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| February 4th, 1940 - July 16th, 2017 |
Another undeniable horror icon has died, this time the father of the modern zombie film George A. Romero from lung cancer at the age of seventy-seven. Romero directed seventeen feature length movies over just shy of five decades, nearly every one of them in the horror genre. A Pittsburgh native who also attained Canadian citizenship later in life, Romero shot most of his work in and around his hometown, utilizing family and friends with help behind and onscreen on multiple occasions. He was an independent filmmaker whose debut Night of the Living Dead unknowingly changed horror cinema permanently and remains one of the genres most paramount works. Few horror movies are more important historically and fewer still are any better. One of the only others that comes close is Romero's own sequel Dawn of the Dead, which is just as beloved and legendary still. The man could have died from lung cancer having just made those two iconic films and his legacy would still be staggeringly important.
To get some of the negative honesty briefly out of the way though, Romero was far from a flawless filmmaker. His last three works in the Dead franchise, (also the last three films he ever made), are unfortunately incredibly poor for various reasons. Overdone, misguided, and confused, the director's usually present social commentary was a detriment to these last few movies, whereas it was an intellectually pleasing component to his earlier ones. Also the zombie reassurance in popular culture was in full swing at this point, (playing a major role in Romero reviving said franchise to begin with no doubt), and certainly for me at least, I was also burned out on it which did not help any.
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| At least he kept Sex Machine around. As he should. |
I find occasional missteps earlier in Romero's filmography here or there as well, (I'm not a fan of The Crazies, per example), but he also made the masterpiece Martin and several other fun, gory romps throughout the years. So even when not turning the horror film on its ass and forever redefining what the genre could do, in general and by average, he was damn good at what he did and he did a good, impressive amount.
Upon hearing of his passing to that great, big shopping mall full of the dead in the sky, I immediately set out to watch/re-watch some of his films I was less familiar with. Essays have been written endlessly as to the significance and excellence of Night of and Dawn of the Dead, but I wanted to look at some of his early 80s-early 90s collaborations and adaptations that certainly merit discussion. If not for their cultural significance, then just because they by-and-large were enjoyable horror movies. Which ultimately was what George was most interested in giving us. I appreciate that profoundly and fully recognize the man as one of the absolute finest horror filmmakers we will ever have. Cheers good sir. May you walk the earth once more and feast on human flesh at your leisure...
(1982)
Overall: GOOD
Both a tribute to the horror books of EC Comics and therefore a pre-curser to the Tales from the Crypt HBO series which debuted seven years later, George Romero and Stephen King's joint effort Creepshow is good, nostalgic fun. An equal level of wicked disturbingness and joy can be found particularly in the "Father's Day" and "Something to Tide You Over" segments, particularly the combination of drowning and being buried alive in the latter by Frank Drebin himself Leslie Nielsen. The rest of the movie follows the anthology horror rule perfectly, as in some of the stories are stronger than others. "The Crate" is the weakest since the monkey monster has not aged particularly well, (pretty much looking like a child in a Halloween costume), followed close by "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill", but at least that one is wrapped up pretty quickly and has a hilarious country bumpkin performance from King himself. The pace of the entire film is quite perfect, as Romero and King keep it equally silly and gruesome throughout, never venturing too far in either direction. As a comedy, this easily seems like the most all-out fun Romero ever had making a movie. Another horror rule also applies in that Creepshow was sequeled out, each time getting a little to a lot less memorable. Certainly the best for first in this case.
(1988)
Overall: MEH
A fairly unfortunate and flawed adaptation of Michael Stewart's novel of the same name, Monkey Shines was George Romero's first non-independent film, thought he still shot it in Pennsylvania as usual. The fact that it seems both overlong and rushed is in large part due to Orion studio's interference with the finished product, which supposedly cut nearly half of the footage Romero shot from his lengthy, more in depth script. It is sadly noticeable, where several steps forward in the plot seem to spring up out of nowhere and numerous character arcs appear sloppy. At the same time though, hardly anything really exciting happens for much of the film and when it finally does get to the final act, the camp value appears to be amped up more than it should. Then again, the film does have kind of a silly premise, though still an interesting one. But when your main "monster" is a tiny little helper monkey, it is rather a labored task to make it menacing. The studio also forced Romero into a groan-worthy "happy ending", not at all the director's style. To his credit though, Romero's original intention could have perhaps made the end product more compelling. Plenty of interesting ideas work here without the tone being all over the place, so it is certainly worth a gander.
(1993)
Overall: MEH
Somewhere in between some of the best and worst Stephen King film adaptations is George Romero's second collaboration with the ill-fated Orion Pictures in The Dark Half. Yet again shot in Pennsylvania and written for the screen by Romero, Half was shelved for two years before Orion had the promotion budget to release it, where it more or less came and went without much of a bang. Which kind of makes sense after watching it, regrettably. Most of the problems lie in the story itself, (yay, another author protagonist!), which is not one of King's most original or interesting ideas. Timothy Hutton's duel role is amusing, but it is difficult to decipher if he intended to do a spot-on Michael Keaton impression or not, which gives his bad guy performance perhaps an accidentally hilarious quality. The movie is plenty gory, (which is something Romero is reliable at delivering, even without his trusted sidekick Tom Savini for this go-around), but it is also very dull in the scares department. There are several "GOTCHA!" jumps and "people doing dumb shit in horror movies" moments, making it a bit too cliche of a vehicle for Romero. Still, the director was long-past re-inventing the wheel at this point, so this is fundamentally an innocent, average horror outing with some redeemable moments.
