Zombies Keep Shuffling Along in Popular Culture

Michael Machosky - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The horror-comedy "Zombieland," which opened in theaters Friday, has fun messing around with the rules of the post-apocalyptic zombie movie genre.

The rules of the zombie movie largely came from the original Zombieland -- Western Pennsylvania, home of George A. Romero's horror classic "Night of the Living Dead" (1968).

That movie includes one immutable rule of zombie movies -- "Kill the brain, you kill the ghoul." The only way to kill a flesh-eating zombie is to destroy its brain.

That now taken-for-granted "fact" started in the original "Night," and has continued in the dozens -- maybe hundreds -- of zombie films made since, all the way up to "Zombieland."

But "Night of the Living Dead" actually casts an even wider shadow within the movie-making world..

The film reanimated the horror genre, bringing a much more realistic -- and gory -- vision of terror to the screen.

"Bottom line, it was the first horror film to do what it did, which was to devour flesh," says Gary Streiner, "Night of the Living Dead" sound engineer. "For the real hardcore horror fans, that's what they wanted, and they had never gotten it before."

That's certainly what first stands out about the film -- but not what made it last.

"I think if you had that centered in a boring plot, it would have just been gratuitious -- which I think horror films have evolved into," Steiner says. "Now, they're all missing plot -- but they're bound to blow some arms and faces off. They think that's all that people want."

Streiner organizes the "Living Dead Festival" in Evans City, Butler County, where the bulk of the original film was shot. It will be held Oct. 30 and 31, and features screenings of "Living Dead" and other films, memorabilia, and as many as 13 original members of the cast -- zombies and otherwise.

The low-budget, locally made nature of the film actually made it scarier -- a slick Hollywood product would have looked completely different.

"Hollywood never would have allowed it to be so gritty," says Streiner. "There would have been celebrities in it, and so on. It's real because it's full of real people -- there are aunts and uncles and next-door neighbors, as opposed to actors. I have 15 to 20 percent of my family in this film."

Streiner's brother, Russ Streiner, played the role of Johnny, and was one of the film's producers.

Do-it-yourself filmmaking far outside the Hollywood system was not at all common at the time. "Night of the Living Dead" was a landmark of independent cinema, and was a major inspiration for many independent filmmakers that came after.

"Tons and tons of people had done independent films, but this was the first really successful one," says Streiner. "Look, everybody grows up having the mental image of being a filmmaker. What it did was it just exposed the fact that 'Yes, you can do this.'"

Trials of the 'Night of the Living Dead'

--Columbia Pictures was the only major Hollywood studio interested in distributing this film, but eventually passed because it was in black-and-white at a time when movies had to compete with new color televisions. Ironically, Columbia did distribute the 1990 color remake. American International Pictures considered releasing the film, but wanted George Romero to shoot an upbeat ending and add more of a love-story subplot.

--One of the Walter Reade Organization's publicity stunts was a $50,000 insurance policy against anyone dying from a heart attack while watching the film.

--When the zombies are eating the bodies in the burnt-out truck, they are actually eating roast ham covered in chocolate sauce. The filmmakers joked that it was so nausea inducing that it was almost a waste of time putting the makeup on the zombies, as they ended up looking pale and sick anyway.

--The social commentary on racism some have seen in this film was never intended (an African-American man holing up in a house with a white woman, a posse of whites shooting a black man in the head without first checking to see if he was a zombie). According to the filmmakers, Duane Jones was simply the best actor for the part of Ben.

--"Night of the Living Dead" was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1999.

Source: Internet Movie Database

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