome zombie violence because why have a zombie movie without a ton of gore?

This Is The Latest Of Numerous Remakes And Adaptations Of Night Of The Living Dead

There have been more remakes, adaptations, and re-releases of Night of the Living Dead released over the years than anyone can count. The reason for this is an issue with the title of the movie when the original copyright was filed back in 1968 (the name was changed at the last minute from Night of the Flesh Eaters), making it to where the movie entered the public domain not long after.

The first remake of Night of the Living Dead, which was directed by Tom Savini, was released in 1990 and even included some changes to the characters (specifically Barbara) that were added in by Romero himself. Since then, there have been titles like Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection, A Night of the Living Dead, and Night of the Living Dead: Rebirth, with even more on the way like Night of the Living Dead II (which features members of the Day of the Dead cast for some reason).

I guess all that is guaranteed in life is death, taxes, and Night of the Living Dead remakes…

Night of the Animated Dead will be available to watch starting September 21, 2021, which will be just in time to be included with all the other great upcoming horror movies this fall…

Up next: George A. Romero’s Twilight Of The Dead: 5 Reasons I’m Excited For The Movie That's In The Works

SyFy’s Day Of The Dead: 8 Quick Things We Know About The New Zombie Series

Philip Sledge — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 13:04:00 +0000

In the more than 30 years since George A. Romero released Day of the Dead in 1985, the third movie in his Dead anthology has received more sequels, remakes, and reboots than anyone asked for, but the latest incarnation looks to be more promising than anything else that came before it. The Day of the Dead TV show, which debuts on SyFy later in 2021, will be both a homage to the “Godfather of the zombie movie” while also taking a very different direction with the story about humanity trying to survive an army of the undead and each other.

And while it is true the Day of the Dead name has been tarnished over the years thanks to all those aforementioned movies, there’s a very good chance the latest version will be anything but a creatively-bankrupt disaster and instead, a chance for audiences to see just how much fun a group of writers and horror hounds can have with a show. Here are eight quick things to know about SyFy’s Day of the Dead TV show.

Day Of The Dead Premieres In October 2021 on SyFy

During the Day of the Dead: Adapting a Legend panel at Comic-Con @Home in July 2021, it was revealed that the dead will begin walking the Earth (on SyFy, anyway) at some point in October 2021, which is honestly the perfect time to start up a horror series like this. And while the exact release date was not disclosed during the panel, we do know that Day of the Dead will consist of 10 episodes of bloody, zombie madness fans of George A. Romero’s Dead movies have come to know and love over the years.

The Day Of The Dead Cast Includes Keenan Tracey, Natalie Malaika, Daniel Doheny And Morgan Holmstrom

The Day of the Dead TV show isn’t a shot-for-shot remake of George A. Romero’s claustrophobic zombie movie though it does feature characters loosely based off key figures from the movie as well as some that pay homage to the movie. When the show airs, viewers will be introduced to Keenan Tracey’s Cam McDermott (a nod to Jarlath Conroy’s Bill McDermott), Natalie Malaika’s Lauren Howell, Daniel Doheny’s Luke Bowman, and Morgan Holstrom’s Sarah Blackwood (the latter two being references to Lori Cardille’s Sarah Bowman).

The Day of the Dead cast also includes Kevin O’Grady as Rhodes (a callback to the tyrannical army officer portrayed by Joseph Pilato), Marci T. House’s Captain Pike, and numerous others.

Day Of The Dead Will Take Place Over The Course Of The First 24 Hours Of A Zombie Outbreak

When the Day of the Dead TV show was first announced in February 2020, SyFy explained that sometimes all it takes to bring people together is a horde of zombies trying to rip them apart. Those people (the living, not the undead) consist of a group of six strangers who fight for survival while they also try to make sense of the strange phenomenon of their dead family members, friends, and neighbors rising from the grave to kill them.

Jed Elinoff And Scott Thomas Serve As The Day Of The Dead Showrunners

The Day of the Dead TV show was created, written, and produced by the co-showrunners Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas, who have worked on everything from shows like Celebrity Deathmatch to The Jetsons and WWE: Robo-WrestleMania! over the years.

During the Day of the Dead: Adapting a Legend panel at Comic-Con @Home in July 2021 Scott Thomas explained that every zombie movie and TV show owes George A. Romero for his legacy and contributions to the world of horror. Touching on that, Jed Elinoff said that when he and Thomas had the chance to make Day of the Dead, they couldn’t help but feel immense excitement for the potential of the project but also responsibility because they didn’t want to screw up their chance to make something that pays respect to the late horror legend.

SyFy’s Series Will Be An Ode To George A. Romero’s Classic But Will Take A Different Direction

Throughout the Day of the Dead: Adapting a Legend panel co-showrunner Scott Thomas made it clear that just because the show has the same name as the movie, it doesn’t follow the plot beat by beat, but instead takes some inspiration from it while also doing its own thing. That means instead of focusing on the tension between a group of scientists and soldiers living underground in a bunker, the show will take place above ground and follow people on what was supposed to be a big day for them before the dead returned to feast on the living. This includes a mayoral election, an undertaker running her first funeral, a senior skip day, and more.

And what would any tribute to George A. Romero be without some social commentary? Luckily for longtime fans of the director’s work, the Day of the Dead TV show will have its fair share of social critique as co-showrunner Scott Thomas revealed during the Comic-Con 2021 panel, revealing that the town will be torn apart politically because of things like fracking, a tense mayoral election, and a sordid history involving people who have never been treated well by the powers that be.

One of the showrunners’ main goals with Day of the Dead was to bring those people together and bridge their differences by introducing an army of rotting corpses who care not for political discourse but the taste of the human flesh.

Day Of The Dead Changes The Rules When It Comes To Zombies

By now, everyone knows the main way to kill a zombie: shoot them in the head. Well, the showrunners of the Day of the Dead TV show are changing that golden rule to stop a ghoul in that the undead in the upcoming series can only be killed by the complete and utter destruction of the head or body. During the Comic-Con panel, Scott Thomas alluded to the “shoot them in the head, man” situation becoming a horror movie trope and predictable and he and Jed Elinoff felt this was a way of switching things up.

Another major change to the zombie textbook here is that getting bit by a zombie doesn’t necessarily mean someone will join the ranks of the undead, but we’ll have to wait and see.

The Day Of The Dead Trailer Shows Just How Gory The Show Will Be

With the only way to take out the zombies in the Day of the Dead TV being total destruction of the brain, you would think the show would be a bloody mess of a good time, and you would be right. In July 2021, SyFy released the gory as all hell teaser trailer that shows off the tone and violence of the upcoming horror series while also introducing viewers to some of the characters with whom they’ll be spending so much time (well, hopefully). Check the trailer out for yourself, but make sure you have an empty stomach because there’s one shot that looks like a certain scene from RoboCop.

Well, that all certainly sounds like a good time and hopefully makes you all the more excited to check out the Day of the Dead TV show when it debuts in October on SyFy. If you want to get a head start on everything else coming to the small screen later this year, check out our Fall 2021 TV schedule.

Up next: Goosebumps And 4 Other George A. Romero Projects That Never Happened

Goosebumps And 4 Other George A. Romero Projects That Never Happened

Philip Sledge — Sun, 18 Jul 2021 18:04:00 +0000

In his lifetime, George A. Romero was responsible for some of the best horror movies of all time. Whether it be with his iconic and influential Night of the Living Dead (and subsequent franchise) or multiple collaborations with Stephen King, Romero’s legacy continues to live on even years after the 2017 death. But while Romero’s work and legacy speak for themselves, there are some unrealized projects that either never saw the light of day or the final product was far different from the filmmaker’s original vision.

The list of George A. Romero movies that never got made includes everything from the horror legend’s attempt to adapt Goosebumps, an early version of Resident Evil, and a few other titles that have left longtime fans and horror hounds asking: What if? Let’s take a dive into five of those unrealized projects, discuss what they were about, how far Romero got into each respective movie, and why they ultimately didn’t work.

Goosebumps

George A. Romero kicked off the zombie genre we know today back in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead, expanded the concept with 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, and then again in 1985 with Day of the Dead, and so it seemed only natural that the king of the undead would come out with a zombie movie in the 1990s, right? Well, that never happened but it’s not because Romero didn’t have an idea for his next contribution to the genre.

At some point in the mid 1990s, George A. Romero came up with an adaptation of R.L. Stine’s first Goosebumps book: 1992’s Welcome to the Dead House. According to the Horror Studies department at the University of Pittsburgh Library System (which was given Romero’s extensive archives), nearly 20 years before the Jack Black-led Goosebumps movie was released in 2015, the horror legend came up with an adaptation that would have seen Tim Burton sit in the director’s chair.

George A. Romero took the basic premise and characters of Welcome to the Dead House — the inhabitants of the small town of Dark Falls are secretly the living dead and invite a new family to move there each year so they can feed on their blood — but added an element in which the residents are trapped in a curse imposed by the town patriarch upon his death. In Romero’s version of the story, the residents are trapped in the cursed town and are forced to contribute to Dark Falls’ cottage industry year after year.

Resident Evil

We previously discussed this in our rundown of the Resident Evil behind-the-scenes facts, but in the early stages of Paul W.S. Anderson’s 2002 horror-action flick, George Romero was tasked with writing multiple scripts, all of which were not used. Romero’s involvement with Resident Evil might stop with his failed attempt to get the movie off the ground, but his story actually starts several years earlier.

In a 2016 Variety profile on George A. Romero’s failed Resident Evil movie, it is revealed that the horror legend first crossed paths with the franchise when he was asked to direct a Japanese commercial for the 1998 video game Resident Evil 2 (or Biohazard 2 in Japan). This live-action commercial (which can be viewed here) was enough to impress Sony Pictures executives who asked Romero to not only write but direct a film adaptation of the original 1996 game. Romero’s version would have not only been more violent than the movie we would eventually get but was also more faithful to the source material and was primarily set in the game’s Spencer Mansion and focused on Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine.

The project, however, failed to take off after Capcom and Sony Pictures ultimately passed on Romero’s version of the story and took a more action-oriented route with Paul W.S. Anderson not long after.

War Of The Worlds

In 1986, George Romero began work on his adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. According to the Horror Studies department at the University of Pittsburgh Library System, Paramount Pictures had an interest in Romero’s vision and even had it on the 1987 release schedule at one point prior to abandoning it in favor of a television version. But before the plug was pulled, Romero had not only written a script for what would be the first of a two-part adaptation, but also designed alien machinery, ironed out the setting, and went through several draft revisions.

Similar to Night of the Living Dead with a group of human survivors at each other’s throats when trying to survive an approaching horde of zombies, George A. Romero’s War of the Worlds: The Night They Came would have seen a group of people stuck in a skyscraper work together in order to escape an alien spacecraft that had crashed into the building. The movie would have also been very much in line with Romero’s social commentary found in his zombie movies and contained elements of race, class, and other social structures.

The second part of the George A. Romero’s War of the Worlds script (which would have heavy on action and special effects) was never completed and so it’s hard to say how things would have shaken out for the project, and Romero, had Paramount not pulled the plug.

Day Of The Dead (The Original Concept)

George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead was actually released and has gone on to be one of the most underrated horror movies of all time. But the version of the 1985 horror movie with intelligent zombies is not what Romero originally had in store when he first came up with the idea. Romero’s original vision was bigger, louder, and filled with a lot more action.

In The World’s End: The Making of Day of the Dead, John Harrison, who composed the film’s score in addition to serving as first assistant director, explained that the original version was something more like Land of the Dead in the sense that it was set within a walled-off city where the inhabitants live with a false sense of safety from the hordes of the undead. Special effects legend Tom Savini described the original Day of the Dead as “Raiders of the Lost Ark with zombies.”

According to George A. Romero, executive producer Salah M. Hassanein was willing to give the production a budget of $7 million but only if Day of the Dead went for an R-rating. Romero, whose previous Dead movies had been non-rated, refused and the two settled on a $3.5 million budget that forced the director to cut out a lot of action and retool the story to predominantly take place underground. Romero felt this benefited the project as it forced him to take its essence and reduce it down to its core elements.

Jacaranda Joe

This final George A. Romero movie was actually produced, but it has never been viewed publicly. In the summer of 1994, Romero went to a college in Florida and created what is known as Jacaranda Joe, a nearly 20-minute found-footage film about a small town that is infested with tourists after a video of what appears to be Big Foot is shown on what was described by The University of Pittsburgh Library System as being a Geraldo Rivera-type talk show that brings everyone out of the woodworks.

When researchers at the University of Pittsburgh were going through the material donated in the George A. Romero archives, they discovered a full script, storyboards, and a VHS working print (minus titles and credits) of Jacaranda Joe. Still, the film has never been released in full and remains a mystery to fans and colleagues of Romero as none of the late director’s customary collaborators were involved in the movie in any capacity.

This is just a small sampling of the unreleased George A. Romero films and It’s possible that the list will continue to grow as the researchers at the University of Pittsburgh continue to dig through decades of screenplays, notes, and other writings from his collection. In the meantime, there are a ton of great upcoming horror movies to hold you over.

Up next: George A. Romero’s Twilight Of The Dead: 5 Reasons I’m Excited For The Movie That's In The Works

Adapting Stephen King's Word Processor Of The Gods: Does The 1984 Tales From The Darkside Episode Need A Reboot?

Eric Eisenberg — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 13:04:00 +0000

From The Shining, to Misery, to The Dark Half, typewriters have been regularly featured in the works of Stephen King – but as noted by Douglas E. Winter in Stephen King: The Art Of Darkness, it was in 1982 that they stopped being his “principal writing tool.” By that point in his career, the author had experienced enough financial success to allow him to switch over to what was still an emerging technology: a word processing computer. Being one who constantly finds inspiration in the world around him, King didn’t wait long before putting the magic-like device at the center of a short story, one simply titled “The Word Processor,” and by January of the next year it was published in Playboy magazine.

Meanwhile, one of Stephen King’s favorite Hollywood collaborators, George A. Romero, was busy expanding his career on the small screen. Following the director’s success with Creepshow, interest was developed in the idea of a horror anthology television series, and while rights issues prevented use of the film's title, Laurel Entertainment produced the first season of Tales From The Darkside in 1984. Given Romero’s history with King, it didn’t take long for the latter’s work to be integrated into the show, and “The Word Processor” was adapted as the eighth episode of the first season – albeit with the new title “Word Processor Of The Gods” (a title that stuck when it was later included in the 1985 collection Skeleton Crew).

It can often be the case that stories about emerging 20th century technologies don’t age well due to how rapidly everything changes in modernity – but is this an example of an exception? That’s the query I’ll be processing in this week’s edition of Adapting Stephen King.

(Image credit: Laurel Entertainment)

What Word Processor Of The Gods Is About

Stephen King goes into deep detail about the origins of “Word Processor Of The Gods” in the introduction of Skeleton Crew, noting that it was particularly the “INSERT” and “DELETE” keys that caught his attention as he was getting acclimated to his first Wang computer. One night approximately a month after his purchase he found himself suffering through some kind of “nasty little bug,” and while staying in the guest bedroom (due to its proximity to the bathroom) he found himself focusing on a thought:

Wouldn’t it be funny if this guy wrote a sentence, and then, when he pushed DELETE, the subject of the sentence was deleted from the world?

At first he imagined how this process could quickly escalate in a narrative – going from deleting a chair in the living room to deleting New York City and “the concept of war” – but the story became more intimate with the thought of how a character could use a magic word processor to add to his life… perhaps by deleting a hateful spouse and replacing her with someone else.

Sitting at his computer after that rough night, Stephen King conjured the story of Richard Hagstrom, a struggling writer and teacher with an abrasive, callous wife, and dipshit son. On his birthday, Richard is delivered a home-made word processor created by his dearly departed nephew, Jonathan – who managed to create the machine out of scrap wires, a Western Electric telephone, a train transformer, and an Erector Set motor. The protagonist has little faith that it will actually function, but Jonathan’s neighbor, Mr. Nordoff, suggests that he not underestimate the teenager’s impressive technical skills.

After Nordoff leaves, Richard is shocked to discover that the word processor not only works, but seems to have the capacity to alter reality – entering test commands to delete a picture on the wall, and conjure a bag of gold coins on the floor. The computer quickly overheats and shuts down when it’s used, letting Richard know that there are only so many times he can use it, and he finds himself making massive choices in the hopes of rectifying his sad life.

(Image credit: Laurel Entertainment)

How Tales From The Darkside’s “Word Processor Of The Gods” Differs From Stephen King’s Short Story

Short stories and anthologies are mediums that co-exist tremendously well: a fun, quick narrative can be brought to live-action, and the process doesn’t require any strenuous effort to expand and stretch the material to be the length of a full feature or series. Creepshow was the first title to demonstrate this as far as adapting Stephen King is concerned, and Tales From The Darkside further confirmed the principle. In the writing of the teleplay version of “Word Processor Of The Gods,” screenwriter Michael McDowell didn’t exactly inject a great deal of creativity, as the whole thing plays out nearly scene-for-scene as it does in King’s version.

Of course, it’s not “perfect” – but the changes that are made are wholly explicable when you examine them. For example, there is the construction of Jonathan’s custom word processor itself. As alluded to in the section above, Stephen King goes into heavy detail regarding the wide variety of components used to bring the machine to life, with a particular focus on the parts that come from a train set. The descriptors do a wonderful job painting the idea that there is audacity in the fact that the thing really operates, and it works because the reader can’t see the machine for themselves. In the Tales From The Darkside episode, Richard (Bruce Davison) doesn’t need to do a close examination of the thing because we can see for ourselves that it looks like wired-together garbage.

That’s a case where a visual medium has its advantages, but there are other changes in the material that effectively demonstrate its limitations. Both the short story and the adaptation feature the scene with Richard “deleting” his son, Seth (Patrick Piccininni), from existence, and having a waking nightmare of his wife, Lina (Karen Shallo), coming home and calling him a murderer – but one thing that Tales From The Darkside doesn’t include is having it so that Lina goes from weighing 180 pounds to about 300. For Stephen King it was an easy way to have Richard see what would have happened to Lina if she never had any kids, but for the adaptation it would have been costly, and thus it was surely an easy cut from the material.

There are other minor changes as well, such as Seth hanging out with his bandmates when Richard makes him disappear (they disappear too because they have no reason to be at the house if Seth doesn’t exist), but they are inconsequential and don’t significantly affect the plot or its impact.

(Image credit: Laurel Entertainment)

Is It Worthy Of The King?

Both reading and watching “Word Processor Of The Gods,” one could make a strong argument that the biggest surprise it packs is that it’s not really a horror story. In fact, it’s pure sci-fi fantasy. “Be careful what you wish for; it might just come true” is a Stone Age cliché that has been constantly emphasized in fiction, and watching Richard type commands into his magical machine you’re just waiting for the other shoe to fall. But that other shoe never comes. You expect the universe to somehow punish the protagonist for erasing his family from existence in favor of selfishly creating his own ideal life… but it doesn’t. Instead, he resurrects his beloved nephew back – as his own son no less – and as a cherry on top he is married to Jonathan’s mother, who was his first love. It’s a practically saccharine ending, and not at all what Stephen King fans expect from the author who kills a child at the end of Cujo.

The short story and the Tales From The Darkside episode can be referenced in tandem because the latter really is just the former brought into live-action. The adaptation captures the mood of the piece, and while not precisely anything special, the performances deliver the full story (Bruce Davison would get much better material to work with years later in the Stephen King-penned Kingdom Hospital). It very much feels like a product of its time, which is appropriate given that the technology involved makes it very era specific.

One really needs to watch “Word Processor Of The Gods” in that context, because the truth of the matter is that it’s not a tale that carries a whole lot of weight or makes much of an impact beyond it. King was hardly the first writer to imagine a writing device that could change reality, as there was even an original Twilight Zone episode that used the idea (“A World Of His Own”) – and the plot device has since been featured in everything from the John Candy comedy Delirious to the Goosebumps book The Blob That Ate Everyone. The only thing that really differentiates it is the fact that the computer doesn’t generate any negative consequences for its main user, but that isn’t really an argument in the adaptation’s favor. It could be special if it featured some kind of horrific and ironic twist at the end, but instead the ultra-happy route renders it mostly forgettable.

All that said, it should also go without saying that this isn’t a story at which any filmmaker should feel compelled to take another crack. Any kind of reboot would require such massive changes that the original material would become unrecognizable, and recognizing that as the case you can see that there wouldn’t be much of a point in developing a new adaptation.

(Image credit: Laurel Entertainment)

How To Watch Tales From The Darkside’s “Word Processor Of The Gods”

All of the films and TV movies I’ve written about thus far as part of this column have been easily available to watch digitally or on Blu-ray – but sadly Tales From The Darkside’s “Word Processor Of The Gods” is where that streak comes to an end. Unfortunately the anthology series has not yet been brought into the world of HD, and is not available on streaming or any online platforms. The only way to presently find it is on DVD, which you can purchase either via the individual release of Season 1 or by getting the Complete Series. For what it’s worth, if you get the latter that means you also get the Season 4 episode “Sorry, Right Number,” which Stephen King wrote directly for the series (you can find his screenplay in the 1993 collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes).

Next week’s edition of Adapting Stephen King will be remaining in the realm of anthologies and short stories – but the big difference is that it will be a return to the big screen by taking a closer look at Lewis Teague’s Cat’s Eye. Look for the column next Wednesday, and in the meantime peruse previous installments by clicking on the banners below.

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Adapting Stephen King's Weeds And The Crate: Is 1982's Creepshow Still In Mint Condition?

Eric Eisenberg — Wed, 26 May 2021 13:04:00 +0000

If it weren’t for the fact that Stephen King’s The Stand is such a crazy nightmare to turn into a movie, it’s possible that we wouldn’t have Creepshow. After all, the origin of the beloved anthology begins in 1979 when George A. Romero got the itch to adapt the pandemic epic (which had been published the previous year). Of course, it didn’t take long for the two men to recognize the very real challenges that making the film would pose. Desiring the Hollywood Holy Grail mixture of substantial financial resources and creative control, they opted to focus their efforts on a different project that would hopefully be a big hit and give them all the clout they would need to make a proper big screen version of the beloved 1978 novel.

Sadly, Romero and King never did actually get to make their adaptation of The Stand, but fans can still be eternally grateful that they did manage to produce a true-blue classic together as their first collaboration. Written by the author himself (his first screenplay) and weaving together five diverse horror stories between bookends starring Tom Atkins and a young Joe Hill, Creepshow arrived in theaters in 1982, and became a box office hit.

Of those five stories, three of them were invented for the screen, but two of them Stephen King adapted from his own work. The second chapter in the anthology, titled “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill,” is based on the short story “Weeds,” first published in the May 1976 issue of Cavalier magazine; and the fourth, “The Crate,” comes from the short with the same title that initially appeared in the July 1979 issue of Gallery. Given King’s direct involvement, clearly the faithfulness to the material isn’t a question here, but how do the original stories compare to what’s featured in Creepshow? And how has the movie held up in the decades since it was released? That’s what I’m diving into with this week’s Adapting Stephen King column.

What Creepshow Is About

As Stephen King expresses in his non-fiction book Danse Macabre, the author first “cut [his] teeth on William M. Gaines’s horror comics.” In the 1940s and 1950s, Gaines operated as the head of Entertaining Comics (a.k.a. EC Comics), and published popular/notorious tales of terror in series like Tales From The Crypt, The Vault Of Horror and The Haunt Of Fear. Reading the various books inspired a deep and unending love for the genre in the impressionable youth, and ultimately he channeled that passion into an incredible career writing stories that very well could have played out in the pages of those magazines.

Less than a decade after the release of his first novel, King had the opportunity to demonstrate his gratitude for the inspiration through Creepshow. The movie’s structure and general premise was designed as homage to the great EC Comics, and each of the tales told are akin to ones that were told in the publisher’s books. While obviously written as short stories, “Weeds” and “The Crate” both very much fit the bill in terms of their content and pacing.

Weeds/The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill

Stephen King made his on-camera debut in George A. Romero’s 1981 film Knightriders, appearing briefly in a scene alongside his wife Tabitha King, and “The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill” in Creepshow provided the author his second opportunity to do a bit of performing, playing the segment’s titular bumpkin. Jordy is a farmer with little intelligence and the same amount of luck – though he initially thinks that he has struck paydirt when a meteor comes crashing down on his land.

Investigating the site, Jordy throws caution to the wind by trying to reach out and touch the space rock, but he burns his fingers when he does. He attempts to cool it down by dousing it with a bucket of water, but is disheartened when he sees that doing so splits the thing in half – revealing some kind of strange liquid inside (a.k.a. “meteor shit”). The lunkhead farmer is disappointed, but hopes that he can still get some money for the discovery.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t live long enough to see that plan come to fruition. When Jordy settles in for a night of drinking and TV watching, he is distraught to discover that he has been infected with some kind of alien moss. The plant life continues to grow and grow, and the protagonist only exacerbates his problem when he jumps in the tub to relieve all the itching.

His home and his body overtaken by the extraterrestrial flora, Jordy wakes the next morning and understands that suicide via shotgun is his only option – though his life won’t be the only one taken, as the aggressive foliage continues to spread far beyond his residence.

The Crate

Contrasting the loneliness of Jordy Verrill, “The Crate” is arguably a story of friendship – specifically between Horlicks University Professors Dexter Stanley and Henry Northrup. It begins when a janitor approaches the former about a mysterious crate from 1834 discovered under a staircase in the zoology department. When Dex helps to pull the box out and open it, they are horrified to discover that there is a monstrous beast living inside, and the custodian gets pulled in and devoured. Desperate for help, the professor finds one of his graduate students in the hall, but the kid winds up meeting an equally gruesome death.

Terrified and not knowing what else to do, Dexter goes to Henry’s house and tells him the whole story. But while the shaken teacher expects that he will either horrify his friend, or just appear totally insane, Henry instead has an unexpected reaction – seeing the discovered crate as an opportunity to get rid of his horrible wife, Wilma (Adrienne Barbeau).

How George A. Romero’s Creepshow Differs From Stephen King’s Weeds And The Crate

No work is guaranteed to be free of changes when transferring to a new medium, and that includes instances when the original author is holding the pen for the adaptation. Stephen King’s “Weeds” and “The Crate” are basically the same stories that are presented in Creepshow, though there are some noteworthy differences.

Weeds/The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill

Adapting “Weeds” for Creepshow, Stephen King, George A. Romero, and the filmmakers involved with the production made some minor aesthetic changes – such as having the meteor shit look like blue goo instead of oatmeal, having the first moss appear on Jordy’s fingers and tongue instead of his eyeball; and Jordy having a vision of his father in the mirror. The biggest alteration is in the ending, however, and it’s not hard to see why when you think about it.

For starters, Stephen King is a touch meaner to poor Jordy in the short story, as his first attempt to blow his own head off is unsuccessful due to his shotgun not being loaded. He ultimately does commit suicide, but that’s only because of the other significant change in the conclusion: the perspective of the alien moss. As we learn from the writing’s third person perspective, the vicious plant operates with a hive mind and a constant hunger, and it actually retrieves shells for the firearm because it expresses curiosity that Jordy might taste better post-suicide. Reading the farmer’s mind by leaching into his brain, it also learns that there are more people to feed on in the next town, inspiring its further expansion.

The Crate

What primarily separates “The Crate” from its source material is less about details and more about structure (though it is also worth recognizing that the monster as initially written whistles like a teakettle when it is both about to attack and after it has eaten – something that is nixed in the movie). While Creepshow has events play out linearly, Stephen King’s original work is more built around Dexter Stanley (Fritz Weaver) and Henry Northrup (Hal Holbrook) sharing accounts of their horrifying experiences. The short story begins with Dex arriving at Henry’s house to tell him about the attack on the janitor and his graduate student; and then after Dex wakes up after being drugged, Henry tells him about how he set his wife up to be killed.

There is an argument to be made that the original version is a touch more positive too. While Dex remains hesitant to the end in the Creepshow adaptation, the final moments seeing him fretting about the monster escaping the crate (before it actually does), Stephen King’s story ends with a more relaxed attitude – with Dex excited that he could start playing chess with Henry as many as three times a week, and agreeing to accompany his pal to report Wilma missing (“What are friends for?”)

Is It Worthy Of The King?

As alluded to earlier in regards to The Stand, one of the most significant hurdles any Stephen King adaptation has to deal with is scale. Sometimes the novels are so expansive that a single feature film struggles to capture everything that makes the source material magical; and there is also a significant history of filmmakers having trouble expanding on the author’s short stories and novellas to hit a certain runtime. As an anthology film, however, Creepshow has a way to circumvent the latter, and what culminates is a delightful and clever collection that is both funny and horrifying in equal measure.

“The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill” and “The Crate” are two of the best chapters in the movie – one throwing an appreciated dose of dark comedy in the mix, and the other contributing some wonderful gore – but really every story has its own special touch that benefits the whole experience. George A. Romero, who first met Stephen King when there were talks of him adapting Salem’s Lot, spectacularly executes the vision of Creepshow as a comic book come to life, with perfect framing and editing that mirrors the experience of flipping through panels and pages while under your covers with a flashlight.

No discussion of Creepshow would be complete without also mentioning the genius work of make-up artist/actor Tom Savini, who worked side-by-side with George A. Romero throughout the entirety of his career, and did some of his best effects work ever in the making of the 1982 anthology feature. From terrifying moss, to a horrible ape creature, to monstrous zombies (both out-of-the-grave and out-of-the-sea types), it’s stunning and magical special effects work.

It’s clearly a very different kind of Stephen King movie than those I’ve previously dug into with this column, and one that the author personally had a much bigger hand in making, but all things considered Creepshow is regardless a highlight in the filmography.

How To Watch George A. Romero’s Creepshow

While it has been previously available on Shudder (which has an original anthology series based on the movie), George A. Romero’s Creepshow is sadly not currently streaming on any services presently. That being said, it’s not at all hard to find it. The movie is available to rent and/or purchase digitally from all major platforms – and if you’re a big fan you truly cannot do any better than the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray released by Scream Factory, which features a beautifully restored version of the film, a ton of special features, and a great essay by Michael Gingold (who deserves a hat tip for the background information in the intro of this feature).

Continuing to move through the years, the next installment of this column will be our first visit to Castle Rock, Maine and the spectacularly dark tussle with the most infamous dog in cinema history. Lewis Teague's Cujo is on deck, so be on the lookout for that piece, as well as more of my Stephen King coverage here on CinemaBlend. For now, explore previous installments of Adapting Stephen King by clicking through the banners below!

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