Best 12 George Romero Horror Movies (so far) Review

Best George Romero Directed Movies including the 5  Dead

George A. Romero, never dreamed he would have any longevity as a movie maker, began his career as an art director and then was one of the principles of a successful Pittsburgh based advertising agency. A group of passionate agency workers and some of the technical people they worked with and actors they knew from casting local Pittsburgh commercials decided to try to make a movie with little money and without Hollywood connections. They wound up breaking a lot of rules and creating a ground-breaking horror classic called NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968).

Romero co-wrote or wrote, directed, filmed and edited his first 3 movies including Night of the Living Dead the first half-dozen movies he made between 1968 and 1982 he wrote or co-wrote, directed and edited. He wore many hats and did the same thing with his most recent film (Diary of the Dead 2007)

Unfortunately between 1993's Dark Half and 2005's Land of the Dead Romero only directed the utterly mediocre Bruiser released in 2000. Film projects before and after fell apart and quite frankly Romero doesn't play the Hollywood game or schmooze with anyone very well.

He did make an effort to get some writing credits on movies so that he could continue to get his health benefits and keep up with his bills--but he is an extremely independent fellow. He was not particularly successful in getting work until he started putting together Land of the Dead and there was much speculation that following various Zombie movie remakes, copy-cats and derivative works (28 Days Later) there was nothing left even for Romero to do in the genre that he created (in it's modern incarnation). He proved them wrong.

Romero has for the most part avoided making terrible movies unlike other directors who are considered his contemporaries such as  Tobe Hooper or Wes Craven or John Carpenter. Anyway here's a list of what I consider his best movies.

10. TIE

Season of the Witch 1972

is more a psychological character study of a troubled marriage than a horror film. It was originally around 130 minutes and the 110 or better minute version is the one that you should see. It's very slow, but has some interesting scenes. A housewife in a troubled marriage dabbles in witchcraft, has an affair, weird dreams and basically becomes a feminist. The movie was titled Jack's Wife during it's European release and there's an alternate title for it of Hungry Wives. It isn't wild or subversive enough to make a strong impression the way say Brian DePalma's early movies did, and it's not as well scripted or acted as early Francis Ford Coppolla movies were. But I suppose it's in that same league and it certainly proved Romero wasn't a one trick pony with Night of the Living Dead

AND

KnightRiders shows us the lifestyle of a cult group that travels and lives together performing at Medieval Fairs. They joust on motorcycles! It stars Ed Harris and Tom Savini. It's an odd quirky movie, beautifully filmed. However the movie is very long and very slow and not a lot happens. Interesting idea, looks good, but it could have been a 70 minute movie and instead is 225 minutes. (oaky this one is NOT a horror film)

9.

The Dark Half (1993)

I wish both Romero and King had figured out a better way to re-work the story so that it was less a variation on the psycho killer genre and more a unique horrific tale. I[m putting this film on the list because the first third of the movie is almost terrific and you can see the potential this one had. It's tough to accept the pedestrian finale however.

If you remember, this one is about a writer who writes horrific tales under a pseudonym. The writer is the survivor of twins, his brother died or was absorbed by the writer who lives. The twin however does live as a dark creature inside of the writer. When the writer decides to stop writing under the pseudonym, the evil twin rebels and people start getting killed. So does the twin actually exist or is the writer schizo? The movie moves in the least interesting direction possible, but it's watch-able. Timothy Hutton stars. This makes a great companion piece to Misery in which a fan get revenge on a writer for killing off her favorite character. At around the time the movie was being made, King revealed he had written several books under the name Richard Bachman.

8.

The Crazies (1973)

Romero's paranoid tale of innocent people being exposed to a dangerous military chemical weapon (called Trixie) is very cheap, dated and has script and acting problems, but is still an effective and intense suspense/horror thriller. It was filmed in Evans City, Pennsylvania using locals for small roles in the film. Romero made another political statement through an utterly independent, low budget horror film. Anarchy results when the military quarantines a virus infected town, but the population fights back, violently. The films plot and themes seem extremely timely and I suppose that's pretty depressing that 33 years after is was made the movie's messages and a paranoia still seem up to date.


7.

Creepshow (1982)

Stephen King took stories and ideas from E.C. comics of the 50's like Tales from the Crypt and created a script that Romero turned into a very successful omnibus movie, appropriately framing the tales like the comic book panels that inspired them. The script was sometimes clunky but the direction was superb. Adrienne Barbeau as a heavy drinking, obnoxious faculty wife who gets what she deserves, Hal Holbrook as her hen-pecked husband and E.G. Marshall as the rich recluse under attack by bugs are highlights. Tom Savinini's special effects are top-notch. Too bad Romero and King did not wind up making a big budgeted theatrical version of The Stand like they talked about around this time. It became a television miniseries which after the first 30 minutes goes flat for me.

6.

Monkeyshines (1988)

A former athletic guy gets hit by a truck and becomes a quadriplegic. His wife runs off with a sleazy doctor and athletic guy gets more depressed and suicidal only able to manipulate his wheel chair with his mouth. His scientist friend brings over a very smart monkey to help out athletic guy and be his companion. Unfortunately the monkey is from a government lab and though he's very smart he assimiliates the emotions of athletic guy and acts out on them to the point of killing the people athletic guy has bad thoughts about. The movie feels like it's one of those disease of the week television movies. It also has too many subplots. It is also a fascinating unique premise although the monkey is so small and squirrelly it's hard to consider it dangerous in the least and we aren't really convinced that it is at any point in the movie until the 10 minute finale. The movie is also very slow and very depressing as it realistically shows us the difficulties athletic guy has as a paraplegic. If you can be patient, this is an excellent film but it's not your typical horror film and certainly different from what you would expect from Romero since in some way it is very restrained.

5.

Land of the Dead (2005)

The satire may be obvious and Dennis Hopper is not finding too many shades to vary another over-the-top portrayal of a greedy self-obsessed power mad bad guy, but Romero comes up with some shocks and beautiful/horrific images in this 4th Dead film. Politically it's the rich and politically conservative against the poor. I can't tell you it is an essential film but it was the goriest, balls-iest R rated theatrically released movie to be given a wide-release in years. There was some studio inteference and tampering however.  The macho games lead to another dead end and it fits into some of the underlying developing themes of the other DEAD films very well. The DVD version is a little bit gorier. It's got memorable images, and something to say which is more than you'll get from most horror movies of the last 5 years.

Diary of the Dead (2007)  

Romero's latest is  better than the much large budgeted Land. He re-starts his franchise and surprisingly comes up with some clever and very disturbing moments making a much better Blair Witch/ Cloverfield type film without headache inducing shaky-cam. 

A group of college students making a low budget horror film witness a Zombie killing and start making a documentary about the dead coming back to life and eating the flesh of the living.  Set in present day with political comments about the media, 911, immigrants and more.   A little preachy at times but a movie no horror film and certainly no Zombie fan should even consider missing.

You can feel how much passion he had making this movie despite or maybe that's because of its low low budget.

4. 

Day of the Dead (1985)

The 3rd Dead movie was supposed to have a large budget, but when that was cut into pieces, Romero created one of the darkest, most pessimistic horror films of all time. It went against the trend of both action and horror movies and unfortunately was critically trounced. Scientists and the Military were awkwardly finding a way to work with each other to find a solution to stopping the zombie plague that was forcing humans underground into military complexes. Unfortunately the male dominated military and scientific communities stop listening to women and because of that-they are doomed.

Yep, that's one of the very strong messages in the movie. Oh yeah.. it opens and closes with some of the goriest Zombie attacks and effects you have ever seen. In the middle section of the film it is too talky and there are script problems and less than top-notch action. There's a nifty twist on Frankenstein too. This wound up being a low budget indie film. Some consider this one the best of the Dead films. I don't, but it's very good.

3.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

It's too bad that a few generations of film-goers may not easily understand how truly frightening and groundbreaking ‘Night of the Living Dead' was to audiences in 1968 and throughout the early 1970's. It created a whole sub-genre of films. Not just flesh-eating zombie movies, but films where trapped protagonists don't always win and films where political subtexts and messages are slipped into the proceedings (such as racism is here).

I never dreamed that anyone would be talking about ‘Night of the Living Dead' as a classic, groundbreaking almost ‘good for you' kind of film when I first snuck in to see it as a teenager in the early 1970's. It was considered an extremely gory and inappropriate film for any child to see. It played drive -ins and grind houses on it's first run (in 1968). Then many communities refused to allow it to be shown. Some censored it, others turned into a midnight cult film. It became bigger and more celebrated with every Halloween release throughout the early 1970's. The black and white film's few gory scenes are still a bit disturbing for the extremely squeamish (but an episode of CBS' CSI is more gory than this film is). Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Last House on the Left were it's bastard stepchildren. The Italians began to rip it off incessantly...first quietly with Cannibal films and then outright with Fulci's Zombi movies. Romero went on to make other films like 'The Crazies' and 'Martin', but none got the attention of ‘Night of the Living Dead'. He didn't make very much on it, the distributors were less than honest and there never seemed to be any profits after the expenses were paid out. In the end there was a question about its legal copyright and it possibly being a public domain film. There was big fallout between scriptwriters Russo and Romero and they split up the idea. Romero re-launched, modernized and updated the film magnificently with DAWN OF THE DEAD in 1979. And after the release of that film the zombie films kept coming and coming. Some of the good ones included: Fulci's THE BEYOND and Zombi , the campy RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, Sam (Spiderman) Raimi's EVIL DEAD films, Peter-‘Lord of the Rings'- Jackson's DEAD ALIVE a.k.a. ‘ Brain Dead'), 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead, Demons and NIGHT and DAWN remakes (that Romero didn't direct). 


2.

Martin (1977)

This is one of Romero's strongest and best films. It's an odd quirky character study about Martin who is a troubled 17 year old boy who may or may not be an 84 year old vampire. He certainty believes he is a vampire, but the magic is gone. He isn't affected by daylight or garlic of crucifixes and can't change into fog, a bat or defy gravity. He has to use a razor blade to slice open the veins of people he wants to take a drink from. I'm not going to tell you much more about it because I strongly you suggest you find it on DVD and at least rent this unique film.


1.

Dawn of the Dead (1979)

Society is on the verge of collapse as Dawn of the Dead opens. Martial law has been imposed, super SWAT teams armed with military rifles find zombies and shoot them in the head. But there are just too many of them and the act of brutally killing Zombies (women and children zombies in particularly) de-humanizes the good guys. A group of 5 people decide to find some place to try and live a ‘normal' life. They are forced to land on the top of a shopping mall. They are not safe however because Zombies are the products of consumer capitalism and are attracted to the mall because the experience of going to the mall is part of who they once were. Their desire to shop, buy things and be part of a crowd means that hundreds perhaps thousands of zombies are moving toward the mall. That's not all, anarchy junkies and outlaws have formed biker gangs that torture and play with the zombies. The mall is getting very very crowded and dangerous. In ‘Night" the women were downright passive or traumatized, but in DAWN, the resourceful pregnant woman learns to fight for herself and not put up with the macho stuff that has done nothing to solve problems. Even the social rules need to be re-examined (marriage, traditional family, male and female roles) if the human race is to survive.