This article is missing information about the social commentary and pop culture impact of the series.(August 2020) |
Night of the Living Dead | |
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Directed by | George A. Romero |
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Release date | 1968–present |
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Language | English |
Night of the Living Dead is a zombie horror media franchise created by George A. Romero beginning with the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead , directed by Romero and cowritten with John A. Russo. The franchise predominantly centers on different groups of people attempting to survive during the outbreak and evolution of a zombie apocalypse. The latest installment of the series, Survival of the Dead , was released in 2009, with a sequel, Twilight of the Dead, in development. This would be the first film in the series not directed by George Romero, who died on July 16, 2017.
After Night of the Living Dead's initial success, the two creators split in disagreement regarding where the series should head, [1] and since the film was in the public domain, [2] each were able to do what they liked with the continuity of their projects. Romero went on to direct five additional Dead films, while Russo branched into literary territory, writing Return of the Living Dead, which was later loosely adapted into a film of the same name and would have its own franchise, and Escape of the Living Dead .
Labeled "Trilogy of the Dead" until Land of the Dead , each film is laden with social commentary on topics ranging from racism to consumerism. The films are not produced as direct follow-ups from one another and their only continuation is the theme of the epidemic of the living dead. This situation advances with each film, showing the world in a worsening state, but each film is independent of its predecessor. This is exemplified by each movie being set within the era it is filmed, with Land of the Dead being set in modern times with 2005 technology including game consoles, flatscreen televisions and cell phones. The fifth film does not continue the depiction of progress, but shows events at the beginning of a zombie outbreak, similar to the first film. The films portray how different people react to the same phenomenon, ranging from citizens to police to army officials and to citizens again. Each takes place in a world worsened since its previous appearance, the number of zombies ever increasing and the living perpetually endangered, but with each entry being a standalone film that is not directly continuing global events from the previous.[ clarification needed ]
Romero does not consider any of his Dead films sequels since none of the major characters or story continue from one film to the next. The two exceptions are Tom Savini's character of Blades who becomes a zombie in Dawn of the Dead who would be seen again years later in Land of the Dead and the military officer (Alan van Sprang) who robs the main characters in Diary of the Dead and goes on to become a protagonist in Survival of the Dead.
The plot of the film follows Ben (Duane Jones), Barbra Cole (Judith O'Dea), and five others, who are trapped in a rural farmhouse in Pennsylvania and attempt to survive the night while the house is being attacked by mysteriously reanimated corpses, known as ghouls or zombies.
Following the scenario set up in Night of the Living Dead, the United States (and possibly the entire world) has been devastated by a phenomenon which reanimates recently deceased human beings as flesh-eating zombies. Despite efforts by the US Government and local civil authorities to control the situation, society has effectively collapsed and the remaining survivors seek refuge. Protagonists Roger (Scott Reiniger) and Peter (Ken Foree), two former SWAT members, join with Stephen (David Emge) and Francine (Gaylen Ross), a helicopter pilot and his girlfriend planning on leaving the city, and take refuge in an enclosed shopping-mall.
Some time after the events of Dawn of the Dead, zombies have overrun the world, and an underground army missile bunker near the Everglades holds part of a military-supported scientific team assigned to study the zombie phenomenon in the hopes of finding a way of stopping or reversing the process. Dwindling supplies, loss of communication with other survivor enclaves, and an apparent lack of progress in the experiments have already caused loss of cohesion among the scientists and soldiers. Dr. Logan (Richard Liberty), the lead scientist on the project, has been secretly using the recently deceased soldiers in his experiments, trying to prove his theory that the zombies can eventually be domesticated.
Years after the events of the previous film, many of the living have fled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where a feudal-like government has taken hold. Paul Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) rules the city with overwhelming firepower. "Big Daddy" (Eugene Clark), an unusually intelligent zombie, directs his fellow zombies to use firearms against the human defenses, and later leads the zombies in an assault on the human city, with the result that the electric fence that kept the zombies out now keeps the humans trapped inside.
Taking place during the initial outbreak of a zombie pandemic, Diary of the Dead follows a band of film students making a horror movie who decide to record the events in documentary-style as they are chased down by zombies.
Taking place shortly after the events of Diary of the Dead, the film follows the actions of former Colonel and current Sergeant "Nicotine" Crockett (Alan van Sprang). After a failed raid, Crockett deserts his post with fellow soldiers Kenny (Eric Woolfe), Francisco (Stefano Colacitti), and Tomboy (Athena Karkanis). The group encounters an island run by two families who are feuding over whether zombies should be kept alive or killed.
In the 2010s, Romero was dissatisfied with his series ending with Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead. He penned a film treatment with co-writer Paolo Zelati depicting a conclusion to the series that explains the fate of the zombie protagonists from Land of the Dead and an ending where humanity has become virtually extinct. Romero had written the beginning of the script, but the project was stalled when Romero died of lung cancer in 2017.
It was announced in April 2021 that the film had been put back into development under the supervision of Suzanne Romero, with Zelati finishing the script with screenwriters Joe Knetter and Robert L. Lucas. Suzanne told The Hollywood Reporter , "This is the film he wanted to make. And while someone else will carry the torch as the director, it is very much a George A. Romero film." [3] In August 2023, the film was announced to start production in fall 2023 once the current SAG-AFTRA strike comes to an end. [4] A month later, it was announced that the film would be directed by Brad Anderson. [5]
List indicator(s):
- A dark grey cell indicates that the character was not in the film or that the character's presence in the film has yet to be announced.
- A Y indicates a role as a younger version of the character.
- An O indicates a role as an older version of the character.
- A U indicates an uncredited role.
- A C indicates a cameo role.
- A V indicates a voice-only role.
- An A indicates an appearance through archival footage or stills.
Character | Films | |||||
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Night of the Living Dead (1968) | Dawn of the Dead (1978) | Day of the Dead (1985) | Land of the Dead (2005) | Diary of the Dead (2007) | Survival of the Dead (2009) | |
Living Newscaster Undead Newscaster | Charles Craig | Charles CraigVC | ||||
Blades The Machete Zombie Assistant Head Biker Mechanic Zombie Shot Through Glass Zombie Hit By Truck | Tom Savini | Tom Savini | ||||
Brubaker Sarge "Nicotine" Crockett | Alan van Sprang | |||||
Photo Booth Zombies Newsreader | Simon Pegg | Simon PeggVC | ||||
Edgar Wright | ||||||
Tony Ravello | Shawn Roberts | Shawn RobertsA | ||||
Jason Creed | Joshua Close | Joshua CloseA | ||||
Debra Moynihan | Michelle Morgan | Michelle MorganA | ||||
Andrew Maxwell | Scott Wentworth | Scott WentworthA | ||||
Tracy Thurman | Amy LaLonde | Amy LaLondeA |
Crew | Film | |||||
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Night of the Living Dead (1968) | Dawn of the Dead (1978) | Day of the Dead (1985) | Land of the Dead (2005) | Diary of the Dead (2007) | Survival of the Dead (2009) | |
Director | George A. Romero | |||||
Producer(s) | Russell W. Streiner Karl Hardman | Richard P. Rubinstein | Mark Canton Bernie Goldman Peter Grunwald | Peter Grunwald Art Spigel Sam Englebardt Ara Katz | Paula Devonshire | |
Screenwriter(s) | John A. Russo George A. Romero | George A. Romero | ||||
Composer(s) | None (Stock music) | The Goblins Dario Argento | John Harrison | Reinhold Heil Johnny Klimek | Norman Orenstein | Robert Carli |
Cinematography | George A. Romero | Michael Gornick | Mirosław Baszak | Adam Swica | ||
Editor | George A. Romero | Pasquale Buba | Michael Doherty | |||
Production Companies | Image Ten | Laurel Group | Laurel Entertainment | Atmosphere Entertainment MM Romero-Grunwald Productions | Artfire Films Romero-Grunwald Productions | Artfire Films Romero-Grunwald Productions Devonshire Productions |
Distributor | Continental Releasing | United Film Distribution Company (US) Titanus (Italy) | United Film Distribution Company | Universal Pictures | The Weinstein Company | Magnet Releasing (US) Entertainment One Films (Canada) |
Motion picture | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | BFCA |
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Night of the Living Dead | 95% (84 reviews) [21] | — | — |
Dawn of the Dead | 91% (56 reviews) [22] | — | — |
Day of the Dead | 86% (44 reviews) [23] | — | — |
Land of the Dead | 74% (180 reviews) [24] | 71 (30 reviews) [25] | 63 [26] |
Diary of the Dead | 61% (131 reviews) [27] | 66 (29 reviews) [28] | 70 [29] |
Survival of the Dead | 29% (92 reviews) [30] | 43 (22 reviews) [31] | 61 [32] |
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, written by Romero and John Russo, produced by Russell Streiner and Karl Hardman, and starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. The story follows seven people trapped in a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania, under assault by reanimated corpses. Although the flesh-eating monsters that appear in the film are referred to as "ghouls", they are credited with popularizing the modern portrayal of zombies in popular culture.
Day of the Dead is a 1985 American post-apocalyptic zombie horror film written and directed by George A. Romero, and produced by Richard P. Rubinstein. The third film in Romero's Night of the Living Dead series, it stars Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato, Jarlath Conroy and Richard Liberty as members of a group of survivors of a zombie apocalypse sheltering in an underground bunker in Florida, where they must determine the outcome of humanity's conflict with the undead horde. Romero described the film as a "tragedy about how a lack of human communication causes chaos and collapse even in this small little pie slice of society".
Dawn of the Dead is a 1978 zombie horror film written, directed, and edited by George A. Romero, and produced by Richard P. Rubinstein. An American-Italian international co-production, it is the second film in Romero's series of zombie films, and though it contains no characters or settings from the preceding film Night of the Living Dead (1968), it shows the larger-scale effects of a zombie apocalypse on society. In the film, a phenomenon of unidentified origin has caused the reanimation of the dead, who prey on human flesh. David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger, and Gaylen Ross star as survivors of the outbreak who barricade themselves inside a suburban shopping mall amid mass hysteria.
George Andrew Romero Jr. was an American-Canadian film director, writer, editor and actor. His Night of the Living Dead series of films about a zombie apocalypse began with the original Night of the Living Dead (1968) and is considered a major contributor to the image of the zombie in modern culture. Other films in the series include Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985).
Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 action horror film directed by Zack Snyder in his feature directorial debut, with a screenplay by James Gunn. A remake of George A. Romero's 1978 film of the same name, it stars an ensemble cast that includes Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer, with Scott Reiniger, Tom Savini, and Ken Foree from the original film appearing in cameos. Set in Milwaukee, the film follows a group of survivors who try to survive a zombie apocalypse holed up in a suburban shopping mall.
Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 romantic zombie comedy film directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Simon Pegg. Pegg stars as Shaun, a downtrodden London salesman who is caught alongside his loved ones in a zombie apocalypse. It also stars Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, and Penelope Wilton. It is the first film in Wright and Pegg's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, followed by Hot Fuzz (2007) and The World's End (2013).
Survival of the Dead is a 2009 horror film written and directed by George A. Romero and starring Alan van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh and Kathleen Munroe. It is the sixth entry in Romero's Night of the Living Dead series. The story follows a group of AWOL National Guardsmen who briefly appeared in Diary of the Dead.
Land of the Dead is a 2005 post-apocalyptic horror film written and directed by George A. Romero; the fourth of Romero's six Living Dead movies, it is preceded by Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, and succeeded by Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead. It was released in 2005, with a budget of $15–19 million, the highest in Romero's Dead series, and has grossed $46 million.
Night of the Living Dead is a 1990 American horror film directed by Tom Savini and starring Tony Todd and Patricia Tallman. It is a remake of George A. Romero's 1968 film of the same title; Romero rewrote the original 1968 screenplay he had originally co-authored with John A. Russo.
Living Dead, also informally known as Of The Dead is a blanket term for the loosely connected horror franchise that originated from the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. The film, written by George A. Romero and John A. Russo, primarily focuses on a group of people gathering at a farmhouse to survive from an onslaught of zombies in rural Pennsylvania. It is known to have inspired the modern interpretation of zombies as reanimated human corpses that feast on the flesh and/or brains of the living.
Night of the Living Dead 3D or Night of the Living DE3D is a 2006 horror film made in 3D. It is the second remake of the 1968 horror classic Night of the Living Dead. The first remake was released in 1990 and was directed by Tom Savini from a revised screenplay by George A. Romero. Unlike the first remake, no one involved with the original is involved with this version. The original film was never properly copyrighted, and so it has fallen into the public domain, making this remake possible with no permission from the original's creators.
Diary of the Dead is a 2007 found footage horror film written and directed by George A. Romero. Although independently produced, it was distributed theatrically by The Weinstein Company and was released in cinemas on February 15, 2008 and on DVD by Dimension Extreme and Genius Products on May 20, 2008.
A zombie is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies are most commonly found in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in which a zombie is a dead body reanimated through various methods, most commonly magical practices in religions like Vodou. Modern media depictions of the reanimation of the dead often do not involve magic but rather science fictional methods such as fungi, radiation, gases, diseases, plants, bacteria, viruses, etc.
Zombie apocalypse is a subgenre of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction in which society collapses due to overwhelming swarms of zombies. Typically only a few individuals or small bands of survivors are left living. In some versions, the reason the dead rise and attack humans is unknown, in others, a parasite or infection is the cause, framing events much like a plague. Some stories have every corpse rise, regardless of the cause of death, whereas others require exposure to the infection.
Messiah of Evil is a 1973 American supernatural horror film co-written, co-produced, and co-directed by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, and starring Marianna Hill, Michael Greer, Anitra Ford, Royal Dano, and Elisha Cook Jr. Its plot follows a woman who travels to a remote coastal town in California to find her missing artist father; upon arrival, she finds herself in the midst of a series of bizarre incidents.
The Stone Quarry Inc. is an American production company established in 2004 by filmmaker Zack Snyder, his wife Deborah Snyder and their producing partner Wesley Coller.
Birth of the Living Dead is a 2012 American documentary film directed by Rob Kuhns. It is about the 1968 horror film Night of the Living Dead and that film's legacy. It features interviews with Night of the Living Dead director George A. Romero, Elvis Mitchell, Jason Zinoman, Larry Fessenden, Gale Anne Hurd, and Mark Harris.
The Army of the Dead franchise consists of American zombie-action horror installments, which serve as spiritual sequels to the 2004 re-imagining of Dawn of the Dead (1978). The franchise consists of a streaming release film that was also released in theaters for a limited time, and a spin-off prequel film, with future installments in various degrees of development.
During a career that spanned several decades, the American film director George A. Romero worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond pre-production under him. Some fell into development hell or were produced after he left production.
Numerous Night of the Living Dead remakes have adapted and reimagined the seminal 1968 horror film. It has been remade more than any other movie. The distributor mistakenly released it without a copyright and directly into the public domain. When changing the title from Night of the Flesh Eaters, The Walter Reade Organization also removed the only copyright notice in the film. This absence of copyright protection allowed filmmakers to adapt the original work without permission from the film's production company. A protracted court case found that the creators, Image Ten, did not hold the copyright, and the film's creators received little of its millions in revenue. Bill Hinzman, who played the cemetery zombie in the original film, directed Flesheater in 1988. Flesheater has similarities but is considered an homage rather than a direct remake. The first official remake in 1990 roughly followed the original film's script and involved members of the original crew. They were partly motivated by the missed revenue from the original film. The 1990 version was atypical for a Hollywood remake in having the support of the original film's director, George A. Romero, and other creators. Rumors of another studio planning to remake the public domain film without his involvement spurred Romero into action. In the following years, there were many unofficial remakes. The film has seen an official color remake, an unofficial 3D version, and many independent remakes.
Night of the Living Dead was famously the source of a legal conflict which resulted in the film entering the public domain when the distributor, the Walter Reade Organization, forgot to add a copyright notice after making changes to the title screen